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?

@Saladmakesmesad the worse of the epidemic will be over soon, once the peak is over and numbers start to drop again then we can begin to emerge as new infections will be below the number needed. We need more infections sooner rather than towards the late autumn/winter as the NHS is strained again

I’m in Scotland. When is May half term. We don’t have a holiday in May as our summer holidays start on 1 July this year. Or do in my LA.

@Oaksquarebox the last week of May. Term restarts on 1st June.

Thank you wax.

@alloutoffucks I don’t think that’s in the tories’ interests though. If they send schools back and lots of children die the public will absolutely turn on them and they don’t want that. I think they did want everyone to get it but I don’t know if that’s the case now

Furlough ends at the end of May so unless the government is going to extend it and also make the banks extend their mortgage holidays we all need to be back in work by June 1st - the schools will open after the May bank holiday as it just so happens to coincide with this

I think this was the strategy all along but they couldn't very well come out and announce closure of everything for 12 weeks as there would have been nationwide uproar/panic

There are lots of threads about this I agree.
But it’s interesting that things are changing so much that less people are convinced it will be September like the last four threads!

Things change daily. So I’m sure we will keep discussing this. Especially as we are seeing Spain and Italy thinking of how to come out of lockdown. France is saying one more month that’s only mid May though. Denmark and Germany sooner.

Not one country is saying they will stay on lockdown until September...Probably as it will be economic disaster.

Schools open fully = end to social distancing and lockdown.

That’s completely non sense all . Yes it’s an end to lock down but not likely an end to social distancing, they are two very different things. Schools will clearly go back and social distancing will remain in place - pubs, clubs, social venues all still closed, guidance in to work places how to manage social distancing, people remote working where feasible. So still social distancing in place for the adult population and for those vulnerable on lock down. Doubtful it will even be open for all schools kids, likely below sixteen year olds, and for those kids with no parent at home.

Well you are all going to be very disappointed after midterm so...

Expect August for us at the earliest ( Scotland ), only reason I would want to go back before that is the social aspect, but I would assume if schools open then we could go visit parks etc anyway.

It’s crazy to keep schools shut. Well children are very low risk for this virus.

It’s naive to think we can afford to keep the country on lockdown. We’ll be bankrupt as a nation!

The well young people will probably need to get this virus while we continue to shield the most vulnerable, socially distance the over 60s and wait for a consensus on treatment (if not a vaccine) to emerge.

It is not a case that they 'want' everyone to get it.
This is a new disease, without a cure. Everyone WILL get it, unless a vaccine is produced first, or until 'herd immunity' is reached (over 60 percent).
Unless you stay in 'lockdown' forever. The purpose of the lockdown is to prevent everyone getting it at once and overwhelm the NHS.
So, there may well be another spike in the Autumn.
The question of whether schools will restart. I think keeping them closed until September is a very long time for young children to be off school, so I would like to see them reopen before then, but maybe with the proviso, that the current fine system will be abolished for the time being, so Parents would not be fined if they decide to keep their children at home.
Is that fair? Probably not, but then it is also not fair for children to miss so much education.

Yes it’s an end to lock down but not likely an end to social distancing

The killer question is how do you social distance in a school?

News this morning that people who’ve had it are testing positive again. There is no immunity.

Lockdown will have to end, with life resuming but with extra precautions to limit spread as much as practically possible.

There should be the option for parents not to have to de register and lose their school place if they chose not to send their children back if they deem the risk too big to send them back (shielding family members etc).

I won’t be sending my 6 year old back anytime soon as I’m due a baby at the end of August. After going through awful pneumonia and pluerisy in December I’m not taking any chances of feeling like death again when I’m pregnant.

If I have to de register her then so be it.

My year 12 has luckily knocked of almost all of this year of his Btech course at home - far more than he would have done than if he was still going to college. That worries me the most, he spends an hour each way on a packed coach there and back and the college is heaving with students. He won’t be going back to that environment before September, but like I said, he’ll have finished this years work by the end of next week anyway.

@milveycrohn - Not everyone will get this, that’s a typical MN statement - overly dramatic. Not everyone gets flu and not everyone got measles before they found a vaccine.

Some people will get it. Even in China, where living conditions are much much poorer, only a minute percentage of the population got it.

Letter to PM from the NEU:
neu.org.uk/press-releases/school-opening

Schools aren’t all about children

Teachers cleaners caretakers social workers teaching assistances dinner ladies physiologists playworkers student managers clerical staff school nurses volunteers after school clubs PE coaches visiting faiths police

All adults in and around schools

Social distancing and school can’t and won’t be able to happen.

Yes-poor hygiene of younger ones, cramming 100s/1000s of kids into confined spaces during a pandemic - what could possibly go wrong?!

France are planning on starting to reopen schools from 11th May. We're about 3 weeks behind them, so after May half term isn't an unreasonable theory.

It’s crazy to keep schools shut. Well children are very low risk for this virus.

It’s naive to think we can afford to keep the country on lockdown. We’ll be bankrupt as a nation!

Fuck the teachers eh!

Also evidence from a scientist on Sky that the longer effective lock downs bounce back quicker than those that rush it.

The immunity is questionable at this stage as well.

France are planning on starting to reopen schools from 11th May. We're about 3 weeks behind them, so after May half term isn't an unreasonable theory.

*But by this stage they will have a test for anyone showing symptoms. Also our schools are open now. Will theirs be for a whole cohort or key workers like us?
*

August for Scotland, that’s what we have been told from the very beginning.

@Waxonwaxoff0 You are assuming France is doing the right thing.
Children might be low risk, although medically vulnerable children are at risk. But many of the staff and their parents will not be.
I guess vulnerable staff don't matter though? Maybe we can clap you?

Yes refraction it is beginning from the 11 th of May in stages. So I assume key worker children first, which we already have in school.