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?

If we open schools fully too soon, those children may become known as the generation with no grandparents.

BTW, I said I wasn't going to argue with you nike but which elements of my job have you being doing, so I can reward you accordingly?

For all of you who are desperate for schools to go back because of your children's needs and your needs, I hear you.

The most important thing you can do about it though is this:
Petition the government to provide funds to equip schools to manage safely. Write to your MP, the Secretary of State for Education, the papers. Tweet about if and post on Facebook. Schools have been massively underfunded for years and now need massive and rapid adjustments so that students and teachers can return safely. Ask government to pay for extra classrooms and washrooms, for more TAs and teachers to cover smaller groups, for additional furniture and equipment because groups of children can no longer share in the same way.
This is where you need to pour your energies and vent your frustrations.

How does children being off school affect the global depression? If their schools are closed because of the pandemic, their parents' workplaces will be closed too.

Oh my god! How am I reading stuff like this?

If their schools are closed because of the pandemic, their parents' workplaces will be closed too

FFS what planet are you on???

These parents are (mostly) working full-time from home, its not like they're on a jolly because their physical offices are shut!

They are having to juggle childcare, homeschooling, housework the whole fucking lot while the unions bleat on about non-existent risks.

Seriously, take yourself over to any one of the myriad threads on here where parents are at literal breaking point because of attitudes like yours.

WhatExit I presume that you have primary aged kids. The situation is very different for secondary. I have a masters degree but am cannot cover the full range of subjects and certainly not while doing a full time job.

Socialisation with peers is also vital for their social development. This is not Little Women, they need their peer group and to rebel and Zoom doesn’t compensate.

Kids off school -> work places closed -> government paying salaries -> massive public debt -> those work places go bankrupt despite biggest ever state support to employees -> parent lose jobs -> another decade plus of austerity, cuts, higher taxes and poverty.

No pandemic was EVER overcome because 'parents want it' or Parents /Children are bored/stressed/anxious/or need to work.

I am sorry if you are in the above situation. I am not a teacher or even the mother of a school aged child. As mine was in yr 13 so he is done.

No axe to grind as it doesn't affect me either way. However I do plead with those urging the 'return to normal ' to actually LOOK at the science.

Imperial or John Hopkins is the place to get your reliable info. Not the media with a multitude of vested interests.

Well none of those things are the responsibility of teachers, the education of children is. So I am not sure what your point is?

Are you for real???

Schools shut means that no parents can work effectively.

The reopening of schools is literally the foundation stone for the reopening on the economy. How can you not understand this?

I think Nike is just here to goad. Not listening at all. And getting it hopelessly wrong several times.

@LoveSummerNotIcecream

The teachers need to get over themselves. The virus has been present since last October/ November and there were lots of cases in February and March before we locked down. Teachers weren’t dying in droves in March. They need to get back to normal ASAP.

What an ignorant comment. The Govt produced a 25-page report on how schools should safely return children to classrooms. There is nothing for teachers to get over - the rules have been set by SAGE.

WhatExit - great post.

I could say exactly the same for my dcs.

My DS has learnt so much more at home and my dd was just revving up to A Levels which are now cancelled, so wouldn't have been learning anything new anyway.

I think so many people have enjoyed having that precious time off the hamster wheel and just having time to spend with their loved ones.

If we open schools fully too soon, those children may become known as the generation with no grandparents.

Oh, please. Plenty don't have them at all or they live far away or remain isolated from them so they don't spread virus.

It's not just the missing education; it's the kids and young people being isolated from their peer group and other adults for the next x months. Every teen I know is spending most of their time online - it's great they have it but it's a disaster for socialisation and temper. It's not realistic or sensible to expect teenagers to spend six months or more shut up at home with their families or , if they're lucky, socialising at distance with a few friends. On the other hand, I do think it would have been possible for secondary schools to put in a bit more structure to give kids some contact with each other and with teachers.

