Schools fubared till November?

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

Disruption to schools could continue to November, MPs told www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52895640

Is this a dystopian joke?

Are we actually trying to fuck up our kids?

Schools need to be instructed to open fully five days a week with enhanced on day cleaning, increased buses to allow distancing, staggered start and finish, covered but open refuge areas allowing distancing whilst outside in all weathers for breaks and no assemblies. Relatively low investment needed, huge gain economically but more importantly for our kids education and mental health. Some of these kids will never get back to school if they are out for so long. Some will fail to achieve their potential. And all for an illness with a tiny mortality rate overall?

yanbu

@Piggywaspushed
That's very sad but similarly children are lying in hospital ill with chickenpox, the flu, sickness bugs. We can't prevent other kids having an education because 1 kid got ill with a virus.

I think the whole thing is appalling.

Are we really suggesting that teaching should be like the police and the military and anyone entering the profession has to pass health screening , otherwise they are not up to the job

You used to have to pass a medical for teaching, chest X-ray etc. I remember going for mine.

Are they shall we. I got full on mansplained at last week about how marvellous and swimmingly everything was going in Italian education at the moment.

When was that countmeout?

What a shame that the majority of parents seem to regard this bonus time they have to spend with their children as an "inconvenience".

I assume you don’t think teachers really need degree level qualifications to teach then if you think parents are an appropriate replacement and the fact you think I can do it while also working full time in a hospital means you must think I’m super human; sadly I’m not! That said, I think it’s too soon to decide re September. A lot can change in a week.

But presumably removed count because there was no medical grounds for it and the equality act would have a field day.

we are dealing with issues of shielding staff (a relatively small number and working from home on alternative tasks) and large numbers of people through the doors too. We are looking at providing as much as we can to as many as we can, in far more risk laden circs than a school is.
Shielding teachers can still work away from the classroom, relieving those who normally have significant admin burdens but can do face to face teaching.

So how many people have had operations cancelled, how many have had chemo stopped, how many routine operations cancelled that aren't life saving but very important to the patient, how many IVF cycles have gone ahead? When you can get everything up to date in the NHS you can lecture other sectors.

I think people need to get a grip, Aya Hachem is an example of over coming set backs in your education. She arrived here as a refugee after her father was shot, starting school speaking no English, when she was killed she was in the second year of her university degree and was described as a beacon of hope, a remarkable young woman only 19 years old.

A term or two missing school isn't going to ruin their lives and please don't make them think it will.

Teachers shielding should not at all have an impact on schools re opening! There will be lots of care workers currently shielding are we closing care homes and sending all the residents back to their own homes? No they will be drafting agency staff in to keep it open same as they need to do with schools. A stand in/agency teacher is better than no teacher at all.

We can't afford it to pay supply staff. Genuinely.

Is your hospital back to normal? Are all NHS services being resumed? What about the price people are paying by not getting treatment on time? I mean it’s easy to say just get on with it and stop trying to fuck up the health of the country for the sake of a minority that will die of Covid. I’ve never worked in a hospital because I work in a school but I don’t feel entitled to tell hospitals what to do- I’m amazed there are so many education and public health experts on here.

It’s all rotten- rotten that people aren’t getting the treatment they need, rotten that kids aren’t getting their normal education- nobody likes it but you can’t have social distancing and classes packed like sardines at the same time. There’s to be no PPE for teachers or pupils. Would you be okay with no PPE for non-covid wards in your hospital? 7/10 people found to have had covid experienced NO symptoms but are infectious which is why distancing is essential. So until they build some new schools and entice a whole load of people into teaching we are stuck having to make the best of part-time blended learning.

BTW New Zealand is now able to end social distancing because they locked down hard and fast and tracked their cases. If only our govt had done the same! If you want to blame someone blame Boris!

It's surreal, parks are full of teenagers all over each other.

That's why we can't go back to school. As I have said before, it is by NOT doing lockdown properly, by NOT maintaining controls, that we are keeping children out of school for longer.

