Can’t see how children will be able to go back to school in 2021

[Ouchy]

Let’s face it. The R0 may not be controlled for months. Vaccine unlikely until 2021. Teaching unions up in arms. People unwilling to accept the risk of the virus (low for many). I’m getting more and more concerned and the government haven’t published any forward plans for how school can be restarted in the various scenarios we may be facing come September (have they?). What on earth are the DfE and the Education Secretary doing during the working week if they’re not planning this stuff? Is there something I’ve missed - am I mistaken? I’m getting more and more concerned. The children are low risk - there needs to be a plan and fast as their educations and social development are being kind of ignored for something they’re super low risk for as individuals themselves. Looking for reassurance really - am I mistaken or being silly?

@Weepinggreenwillow

so basically, for me as a doctor working full time in the NHS, who has been flat out through all this shit, and my DH, a secondary school teacher, we are facing having to send our Dc back to the keyworker bubble, without their friends, with no proper teaching, while their year groups get to be with their peers and to be taught at least part time.

This really needs to change. I’m a teacher and initially we just provided key worker childcare. But as it became clear that lockdown would be going on for a while we shifted to supporting the children with their home learning tasks (which are set daily for core subjects - this is primary) and ensuring that we listen to every child read every day.

It can be quite tricky in the mixed age groups - one of ours has children from nursery to Year 6. But it can be done and all schools should be doing it. We have kept our most experienced teachers with our key worker and vulnerable children as we open to more year groups.

Unions are wrecking education and not genuinely representing teachers or school staff. This virus barely affects children but the humungous national debt we are incurring, pending recession and gaps in education will do them untold damage. School staff and parents should be given the choice. If they have health concerns noone should be forced but the evidence appears to be that schools are overwhelmingly safe and social distancing makes precious little difference.

And my anger is all for the government. DFE haven’t even announced what will happen over the summer holidays let alone any indication of what September will look like.

If year 4 (as my DS will be in September) can't go back at the beginning, I flipping hope his school start doing more than just putting worksheets from Twinkl on the cloud as that's literally all the support we've had.
We both work from home in high pressured jobs (DH is a key worker, I am critical to the university I work for), so we've had no time to give him and he's not disciplined enough to do work we put in front of him.
We need more from the school, can't see they have the space for any other years than the 3 going back

@TrishTeres

In my LA, we have all vulnerable staff back in school with bubbles. We can’t staff it otherwise and it was a decision made by the LA HR dept, not by individual schools. We also have those living with the vulnerable in. I’m not saying it’s the right or wrong thing to do but it’s simplistic to say that school staff should be able to choose.

the evidence appears to be that schools are overwhelmingly safe

which evidence is this, then?

@purplebunny2012

This is one of the reasons why the DFE needs to start sharing the plan for Sept, if one even exists (if it doesn’t exist they need to write one!). I’m on the SLT for a primary school and we are trying to plan for a Sept that could be full reopening, everyone part time, continuing with the current year groups or back to key workers only. We are really trying with this but it would be so helpful to know at least which is most likely.

Unions are wrecking education and not genuinely representing teachers or school staff.
Their primary concern has been to ask for safe working conditions. What is your issue with that?

This virus barely affects children No one knows that for sure.

the humungous national debt we are incurring, pending recession and gaps in education will do them untold damage.
"Humungous?" Where on earth did you get that non-existent word from? I will not allow my 8 year olds to use it in their writing. But that aside, we will all suffer from the recession that is forthcoming, not just children.

schools are overwhelmingly safe and social distancing makes precious little difference. Evidence please. You can't just pick a sound-bite you've read somewhere in the Sun and quote it as a fact.

lyndalahughes

That must be so frustrating to be teaching key workers kids and not having yours taught

I was told by the school that the government had forbade keyworker kids to be taught so they were not allowed to offer any assistance that might be construed as teaching and so No work was done, but that can’t be the case if you are allowed to teach

It’s really crap and I’m now wfh 2 days a week so DD gets at least some education although my work could really do with me being in in person.

I get the concern about sheilded kids being forgotten when the schools hopefully open to more years and they should not be forgotten. but sheilded kids at least are getting some education now and keyworker kids are not unless it’s in the evening and weekends. They are being actively prevented from doing the learning in school in the day. It’s a terrible message to send to them About the importance of study.

