Keir Starmer's kids at school

[SoHereWeAre01]

So Labour Party supports the teacher's union in opposing schools reopening on 1 June....

Whilst the the leader of the Labour Party has his own children currently attending state school....

Hypocrisy of the political establishment...

Taking the children of key workers into school is a risk, but they do an important job so most teachers are fine with the increased risk to themselves. They are less keen on taking a risk so that aromatherapists, trombone polishers, and makers of shell animals can get back to work.

Waiting even two weeks halves the risk to children - according to scientists

As half of a working parent to a Yr 1 pupil,
If Keir was in my position (half working parent)

What do you mean by half of a parent?

Wouldn’t it be worse if other key workers were sending their kids to school but he refused to send his?

Labour Leader supports unions, shock of the week.

I'm no big fan of Keir Starmer myself but I do think the smears are getting pretty funny. Did you all see the one where they accused him of being some secret landed gentry and it was like, a bit of a field with a bootstrapped donkey sanctuary he bought for his disabled mum. LOL

Get him! He's kind to donkeys and his old mum! He's dangerous!

I would be more worried if he was advocating sending kids in and NOT his own as i bet many Tories are.

It's very simple, OP. Schools can keep a small number of children safe, but when you start bringing back 3 whole year groups, it's impossible to social distance.

I'm a school governor and our head teacher is losing sleep over the planned return of YR, Y1 and Y6 in June. Having seen the risk assessments, it's easy to see why. The only hope we have of maintaining any kind of social distancing relies on more than half of the parents deciding to keep their kids at home. If more than half decide to send them back, we'll have to pull provision for Y6 entirely.

All you do is slate Labour, you're clearly a Torybot and bringing Sir Starmer's children into this is a low blow. Bog off.

We have to start at some point, and what's the difference between 1 June or 8 June or 15 June? Will one or two weeks make such a dramatic difference

Yes, all you need to do is look at our daily confirmed cases/deaths from two weeks ago and compare them to today, you'll see quite the dramatic difference.

I'd also say key workers have an even bigger argument for schools not reopening on June 1st, as at the minute there are miniscule numbers of children in schools so social distancing is probably quite easy giving the key workers one less thing to worry about, you send back 3 years worth of kids and gradually more you increase the risk of those kids catching anything (even a cough/cold) until everyone in that house tests negative everyone must isolate, meaning we could be taking key workers off the front line even if just for a couple of days, those services are stretched as it is.

I think he's in a no win situation as @ExCwmbranDweller quite rightly said, as he and his wife are both key workers any choice they would have made wouldn't have been good enough for some! I think he's done the right thing sending them in, why should a politician expect all key worker parents to do so if they aren't prepared to themselves? Had he been in charge of the labour party in December things would have looked very very different in our country right now and I very much hope he'll be prime minister in the not too distant future

He does support the gradual return of children back to schools (who in the country doesn’t?!) He’s just supporting the teachers union and the BMA and all the expert advice that states June 1st is most likely too soon to commence gradual reintroduction. All the newspaper headlines even reported yesterday that the tracing systems that needed to be in place for June 1st to make the system reintroduction slightly workable wouldn’t be ready in time and therefore unsafe.

Also, he’s a key worker as is his wife. He’s allowed to have his child in school. Having a couple of children in each classroom spread apart, supervised by a non-specific teacher is a completely different kettle of fish to having thousands of children back into the schools suddenly milling about like bees in a beehive with minimal hygiene and social distancing.

What about the rest of people wanting to do their jobs but can't because of the lack of school??

Yes he's a hypocrite. Also an opportunist. Just a few weeks ago he was harassing the government to get all children back into achool

iirc, he was wanting to know their longer term plans to get them all back in safely

"What about the rest of people wanting to do their jobs but can't because of the lack of school?"

imo, schools need to forget education until September and just try to provide school hours childcare for all kids sent - which might well be only 50% -
even if that means a teacher or TA wearing a visor and supervising from a distance, as kids are not required to SD

However, that is a different point to Starmer putting his kids in school like other key workers

Many schools are currently running ratios of like 1 adult to less than 10 kids. I think that's a much easier job than 1 adult to 15 kids and time watching so your bubble goes to their slot in the playground, loo etc on time.

