May half term or September?

[Ricekrispie22]

Of course, nobody can say for sure, but if you had to hedge your bets, based on what other countries are doing, do you think schools will be re-opening and the end of May or September?

Ideally yes perplexing though apparently will take many months to make tests - years in fact for whole population

@Longwhiskers14 - I agree with you that schools are places of education. However the Tories see them as childcare...hence as soon as a child is in education a single parent is expected to be at work (as one example). So it's hardlly suprising that the general public also has this opinion.

In my opinion there's no way schools will re open until a compulsory vaccine is available.

@Newgirls

No one thinks there will be social distancing surely whether may, june or sept

Well, the scientific advisor to the government thinks it

I read that too - that is what he advises and that is his job BUT if we wait for that (next year) then we will have widespread poverty.

I hope his comments mean that gov speed everything up but how? We don’t have the factories etc or Germany

UndertheCedartree I do get what you're saying, but we all went to school ourselves and know it's not about providing childcare, so for the sake of teachers we should always counter that myth.

K1999 Oh lordy, don't open the 'compulsory vaccine' can of worms! 😂

@Longwhiskers14 have I made a fatal error? 😂 it's just my (harmless) opinion! I believe there's no way it won't be compulsory given the circumstances

Believe me I don’t want teachers or anyone else getting ill - but by Dec the uk won’t be able to pay teachers wages or anyone else’s for that matter. Economy down by 35% by June is already beyond disastrous. It’s a mess.

@Longwhiskers - yes, I agree it should be countered.

The teaching unions are one of the most active and powerful that exist

Yeah, that’s why teachers have such super working conditions that there’s a massive shortage and a recruitment crisis.

September

1st June (after May half term).
There is no way they would not return until after compulsory vaccination. That could be years away or never! They won't have years of uneducated children.

@MaryShelley1818 www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/health/uk-will-stay-in-lockdown-until-vaccine-is-found-health-minister-says-a4415561.html%3famp

@MaryShelley1818 believe me I would love to think you're right! But I don't think normal life in the slightest will continue until then. There's many anti vaxers too so what will happen is, not everyone will take it, a second wave will come and then it will be mandatory. I'm not saying this because it's what I want to happen, I'm saying this because I see it that way.

I am a teacher and have been lobbying my MP for return May half term at the very latest.
And the children who need it most are the ones affecting from no adult influence other than hysterical parents making them fearful.
Ed horrified today on a thread where a poster said her kids were terrified of bringing the disease into the house and killing their father with it. Who on earth is irresponsible enough to terrify kids in this way! Really shocking that parents are foisting their own panic on children.

K1999 Lots of people don't believe in vaccines at all – the anti-vaxxers brigade. Suggest it should be a compulsory and they'll be horrified.

Those who don’t want to take a vaccination, or return to work are making the decision that they think best. The issue will be if they are happy not to have any money!

@Longwhiskers14 oh for sure. The way I see it is, people who believe vaccines work are fearful of the virus so take the vaccine and the ones who believe that vaccines are dangerous are fearful and don't take it. It's the fear that separates us as a society. We should really be coming together, educate those who don't know and open our eyes to the possibility of learning something new whether we would've ever considered it before or not. We need to stay united right now. Unfortunately I'm seeing separation more than ever :(

I am teacher at a secondary school and I would be very concerned about reopening before a test for the Corona virus was widely available.
At the moment we are providing online education for our students, and in doing so we are protecting the health of our students and their families (including key workers).
To my mind the sensible course of action (especially since the exams have been cancelled) would be to continue the online education until the Summer holidays at the beginning of July, and then by the start of the new term in September hopefully a test for Corona virus will be widely available.
We are still open for a handful of children of key workers and 'at risk' children. We can keep them safe, as due to the the small numbers we can enforce social distancing. Having said that, we still had to exclude three as they kept ignoring the distancing rules and put the other children at risk.
The problem is that as soon as the schools reopen any attempt to enforce social distancing will be impossible. The classrooms are not physically large enough to keep thirty children two metres apart, and if you think children will comply with social distancing rules during break times you are living on another planet.
It is well know that schools spread viruses like wild fire. When the country had the Norovirus outbreak our students were dropping like flies despite our best efforts of using hand sanitizers, deep cleaning etc.
What many people seem to be willing to gloss over is that it can be several days before an infected person shows symptom of having the Corona virus, and some people can carry the virus without having any symptoms at all. Without a test we cannot even begin to protect our students against the virus.
Even though most children appear not to be seriously affected by the virus it does not mean they won't be returning from school with it and passing it to the rest of their families. And for those children who trajically do succumb to the virus; would you want to risk your child becoming another Government statistic?
If we reopen the schools without at least having a test available to determine who has the Corona virus, the gains we have made by having a lock down over the past few weeks will be lost.

@BG2015 same! My Year 1s are delightful...I miss them so much! I'm sad to think that I might actually never teach them again 😢

Dawn breeze I think we’d all like that. The question is what do you do if testing isn’t ready for months/years. Even with current targets it will take a year or more to test the uk. So we will be bankrupt long before. That is the issue.

@Newgirls

Yes, agreed. We would have to rethink if we got to that point.

But this is all about buying time, and for the sake of keeping students safe for two more months of an already disrupted school year I think it makes sense.

Two months yes definitely - until testing/vaccination sadly will take too long.

There is no ideal situation here

We are reliant on Germany making and selling millions of tests - the uk doesn’t have the ingredients or factories. And I’m sure other countries will be in the queue too.