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!

I agree with @LuluJakey1, schools opening will mean Game Over for social distancing. I don't see why teachers and 4 years should be the guinea pigs.

Getting a good community testing system in place (like everyone else is doing) would be helpful and perhaps checking the kids temperature at the school gates each day to try and weed out asymptomatic carriers.

Beyond that, unless we put the kids in zorbe bubbles, I am out of ideas.

It does feel like schools and childcare are sort of being set up to fail - certainly seems for us like we will have quite incompatible requirements between smaller groups, distancing and easy clean toys vs meeting standards for free play, appropriate equipment etc. Hell our last two inspections were obsessed with loose parts...

This how Denmark are getting children back to school, no masks for children or teachers:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52550470

@hettie That's a really balanced post which nicely explains why we need to get some kind of normal back. Thank you.

@CoronaLonaSad Extrapolating from that experience into ‘most kids aren’t seeing any children’ is bollocks. Most people don’t live in isolation with only 80 year-olds as neighbours. The majority of children live in urban areas and will be seeing other children, though obviously not under normal conditions.

There are currently 223,606 cases confirmed in UK. Testing has not properly taken off, the track and trace app is still in testing phase.

Are TAs going to be given financial provisions for extra work, provision to contract more cleaners/janitors, teachers further provisions to oversee a TA who, meant with no malice, are not teachers and many did not train as such.

Less than a month to organise, cases still going up.

That suggests you don't self isolate if a child is symptomatic, only if they get a positive test.

But are children being routinely tested?

No matter how simple the government try to make the messaging, there are still huge numbers of people that just don't get it.

These measures are not intended to keep every single individual 100% safe from contracting the virus 100% of the time. Far from it. There are (very small) risks to individuals which must be balanced with other risks.

The measures are intended to control the overall R rate(s) across populations to manage the impact of the disease across the nation.

These are epidemiological measures.

My children have seen one household with children they know on their bikes from a distance. we live quite rurally with catchment area spread out between villages and older neighbours.

To be honest, as a teacher it’s proving considerably more difficult trying to figure out how we’ll accommodate seven classes in groups of no more than 15 by the end of June than worrying about the virus itself.

With our numbers, we need 15 classrooms and teachers. We have seven small classrooms, a tiny playground and hall and five teachers who are not pregnant. There are wheelchair users and our hallways are narrower than 2m in the first place, so we can’t divide them. It’s like trying to figure out an incomprehensible maths SATS question.

When we’ve worked all this out we can start worrying about transmission!

There are (very small) risks to individuals which must be balanced with other risks.

So its ok to use 4 year olds as Guinea pigs because the risk is small even though its been explained on this thread that some small children have been incredibly unwell as a result of the virsus? I appreciate that we must move towards a new normal but offering small children and teachers as cannon fodder is not in the bets interests of anyone, there is obviously a better way forward than this.

Are Germany and Denmark using Children as guinea pigs as well? As they have sent their children back to school for the last 3 weeks.

@oldwhyno has explained it perfectly.

This has always been about the NHS coping not stopping people from getting this virus. It’s coping (why is another discussion) but we can’t stop everyone from getting this virus and we can’t all be ‘safe’. Schools are just one of the ‘taps’ to turn on and off to control the spread.

This has been said so many times and people still don’t get it.

Schools are just one of the ‘taps’ to turn on and off to control the spread.

Cool. So turn the tap on, spread increases, 1 kid takes it to school, 15 kids take it home, their families ft it their parents die.
Teachers get it, teachers take it home, teachers and their families die. Fantastic...

@Delatron I think people do get it. I just think that teachers and lots of parents are feeling let down by all the double standards and misinformation which basically seems to be saying, all workers have to go back under strict safety measures (except teachers), children can not mix with other people in case they spread it (except teachers) blah blah blah.
It feels like, as a teacher, we don’t matter. We are expected now to become cleaners as well and to teach EYFS with limited toys and movement and limited outdoor time (now that outdoor space will have to be used on a rota between 6 different groups of 15 kids). It just feels like a just go and get on with it. Wash your hands and sneeze into tissues and you’ll be fine.
Most of the teachers in my school are over 50. We are at risk. We will go back and we will do our very best. I for one just feel like this is too rushed and that the government needs to make it clear that lots of this education will need to be part time.

