Do teenagers care? Open the fucking schools.

[FreierFall]

All my son's friends are now meeting up in groups. Probably in each other houses. Of course I am the worlds worst mother for saying he can only meet one friend outside at a time. Pretty much everyone he knows is assuming they can do what they want now. Why bother keeping secondary schools shut now? It's pointless. Instead we are going to have groups of bored teenagers roaming around all summer. I am in despair.

@Gwynfluff

My younger 2 will be behind when they go back

Behind what?Who?

And where is your sense of responsibility if you're concerned about this?

This must be bots or adults without children doing the teacher bashing?
Surely no one who has a child at school is that thick? Although I suppose they're those parents I make sure I avoid .

The teachers don’t want to be around your teen who hasn’t been social distancing, he’s a risk and part of the reason that they don’t want to go back to the school building to teach. Ironic?

This.

Oh goody, another one of these threads.
It must have been at least 5 minutes since the last one.

I think schools staying closed is fine IF they improve the online teaching provision.

I can only speak for the 2 schools that my children attend. One is reasonable and sets a good mixture of work so I can work through that with my child. Now the teachers at that school are working and thanks to them.
The other sends a weekly email with a small amount of work and links to websites and suggests tv programmes. That probably requires at a stretch an hour to prepare since the same ish content each week. The teachers have 10 children on average in school and most are 'working from home'... doing what exactly. I have contacted several times for more work and get the 'don't worry too much, we aren't setting much work, they can catch up in September'.... now that bunch of professionals are really not working despite being paid.

If all teachers provided the same level of work/hom e education then yes keep the schools shut BUT some teachers are working and some are sitting in their gardens - so furlough them. These are the unaccountable ones that let the hard working ones down.

You know it's not just the teaching unions saying it's a bad idea? The BMA (that's the doctors) have said it's a bad idea too. Or do you hate all professionals? Maybe you should actually parent your child

@ThrowItInTheBin

We need to stop comparing teachers with supermarket workers, maybe with prison officers as a closer comparison - in confined spaces with large numbers of people, some of whom wouldn't hesitate to share bodily fluids with you. Haven't seen many Prison Officers complaining mind you, they just get on with it and turn up to work

Prison officers do a very difficult job & not one I could do. I wouldn't want to do it anytime, let alone now.

However you'd be daft to compare it to teachers. They don't spend hours at a time in a small room with 15/30 inmates. They don't have the inmates wanting a cuddle & sneezing coughing on them.
& most pertinently the inmates don't go home & mix with others transferring Covid in & out of the prison.

'All my son's friends are now meeting up in groups. Probably in each other houses. Of course I am the worlds worst mother for saying he can only meet one friend outside at a time. Pretty much everyone he knows is assuming they can do what they want now.'

Op why haven't you any control over your ds? Our teens aren't meeting in groups and it annoys me to hear of parents who are unable to make their DC follow the very simple rules.

Teachers are in an enclosed room with lots of kids for a prolonged period of time it is nothing like the risk associated with socially distancing in Tescos. So while I do think schools should reopen from June 1st I completely understand their reservations and the need for strict rules and guidance.

It would be interesting to see what the teaching unions/ teachers slant was if the government decided to only pay them for hours actually teaching

I reckon I’m working my contracted hours - but I’m totally up for the suggestion of checking that as long as I get paid for the hours over my contacted hours when we go back?

I don’t see it as teacher bashing. No teacher is being forced into working, if this epidemic has put some (Very few from my first hand conversations) off working in a school, there are other jobs those teachers could apply for that does not involve social interaction (cleaner in an empty house, Gardener, painter and Decoraror? (Again in an empty house) bear in mind this could go on for years so something for those teachers to start considering.

There is also a point out school had decided to close before lockdown- due to staffing numbers and low students numbers - obviously I don’t know if they were self isolating due to symptoms so therefore needing to be off for 2 weeks or due to other health conditions- some teachers won’t be able to return.

Maybe if you could use this www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52637008?app=news.uk.story.52637008.page it would help focus your mind a little. Teachers don't get PPE. I've read the guidelines my school are going to try and work with for the primary classes they have been advised to allow to return. It just doesn't look workable at all.