It is arrogant for people who don't work in schools (like politicians) to say that the people running the schools don't need more time to prepare when they have no clue about the complexity of sorting things out. If Boris gave a shit he would have talked to the schools. If he wanted to try and make 1 June happen he would have talked to schools about which years would be easiest etc They shouldn't have been as surprised as us to find out in his 11 May speech.

The Labour leader said in an interview today that he knew the importance of keeping children in education because his son and daughter had both attended local state schools in his north London constituency during the lockdown as Sir Keir's wife Victoria is a key worker in the National Health Service.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/22/sir-keir-starmer-reveals-children-have-school-calls-consensus/

You seem a bit obsessed with Keir Starmer OP, this thread and one comment on another again about Keir Starmer’s thread – that seems to be the extent of your activity on MN. Think the poster who called ‘Tory Bot’ had a good point. You must really be getting a bit desperate to be spreading this kind of non-story. What would you prefer that all M.P.’s children stay at home with the servants like a “good”, old-school Tory? And as for the red herring about keyworkers’ children… If you were in school think the feedback would be along the lines of “Must Try Harder”!

I would be more worried if he was advocating sending kids in and NOT his own as i bet many Tories are.
This^
OP, he was raising an issue about schools going back before 10.05.

They're key workers, so to do his job fully and his wife do her job fully, he's using the keyworkers spaces for his kids. Not hiring a Nanny, not working at reduced capacity, not leaving them home alone.

If all the other kids go back June 1st when many schools are saying they won't be ready, hos kids and your kids will be at greater risk.

Our school won't take extra kids til June 8th when they feel they'll he ready. Other schools might need longer if they have more kids returning.

A later date means
Longer to prepare and figure out logistics both for kids returning and those staying home
Longer for the r to drop or see if it's gonna 2nd peak
Longer for more staff to return to work as in theory fewer will be sick

But yes he's a bastard who wants his kids to get an education whilst he enjoys got cups of tea at written and pees in peace whilst wanting our kids to be inadequately educated and for you to struggle juggling it all whilst driving cold tea and peeing with an audience

Agree with those saying surely it’d be worse if he was keeping his kids at home while other key workers’ children went in.

His wife works for the NHS. Should she be furloughed instead? Or drive 300 miles to the grandparents?

1 June is not opening up of schools for everyone but a small number of classes.

Not really a small number of classes - it's three out of seven year groups in primary schools, so almost half the school. For bigger primary schools with three and four form entry, that could mean up to 270 or even 360 children.

OP, can you really not see that there is a massive difference in terms of keeping children safe between that and a few children of key workers, which on average has been at most 10% of the relevant school's population? In a four form entry school, that means having to plan to keep 36 kids safe, which is in a whole different league from dealing with 360.

We have to start at some point, and what's the difference between 1 June or 8 June or 15 June? Will one or two weeks make such a dramatic difference?

As people have pointed out, the scientists tell us that it could make a massive difference.

There's also a major difference in terms of sheer practicality. This was all wished on school suddenly at the end of last week to begin straight after half term, leaving heads effectively five working days to plan and get everything in place. In the meantime, they have no idea whether they will have adequate staff to open as the unions still have to make a decision, and the government itself was telling them it wouldn't make its final decision till the 28th. It makes much more sense to postpone any return for a minimum of a week and probably longer.

"The science is undeniable"

Yep, OP you just lost all credibility there.

Does anyone have a share token for the keir starmer article in the telegraph...? I'm curious to see how they write about him...

The issue is not so much the danger to individual kids because the risk to children is low and shielding kids or those in households with shielding people wouldn’t have to go. It is to protect teachers with high exposure and no ppe and protect the population from increasing rate of infections.

The issue is increasing the number of infected people in the population by large daily/weekly gatherings of people. If you have a high number of infected in your population to start with; and you don’t have effective test, trace isolate; the number of infected could rocket quickly.

This rocketing of infections affects the vulnerable and shielding as they do have to come into contact with outside world (eg for care/ med appts).

It is deemed more beneficial to society to have key workers kids looked after so basic functions (Care, electricity, communications) can happen. However the cost-benefit for other groups may be different. If you agree politicians are key workers, what Keir is doing is not inconsistent.

If he feels his kids are safe at school, then he should support the gradual return of pupils, as stipulated by the government, on 1 June

He does.