Reopening schools before September

[Keepgoing88]

Given the information about what other countries are planning to do does anyone else think schools may reopen before school summer holidays? I was all prepared to have the kids off until September but seeing what has gone on in the news recently I'm not so sure now and thinking it might be earlier, at least in some.capacity. anyone else?

Some will go back after may half term

Not years 11 and 13

That's my opinion

They won’t keep them off until September. It’s too long for children to be out of an educational setting. For every child who is at home baking cookies with mummy and drawing rainbows there’s another getting no educational input at all or even worse, enduring abuse and hunger. All the new starters in September will need settling days etc. They’ll go back in early June for a 6 week term.

Yes I think they will, certainly primary up to yr 7.

I don’t know why everyone was insisting September like they knew for sure.

It makes far more sense that they will go back after May half term in June sometime. That will give them about 6 weeks and help the economy. There then may be a second wave but this will be in August rather than in Oct/Nov which is flu season.

I personally don't understand how we're in a position to even remotely talk about ending social distancing (which, make no mistake, is what opening the schools is) when hundreds of people are dying every day.

I'm so confused and frustrated by this.

Nobody’s talking about ending it now. We obviously can’t stay locked down for months and months though so we can have the discussion. Especially as we see what other countries are doing who are a bit ahead of us.

There's a possibility they'll be open again after half term. Interesting to see what happens when other countries reopen their schools.

@Saladmakesmesad because this is what is happening in other countries
Some children will go back, some businesses will open first , hotels and flights
Then shops

Restaurants and cafes next

Music events , football in front of crowds etc last

So what’s changed since they closed?

I would be surprised if schools reopen before September. The data on covid-19 is uncertain at this time (I am a medical epidemiologist). Despite positive media messages, no one knows for sure if covid-19 will evolve into a less harmful virus or if an effective vaccine can be achieved quickly. Lets hope a positive outcome develops from this crisis.

I would be surprised if lockdown is lifted before September, unless the Government decision-makers put economics before public health. What schools need to do is make adequate online provision for their pupils. While this will not do anything for children from impoverished/ at risk backgrounds, it would go some way towards educational development for the rest of the school population. My children are home educated for medical reasons. This happened before covid-19 changed society. They do online school, and I also teach them using the wide array of resources available online and through study texts. Some of their friends who were attending State schools have received quite poor service since lockdown, and have been doing anything from 1 to 3 hours work per day that has been sent home via the internet or on paper. I appreciate it is daunting for parents to juggle work, family life, care duties and child education...but it can be done to keep kids on target for their future achievement.

Why is everyone obsessed with when the schools will reopen?
It will only be when it is safe to do so and that is anyones guess as to when it will be.
This must be the 300th speculative thread asking the same thing 🙄

I think they will return in June

Why is everyone obsessed with when the schools will reopen?
It will only be when it is safe to do so

My 'obsession' with the topic is honestly because I don't necessarily believe it's looking likely that 'it will only be when it is safe to do so'. They've announced the reopening of schools from 11 May in France. Four days ago a thousand people died of Covid there in one day. Since then it's been a bank holiday weekend with slightly lower (but over 500 a day) deaths every day. What has changed that means it's now safe to start planning the reopening of schools in a few weeks? The ending of social distancing?

I'm obsessed because when it happens here, my 'vulnerable group' husband will have to go back to work (or quit his job, which we can't remotely afford) and if he catches the virus from the enormous viral load he has several risk factors that mean he's far more likely to die than many. And there's nothing to say he's any safer than when they closed the schools. No effective treatment, no vaccine, no community wide testing, no app, no contact tracing, no antibody test. Not a fucking thing.

So we will get to go on UK holidays then over the summer.

I'm assuming life will be back to normal over the summer if they've reopened schools. Apart from things we can't control like other countries' borders. They'll have a very hard time locking down again for the second wave so soon, and nobody will take it seriously if the kids are just on summer holidays rather than still officially locked down anyway.

All guesswork. Nobody knows. Macron doesn’t know but he has to give a glimmer of hope. Our country closed schools too late so could well open too early. Anything is possible

No one knows. We can hope that progress hs been made in dealing with the virus but that is all. Schools open fully = end to social distancing and lockdown. Schools open so students can go in part time = end of lockdown relaxation of care measures.
Schools can't social distance unless working at around 1/3 capacity for most state schools, like Denmark each school will need a full risk assessment done to allow it to open before the end of social distancing. However it may well be possible but families may have to be flexible and accept part time school placement and little or no transitions happening.

I can’t fathom being able to go back in two months after everything being locked down. How do we protect ourselves? I suppose they’ll want a second peak before winter when it’s easier to deal with
I imagine it’ll be June, and there’s many other threads about this so I won’t harp on but it will HAVE to be staggered because 30 reception kids in a tiny classroom is a recipe for disaster

As a teacher, this is something that I keep thinking about and change my mind if daily.

If we're back before the summer I would hope that it would be part time for the children to reduce class numbers and children gathering in even larger groups at playtimes and lunch times.

I'm hoping for June or July at the latest. I'd like the children to be able to say goodbye to their current teacher and get some closure.

How many of these bloody threads are there now? Use the search function or better still just look at the Coronavirus section on MN.

@catsandlavender I think they just want everyone to get it and accept that a lot more people will die.

I originally thought after May half term, it never seemed economically viable to keep them closed until September. Noticing some media outlets are suggesting that Dominic Raab will announce on Thursday (presumably after the next COBRA meeting) that lockdown will start to be relaxed on 7th May! How is this possible, deaths are continuing to rise and surely we need to see them steady off and start to decline before we can either think about that. I would be very unhappy to send my children back to school within the next 4 weeks!

I've got a feeling it might be after May half term.

My reasoning being, I don't think the government will have to money to carry on paying furlough past the current date of 31st May and schools will reopen so parents can go back to work.