The exit plan and schools.

[NeverGuessWho]

I know this whole thread will be hearsay, but I’m just interested in hearing people’s opinions of where schools are likely to fit in to the exit plan?

A friend thinks they will be opened early on, as this will free up more people to work, and hence enable furloughed workers to return to work. This will crucially save money.

IMHO, schools will be one of the last restrictions to be lifted. Once schools are opened, there will effectively be multiple mass gatherings in every town and city, all at the same time. Surely this will result in a surge of cases of the virus.

Unless of course, they pursue the antibodies/certified passport route?

What do people think?

Oh, I stand corrected peacockpies. It said on the BBC this morning that Australia had kept schools open.

I'd say towards the end of the Summer term, June or maybe even July.

Assuming Primary children go back first, I'd think transition days into Secondary schools would go ahead in some form before the end of term.

"Australia's curve appears to be flattening, despite the nation not entering a full lockdown as seen in other nations.

Schools, public transport and many shops still remain open - but social distancing measures have become paramount."

Wouldn't be the first time they've got something wrong though.

I think schools won’t go back until September unless it is for one week in July. This also means there won’t be any summer holiday childcare available. But I think other restrictions will be loosened before then eg workplaces can reopen if no more than x% of staff on site and social distancing continues. This will make it very clear who is a carer and who isn’t whereas at least with the majority of people working from home we are all in the same boat (albeit some of us with additional disruptive passengers).

I think here in Scotland we can't expect schools to be open again this session as end of term was scheduled for 24th June. Not sure about England/Wales.

I think for the rest of 2020 we're going to see a ban on things like sports matches, concerts, festivals, horse racing - anything which involves groups of 500+ congregating all together. And a gradual relaxation of other restrictions to allow people to start going to restaurants or visiting people.

It is simply not practical to keep everything closed until everyone is vaccinated. There would be no businesses or jobs for anyone to go back to.

I think they may allow summer holiday childcare then reopen the schools after summer. Only a relatively small proportion of children are in summer childcare at any one time so it would expose some but more gradually than just opening schools.

pineappledanish that would be my guess too. With English schools maybe opening for a few weeks in the summer to aid transition. I think we might then move to a model of mixing for school and work (though still working at home if possible), but nothing else - no socialising or big events, and maybe still no international travel? With a view to keeping local communities as self-isolated as possible, and stricter measures imposed where a flare up occurs. All total guesswork though. And who knows what they would then do about boarding schools.

@captainmarble they’re definitely closed - SIL in Sydney is wrestling with home schooling and so we’ve had long discussions about it!

They closed a few days after ours.

They will reopen sooner rather than later because schools are the key to getting people back to work, I doubt fe or universities will before September though. The private schools my friend works for are planning on a May reopening.

I think they’re hoping to re-open for the end of the Summer Term - so a few weeks (4 or less).

If the situation isn’t under control, or we don’t have adequate testing, then it will be Sept or Oct even.

"They absolutely have to open primary schools before sending people to work..."

Even though we've seen that many many people can work from home?

People talking of them needing to do it to save money through furloughed workers, I disagree. I think they just won't pay furlough after 3 months

I don't think schools will go back before September. Cencekking GCSEs was a massive move. They could have closed schools but opened only for exams, and had candidates queue outside like at shops. My county council emailed me offering to refund DDs bus pass which is paid for the rest of the academic year, due to schools being closed for the foreseeable future. I could really use the refund money at the moment, but getting a pass is like gold dust for her route, so I really don't want to surrender it. Talk of going back in June worries me, for lots of reasons. I can see her secondary school friends being particularly calm or much learning being done. They were horrendous enough during the last week they were at school.

Most of my workforce is working from home crustycrab and they're doing their best in the circumstances. They are by no means as effective in their roles or doing a full day's work though. They need the "customer" in front of them for that. It's good to see so many businesses have been able to accommodate this on a short term basis but it doesn't prove most people can successfully work from home.

I think they need to open first to allow people to get back to work.

