So the school guidance is out...

[Norecallpup]

Sorry if this has already been done. I could cry, I really could. Absolutely nothing. Just wash your hands, wipe down surfaces and encourage kids to cough into tissues! I don’t know why I’m shocked. Our government are a bunch of twats!

@Elmerrrrrrrr

It would involve bringing them into school for a few hours at a time in very small groups. The classroom would have to be redesigned and pick ups and drop offs staggered.

The current guidelines really don’t give schools much of a chance to prepare for this situation.

Teachers should wear PPE, it should be a given.

Sorry of your situation op.

I'm not a teacher and my dc is in nursery but I don't think any child settings should be opening yet.
3 weeks isn't long to plan for this massive change and even then you'll be at risk.

I said to dp tonight it's just outrageous to expect children to be put into classes this soon and it seems teachers / school staff are forgotten as 'parents need childcare so they can go to their safe, social distancing work environment'.

Can you contact your mp or something?

RedToothBrush
I want to understand why I should feel like its safe for my child to be in a class of 15 as its not safe for them to be in a class of 30

No child is 100% 'safe', nor is it unsafe to be in school. There is a miniscule risk of your child developing a serious illness. The reason they're advising a class of 15 instead of 30 is to minimise the risk of community transmission. If one child is infectious then they only pass it on to potentially 15 families instead of 30 - so keeping the R number lower than it would otherwise be.

We cannot lock down forever, we have to learn to live with corona virus

Yes so lets get the system up and running and bug tested for a few weeks BEFORE we start thinking about just opening schools to see whats going to happen when we do without the ability to see what is actually happening...

blubellsarebells

Most people are saying they want their schools opened but safely, I known Inwant tonsee all the kids in my class, although I see 20% in the school at present. We are not your family members or working in their professions, we have not stopped working, we have our own children who, like your ypurs have only had contact with other children through a window, in a walk, through a screen calling friends. We want this to work but we have a right to ensure it is done as safely and effectively as possible. If you want to look at it another way, a teacher is infected and works through, they infect other staff within schools and pass it to the kids, without safeguarding and careful planning you risk exposing, in my school 550 pupils, their families, 70 staff. So well over 1000 people. Now, planned properly, that teacher only exposes the 15/30 kids in their class, plus support staff within the room plus the families of these people. A much less scary number.

My childs emotional needs are not being met if he cant see a single other child for 5 months, which it will be if he doesn't go back until september.We don't actually know what damage isolation is doing to children

Why are you as a parent not meeting your child’s emotional needs? What damage do you think those children who lose a parent teacher might experience? Do our children not matter or is it just yours?

It's not 'safe' to go to the supermarket, it's about balancing risk and benefit. The benefit of being able to eat outweighs the risk of becoming infected (unless you're in the shielded group, in which case the risk is more serious).

The reason they're advising a class of 15 instead of 30 is to minimise the risk of community transmission. If one child is infectious then they only pass it on to potentially 15 families instead of 30 - so keeping the R number lower than it would otherwise be.

I'm not stupid.

This still is saying there is a risk of community transmission through schools....

... but as I say we don't currently have the system set up to actively be able to monitor this so instead they want to trial opening schools with 15 kids because their monitoring system isn't fully up to speed and they don't really understand the spread.

fuck that shit...

Yes i go on walks.
How is having neighbours helping my child to see or interact with other kids?
We FaceTime family, no kids in my family other than mine.
He speaks to his friends on xbox 2 days a week, you dont really think this is the same as seeing and being with other children?
My sister works with men who spit, bite and rub bodily fluids up the walls.
Shes not wearing ppe unless doing personal care or working with confirmed cases.

We have a two form entry with at least 60 children per year group. Small classes which are a squeeze for 30+ children. The only way we'll do it in my school is splitting the year groups into part time teaching. There's simply no space.

*prosecution of carers and parents who send children to school after a dose of calpol, and/or with active symptoms

Definitely agree with this! Norovirus spread like wild fire and we had to shut our school because parents sent children I'll when they'd been sick the night before 😡
The amount of children sent in with temps, sickness or diahorrea is frightening .

@Norecallpup

• Norecallpup

the guidance says that only staff in the extreme risk (or whatever it’s called) category can stay at home. Even people shielding for whatever the less serious risk group have to go in.
No it’s say the shielding group don’t have to , there is only one should I g group those that are extremely clinically vulnerable.

WTF have all these only children not even seen another child for seven weeks?! Don’t you go on walks? Have neighbours? Use Zoom or FaceTime? Have windows?!

What a stupid thing to say.

(For the record
-We go on walks with no other children
-Our neighbours are in their 80s
-We have windows which look out either onto a field or onto a cul de sac where our elderly neighbours live
-my youngest doesn't like zoom/face time etc...
-as it happens my kids are going to school as I'm a key worker, but they could well not be.

• you have reaaallly annoyed me with your daft comment. Most kids are not seeing any other kids. They simply are not.)

Poor kids...

