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.

Mine have stuck to the rules and have been set work that they have been doing. Their teachers are working so hard to preview this and the additional support when they need it.
If your teens aren't following the rules now, they'll be a liability in school, putting their peers, school staff and connected families at risk.

OP, YABVVVU I don't even know where to start. Freier Fall indeed.

The state schools should go back after Eton and Harrow.

That might not be possible.

Eton College - "If you are an NHS key worker or from any of the emergency services and need accommodation to avoid having to self-isolate we want to help. We will have beds available in single rooms in what are normally pupils’ Boarding Houses" - free of charge.

www.etoncollege.com/key-worker-accommodation-programme

Loveita I'm not saying lock down for a year or so, the sooner we get back to normal the better but unfortunately it's attitudes like yours and that of other people already breaking the rules and meeting up with others they shouldn't, oh well we're Young it won't effect us attitude, that will keep us ALL living like this for longer. I do live my life to the full thanks but I am prepared to sacrifice going out socially to protect my family.

Some facts.
*Teachers can not make decisions to open up and do what the hell we want!
*The govt are insisting on groups no bigger than 15 and social distancing, regular handwashing etc... the unions are pointing out that there is no room for this, not enough sinks etc
*some parents realise that is if their 4 or 5 year old falls over, they won't be picked up/cuddled etc. Hard for staff to do that.

• Many teachers would prefer furlough and not have to do do any tasks like lots of others in the workforce.
• if we need a safety talk before even entering B&Q etc and staff are provided with PPE the same can be considered for early years teachers *the govt are currently realising the enormity of the care home scandal, after declaring them safe, they don't want to make any more mistakes.

I don't give a flying toss. Covid hysteria seems rife in the teaching unions at the moment.

If you do not care about teachers and their 'Covid hysteria', which you do not seem to suffer with, then I do not understand why you have a problem with your teenager meeting with others and bringing it home to you.

@starfro

Computer says no" attitude from UK teachers

No common fucking sense says NO - and it's not just teachers!

Meanwhile in other countries they have been back for weeks and just get on with it without being hysterical

Which other countries
What was their R rate
Is it usual for them to do much if their schooling outside?
Did their Governments provide all kinds of support/facilities.

OTOH

NZ had 1400 cases, 21 deaths. No cases in a week. Kids aren't going back until next week.

At my kid's school, the idiot kids were going round coughing on people deliberately before lockdown, winding everyone up. Seems safe to let those kids back in to school right now, obviously. Especially as they are probably roaming the streets in a pack like yours right now.

I find it interesting that it's only now, when the economy is reliant on children being in schools, is there a narrative about opening schools so that disadvantaged children can go back.

I agree, closing schools is absolutely not ideal for these students, but disadvantaged kids have unfortunately been adversely affected for the last 10 years by the government, who couldn't care less about them when they underfund schools, cut TAs, excessively focus on data, increase class sizes, focus on a narrow measure of EBacc success, and change GCSE subject syllabuses to make them completely inaccessible, or close Sure Start centres and libraries, decimate social services funding, increase tuition fees to £9,000 a year, etc.

Nobody has ever really spoken up about these issues and when they have, they have been dismissed as teachers doing the usual moaning and so these issues have been completely ignored at the ballot box.

If we're going to make this an argument now, we need to not conveniently forget it when schools are finally back up and running.

mesamis

Exactly right.

I don’t think all teenagers meet up the way OP describes. That’s certainly not the case with mine, their friends, my friends’ teenage children. In fact, I’ve been very surprised at how seriously they are taking the following rules concept.
They are bored and do their best to fill in their time. Obviously they hate the situation but are being more mature about it than some grownups. My heart breaks for them and their future. Not so much their learning because they can keep it up or catch up on it but their social interactions and being free and out into the world with their peers, doing the teenage and growing up stuff.

mesamis 100%

@SmileEachDay
”Sweetiepye

5/10

WWW: Lovely attempt at the use of sarcasm - that’ll definitely push you towards a 5+ in your exam.

EBI: Check your accuracy of punctuation and make sure you’ve actually read around the subject before deciding on a point of view.”

