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!

so there will be no social distancing in schools, children will be in groups of 15 and taught by a teacher or a TA.

now lets be clear about something, we are learning about this virus every day still. the science is full of gaps. children are far lower risk, but that isnt zero risk. how many children would be acceptable to be in serious trouble? I can assure you that schools and teachers first priority is the safety of their children, an outstanding school will fail on safeguarding issues. we are drilled on safety and management of child safety at all times, as we would hope and expect. To put a child at risk, who relies solely on our judgement to protect their well-being, just once, would be a travesty.

and yet, Boris Johnson is deciding that the first people he sends to test the waters with zero social distancing.... will be four year old children.....

its sadly all too surreal at the moment. some online are rightly extremely confused, others are clinging to their political crutch, that these people can do no wrong.

and yet we are sending our four year old children into schools with no social distancing as our first test of the waters.

Very doubtful I will send my year R dd in on 1 June. Because:

• I think death rate still too high and dp and I both second half of our 40s so risk of us being infected too high in my view

• I think it will be unsettling for little dd to be back but her big dsis not. Not great for either dd

• too upsetting for dd to be at school and not be able to cuddle her friends, play with toys and do proper learning through play

She will be better off at home doing home school with me and her dsis

surely it doesn't matter how good whatever system is, the virus will still be there!!
Depends what you mean by "there". Somewhere in the UK? Sadly yes. In every class in every school? Absolutely not! And the longer we can hold off until the rates fall further, the more classes will be virus free and the fewer people will die or be left with long term health issues.

Onceuponatimethen I hope this is the view taken by most parents.

we are second in the world for total numbers of people who lost their lives, this is not the time to be sending back 4 year groups to test the waters.

I cannot believe I am typing this.

The UK has one of the lowest school starting ages. In Denmark they are 6 when they start so many of them may be able to socially distance whereas our YR and even Y1 won't be able to.

Apart from in YR, we have no TAs in our school except those working with EHCP children so I'm not sure how splitting the class into groups would work.

I also don't understand why it says that children shouldn't have their temperature checked every day. We send home any child with a temperature in normal times and surely if they had a temperature it would be helpful to know?

Won't it also be hay fever time? Lots of coughing - could be mistaken for COVID and then the whole group is off for 2 weeks.

Before lockdown I was working as EYP in a private nursery, with two staff per room. We absolutely did cleaning while the children were there. There was no non-contact time, so you had no choice. You had to clean surfaces around the children.

For example, while they were sitting at tables having their lunch or snack time, one EYP would be supervising them, serving food and washing dishes. The other would be sweeping the floor, or hoovering, and cleaning the toilet area, including floor. We took it in turns to prepare snack (making toast, cutting fruit, heating soup) or reading a story to the children sitting together on a mat. You have to plan it so that one person can supervise the children, while the other is busy cleaning or cooking.

I didn't feel it was good care to do it this way, as in cleaning while they were there, but it was what we were told to do.

Toys and cups/plates were regularly sterilized overnight- putting them into a large tub of cold water and milton fluid. So yes, toys could theoretically be washed overnight, ready for the next day - but it is a big effort - lugging the water, rinsing them, drying them. It could be done though.

Sky news is running a story tonight about how care homes were sent letters saying they had to take in Covid-19 patients or they'd have funding withdrawn.

By local authorities.

The same local authorities who run schools.

And reading that I'm supposed to have full trust without any questions, about how schools being reopened in just 3 weeks time with guidance which is all over the place and a complete lack of testing / tracing system to check on the spread from schools and that this will automatically be in the best interests of my child not because the authorities / government have pushed schools into it?

Really?

The idea that the schools have the ability and resources to pull off this bonkers temporary plan in a rush is nuts, for starters. Never mind all the stuff about how teaching assistants will be used.

Rushed and ill thought out plans have high potential for going badly wrong at the best of times.

Not only that but at least a Yr 6 child can tell you if they feel ill. It's much harder with a 4 or 5 year old (or younger) Usually I notice it with a change in behaviour rather than DS's ability to express how he's feeling unwell.

Well said Seasofchange! I can understand parents who are struggling to hold down a job having a terrible dilemma re whether to send their children to school, but I think it would be a very unwise move for parents to send their children back to school in June on the basis proposed by the government. As for children's mental health being affected due to not seeing other children, there would clearly be other safer policies to address this, eg allowing children to meet and play outside in small groups. The government is not driven by mental health considerations. It wants parents back being economically productive, but won't say, "Please keep children home if you can because it's not safe to have many children in school. "

Toys and cups/plates were regularly sterilized overnight- putting them into a large tub of cold water and milton fluid. So yes, toys could theoretically be washed overnight, ready for the next day - but it is a big effort - lugging the water, rinsing them, drying them. It could be done though.

Do EYP do lesson planning like teachers?

Teachers are not EYPs.

And these teachers are being also asked to oversee teaching assistants.

What magical time at home will teachers have on top of this to sterilise toys?

Just wondering.

DH company has told staff wfh will continue for months & this is the same for many firms in the City. The main issue is public transport, the company can't tell an employer they have to come in by public transport as they are they exposed to legal ramifications & a load of bad pr if someone contracts Covid. They are being ultra cautious. It seems a stark contrast against this school guidance.

