Social distancing in schools- mental health

[Myfriendanxiety]

Does anyone else feel that they would rather home school their children indefinitely than send them to a school where they have to social distance?

I really worry about the mental health of children if they are forced to sit alone at desks 2m apart from others without any proper play time or interaction. I just can’t see how this type of schooling is going to be beneficial to children and how it will create a positive learning environment.

My DS has another year before he starts school luckily- but if he were starting in September to a school system based on social distancing then I wouldn’t be sending him.

@BigChocFrenzy you was fine because that was how it was from the start so it was all you knew. 2020 the kids would have a shock.

@GoldenOmber I agree utter madness. The hubs now even allow the children IPads to play on and they don’t do any school work as such.

I am fairly sure that even in the 60s and 70s, children had playtime and got to stand within 6ft of each other.

@Kokeshi123 I can see how that would work. Makes me and my practical subject redundant though

And at least the hub teachers know this is supposed to be a short-term situation where they aren’t expected to deliver a whole curriculum. Even if we could get the buildings arranged how on earth could we expect teachers to teach while going “STOP TOUCHING EACH OTHER! STEP AWAY FROM ME!” every 2 minutes?

We can’t keep all children at home until there’s a vaccine so we have to work out some realistic way to get schools back eventually. And it just doesn’t seem either realistic or fair to expect proper social distancing to happen in schools. We can’t sacrifice children’s education and mental health for 12+ months, especially when they’re the group at the lowest risk of getting ill from this and likely at spreading this as well.

If I could send her off to the park for lunch with her close mates each day I think she’d manage for a lot longer with the home schooling. Then no risk to teachers.

My year 7 would love this

The chances of getting, say, 5-year-olds to sit at individual desks for 8 hours doing worksheets without playing or physically Interacting with each other or the teacher seems somewhat slim.

To be honest, you won't completely stop physical interaction between the kids no matter what age they are.

Which is why we need to focus on getting them split up into smaller groups for teaching, have them supervised by young adults only (hence, getting childcare providers involved), and then accept that we can only do so much and that the virus is going to spread no matter what we do. We can only help it to spread more slowly. Teachers over a certain age and/or medical vulnerabilities will be working on creating and providing the curriculum, online teaching and marking/setting work, not face to face with the children.

We can't go on with the current situation for 12 months. It's not doable. Society cannot function like this. We need an OK-ish solution that just about works. We are not going to get a perfect solution.

but it so depressing, that's sounds worse for MH than staying at home.

I agree, and it's not a fun solution at all.

Once social interaction between households has lifted, parents and children from different families will be able to mix with each other. Parents will therefore have options. If they don't fancy the idea of days doing weird spaced-out learning in a holiday club or disused sports gym, they should be given the option of continuing with homeschooling (using the same remote online learning/schoolwork packs as everyone else is using) on their own terms. They might homeschool but allow their child social interaction with other families doing the same thing once lessons are done. Or they might choose to group together with other families and have two or three kids study together in one parent's living room. It would be up to each family to make their own arrangements. Needless to say, the "attendance" bollocks needs to stop and the state needs to accept this as a valid option for families.

It won't stop the virus from spreading but will slow its spread. Unless we can get very good test-and-trace sorted out as soon as possible.

Shielding families, of course, might feel that they have no option other than to keep their children away from other families altogether. That's tough and I really do feel for them. I mentioned state boarding above. If a child was over 10 or so, I personally feel that state boarding, if doable and if places are available, is a fairer solution for a lot of kids. They would need to isolate strictly before returning home each term and would be best off staying for full terms not going back and forth for each half term etc. I am not a fan of boarding as a general rule, but for a lot of children it could be better than the social abnormality of having zero interaction with peers for years on end.

I am really not sure with your plan to 'distance learn in schools' where all the computers come from and how everything is kept clean!

Lessons can not be taught forever through computer focused learning packs : the head of Ofsted said yesterday that that would not cut the mustard for too long. The UK education system just does not have the IT provision I think you are imagining kokeshi.

I have no idea whether this would work with primary and lower secondary but certainly a proper GCSE experience could not be provided. So long as everyone has low expectations of what students learn, that 's OK. But the DfE , Ofqual, Ofsted, successive governments, HE, employers, and parents have never been shown to think that way. Yesterday on R4, Nick Gibbs (schools minister) already said they would not accept a drop off in standards at GCSE and A Level!

Lessons can not be taught forever through computer focused learning packs

I know. But the kids aren't getting proper learning at the moment either.

Yes, they will have to scale down the requirements for GCSEs, A Levels and everything else. And just forget about SATS.

God, what a mess!

How many state boarding schools are there?

I am more worried about my child getting the bus to school (a public bus) with other school children, members of the public, touching the seats standing poles etc. Some children are on the bus/train for over an hour travelling to and from school they are not going to be able to social distance.

kokeshi , can't remember, sorry : are you in Japan? I keep reading interesting stories coming out of there about school reopening and shutting and quite a lot of disquiet (especially amongst older students) in some prefectures about the whole thing?

I may have you confused with someone else!

Yes, I'm in Japan.

The schools here closed completelythe buildings are all shut up right now. The equivalent of key workers' kids have gone to the "gakudo"-childcare centers for school-aged kids. These are usually open after-school in term-time but all-day during holidays. So they opened up for all-day programs to take these kids.

The kids do the same work as the kids like mine who are at home, only they do so at desks in the gakudo and the staff sort of buzz round and help them out a bit. The desks are spaced out. Gakudos are smaller than schools so there are a lot fewer kids to spread the virus around.

It's not a perfect educational solution. It's also not a compete viral control solution because complete social distancing is obviously not possible. It IS probably just about good enough to slow the spread of the virus, allow parents to work and ensure that kids can sorta cover the curriculum content.

It would work better if there was more online support but there is absolutely nothing in most public schools here. Some private senior high schools have apparently done a decent job of providing online learning. Japan is very backward in terms of edu technology!

The schools were supposed to open on May 8 or so here, but goodness knows what will happen. More and more Tokyo wards are saying that they have now extended the closure to end-May.

Japanese schools send all kids home with a homework package every summer, so both parents and childcare staff are probably a bit more accustomed to supervising schoolwork than in the UK. But then maybe you get homework clubs in the UK as well?

Not widely, no!

I am surprised about the Edu tech!

I read about some prefectures opening schools and then closing them again and Shinzo Abe not really consulting people. Sounds a bit chaotic...