Government reportedly considering schools going back in 3 weeks

[FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue]

On BBC News 24 now, article in tomorrow's Sunday Times says that ministers are considering schools going back in three weeks time. Plus allowing some shops and social gatherings, but not pubs and clubs.

@returnofthecat they won’t practice social distancing all the time. But everything is completely traceable, some symptoms are easy to spot (cough and temperature) and children are in the lowest risk group. So as long as groups are kept small (part time school in split classes?), it is manageable.
The alternative is no school for at least a year (autumn winter is a REALLY bad idea), and that is not feasible.

Good. I would send my kids back. They cant stay off forever.
Even if they didnt go back until September, its not like this is going away

The children sound stressed.

I haven't read it but if we will have to follow social distancing in schools with masks etc they will be.

I'm in sen, there's no chance of social distancing there.

We do need to get used to the idea that there will be a gradual loosening of restrictions even while the virus is still infecting people. Children do not seem to be super spreaders of this particular virus - it is not flu.

I don't think the the developmental and mental health impact of this on children can be overestimated. On my walk yesterday it was really evident that children are already becoming scared of being close to other people. This is going to be immensely harmful psychologically if it is prolonged.

I suspect there will be a gradual return through June. I hope so.

I know the government has the theory that kids do not spread the virus much. There is no science to support that. So I assume it is a lie.

If we are to go back with a partial opening, (which I am prepared to do despite the risks) then I hope it would be open to yr 9 and 10.

My yr 7 and 8 are engaging with online learning, but my yr 9 and 10 are not and I am worried about them missing GCSE content.

Vino,

Safe is not absolute though. So will always be a bit vague and subjective about what is safe.

In Scotland we were told we weren’t sending them back until after the summer holidays (so August)

I will not be sending my children back before then, regardless if there’s a U turn

Of course kids are scared of being close to other people. They will be even more scared when they return to school and see teachers wearing masks and trying to get them to socially distance.

It is scarey the thought of slowly going back, but not as terrifying as not doing so.

If we stayed shut down till sept, then what we would face would be something that horrified everyone.

The government would have stopped paying furlough and supporting the self employed and businesses.

We would be into mass unemployment as businesses shut down.

People would lose their homes as banks can’t keep giving mortgage holidays, we have to lift the stay on renters evictions.

The cost of the benefits would increase ten fold and more, but there would be less taxes coming in to pay for it.

There wouldn’t be enough social housing to home everyone who lost their homes, homelessness would sky rocket.

Millions of people, inc children would be living in poverty, because they lost their jobs, their homes.

The cost of the benefits would need to be balanced against the other society costs, like paying for the nhs, schools or the police. Everything would need to be scaled down, to spread the money out.

And at the same time, flu season would be upon us. So for the nhs it would be unbearable. It would take us through the winter. Corona won’t magically be gone by September.

So yes, going back is scarey, but the alternative, is terrifying. There is no magic money tree that the government can keep taking from to pay for people not to work, to pay for the nhs, to pay for schools. Just like any other loan there is a limit, and a limit to the ability for other countries to lend to us.

Slowly lifting restrictions and managing it is the only way through this. Staying locked in our homes for six months to a year will cause untold levels of death and destruction to our society, it really can’t be underestimated.

My mid may we will have been in lock down for nearly two months. It’s likely all we can take at this level. Managing this through the summer months, before flu season starts, and starting to have the economy get back to normal is the only option available to us as a society.

If people can afford not to work, to keep their kids home, to loose their jobs, then that’s fine, they should do so. But for a large percentage of society this is simply not the case.

Read it neuro : it's interesting. The children are in very small groups all day, even for play and they are still separated from their best friends etc. One girl describes how sad this makes her feel.

Let's not pretend that a return to school is really about children's mental health : it is an economic decision.

Gove and Williamson both very clear this morning that there are no plans to reopen schools.