Being safe - as a medically vulnerable, older teacher, who shouldn't be in school but is because of the kids - relies on families behaving responsibly outside school.

A stand in/agency teacher is better than no teacher at all.

Very much often not true, and probably not better than a fully experienced , and known, remote teacher.

Many many supply teachers are older and have health conditions : that's why they are supply.

I'm a teacher with young children. I'm strung out and struggling to keep up with work load wfh and my eldest needs to see his mates. I'll rant with you cotton.

I want schools to go back. I'd like to go back (and know that I'm much less likely to then be off for a month with the infection as I have moderate asthma) and do my job and make sure that colleagues we do know may actually be at risk of death (BAME and diabetics) are protected.

I also know how the basic logistics of this at the moment, including the way everyone must self isolate for 2 weeks, and how all of this affect how schools can be run. I'd really hope that the virus is kept under control and we can release rules further; unfortunately I can't personally see it happening quickly.

This is about logistics. If Nov is no different it's because we are STILL desperately trying to protect the nhs.

Ffs, my school has come close to closure most Xmass due to outbreaks of various illnesses as it is.

Thats what needs addressing then! I can't imagine care homes are over spilling with money but it will still get done as they CAN'T close. The risk of infection will be far higher in a care home than it ever will be in a school.

azaleanth90
Welsh schools have a plan.

Fucking hell.

Welsh schools have only just announced that they are going back.

I get the feeling that you are only using this as an excuse to bitch.

Again, concerns should be directed to the government. Not schools.

I can't speak for anyone else but my criticism is laid firmly at the government's door.

Those who have polite, thoughtful children who follow instructions and aren't addicted to screens are enjoying home schooling. The others can't wait for the schools to reopen.

Yes, those who have additional support needs like high-functioning autism, ADHD, dyslexia and the like are just rotten little punk arses addicted to screens .

What a shame that the majority of parents seem to regard this bonus time they have to spend with their children as an "inconvenience".

What a shame so many parents still have to work FT on top of all this bonus time and are so shit they are unable to teach their teenage kids higher level physics, chemistry, drama, maths, etc.

It's incredible how all the focus has been on primary-level children when the secondary level ones are being massively short-changed.

FFS. The risks of this to teachers are way way out of proportion. By Sept, it should be local lockdowns only, not a mass closure.

And of the 60,000 excess deaths, just 300 are in those under 45. That simply does not justify social distancing in schools either for parents or teachers. The risks to the working age population are tiny. A huge fuss is made about relatively small impacts for race and some diseases when the big picture is that age is far and away more important than everything else and that almost half of all deaths are now in the over 85s who have limited life expectancy.

We are sacrificing our children’s future and the job prospects of those aged 18-25. We should take sensible precautions, stop mass events, face masks on public transport, local lockdowns but we owe it to our children that they have an education.

The Psychological impact on our children is what we should be most concerned about. No touching, segregated tables, social distancing and teachers in masks. What will that do to our DC perceptions. "Its not safe and I'm in danger" is what they'll think.

Although daily deaths have decreased, the downwards trend appears to have stalled in recent days.

Infections and deaths are still higher than when we went into the lockdown. The govt appears to have little data on where and how infections are occurring, despite the length of time this has been going on - this means that localised lockdowns, which would be a really sensible approach, can't happen.

During the past 24 hours, the number of UK deaths was greater than the combined number in the EU27 countries combined.

Children coming into many more contacts with each other and the adults who work in schools - and then the adults at home - than adults socially distancing in other workplaces do. The evidence from New York tells us they do transmit the virus.

The simple truth is that the govt have entirely mishandled this crisis from the beginning - and shoving all kids back into school together is not, in my opinion, a good plan whilst our infection rate is still so high.

It may be for economic reasons that young kids are back and obviously beneficial to their education and welfare but the irony is that it is good for the development of their overall immune system to be mixing with others. It is not natural or healthy for us to be locked away in sterile environments.

teachers in masks. Where?

It's not about that eye. It's the logistics that Whitty has just reiterated in the briefing.

Square peg, round hole, 15 to a class, 2 week self isolation etc.