To be fair Early years staff work incredibly hard, often without breaks to manage cleaning down between/ at end of cohorts. It's hard work and has to be done when kids are in as otherwise it doesn't get done, similar to special schools. However being honest we do not deep clean nightky in these settings, we clean andbtermly deep clean. Whereas now I think the deep cleaning would need to be nightly which increases everyones workload. Think of all those tables with snot , blood, poo, pee, saliva etc ingrained underneath for years. It may be time to get them clean. Also windows our never get cleaned, normally teachers do it termly because it is nice to see out and not see snit and spittle but they will need done daily. If done properly our schools could be cleaner than ever. Admittedly they would be empty of resources as more and more get put away as uncleanable. This is already happening in my classroom. My cupboard is ready to burst and my room was bare already compared to mainstream classrooms.

The government is not driven by mental health considerations. It wants parents back being economically productive, but won't say, "Please keep children home if you can because it's not safe to have many children in school. "

Quite.

There are some kids who would benefit from being in school. What's interesting is the number of children classed as vulnerable who have an open place at school NOW who are not attending. These posts about the least we'll off kids in most need of returning to school are neglecting to remember that they could already be in the classroom tomorrow.

Instead it's parents who have the ability to homeschool who are being chastised for somehow not caring about the educational needs of these less well off kids.

There's no real effort being made to hasten their return for their welfare.

It's about schools being a childcare service and it's not primarily about the well being of kids first.

What's happening with secondary schools? I can see that being bad too. Teenagers will.probably be worse at social distancing than younger children (it's probably not cool to stay 2m apart) and can't be done in the corridor or school cafeteria. No chance of small groups unless they all go part time..
I do feel sorry for teachers but most jobs aren't giving any PPE either.
Are teachers actually expected to teach when the children go back? I don't see how they'll have time on top of supervising hand washing, making sure children are apart and always using tissues on and wiping everything down. Absolute madness.

There are some kids who would benefit from being in school. What's interesting is the number of children classed as vulnerable who have an open place at school NOW who are not attending. These posts about the least we'll off kids in most need of returning to school are neglecting to remember that they could already be in the classroom tomorrow.

Indeed.

Of the 35 families I was in touch with today only 5 have said they will send their children back before September.
Most suggested they want to now de-register and home school for the foreseeable so I don’t think (in our case) we will have full classes for a long time.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-plan-to-rebuild-the-uk-governments-covid-19-recovery-strategy

Someone put this up on the first page:

• minimising contact with individuals who are unwell by ensuring that those who have coronavirus symptoms, or who have someone in their household who does, do not attend childcare settings, schools or colleges
• cleaning hands more often than usual - wash hands thoroughly for 20 seconds with running water and soap and dry them thoroughly or use alcohol hand rub or sanitiser ensuring that all parts of the hands are covered
• ensuring good respiratory hygiene - promote the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach
• cleaning frequently touched surfaces often using standard products, such as detergents and bleach
• minimising contact and mixing by altering, as much as possible, the environment (such as classroom layout) and timetables (such as staggered break times)

Quite frankly the first three points should be things we should be doing anyway regardless of covid thats just common sense and what we are always told, don't go to work if you have a cold or flu, use tissues and wash your hands.

Secondary schools don’t seem to be opening, only some face to face contact with Y10/12 students to support their remote home learning. Not sure if the face to face will be actual or virtual

My son's nursery have canvassed for our views today. They are attached to a private school and have said social distancing will not be possible for the school (not just EYFS). It is tiny. There are only 15 in his class anyway. We probably will not be sending him back, although I worry about his transition to reception if we keep him off until the summer holidays and whether my fear of him catching CV is justified with the levels of cv in kids. I think I would feel extremely anxious sending him in though and am desperately trying to weigh up the pros and cons. He can read and write at a basic level etc, so I'm not bothered about that but I worry about the social impact on him of keeping him off til September. The social side will either be v risky or v fucked up - feels like a rock and a hard place. I'm on mat leave, with another young DC, so can continue with him at home at the moment, although a break would also be amazing! What if he catches it though and ends up with long term health effects or passes it to someone else that gets seriously ill? I'm taking a wait and see approach for now, but erring a lot more on the side of keeping him off.
I would be perfectly fine with teachers wearing a mask. If I was a teacher I'd be pretty scared right now e.g. my daughter sneezed into her elbow the other day and then I saw her wipe her sleeve clean with her other hand. The toilets are tiny self contained individual cubicles with sinks in, so it's not even easy to supervise decent hand washing in nursery, although hopefully many kids will have had that drummed into them these past weeks.

It's going to be a challenge that's for sure. Things like the spacing of desks in classrooms. One child per desk where there's usually two. What happens to the other desks? They'll quite likely end up in the corridor. The corridor that they are suggesting be divided.

Who will do all the extra cleaning? Which by the sound of it will need to be done constantly. Will a budget be provided to employ extra cleaners?

If more children return in July, how on earth will social distancing work then?

So many questions.

Will a budget be provided to employ extra cleaners?

I'm not uk, but exactly that.
the fact that our dc school already have good cleaning contractors andcreceived extra funds for corona measures makes me confident that my dc will reasonably safe at school.

I think the clue there though in your response is I'm not UK!

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?!

My child is autistic and refuses to leave the house now. He won't go on walks or go anywhere. He has no friends and we have no children in our (very small) family. He won't use zoom or FaceTime. We live at the end of the cul-de-sac. So no he hasn't seen another child or spoken to anyone except his parents since the day schools shut. That will be him until there is a vaccine if some have their way. The damage for him of keeping schools shut is far greater than covid. Please try and remember that not everyone is the same.

To those saying they won't return their children before September - what do you think will happen before then to make things safer?

There have been 238 deaths so far in England so far due to Covid 19 for those in hospital, with no preconditions and under 60.

www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

Stay fit, stay under 60 and carry on?