@Yurona So what if kids symptoms are obvious such as a cough? If my kids return home and have a cough I have to keep them at home and they will infect everyone else in our house. Also given most people show no symptoms for at least 5 days then they will have infected lots of other people.

Floatyboat - yes, it’s a lovely theory, isn’t it, that children miraculously don’t spread the virus? It’s not backed up by much evidence, though. With children being most likely to have mild symptoms, there is every bit as much chance they are the best disease vectors, because they carry on mixing while “unwell.”

It is all over the press with everything back to normal by 25 May.

@Makinganewthinghappen I agree to a certain point; at the same time I know families personally and in a professional capacity where being in school would be better. There's no one size fits all. But children will catch up educationally. It's the mental health impact that's the potential issue. For some, not being in school is going be be ok, possibly even better. For others, not. Especially those in households with parents with severe depression or domestic violence and CSA.

As a teacher I'd like schools to go back; logistically it's not going to happen 'as normal' for a while.

A theory can not be a lie.

A theory is one suggestion of what might be happening. People then consider if the theory could have some merit, and if yes, they will test it.

A theory can be rubbish, stupid, naive , but it can't be a lie or a truth because theory means we don't know.

Really not clear that kids are particularly contagious with Corona.

@Piggywaspushed Exactly.
If my DD who is sensitive returned to school, teacher was wearing a mask and she had to stay well away from other kids, it would affect her far more than having to be at home.

I am worried about them missing GCSE content

So are teachers. I repeat : it is up to the DfE and Ofqual to address this and not just bury their heads in the sand by rushing older children back.

Back to normal by the 25 may? Really? Everything?

Then we are expecting to go through successive cycles of 2 month lockdowns every 2 months.

Also not clear they aren't floaty. Contagion and symptoms should not be confused.

A theory can be a lie if the people saying it know it is untrue.
And a theory should always be backed up with some evidence. There is zero evidence that kids do not spread covid 19.
I suspect like most viruses kids are super spreaders.

@alloutoffucks I don't understand why you think my family members are more likely to die of corona in the next one or two months than in September, next spring, or really at any other point in time? The virus isn't going anywhere. The NHS is no longer over capacity. There is no amazing treatment that is going to be denied any of them tomorrow that they would get in two months time (none over 70, others already all dead).

I'm much more worried about my mother dying of cancer because her biopsy has been delayed. I'm also more worried about my stepbrother (who has a long history of bipolar disorder with hospitalisations) killing himself because his normal routines and structure have been disbanded. He was sobbing on the phone to me yesterday. As for my DH and me and my children: GP is 99% sure we've had it. There will probably be, the GP says, some months of immunity. If not, we'll get it again and almost certainly be just fine again, as with the other endemic corona viruses. Maybe that won't be true for us when we're older, but right now it's true.

So please don't make this personal. I am very worried about the virus at a societal level. The care homes situation is a fucking national disgrace, as is the risk to medical staff from lack of PPE. There are many much more serious risks to my own family and children, including the total inability of drivers down our rat-run road to obey the speed limit and the possibility of one of them having an accident while I'm on an inescapable Zoom call and the TV is babysitting.

Rather than looking at it selfishly, I see lockdown as being about selflessness. Personally I and my immediate family experience only harm from it. (Haven't even mentioned the financial side, but have had 10k of lost income already for cancelled work over the summer: that will never be made up.) But that's fine. We needed to do it to allow the NHS to increase capacity and to stop exponential growth. Now that's happened. Good!

I think the children will go back sooner rather than later. They aren’t a risk group and I bet cases don’t rise significantly afterwards.
I know teachers are worried but I think it will be a case of minimising risk and hoping a small child sneezing over you isn’t the same as a big grim adult.
The laptops for year 10 seems a good plan B especially since they
students will have lost a half terms worth of proper work by the time they go back. You only have to look at the tight online teaching private schools are providing, compared to the limitations in the state sector.