What would make you feel less worried about your kids returning to school?

[whattodo2019]

I'm ready for my two children to return to secondary school but I am very nervous. Tonight I was wondering what the schools/ government will put in place to protect the children and staff.

I would like to hear that they had increased the cleaning regimes and were using products like milton rather than the old smelly mops and cold water which I often see.

More Hand washings /sanitising stations

Should the children and staff wear PPE or is it not necessary?

How do they think they will encore social distancing? Is it even possible?

I would be interested what you would like schools to be doing.

My daughter is bused to school, I'd like them to double the buses so the can distance. In theory its close enough to cycle but there is no path and the roads are too dangerous.
I don't think that you can social distance at school really. But hand washing routines should be enforced. Schools need to be able to separate and send home anyone with symptoms. Ditch the focus on attendance.

With the emergence of news from NY that over 70 children are being treated for a serious condition thought to be linked to having previously been in contact with Covid 19, ( covid antibodies detected) much more research needs to be done before I would feel safe sending them in.

Government needs to change its message from cough/ fever isolate to if you feel in any way unwell isolate and then you get tested. It also needs to address sick pay ensuring that people can be absent without financial loss. In my opinion that will make school safer, removing the need for parents to send children to school if unwell. Let the teachers wear masks if they feel it necessary. There is a question mark surrounding whether children spread the virus or not, this also needs addressed. We keep being told to be guided by science and for that we may need to test hypothesis, perhaps we need to trial school opening with very very careful monitoring on a strictly volunteer basis with children with no underlying health problems.
We also need to be mindful that obesity appears to play a large part in severity of disease in children. We therefore need to open children’s play parks and encourage exercise. Perhaps opening children’s playgrounds would provide some answers to disease in children without going to school opening first.
The issue with COVID-19 is we are coming at addressing it from behind. We have absolutely no idea how many people have had it, and if children don’t spread it what population of our children have actually had it and potentially may be immune. If we had tested properly in the first instance a lot of the issues we would not be as deep into this mess now.
There are some difficult decisions to be made, and I don’t see how they can be completely risk free. However life is not risk free, and we assess that risk on a daily basis. Some risks which are acceptable to one are not to another, so the return to school will be a contentious issue.

I don’t feel too worried. My kids have classes of 15 max (one form) large grounds, it’s a state school by the way. Massively undersubscribed due to deprived area. I think they will be able to put some measures in place that won’t be terribly disruptive, but who knows.

I think the biggest one is the R figure. If it is about 0.4 or below then I think we can risk the inevitable increase in spread and still keep the R value under 1 if a robust test and trace system is running.

Nothing the schools can do.

I want effective testing available for all, an effective treatment protocol and enough staff and PPE to open the Nightingales so that people with C19 can be properly isolated and properly treated before they become dangerously ill.

Oh, and the moon on a stick.

To echo what other posters have said, I don't want my 14 yr old to be 'told off' for any normal behaviours e.g. hugging & sharing pens etc.. I really feel that could be damaging.

I am happy for dc to return to school/college/uni when they can go there with wash your hands posters level type interventions to an otherwise normal day.

I'm a teacher. I've just read this thread with growing dismay at how few posters seem to be concerned that teaching staff, support staff and office staff WILL be out at risk. Most likely without PPE or adequate cleaning.

Am I worried about the children who aren't engaging with remote learning? Of course I am - desperately. Am I concerned about the lack of socialisation for particular children and how that will impact on their long term development? Absolutely. Does that mean that I think that any of my colleagues or I should be put at a significantly increased risk without adequate protection? No - and let's not kid ourselves that a thorough cleaning regime and PPE will appear magically overnight.

The last 2 days before closure saw our school lose 40% of our staff who either are shielding, have their own children shielding, or are classed as vulnerable. Pupils were missing in similar numbers. What has changed to allow us to reopen safely right now? The minute we reopen any children NOT in school are further disadvantaged. I suspect that school will not return to normal for months to come. Yes we need to look after children - but we need to look after the adults too.

I would like part-time schooling, in both secondary and primary.
Split alphabetically, each in 2 days a week - that should ensure siblings are in at the same time, although might mean some groups are larger and some are smaller.
Secondary might need to rotate days DC are coming in to cover more of the timetable e.g. Come in Mon and Tue first week and second group comes in Thursday and Friday, then swap over.
For secondary, the 5th empty day could be tutor group/PSHE time. All tutor groups get a different hour slot every 2 weeks. Children who live further out or who are isolated/shielding could video call in.
Focus on PE and PSHE.
Regular hand washing as part of the day.
Staggered pick up and drop off times if possible - again alphabetical. Obviously this wouldn't apply to children coming by bus.
Children wear own clothes or PE kit, encourage daily washing of clothes where possible.
School finishing at lunchtime for those who are able to go home then (more space for lunch for those who need to stay).

Cleaning massively increased, people being off if any illness in household and collected ASAP.

Children & staff to be able to behave fairly normally. So that needs low transmission rate.

I trust our primary not to be too stressful about everything but I want staff and kids to be safe as possible.

Having windows and doors open so there is more fresh air circulating in classrooms. This is one of the reasons why I think school would be better off going back this term rather than next.

All of these suggestions of how schools could manage is great but right now, the primary thing to do is to get the R value really low ( everyone needs to adhere to the current rules properly) and get a good robust test and trace system going (Government need to work on this). Once these are in place then all sorts of ideas can be tried. Before this, it just risks the R value going over 1 and exponential growth of cases/deaths.

Having windows and doors open so there is more fresh air circulating in classrooms. This is one of the reasons why I think school would be better off going back this term rather than next

My school doesn’t have classroom doors to the outside and we are not allowed to open the windows as the wooden frames are rotting. Some Classrooms on certain sides of the school (direct sunlight) are unbearable in the summer term.

This was their estimates. Reality was vertainly higher deaths in children, so not sure how accurate their other estimates would be.
But anyway, the deaths, hospitalisation then icu by age would be more useful than a basic they didnt die so why are you worried. So 1% risk of hospitalisaton for even 20-29yo.
That is not that low when you double it for both parents.
Now imagine the reality which was that nhs was turning away those who couldnt breath. Or next time it might get even more out of control so there are no beds.

I just think it's too soon...

Whatever measure is put in place now, it feels like a big step from never leaving the house to going back to school. The kids will need a gradual readjustment and then it's the summer holidays again!!!!!

It is too soon. Lots of people are leaving the house already. Many people will continue to use play schemes for the main school holidays. Parents WFM by September will be at their limit trying to juggle.

So there’s nothing wrong with looking at ides to move forward. Lockdown originally was to relieve the hospital pressure not for any other reason.