Thank you for your comments, to which I would like to say -

1. Thank you for the ”Lovely attempt” comment. I thought so too. 🙂
2. I actually got an A band 1 for Higher English, so a little better than 5/10 or 5+!
3. So sorry about the missed comma. Spelling error was corrected after post. Predictive text tends to correct the correct spellings, if you see what I mean?
4. I did read around the subject, but sorry I did miss something out. I forgot to mention the Nursery Workers, who really are mainly on nmw. Local (private) nursery has stayed open, for key workers children. They are taking in, not just nursery age children, but junior primary school children, as local primary school is completely closed! Personally, I think that these workers are at much higher risk than school teachers would be, as all the children’s parents are key workers! Plus, they have children who are mainly too young to understand social distancing!

Well, maybe the Government should pass a law prohibiting anyone from suing schools or workplaces for providing inadequate protection against catching covid 19, and see how many people are happy about going back to school then?... Because something tells me that if it all went tits up and we did end up in a situation where so many people were dying that health services were overwhelmed and mortuaries couldn’t cope with the dead bodies that we would find an awful lot of people blaming their employers and schools for their dead relatives.

@mesamis

Perfectly written!

I taught for over 20 years and have seen disadvantaged students becoming the ever more disadvantaged. My own son is undergoing assessment for ASD but we have been told there are over 2000 children before him in the waiting list for a diagnosis due to lack of funding.

No one cared at each and every election to vote for a party that had education and social welfare at the heart of their policies. It’s all about the ‘poor kids’ now.

I was a council estate child growing up in the 80s. I had feee school meals, free bus passes to college, no uni fees and a grant. I was able to be socially mobile as ‘New Labour’ helped me to be socially mobile. If I was the child now I can’t imagine where I would be in 20 years.

Sorry for the derail but I am becoming increasingly angry with the faux concern to excise teacher bashing.

@liveita

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

Don't be so fucking ridiculous.

They are taking in, not just nursery age children, but junior primary school children, as local primary school is completely closed!

I'm surprised to hear this. Is there not a local hub school for the pupils?

Disadvantaged children can go into school and have been able to go in all of the time.

Worth repeating:

NZ had 1400 cases, 21 deaths. No cases in a week. Kids aren't going back until next week.

My son is 14 and a very sociable boy with loads if friends but he's also mature and understands the risks and about staying safe as do all his friends and their families as none of them are meeting up. They stay in touch his phone, ps etc..my son goes out with his dad for a bike ride once or twice a week and for walks with me sometimes. I can't believe that op is knowingly just letting her teenager go out and meet friends or that their families are doing the same. Most teenagers accept the situation or at worst would listen to a parent telling them no, you're not going out with friends.

OP just because some teenage fuckwits and their pathetic parents cannot follows rules that is not a reason to reopen schools.

It actually proves why we shouldn't. Some pupils and their parents won't follow instructions because they are too negligent, reckless, selfish (insert adjective of choice) to listen and comply.

I'd protect those who will, including teachers and their families, from those who won't.

@Walkaround I agree. I would not want to write a risk assessment for having 16 people together in a room without social distancing right now and expect it to hold up in court. This will be the bottom line for the LEAs - the potential deaths and the children who have life changing complications to Covid.

Sweetiepye

I like a learning dialogue 😂

It was actually some semi colons that would have improved your accuracy - and your use of commas in the last section was somewhat clunky.

Do you work in the nursery you mentioned? Its very likely that they are the nominated Hub, rather than just taking in all KW children because the primary school can’t be arsed.

I agree that nursery workers are massively at risk, in exactly the same way primary teachers are. With secondary staff the risks around social distancing are different, but no less concerning.

I agree op. I don’t see any reason why teachers can’t socially distance at school. If it’s spreading too fast we can always close them again. The schools can remain shut until we get a vaccine as apart from anything else we may never get a vaccine. We have flattened the curve so time to reopen schools.

Parents should control their children.

Schools shouldn't open until its safe for the teachers to do so.

However, I do liken supermarket staff to teachers. Those poor staff are working with 1000's of different people per day, many of which have no clue about distancing and some of which are verbally abusive. Yes, they are now better protected but they were working for weeks without that protection.

mesamis exactly!

By the way where is the op?

Perhaps she begrudges people who disagree with her, just like her teen. Now would that be a case for nature or nurture?