Schools won't be reoping on 1 June, and if they do, I won't be sending my child

[effingterrified]

Unions will be doing what they exist to do and protecting the health of their members.

Until Boris can provide teachers with a safe workplace ie PPE for all staff, adequate social distancing, etc, unions will be telling members not to go in.

And if they do open, I won't be sending my child in as they wouldn't learn anything in the last few weeks under these conditions, and the health risks not only to the children, but to the teachers and parents, are not worth it.

Plus my child relies on a school bus to get to school and there is zero way of socially distancing on one of them. Or of running 3 school buses, say, per route, at an affordable cost.

Also, my dc is happy as Larry off school, and learning as much or more. Let's face it, how many kids object to longer school holidays? I know there are some eg vulnerable kids, but they can already attend at present.

Fed up of threads pretending all parents can't wait for schools to reopen. Not among the ones I know.

The thing is if you do without an employee long enough, you realise you do not need them at all, ever.

I agree, much rather be working but some people don’t look beyond the end of the month and if they think they can spin it out until Oct then they will try.

If you are not working companies will forget about you and then when there are redundancies......

I am concerned about the inflammatory syndrome now found to be affecting children who have had COVID-19.
Who knows what the long term consequences of this virus will be.

*write themselves, let alone teach their children.

I totally agree, however, I'm sure those aren't the ones on here bashing teachers. They are getting on with it and trying their best.
Taking THEIR responsibility seriously.
Exactly my point.*

You really think that's the case?

I work and have 2 primary school age children. They do complete all the work set. Its a challenge and is taking over our lives. But its something I have to do. I am guessing you must be super woman too (like me & all the other workers (teachers included)) who are doing their job and educating their kids at the same time.

Oh wait..................

My son is in Year 1 and I feel very conflicted...

I’m a paediatric nurse and am sadly seeing the reality of the children who are contracting and greatly suffering with the virus - both children with respiratory symptoms and those with the hyper inflammatory symptoms.

Sadly children are getting very, very sick with this virus and until more is known about how children transmit it and why they suffer so badly with it, then I really don’t want to send my son back to school just because the Government wants to get the economy up and running again.

QueenofmyPrinces, please could you tell me how many children you have seen with respiratory symptoms and hyper inflammatory symptoms? I ask this because there is the occasional news report about it but then it all goes quiet.

I work in a general hospital and over the last 4-5 weeks we have had to ventilate and send 6 children to ITU’s in other hospitals. Four of the children have come back to us for continued care once they’re able to be taken off the ventilators, but the other two remain in ITU.

Of the 6 children, two of them had respiratory symptoms and the other four had the hyper inflammatory symptoms.

Aside from the children needing to be ventilated we are seeing children testing positive for it (from as young as 18 months old) and needing hospitals stays of 3+ days.

We are also seeing many children (from infants up to teenagers) having positive test results despite being completely asymptomatic and in hospital for completely unrelated reasons.

The reason we know this is because if any baby/infant/child/teen is admitted to the hospital they have to be swabbed, as does the parent who will be staying with the child. We are also getting positive results back in parents who are asymptomatic.

People think the risks aren’t there because “children aren’t dying from it” (although they are). Maybe if there were specific data to show:

How many infants/children/teens are being diagnosed with the virus ...

How many of those need extended hospital stays...

How many of them needed ventilating and sent to ITU....

Then maybe people would realise that things are more serious than the Government would have us believe.

I was sent a newspaper article yesterday about a 14 year old boy who died from the hyper inflammatory syndrome with no underlying health conditions. It was at a hospital in London and the article claims they have treated over 40 children with these symptoms. My friend has a sister who works in the Trust (in Paeds) and she has confirmed it to be true.

Apparently the hyper inflammatory syndrome is a result of the child previously having had the virus - whilst not showing any symptoms of it.

That’s what makes me nervous.

Okay, children may not get ill with the virus itself but what about the risks of the hyper inflammatory symptoms which come 4-6 weeks later?