I'm sorry you are not enjoying time with your child but it's incredibly self centred to suggest that we should all just forget about the global pandemic because your child wants play with their mates

They don't have the inmates wanting a cuddle they do in Paddington 2 !

Aren’t prisoners currently spending most of each day locked in their cells, if they haven’t been released early as a result of covid 19? Doesn’t seem a good comparison with schools - unless parents actually want their teenagers locked in their classrooms most of the day, with the teachers patrolling outside in the corridors waiting for trouble to kick off.

It does seem odd to me that the stance of most teachers / schools appears to be that it is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to open up schools in way shape or form and that it has to be all or nothing

Actually, the majority of primary heads are discussing many possibilities. Because, shock horror, they WANT to be able to have pupils in. The consensus seems to be to have the pupils in on a rota basis, as the schools in Europe (ones on countries coming out of lockdown and ones who didn't go into lockdown) have done. The last I saw, the DfE stated this should not be done here.

Other countries are dealing with different circumstances (better testing, actual track and tracing, lower 'r' by the data as it is). It isn't simply a matter of comparison without taking those factors into consideration.

Relevant quote -

The overlords benefit when we are arguing amongst ourselves.

What do the government gain with us fighting in-house? Now the focus is on teachers, what are they doing?

Maybe you should actually parent your child

Not a chance.

Lockdown is over. We must be liberated.

The teachers care. None of my teens friends are meeting up.

Lockdown is over. We must be liberated

I know, right? But some people actually think like this!

@Itoldyouiwasill

Silly idea considering the amount of people being paid 80% to do absolutely nothing at the moment.

However, I'd bite your hand off for furlough. 80% of my cushy teachers wage to sit on my arse all day and enjoy time with my own kids. Yes please...shame about all those key workers I'm supporting that would lose out. And all those year 11s who wouldn't have a GCSE grade as I cant submit my departments. Still OPs thinking on themselves so perhaps I should too. Where do I apply?

The government guidance to schools has said the risk of getting Covid in a crowded school corridor is low however the risk of getting Covid in a crowded tube or bus is high - where is the logic in that?

Particularly since the majority of secondary school kids will have to travel to and from by public transport!

In our secondary school (200+ staff, 1300 kids at capacity) we have been issued with 4 sets of PPE, to be worn if a student starts showing signs of Covid symptoms.

Even with distancing, by the time that happens, that child will have come into contact with say, 1 teacher and 14 pupils in addition the the first aider - 16 people. If each of those people has a family/household of four, they are taking the risk home to another 48 people. Let's say half of those are key workers, and maybe don't know immediately that there's a suspected case so go into work the following day. Maybe four or five are trying to shield to care for elderly/vulnerable relatives.

That's assuming that the infected child walks or gets a lift to school. If they travel by public transport, particularly in a big city, they might might have been in contact with another 50+ people on their way in...all then potentially taking the virus into their places of work before going back home to their own families.

But yeah, of course teachers are over reacting...

1. Schools have never closed.

Supermarkets are less dangerous than school, keep telling yourself that. All that protection in place at the supermarket is like masking tape on a cracked leaking wall.

Yet they get much more protection than teachers will.

Why is OP getting such a hard time? where I live in what most would see a rather naice area the evidence is there for all to see - an awful lot of the teenagers, even the naice ones seem to think social distancing doesn’t and shouldn’t apply to them.
My assumption is that their parent(s) are too busy to care, either working at home or out of the home. Some of them may even be teachers!
If these kids are roaming the streets, then yes they may as well be in school but I can see why teachers feel that the personal risk to them is too high and that it will not be possible to maintain safety standards,
The whole situation is such a mess. My children are not at secondary school age yet and although I’m not overly concerned about the younger one returning to school in June I’m yet to be convinced that the educational and social benefit of doing so is worth the risk.

Can I also throw into the mix the fact that it is only England that is sending their schools back? Scotland, wales and Ireland are being much more cautious.

I would have actually supported the cautious introduction of secondary school pupils, on a rota, a year group at a time, starting with 6th form because in theory they should be the most sensible and can even help with ideas for safe schooling and set examples. That, however, doesn’t help Boris get parents back in to work, does it?