It’s interesting to me that when I was on a thread a month ago about keyworker kids not being taught I was told it was my duty to teach my child and it was totally unreasonable to expect multiple ages to be supervised to do the work at once, so I’ve just accepted it and arranged wfh to ensure dd isn’t too far behind. Now it seems others think it’s not ok too

Useruser

Totally different here. Keyworker kids with TAs only. No teachers as they are (understandably) teaching the very good home learning all day.

School very open about the fact that if I want DD to be taught she has to go back to her yr group bubble or stay at home. I’m doing some wfh at present so she can access the home learning and assume I will have to go part time from sept so she can rejoin her year group.

The more I think about it and hear some schools are not just allowing keyworker kids to access the home learning but are actually teaching them!!! The more annoyed I’m getting. How is it acceptable that some schools are getting away with not teaching the children in their care all day, and then saying that the responsibility for an education lies with the parent not the school who have had the kid in their care all day. Argh.

(Another) email to the head coming on.

Trust - at the risk of being labelled a dementor (I'm not, I just find the stats interesting)

If you look at the modelling the government is following it's quite interesting. Their mean line has deaths flattening out mid june and staying constant. But if you look at the confidence intervals there's a real danger of a second wave. Especially in the north west where even the mean line starts going back up again, albeit slowly. London looks fairly safe to open up though.

www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/now-casting/

Their primary concern has been to ask for safe working conditions. What is your issue with that?

Im sure you are relieved that medical staff didn’t have this attitude.

No, I'm not "relieved." There was a loud call for safer working conditions for NHS workers, and it was broadly successful.

How many more of these threads must we endure? It's daily now.

I’m not involved in education in any way (except homeschooling), but as far as I can tell, the government is trying to convince us that it’s safe for kids to go back to school now, when cases are as high as they were partway into the lockdown and when it wasn’t considered safe for kids to be in school - and unions are rightly not standing for that. What is the government’s strategy to make it safer for people to start gathering in groups again? When it’s safe, we can start talking about kids going back to school?

It's not safe so they won't go back until it's safe.
Complaining about it not being sustainable is futile because you'll all just have to manage or flounder.
You are all going to have to change your lifestyle choices to accomodate educating your children, it's tough but life as we know it now.

It's not safe so they won't go back until it's safe

Please can you define safe?

The "R" rae being under 1 for more than a day would be a start.
The ability to social distance would be a welcome addition.

@Devlesko do you understand how the r rate works? Because it's hospitals and care home cases that are dragging it up. It would be interesting to see what it is just in the community. Also, when there are less cases (as there are now) it fluctuates a lot more. It can't be used on its own to decide how "safe" things are.

Children can't social distance in schools, we've established that. It won't change and nor should it.

Even with everything back to fully open tomorrow, we'd just be running faster to the cliff edge of the recession and a huge infection rates in communities, leading to another even longer lockdown. It's hard and we're all feeling it, but please listen to the scientists screaming for the government to get their act together before easing anything further. Other European countries have shown, that properly managed, things can get back on track. Sadly, we've really messed things up here and now have to pay the price with a prolonged easing of measures, including schools.

[quote TrustTheGeneGenie]@Devlesko do you understand how the r rate works? Because it's hospitals and care home cases that are dragging it up. It would be interesting to see what it is just in the community. Also, when there are less cases (as there are now) it fluctuates a lot more. It can't be used on its own to decide how "safe" things are.

Children can't social distance in schools, we've established that. It won't change and nor should it.[/quote]
Apologies if I've posted this before, I get all these threads mixed up.

Last week there were more outbreaks (defined as more than 2 cases in one place) in schools (15) than hospitals (8). Still way less than care homes (111) and hopefully it's a fluke since this was before wider opening.

But if it's not a fluke, then your sentence should say:

Because it's hospitals, schools and care home cases that are dragging it up

But are the outbreaks in schools big numbers? Or just 1 person? Because apparently an outbreak consists of one case. We don't know that it spreads in schools. We do know it spreads in care homes and hospitals.

The national R is under 1

2 or more is an outbreak.

No, we don't know it spreads in schools. Because everyone has shut them and only opened with SD. Guess we'll find out soon enough now more are opening.

But my previous link says cases will not go down and may go up:

www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/tackling-covid-19/nowcasting-and-forecasting-of-covid-19/

esp nw