Googling it shows so many articles about its increasing prevalence and it’s just not a risk I want to take with my child to enable him to sit at a desk all day whilst being made to stay 2 metres away from his friends.

@queenofmyprinces

Thank you for sharing your insight! As a school worker, I think my own anecdotal evidence matches up with your own; in my experience children catch and spread illnesses very quickly. We all know this to be true, just think back to when your child first went to Nursery and how many bugs and illnesses they caught.

It's really not rocket science despite what the government would have you believe. Immune systems that have yet to fully developed, close contact with other children, no concept of social distancing or personal boundaries and poor hygiene is a recipe for disaster.

Why is it that children get and spread every other illness but not COVID-19? What makes COVID-19 so special? And why won't they publish the 'scientific' evidence the guidance is based on so it can be peer reviewed like any other scientific study?

My old man used to say, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."

It sure feels like it at the moment.

Queen

I wish posts like yours could be shared widely.

Parents and educators need to know the truth so we can make informed choices.

What are your ideas to social distance in a school classroom, realistically how would they do this?

I just had a look at another article about the hyper inflammatory symptoms and it said of the 8 children that presented to a London hospital, 7 of them had to be put on a ventilator.

I only work in a general hospital and I do wonder what the likes of Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Alder Hey, GOSH and all the other specialised children’s hospitals are seeing.

This government needs to make it clear how dangerous this virus actually can be for children and how prevalent it can be.

For some reason it is only child deaths that are reported. But what about the rest of the children who get the virus? Why aren’t we being made aware of that and made aware of what level of hospital treatment they are requiring.

Does children getting it only matter if they die from it?

It feels like it’s a big cover up going on because to acknowledge how dangerous and prevalent this virus is to children will get in the way of the Government’s plans.

How do you know the children’s medical history?

What are your ideas to social distance in a school classroom, realistically how would they do this?

Realistically they can’t do this - that’s the problem.

How do you know the children’s medical history?

Which children’s medical histories?

The 7 of the 8 children who were ventilated?
I don’t know, I never said I did.

The information in the newspapers and online about it being a presentation of post Covid is apparently because when the children with the symptoms were tested they had Covid antibodies, which proved they’d previously had the virus.

So they may of had additional health conditions. Newspapers won’t always tell you the bigger picture they will however highlight COVID to draw your attention to the fact they have it/had it.

The article in The Lancet states that all 8 children were previously fit and well.

And that is the case with the children that have had to be ventilated in my Trust too (bar one 10 month old who had underlying conditions).

My 19 month is bored at home and craving the company of other children his age. This is despite me setting up lots for him to do and him having a younger brother. I'm going to send him in. We kind hide ourselves or our children away forever.

Everyone has to go back to normality at some point. The death rates are going down so if the government think it’s suitable for children to go back to school on the 1st of June then so be it. That’s your choice to keep your child off however I see that as being a complete over reaction as we can’t predict what situation the world will be in by the 1st of June. Either worse off or better off, it’s still a little way off yet.

childrensnational.org/news-and-events/childrens-newsroom/2020/significant-number-of-children-become-seriously-ill-with-covid-19

We can’t just all stay at home forever though. We need to develop hers immunity and current evidence shows children are low risk. There are risks in life and we just have to get on with it.

The number of deaths required for these are horrendous. I hope for your own sake you don't know what you're suggesting.

The DfE’s own scientific adviser had acknowledged that a return to school could risk further virus spread. I am a primary school teacher and will not be sending my own primary school aged children back to school yet. Every other primary school teacher I know feels the same. That should tell you something.

Let’s also not forget that actually - the risks for children are just not fully understood yet...

@0v9c99f9g9d939d9f9g9h8h

Herd immunity requires a vaccine. It was reckless to suggest pursuing it without one. Look how many diseases like smallpox ravaged the country without herd immunity developing for years. Decades. Centuries!

No vaccine - no herd immunity. Unless you want hundreds of thousands to die trying like in the good old days.

And even then it could mutate.

A dangerous plan.