My cynical view on why they are making sure they open primary schools ASAP

[DebbieFiderer]

It's simple really - if they get primary school pupils back before the end of the summer term then it is business as usual in terms of childcare and they don't have to keep schools open over the summer holidays for keyworker children. Anyone else think I am right, or am I being overly cynical and they genuinely think it's the right thing to do for the kids?

i do think it's showing the education sector in a dissapointing light 😡
What is? That the govt are telling teachers to focus on remote learning. That the govt are insisting on groups of 15 maximum but not offering advice on how to do this when some class sizes are 34!
Forget the fact that some teachers have hiked around towns delivering free lunches, overseen key worker/vulnerable student provision. Online meetings daily trying sort out the debacle of GCSE grades, fighting to justify a grade you know a child would have gained!
I think all this has shown some parents in a dissapointing light!

Construction workers and cleaners have the highest death rates...

Where are their Perspex screens?

Sales and customer service occupation make up a significant proportion. Those Perspex screens provide comfort not protection.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales/deathsregistereduptoandincluding20april2020

@Ciwirocks
“I am not happy to continue to have this burden of trying to teach them the National curriculum with no help from school when I am not qualified to do that and I have my own job to do.”

Then don’t. Nobody is going to give a shit. Watch some interesting Netflix documentaries. Help them get interested in a new hobby - bird watching, astronomy, a new instrument. Kids catch up to their academic level (wherever that is) pretty damn quick.

Tbh- and I say this as someone who hates and despises the current government and doesn't have much good to say about those who voted them in- I think there's a few reasons. Yes, they want people back at work and the recognise that opening schools supports that. But they also recognise that the current situation is unnatural and harmful for children and will have lasting negative effects, more lasting and more negative the longer this goes on for. I hear too many people fervently insisting that what dc are experiencing is nothing of significance and any ill effects are negligible... but I think this is delusion.

Denmark imposed lockdown on 11th March so quicker than we did. Danish class sizes are generally 20 rather than 30. Classes are therefore split in to 10's not 15's.
Danish R rose from 0.6 to 0.9 two weeks after school returned - their R number started from a different place than our own (but crucially it didn't go above 1). I don't what it is today as I couldn't find it - anyone on here know?

It all makes a difference.

I'm keen for my kids to go back asap and am not arguing for longer closures. But I'm not going to ignore the stuff just because it doesn't suit my wishes.

Care workers are also included in the occupations with the highest death rates so the PPE clearly isn’t effective in managing infection.

There is a vast difference in the amount of teaching happening in different schools. I can see this first hand as my children are at different schools and I have also spoken to friends and from reading MN.

One school is sending out a A4 sheet by email with the same work for the whole school on it to last a week. For example, do BBC Bitesize, make a book cover, write the five things you like most about your best friend... There is not enough for the week and no one is marking what is being done. With the exception of the BBC Bitesize, it is not educational, it is a time filler. There is no individual contact from the school and no feedback on any work.

Another school is teaching full lessons as per the timetable. Work is set at the beginning of the lesson and submitted at the end, where is marked for the next lesson. The teaching is either done on Teams, or by recorded videos or directing children to resources to learn or practice themselves. It is very structured and lots of feedback.

This is probably controversial but I would try to stream (unofficially) the children. Little Jonny is ahead of the class, the main reason (other than childcare) that his parents want him in school is for socialising and catching up with his friends and maybe a little direction on harder work. Send him in once a week, mainly outdoor activities in a group of other children who have also made good progress working remotely. Susie has found the work harder and was already struggling a bit with school work before the lockdown. She comes in three times a week. Two classroom based days with other students who are struggling, one outside day following same lesson plan as Jonny and his group. On days they are not in then they can follow BBC bitesize or the academy. This might redress some of the inequalities which have developed with this situation.

BovaryX Tue 12-May-20 07:05:23

Unfortunately your post is full of inaccuracies. Children catch this virus as we all do, they are unlikely to suffer as much and can even be asymptomatic.

The question is still out on just how much they can spread this virus (which they can do).

So the poster being cynical about using schools to trigger the second wave is valid.

Exactly:
"RandomlyChosenName Tue 12-May-20 10:05:23
There is a vast difference in the amount of teaching happening in different schools. I can see this first hand as my children are at different schools and I have also spoken to friends and from reading MN."

This is the problem. Some teachers are working really hard and their pupils are benefitting from this. However, others are doing the bare minimum as in your examples. Why can some schools manage to provide this and others the minimum? This is the problem.

We do though need to be aware that the country cannot stay at home forever and gradually move back to work to pay for the shutdown.

Some years returning to school in June is the right step.

@Cam77 I give a shit! I care about their education funnily enough and I think teachers have a responsibility to educate children. I get some schools are doing more than others but the school my kids go to are doing nothing, it’s extremely frustrating as a parent to then hear people say they are not planning on teaching kids even when they do go back. This is not going away and schools need to work it out whether that’s remote learning or learning in school, my kids need input from a teacher.

I really struggle to understand why people keep shouting ''the government are prioritising economy over health''. The two are intermingled. It might not be so obvious but a poor economy/recession will kill and effect the lives of possibly more children than coronavirus will.