@happytoday73 - different work places have different guidance. So in some workplaces there is PPE, in others there is social distancing able to take place, others might only have brief contact. The school guidance says that because children cant socially distance and because PPE cant be worn and because they have prolonged contact - they recommend clinically vulnerable work from home or are given safer roles.

The reopening of schools is literally the foundation stone for the reopening on the economy

Calm down, it's only 8% of y'all apparently who need the childcare schools provide. That's why Boris couldn't be bothered to try when the same question was asked in the briefing today - there's not enough of you to count in his eyes. Now we all know how it feels when you don't matter to the Tories!

It’s fine for me. I’ve gone off sick from my nhs job because I’m too stressed out working from home with my kids. A colleague followed suit today.

There will be no health service if everyone does the same.

But it’s fine. Anything to stay safe.

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

Well none of those things are the responsibility of teachers, the education of children is. So I am not sure what your point is?

Are you for real???

Schools shut means that no parents can work effectively.

The reopening of schools is literally the foundation stone for the reopening on the economy. How can you not understand this?

I'm working more effectively with schools shut - because I don't have hours of commuting time while workplaces are shut for the same reasons school are.

Had you considered the problem isn't schools being shut, Nike, maybe it's just you?

Maybe you are just a really inefficient worker or have particularly badly-behaved children?

Maybe you should use lockdown to build better relationships with your children rather than blaming teachers for the fact you can't control your own children?

Until they drop 2m social distancing, kids will be denied a school education

@Barbie222

I agree with you to a certain extent. I was responding to a previous poster who was comparing teachers to nurses. Nurses will obviously just get on with it, as primarily they are a caring profession. Now I’m not dissing teachers here, of course they care immensely about our children, but primarily their job is to educate. They are not employed primarily to care.

What will be the tipping point though? At what point will they decide they do just have to get on with it?

nike - Your need for childcare is again not the responsibility of teachers.

The fact that you are not able to organise childcare for your offspring is a concern for your family. I suggest you focus your energies on sourcing some childcare if you are not able to manage the responsibilities of family life.

It would be interesting to have more detailed information about staff shielding. It’s seems disproportionately high. Have schools have already analysed this as part of workforce planning ??
School mum TA is currently shielding although does not fit criteria. I know it’s difficult to manage - but if people don’t need to shield- they should be working.

I no longer teach, but my role means I work with around 50 different schools. Of those, two could possibly have done more. In both cases, the heads have been wary of pushing staff beyond the minimum expectations because they are already in dire straits on staffing: their schools serve really tough areas and they are under constant scrutiny due to poor Ofsted.

The rest are doing an incredible job. Have never closed for key worker and vulnerable children, not even on bank holidays. Have set up food banks, delivered food parcels, lent out school laptops, done daily phone calls, set and marked home learning, liaised with police, social workers, CAMHS, etc etc. All of that hasn’t gone away now that some year groups are back in school.

Either society is safe and we don’t need distancing, or we need distancing and we can’t have teachers in working conditions that leave them less protected than any other indoor worker. Far from being quick to strike, teaching unions are very cooperative and compliant.

Unless the country as a whole manages to do what Spain seems to have done, there will be no full schools until we have a vaccine. Nothing to do with laziness, or cowardice just simple maths.

People reverting to teacher-bashing again are not seeing the bigger picture. If you want schools up and running successfully the government need to invest in schools. Use community buildings to provide extra classrooms as other countries have done, provide PPE for teaching staff as other countries have done, invest in more sanitation supplies for schools, extra sinks, etc. The problem is not the teachers, but the government who bled the education sector dry of money. Blaming teachers for not 'stepping up' and 'doing their bit' detracts from real problem solving taking place and detracts from the fact that it's the government who need to address this, not teachers who take a daily bashing on Mumsnet and have to justify their love of the children and the job and their personal right to the best and safest working conditions just as every other employee expects.

@xxyzz why resort to personal attacks? Are you aware that vast numbers of people don't have jobs that can be done from home? I don't think you have any concept of the bigger picture - your posts are very I'm all right Jack