Would teachers in face masks really scare children? Surely parents could teach them that there’s nothing to worry about and try to desensitise them if they’re worried - perhaps decorate one at home for fun or buy them some masks in colours/patterns so it’s not as “clinical”? I’m sure they could come around to seeing them in the same way as other accessories like gloves

I think it will be hell for teachers to wear masks all day, 5 days a week. My sister is a nurse and her nose is bruised and very sore from constant mask use - admittedly she’s in full PPE and teachers wouldn’t be, but I still think it would be uncomfortable to wear them for long periods.

Doing all this for this short time? Will it make the 6 week holls harder having had a taste of school life again?

Yes, this.

School life with half your classmates in another room or coming in another time so you can't see them anyway? School life when you're not allowed to play with the equipment or play dough or do anything requiring sharing (oooh, by the way...that must include the class sets of IPads or laptops that we now can't share as the whole school uses them). School life where you have to stay in one place and even eat your lunch in the same room?

School life where you can't sing or work with a partner or a group of friends?

School life when you might be taught by a teacher / TA you don't know who is shit scared of getting ill and for what?

'Education' for a matter of weeks? So the Government can say they've taken small steps to getting the economy back up and running?

I despair. Sounds awful.

@RedToothBrush The whole situation is one which for some kids will be even more disruptive and difficult than staying home and being homeschooled.

That's what im thinking, particularly with the restrictions on mixing with classmates & using toys. Young dc learn through play.

My sister works with men who spit, bite and rub bodily fluids up the walls.
Shes not wearing ppe unless doing personal care or working with confirmed cases.
Well it certainly sounds like your employer is failing in its duty to provide a safe working environment for your sister, but that does not in any way make it OK for the government to reopen schools on an unsafe basis with vague and unworkable guidance.

Are you staying off work until its 100% safe to do so then whataboutanothername?
There should have been planning being done as soon as schools closed, not 3 weeks before.

My sister works with men who spit, bite and rub bodily fluids up the walls
This is a daily occurance in my classroom, as are flying tables and chairs, and if the bosily fluids were kept to walls life would be so much less ucky!! Our ppe is gloves and if we have some an apron, but we can only put them on after the event and we often have to sit in clothes urine soaked until we lunchtime if the end of the day. This is not a pissing contest, i, as have many education staff, worked with severe, conokex, violent adults and children. However we could say f* it, do what the guidelines say stand at the front if the classroom to teach, allow the kids to, well do what they do in each other personal space, because support assistant will be missing. Not all these interactions will be poaitive, hygienic or nice. We need to iron out the detail because we are used to this level of rubbish from powers that be and how it is left to each school to sort it out in whatever way they can, alone.

But surely it doesn't matter how good whatever system is, the virus will still be there!!

I'm a teacher in every week in a special school. No social distancing, 15 people to a room, its horrible and now it will increase. More children are able to come in this week as key worker kids encouraged in.
Mine will not be going. Safety but also mental health-care a scary place for little ones, different people, different classroom, routine etc. Lots of cleaning and washing. Mainstream should have staggered starts and finishes too. My dd would be scared I think.

Lots of posters have said schools must reopen to get the economy going but with potential p/t attendance i'm not sure how that will work. What about wrap around care?

I feel so torn about what to do.

I do worry for teachers who will have to spend their days in close proximity with many children, with no PPE and no idea if any of them are carrying the virus or not.

I’m a nurse, working on wards with suspected/confirmed Covid patients and I know I risk bringing the virus home to my children (aged 6 and 2) so the thought of sending my Year 1 son into school when he could be harbouring their virus as a result of my job makes me feel uneasy.

The more I read about this plan the more unsure I feel. It sounds so I’ll thought out and although I initially eye rolled at the “our children aren’t guinea pigs” stance, i now feel like that’s exactly what is happening.

It just feels so rushed.

I understand that vulnerable children need school as a place of safety and security, but is it really necessary for Reception and Year 1 children to be in school if they don’t fall into that category.

My DH is a teacher and has said that if the schools do re-open then he doesn’t want our son going back.

We are doing really well with home learning, thankfully we can make alterations to our working hours to enable us to work around school, and my son is loving being at home and all the family time it brings.

I see no benefit to my son going back to school so certainly don’t want him going there at a time period where everything is just “guess work” and we are expected to just take our chances.

I’m not 100% decided but I think we will end up keeping him off.

Of the friends I have (whose children go to school with my son) the only ones who will be sending their children into school are those who have no choice because they have to work - and they definitely aren’t happy about it. Nobody I have spoken to has any faith in the proposal and certainly don’t feel like their children and the staff will be safe.

The latest on the Beeb says that Johnson is already saying that he's not expecting a flood of people going back to work, and that workplaces have to be made safe.

It couldn't possibly be that he's just announced some half-baked poorly thought through ideas and is now having to actually run around fact-checking and amending them to match reality could it.

I think this is all going to need more thought and planning, and may yet be reversed at some point. And accordingly, I'm off to bed.

A workable track and trace system, decent ppe and lower infection rates need to be in place first.