In your opinion, when do you think the kids will be back at school?

[HowFurloughCanYouGo]

I change my mind every day depending on what I read. It ranges anywhere between May and September.

I just wondered what others thought?

September

Not until September. Otherwise the BBC wouldn’t have bothered putting together a 14 week programme:

I hadn't thought of that...

The government isn't going to pay 80% of parents' salaries until September, based on other countries, and a lot of parents I know have already taken some of their annual leave to make being at home easier. They also would have used holiday clubs for July and August, and are unlikely to be allowed to use grandparents even if they are fit enough, so I don't know where people think all of the primary age kids will go from June until September. Or January.

ahem

I see emails from our LA education dept so the PP with a headteacher friend is not talking out their arse. Each LA receives info from DfE and they interpret it to share with their school leaders.

There will be no school. If things progress well (and the Government will discuss it publicly) then you will all know if there is to be any sort of opening. In whichever form.

It has not been discussed so there is no decision.

It has been 'hinted' that whilst schools were expected to be open for key workers in Easter hols, there has been no mention of half term. In other words, schools will not be open this side of half term and absolutely no decision has yet been made.

When people tell you their friend is a headteacher, they absolutely DO know more than the rest of you. It is dependent on the spin of the bureaucrats in their particular part of the UK they happen to live.

Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney have hinted August for Scotland. Vulnerable staff shielding doesn’t finish until mid-June schools can’t go back with a lot of staff missing. The minute schools re-open any kind of social distancing stops.

Logistically it’s going to be a nightmare with transition pupils.

I think they will allow more kids in from june. Maybe in smaller groups initially. I don't know how they decide who can go in and when though. But then I also think that by july we'll all be back to normal. I've revised from my earlier prediction that we'll be back to normal after easter which clearly didn't happen! Shows how little I know.

Why would you ask Mumsnet? Even the cabinet doesn’t know.

We’ve all got a mate who’s a teacher, it doesn’t make us any more reliable a source.

I've read a lot of these threads. Just curious as to why when schools are on Summer break for 6 weeks you never hear of parents being concerned about children missing their friends or the impact on their development! Yet barely 4 weeks into lockdown this seems to be the biggest concern for parents! At worst, they're missing 12 weeks education! In the grand scheme of things this is nothing in a child's life! They are resilient! They will bounce back quickly with the support of their parents and teachers! School is not childcare! The biggest concern should be the impact of children returning to school and the effect this will have on those who are vulnerable, as social distancing will be impossible! Is 12 weeks disruption in you or your child's life more significant than the fact that 500 - 1000 people are dying every single day!

The infection rate is only slowing because we are mostly all inside our houses. As soon as the kids go back to school, it will peak again and we will probably end up with another lockdown.

I hope not August! Hopefully there will still be the opportunity for a summer holiday, so maybe July hopefully. May is too early, we'll be keeping them off if they do open. We literally were about to book our holiday (had the booking form open on the laptop) when we heard news about possible shutdown in the country we were going to go. The kids were so excited then so disappointed :-( But at least we hadn't paid. I really feel for the people who have the disappointment of the lost holiday but also the loss of the money too.

Considering how the virus is spreading we need to have daily cases less than 50 and strict testing and tracing measures to open schools safely.
Yes, I know that this virus affects children less. However WHO means 1-15 y.o. so it doesn’t apply to over 15 y.o. and even so there are still deaths in under 15 group, just considerably less.
it’s impossible to keep social distancing at schools so we should be realistic. I think that the government should slowly allow businesses to open and then allow people who need to go to work to send their DC to school, at the same time making attendance voluntary so parents wouldn’t be fined. Keeping numbers low will allow to follow social distancing rules and ease pressure on staff.

I’m going to go with June 15th.

@TimeWastingButFun August would be the Scottish schools. Nobody suggesting for England. We break up late June and go back mid August

I think August too.

After summer hols

I’m not 100% sure tbh, but I’m thinking it won’t be at the end of this current lockdown in a few weeks time. I don’t think we can read anything into things like the bbc schools programme being x number of weeks long. I also think that we don’t really know what relevance the fact that shielding doesn’t ‘finish’ until mid June has. DFE will have counted how many staff are in that category and identified what impact that will have. It may mean redistribution if staff to manage that, like they have done in other services like the NHS

Is 12 weeks disruption in you or your child's life more significant than the fact that 500 - 1000 people are dying every single day!

Obviously not. But we are allowed to hope that in 6 weeks time that is no longer the case and the country can get moving again for a few months.

^*Many of these threads (and there are a lot) show just how many parents can't wait to see the back of their kids.

It's sad*^ 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's not sad ffs. It's normal in the country for children to go to school. School isn't just a place to get rid of your children, it's for most children a happy, stimulating environment where they've got friends, they learn and have fun. My eldest is nearly a teenager, he should be playing football and having a laugh with his mates.

It's not that much fun being cooped up inside for a prolonged period of time when the weather is beautiful, we are used to a busy, active lifestyle.

Just because I don't want to be with my kids 24/7 doesn't mean I don't want them. It's actually healthy and normal for them to have a life and relationships outside these 4 walls.

Btw, that doesn't mean everyone wants their kids and teachers to die.

People are just desperate for a bit of normality.

I'd suggest schools won't be re-opening in the short term. At the weekend, the government announced they were ordering laptops and 4G internet connections to help children whose family did not have these resources. They would not be doing this if they planned to re-open schools in the short term. In fact, if they were moving towards re-opening on a phased basis, they could simply allow these children to start attending school to use the school facilities.

The real problem is how do you do social distancing in a school? There are some things you could do like stagger start/finish and break times but you can't keep kids 2m apart because classrooms aren't big enough.

Even if they go back in September, it will probably not be 'normal'. Maybe they'll have different groups in on different days, so children do 2 days a week in school and the rest of the week at home.

Oh go away, Emcont.

Justvisiting do you realise that a lot of workplaces aren't social distancing?

I know they're 'supposed' to, but many many aren't because it's simply not possible.

After may half term, for non medically vulnerable kids. Children with under lying health issues will be expected to stay home I suspect till September and home school.. everyone else will be back in school may through to early June.

At the weekend, the government announced they were ordering laptops and 4G internet connections to help children whose family did not have these resources

No they didn’t, they said they would do it for vulnerable kids, those in care or under social worker. There was no plans for the four million kids living in child poverty. They haven’t even ordered lap tops, it would be a huge effort to roll them out even to the vulnerable kids, and would take months and months.

I think you can safely assume it’s just one of their worst case planning scenarios and they don’t think it will be required.

If they told people on April 20th that schools wouldn’t reopen until September 5th, people would spend 5 months moaning.

They'll moan anyway. People have spent approximately 11 school days moaning.