Children are not badly affected (unless they have underlying issues and need to shield) and it’s not been shown that schools present a major source of infection.

If they are last, how are people meant to go back to work?

Australian schools are closed and have been for over a week. They're under very similar restrictions to us.

A friend (who is intelligent and well-informed) thinks that primary schools will start to go back after May half term.

Who informed her? Does she have access to information the general public don’t have? And being intelligent doesn’t have anything to do with it!

I wonder if private nurseries would be on a different schedule to schools as they don’t have to stick to terms/ holidays and arguably its harder to work with little ones. But, I’d be more nervous about sending my baby than my4 year old.

Teacher here. Secondary. Our Senior team have a strategy of working from home that takes us up to May half term. I think this is just a sensible way of chunking it into a half term block. When asked about various other events calendared for june/july our Head said it is highly unlikely we'll be back for September, maybe not even then!

I think ita going to be a numbers game and looking at whether we do follow an even steeper trajectory than Italy/Spain . The govt can also see how they manage school return.

I honestly think that as many schools are so overcrowded, and with a huge amount of movement, it will only be if Social Distancing is abandoned!? We'd definitely need a staggered lunch time and break. We would need smaller class sizes. All this with a high % of staff potentially shielding. Maybe, like China, they will have to add in temperature checks alongside regulat hand washing?

Ireland closed schools way before England and people just had to cope with childcare/ working from home etc. Because of that, I don't see it being a priority to bring schools back early... I'm a teacher and my principal doesn't think we'll be back before next September. We get holidays at the end of May though, so different to England. But I wouldn't bet on England "needing" to send kids back before workplaces re-open. Especially as your government came under such fire for not closing them much earlier. And yes, children do seem to spread the disease very easily to older people, while being fairly asymptomatic.

I think it's still way to early to tell. Australia hasn't flattered their curve look at the Spock in death rates. You can't look at the new cases, as that totally depends on the number of testing going on. We haven't even hit the peak hear in the UK yet and we've been told we'll be providing childcare at our school over the bank holiday weekend as they expect that to be the busiest time. With any luck.

We've only been in lockdown 2 week's, looking hear www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52133054
After 19th April will be when we know the full effect of the lock down. We would then have to wait probably 4 or 5 weeks before we could loosen any restrictions. So maybe half term. But we are not China they are tracking all individuals via phones and montering temperatures. There are already calls that what is happening now is restricting our civil liberties to much. I'd don't think we would tolerate the monertering needed to allow more free movement.

I see some relaxation between May and the summer maybe opening non essential shops and business. Schools may allow some year groups back, but don't forget this virus isn't going anywhere if we just opened everything up we'll just have another big peak. Until it either mutates or we have a vaccine we are stuck with it. Spanish flue was around for 2 years before it mutated to a less deadly foarm.

Oh and schools which where only staying open for some year groups before the shut down. This was because of staff shortages they could staff the schools to keep all the kids there. One of the reasons schools where asking for the government to close them was dues to high staff shortages in some areas.

Dd’s School has a staggered lunch and added time on to end of the day to allow for the extended break.

I have no idea, I would like them to go back at least in July (if it was safe to) mostly to help DS with his transition to Secondary.
One thing that I might be reading too much into was that we were initially told that we were being refunded for all after school clubs for next term but then last Friday we were told that that wasn’t happening as the school was going to wait and review the situation.

I know several teachers in both primary and secondary education, the general feeling is for now nothing will be happening (quite rightly). Then when the government starts to relax the rules the first to go back with be those with exams pending etc. A staggered approach I guess. Anyway for me right now I'd be happy to continue home schooling until September. I work from home part time and it's actually working out ok for us and I'm really enjoying having the kids home. I appreciate this isn't the case for most but feel we are a long way off getting back to some sort of normality- if at all.

Oh and the kids maybe still at school in oz but the fines for not comply with the rules are way higher then hear so people take it more seriously. My friend in Sydney says she can only go shopping for food and take the kids to school, fines are between £500 - £2500 they are much hotter on finding anyway then in the UK.