Its ridiculous to separate the two.

Unfortunately your post is full of inaccuracies. Children catch this virus as we all do, they are unlikely to suffer as much and can even be asymptomatic

My post is not full of inaccuracies. The poster I was replying to suggests the government is engineering the spread of Covid in primary age kids to trigger a second lockdown. The government can't bankroll the current lockdown for another six months. It's costing 8 Billion per month. That doesn't include the lost tax revenues because the country is on house arrest. People need to return to work which means primary school children, the demographic least affected by the virus need to return to school. This isn't an evil Conservative plot. It is a recognition that lockdown has to end.

Prioritising the economy over health

You are oversimplifying things. You can't separate the two.

I really struggle to understand why people keep shouting ''the government are prioritising economy over health''. The two are intermingled. It might not be so obvious but a poor economy/recession will kill and effect the lives of possibly more children than coronavirus will

Because people feel smug chanting the same old sloppy slogans about evil Tories in top hats wanting to kill millions of Dickensian urchins. This time they are using a pandemic to achieve their mass murder agenda. Some people seriously seem to believe this BS. And they can't grasp that no country can bankroll its citizens to stay at home for the next X months or years until a vaccine is developed.

@Weallhavevalidopinions

Comparing the UK to Copenhagen is naive. Denmark has had less then 5% of Covid-19 cases compared to the UK. No doubt if they had the same number of cases as us they would be more cautious too.

What people appear to be glossing over is that even though children appear to be at less risk of needing hospital treatment they can still catch the virus and pass it on to teachers, staff and family members.

And how would you feel if your child or family member died as a result of the Governments urgent need to reopen the schools?

I can tell you from personal experience losing a family member and then have some idiot say "don't be to concerned as your chances of dying are only 1%" or "it mainly affects the elderly or those with underlying health conditions" and then being told that I was "really unlucky, sorry for your loss." doesn't give any comfort.

For all of you who are putting wealth before health: Economies recover. The dead (like my 34 year old nephew) will not.

I think it’s right to plan for limited reopening of schools in 3 weeks time dependent on improvements in the rate of infection and numbers of daily infections. The fundamental problem of no treatment or vaccine will remain for the long term. We have to adjust how we operate and the level of risk we need to take.

I do think that schools and teachers have the motivation, imagination and innovation to overcome a lot, not all, of the challenges. They need help but other services and industries have made great progress. The media seem intent on just showing all the negging that you inevitably get. They don’t want to show positivity. A large section of the media are only too happy to portray teaching unions in this way. Some of the profession feed it unwittingly. The media gave them a platform to let rip yesterday and today the backlash.

How are schools going to deal with a child who might start to show symptoms? Surely that child would need isolating and then the school deep cleaned? How are schools going to afford that? It could happen on an almost daily basis if a child did have a coughing fit at school

Some poor bastard like me (clinically vulnerable, not extremely clinically vulnerable) gets them. I then have to look after them whilst calling the parent and if they deign to pick up the phone, ask them if they mind picking them up and following the guidance about self isolation. And then probably repeat this the next day when they're sent back in again. If I haven't been ignored, abused, told I'm being stupid or laughed at because 'it's just a little cold'.

Oh, and it's not just one kid. It's never just one kid.

BovaryX

You do know that bolding various sections of your posts doesn't make it anymore factual or important?

As for the pp there is a valid point to be made for triggering the second wave of the virus in a controlled manner using those that are least affected as the mechanism.

I’m a HLTA - I interpreted YR, Y1 and Y6 going back to school as returning to normal teaching (with some slight motivation physical changes/ possibly half the class in at a time scenario) and so did my colleagues who I’ve been talking to last night. My class teacher said if she’s back in a classroom, she’s teaching normally (or as normal as can be) not just supervising her own online learning platform! The only thing that both of us were unsure of is, if families decide to not bring their children back yet, are we still required to provide the full distant learning program to those not in (as it’s the parents choice when the real school option is there) - we haven’t heard anything yet. We are pretty sure our senior management will be trying to work out a plan as we speak.

Imo they should not have released the death rates etc below 70yo. Because it really has brought out the selfishness of people below that age we are really seeing an 'im all right jack' attitude right scross the board.
That is also the same re the children vs the teachers etc. It really shows these parents dont give a crap about the teachers as they know their kids are relatively safe.

The hcp actually had lower risk than an average person according to the ons data on job roles.

If you look at the swine flu epidemic in uk the peaks are jul and oct.

The oct one w as smaller.
By sept more people will have had it more treatments maybe but if we are at 20% rather than 10% it will spread slower.
The fact they are giving the kids more than 4w school suggests they are going for a larger wave. - make use of those nightingales.

Kia Starmer made it clear that he would prioritise sending the youngest children first too. So I don’t think this is a matter of political ideology…

It's perfectly possible to have a second wave over summer and then another one over winter - there's not a limit on waves. Quite why reception age children are the priority is beyond me. So little actual education at that point, it's mostly play. Mine are year 5 and 8 and they really need the stimulus, and proper teaching because I struggle with the maths etc but they'll be last on the list it seems.

Motivation was meant to be another word and I can’t remember what. I did not mean changes in motivation - it could have been location. I don’t know

Keir*