I don't think we will be very far off what Denmark is doing really - judging from what is said on here, those parents who don't need to work won't be sending their kids, so in many schools you could probably have all of the class that want to come back back in school in their normal classroom.

Cool. So turn the tap on, spread increases, 1 kid takes it to school, 15 kids take it home, their families ft it their parents die.
Teachers get it, teachers take it home, teachers and their families die. Fantastic

Firstly, that’s not how this virus spreads. The R rate is below 1. That means if a child in your class had it, they would likely pass it on to 1 or fewer children. Absurd to suggest the R rate is suddenly 15.

Also - what in hell do you propose? That we just stay at home forever??? People will have to be forced to return to work, with sanctions and pay loss if they don’t. It’s getting ridiculous.

Firstly, that’s not how this virus spreads. The R rate is below 1. That means if a child in your class had it, they would likely pass it on to 1 or fewer children. Absurd to suggest the R rate is suddenly 15.

Who said anything about the r rate?
I mean I'm not great at maths but if you line 15 matches up and light the first, eventually all will burn.

@Norecallpup exactly this 👍 The reason I was saying don’t do it (despite it absolutely definitely being your job to...mine too, btw 🥰) is that Patrick Valance actually said, in the Sunday briefing, that he was UNSURE (his word!) about how children spread (he admitted that they DO!) and that he was UNSURE about how the virus affected children yet (but admitted that they WERE AFFECTED!!). He also said that it wasn’t yet clear how children who were carrying the virus displayed symptoms - so, we might not see anything because they would just not display signs, but they might easily pass it on to us...he just couldn’t give us that information yet. But...they were ‘working on it’. Fabulous!

These are the reasons we need to be very clear about before we make a decision to prise away a child from its parent at 8.30. If that child needs ‘prising’ I’m afraid it won’t be me doing it 🤷‍♀️ And I will be very clearly (but kindly 🥰) explaining to the parent why I’m afraid. Cuddles, if required, will be the child’s own bear, which will go straight back in their bag after a quick cuddle...cuts and grazes will be dealt with whilst wearing masks, gloves and aprons. I’m in year 1 so it will be slightly more manageable than EYFS but still like herding (very lovely) cats.

It all needs to be really much clearer...with someone from the government going into an average (not private) primary school and walking through a ‘day in the life of’ type scenario! Maybe using life sized crash test dummies to demonstrate size:ratio 😂

@ThatsAtEm fat chance of that happening. They’ll just continue to assume they know how schools work!

Firstly, that’s not how this virus spreads. The R rate is below 1. That means if a child in your class had it, they would likely pass it on to 1 or fewer children. Absurd to suggest the R rate is suddenly 15

Umm but isn’t that because of social distancing? The “natural” r rate was 3, I think? The virus hasn’t got less infectious, people are just seeing fewer people... or is my understanding wrong?

@SpokeTooSoon
Firstly, that’s not how this virus spreads. The R rate is below 1. That means if a child in your class had it, they would likely pass it on to 1 or fewer children. Absurd to suggest the R rate is suddenly 15.

The R is below 1 because we're all in our houses most of the time so not spreading it to others. So even though most of us are barely leaving the house, we still have an R between 0.5 and 0.9.

It was believed to be an an R of about 3 before lockdown. What this means is that 1 person, on average, spread it to 3 people. On average. If one person in a classroom has it, and they spread it to another, then that other will spread it to another. Just look at all of the data on hospital, care home, cruise ship and factory outbreaks.

R is an average, and it is a measure of transmission, not how infectious it is. This is a highly infectious disease.

I'm not saying we stay at home forever. I'm just pointing out that your understanding of the science is wrong.

@SmileEachDay Snap! You're definitely right (and much more succinct than me!)

I hope teachers who want to will be encouraged by their heads to wear masks. I don't think the kids would be scared by it once they understand it helps keep their teachers well. It's disrespectful to teachers to expect them to put themselves at more risk than necessary. Have a craft day, everyone design their own mask, make a fun thing of it. My DS is autistic and initially struggled with the material next to his face, but we made one themed to his special interest and now he's got used to it and wears it when we're on crowded pavements.

Honestly, some posters have made ridiculous pseudo-science comments on here. You can not have one rule for schools, out shopping, public transport and the NHS, and, then something different for schools.

The virus does not think 'hell I am in a school so I must behave'. NO, IT DOES NOT.

what a bunch of flat-earthers!