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Original poster

Social distancing in schools- mental health

365 replies

Myfriendanxiety · 23/04/2020 16:11

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.

OP posts:
Whaddyathinkofthis · 23/04/2020 20:29

But how many of those people working in industry are parents? They might be SD in their own work places but then going home to families where their children will have been in varying degrees of contact with around 400 people each day and, with that, anyone each of them has come into contact with, and anyone each of them has come into contact with... A bit like when we tell teenagers that unprotected sex is like having sex with with everyone your partner has also had unprotected sex with!

It will be an end to any meaningful sense of social distancing and that needs to be acknowledged. The issue for me isn't how much contact each individual will have had with other people, but the fact that SD is a measure that people believe can happen in schools at all.

I understand that it's not about 'stopping' CV19, and is only about reducing transmission. And that's fine. It just needs to be taken out of the conversation about schools reopening. And that needs to be understood by everyone.

Reopening schools understanding that SD will not happen is a very different decision to reopening them assuring that it will.

Whaddyathinkofthis · 23/04/2020 20:33

I'm perplexed why people seem to think kids will be stressed sitting 2m apart from their friends at school and yet at home they wont see them AT ALL! I'd rather see my friends albeit 2m apart than not at all.

Because it's easier to not see someone you love at all than to be in relatively close proximity to them but unable to touch them, or speak to them properly/privately.

And, presumably, you're an adult. Children don't think like adults 🙄

MimiLaRue · 23/04/2020 20:36

And, presumably, you're an adult. Children don't think like adults

Yes, and not all kids think the same thing and behave the same do they? Hmm

My children really want to see their friends, even if it means SD

Whaddyathinkofthis · 23/04/2020 20:37

The harsh reality is by Sept we should be looking at getting the children back to school. We cannot stay in a lock down forever. It will do more harm than good... & as a result have a knock on effect on other things. We most likely will have a second wave of CV once the lockdown is lifted. What other choice have we got though

I agree.

I just think SD needs to be removed from the equation.

I haven't read a single comment by a single teacher/TA on any of these threads who thinks that SD in schools would work.

We can't all be wrong!

GrimmsFairytales · 23/04/2020 20:38

My children really want to see their friends

I know it's not the same, but is there any chance of a video chat so they can see each other?

DaisylovesDonald · 23/04/2020 20:38

Exactly @Whaddyathinkofthis
Asking kids to be near their friends but not that near is asking them to have impulse control that is just impossible for them and quite a cruel thing to ask of young children. They don’t like not seeing their friends at all but at least that’s an easily understood rule. I think my kids would be much more disturbed and upset by going into school but having to somehow stop themselves playing with their friends (because let’s be honest what can they play at 2m apart) than they would be by staying at home longer. And just to clarify I’m keen to send them back ASAP as they love and miss school and their friends but just not into a situation that I genuinely think would be more distressing for them than the current one!

MimiLaRue · 23/04/2020 20:39

I know it's not the same, but is there any chance of a video chat so they can see each other

Yes, thats a good idea. I'm definitely going to sort this out

Whaddyathinkofthis · 23/04/2020 20:40

Yes, and not all kids think the same thing and behave the same do they?

My children really want to see their friends, even if it means SD

How old are your children?

Because, as I have repeatedly said, I have been in school with 6 (aged 3-10) children since lockdown and SD isn't happening AT ALL.

The children gravitate towards each other; they want to work collaboratively on activities; we dont have the resources to keep them apart - they are sharing; there isn't enough physical space to maintain that distance in the classroom and too much space outdoors to be everywhere at once.

Rainsun1 · 23/04/2020 20:42

@MimiLaRue they will probably be no social distancing in schools it’s too much of a hard task. It’s not just the 2M rule. What about the “touching element” of equipment and toys in the class. Classrooms are quite small spaces in my child’s year there is 30 kids in a class and 3 sets of his same year group. So this is 90 kids alone. Children shouldn’t be exposed to the worry of this problem at such a young age.

Whaddyathinkofthis · 23/04/2020 20:42

DaisylovesDonald

Completely agree.

Perhaps some of the posters who think it will be easily achieved would be willing to offer to go into their children's school and enforce this?

From a distance, of course...

Drivingdownthe101 · 23/04/2020 20:44

I'm perplexed why people seem to think kids will be stressed sitting 2m apart from their friends at school and yet at home they wont see them AT ALL! I'd rather see my friends albeit 2m apart than not at all

I can’t talk for all children but for my 6 and 4 year olds, while they’re at home they understand that for now, they can’t see their friends. I think at that age, being close to their friends but not able to get too close, and not being able to go to their teacher for comfort etc, will be quite distressing for them. Older kids may be fine, but I think my 4 year old in particular would find it very difficult.
She’s an August born in reception, currently quite far ahead of her peers (reads fluently and confidently for example), and I think being at school with social distancing/PPE at her age/stage would do more harm than good.

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/04/2020 20:44

I follow a fair few providers, childcare groups etc and from what I can see (despite the Scottish Government guidance) there's not much distancing going on in those who are open here either.

MimiLaRue · 23/04/2020 20:45

they will probably be no social distancing in schools it’s too much of a hard task. It’s not just the 2M rule

I totally agree. Its probably a moot point anyway as I dont see how SD would even be possible in schools, neither primary or secondary.

FlowersAreBeautiful · 23/04/2020 20:47

The children I have in class (all 5 of them) have dealt with distancing so well. They range in age from reception to year 6 and probably didn't know each other before. But they've been fine with sitting one per table, constant hand washing, getting on with each other etc. I feel they've adapted better than adults and I don't have any MH concerns about any of them. However, when schools return it will be IMPOSSIBLE to socially distance. Imagine 30 children in your living room and kitchen for the whole day with windows with tiny openings, sharing toilets and pencils. Cross contamination is inevitable with 1 teacher and 30 children and I don't know what the answer is. I'm hoping the government is listening to the concerns of parents

Lunawuna · 23/04/2020 20:51

StatisticallyChallenged TES Scotland interviewed the director of children’s services and education for Fife and she pretty much said that they’re not expecting the 2/3/4 year olds in the children’s centres to be following SD.

isitorisntit · 23/04/2020 20:51

How on earth they think classrooms have a space for social distancing is beyond me. Sharing tables, chairs, toilets, pencils, rulers, glues... Let alone the nose picking and coughing/sneezing. A phased return won't help working parents so why do it?

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/04/2020 20:55

Lunawuna
Good tbh! They (scot govt) recently put up guidance on outdoor play and even it said children should try to maintain 2m distance outside.

"No billy, you can't go up the slide til Anna is at the bottom"
"one person on the 3 person swing set at a time"
"You can't both look at that worm!!!"

it's like they've never met a kid

DBML · 23/04/2020 20:57

The other day it crossed my mind to go and visit my parents. They have a house in the middle of the countryside. Huge gardens, miles away from anyone else. I thought, what difference would it make really? We could sit outside and maybe have a BBQ. No one would even know.

But I chose not to, because I know that when we got there, we wouldn’t bother to SD. Between loves one/ close friends there is trust. I trust my family would say if they had symptoms and they trust me. So I’d likely sit next to mum and chat, share food and we wouldn’t bother with the SD.

We’d probably have been fine, but I felt that it would be a bad example to my child and it felt wrong when so many people are suffering. So we stayed home.

In school children are going to feel the same way. They will trust their friends and they will neglect the SD. They will behave naturally.

But to be honest that is t the main problem. The main issues involve finding ways around the sharing of equipment, the touching of furniture, the sharing of toilet facilities etc.

It is inevitable that whilst we can try to SD in schools and sit children apart, we can’t control them at every moment and I’d give it a week or so before teachers stopped trying.

Chocolatecakeandpinkcustard · 23/04/2020 21:00

Surely it really does depend on what the government/scientists are thinking of in terms of social distancing.

Has anyone actually said 2metres apart one schools? Because that is unrealistic.

It's not so unrealistic to cancel assemblies, whole school playtimes, eating lunch all together. That could drastically reduce the number of children coming into contact with one another. It would essentially be a small gathering rather than a mass gathering.

Letseatgrandma · 23/04/2020 21:01

Has anyone actually said 2metres apart one schools? Because that is unrealistic.

Denmark are doing it.

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/04/2020 21:02

Sturgeon said it earlier today IIRC, talked about rearranging schools so children could be 2m apart.

StatisticallyChallenged · 23/04/2020 21:03

Aren't Denmark splitting them in to small groups for playtime, and letting them play properly within that group?

Chocolatecakeandpinkcustard · 23/04/2020 21:04

Well it's just not going to happen is it. It's just not.

It's not happening anywhere else either. Dh work are supposed to socially distance, it isn't possible they have to share tools, small working spaces, vans, they have to work in things together in close proximity.

I think they gave up trying to dance around each other after the first week.

museumum · 23/04/2020 21:05

I don’t think they’ll be kept apart they’ll just be grouped into small groups so attend 1/3 of the week with a “class” of 10. That way an infectious child is only in contact with 9 others not 29.