We need to rise up about the lack of education for our children

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Please do this. Please join the Twitter movement #usforthem
Please write to your MPs
Please talk about this.

Our children are missing out on their fundamental human right of an education.

The children of regular families are suffering (all 5 of mine are suffering desperately), but those in vulnerable families are suffering even further. The gap between these children will be HUGE

I am a teacher and a mother. I am ready to go back to work full time and with the 'old normal'. I am also type 1 diabetic.

Please help us rise up to get our children educated. Our children have been totally forgotten about. Throughout my career I've had it rammed down my throat about how school is a safe place for so many children. They don't care about these children now.

I am amazed so many people have just accepted this. It has gone on for too long now.

angelsings quote should be in bold there in my previous post....

For those banging on about children not transmitting it. What about the Staff? It's our workplace? We have a right to be safe! It can be transmitted on clothing etc!!!

For those banging on about children not transmitting it. What about the Staff? It's our workplace? We have a right to be safe! It can be transmitted on clothing etc!!!

Banging on??

What about the staff? You can distance from eachother. And yes it can be transmitted from clothes or anything you touch but that shouldn't be a problem unless you're continuously putting your hands in your mouth and touching your face.

Hence why washing hands is so important.

Garfieldisacat - many people have to work? Your employer needs to minimize risk not remove it altogether.

@garfieldisacat Teachers are at no more risk than most other people also returning to their workplaces. If you have a specific reason to be cautious then yes this should be considered but otherwise you need to get back to work like the rest of us.

Did we see the police opting out of work when they have to face people screaming in their faces during the recent protests? When they have had people cough in their faces and spit at them during the peak of the pandemic?

Totally agree.

That fool John Swinney was on telly a month ago saying then that he couldn’t see schools could go back FT in August. What a complete lack of ambition and effort of doing their best for Scotland’s school children that this is the best they can do after 5 months of suppression measures. It’s completely shambolic. They could have dreamt up this blended learning crap in a weekend.

I find anything other than full time school from August onwards completely unacceptable and a failure of this government.

Imagine being in a crowd as densely packed as a rock concert, walking sideways, holding your key out over your head, and then passing it to a student because you physically cannot get to your own classroom door. Does anyone else here have to fight through this kind of crowd, five or more times a day? Because that's the reality of everyone back at my school, with no social distancing. And the students have to wait in that crowd for about 5-10 minutes - not the magical 15, but I'm bloody sure that teenagers bawling at each other at the top of their voices, packed like sardines, is not a virus free zone.

@nellodee that doesn't sound anything like the highschool I attended.

I am at work!!! Daily phonecalls and teaching online every single day, marking and feedback etc as I should be doing. As for being in a classroom with 30 teenagers in aspace too small and with very limited ventilation and no PPE not acceptable!

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

I have long been incredibly frustrated with the way in which the virus is still dominating everything in such a panic-stricken way. Every time there are references to easing lockdown, re-opening shops, returning to school, etc, there is such a cacophony of protests about the second wave and the R figures and the daily stats. There is a sustained lack of understanding that the lockdown is not about eradicating the virus. There's almost a sense of relish when the naysayers predict the second wave, as if it would be a dream come true for them.

What frightens me most is the "headless chicken" approach that the government seems to be taking, just doing whatever their Magic 8 ball suggested at any particular moment in time. There's no sense of cohesion or forward planning or of confidence in what they say.

This is 100 per cent accurate

@onedayinthefuture

Completely agree, society is falling apart and children need to get back to school. If a teacher is vulnerable, they should deliver their classes virtually and then a support teacher can be placed in the actual classroom. If it was ok for the NHS to bring back retired doctors and nurses, we can bring back retired teachers to help during this crisis.

This is probably the funniest, most naive statement I have read on Mumsnet. The only comment I will make is that we have a huge recruitment and retention crisis in teaching and whilst the idea of bringing back retired teachers is sweet the reality is that retired teachers don't want to return. As in not a cat in hell's chance said a recently retired colleague of mine.

In particular regards secondary schools I'm not sure who keeping schools closed is meant to be protecting. Everywhere I go you see gangs of teens not practising social distancing and (even in my affluent area) increasing amounts of anti social behaviour. Much better for them to be in school in their old classes. They are mixing anyway from what I can see in my local area and their parents are letting them. My eldest is year 7 - I mostly don't let her out but her phone pings constantly with friends wanting to meet up. They say they are meeting 1 other but in reality droves of them are arranging to go to the same place. I'm pregnant at the moment and my daughter is mostly sensible yet I still found her giving her friend a hug.

Children haven't only been able to exercise for a week. Mine have been running and cycling daily since the start of lockdown as well as walks. My daughters school is providing online pe lessons and my primary children have been following the various online activities available (such as joe wicks).

@nellodee

I worked in a secondary school last year, and that was a very accurate description in some hallways. Especially when they’re waiting to get in the room.

I had to go, they put me on lunch duty and it was literally crowd control.

I think lots of pp on here don't think social distancing is necessary in schools

Do people consider 6ft tall 15 year olds with size 12 feet as children, I wonder?

Their children won't be seriously ill and they're not overly worried about the staff

Yep. School staff are just seen as collateral damage. I would quite like to see the mental health plans put in place to manage children who realise that their mother dosing them up with calpol is what probably killed their class TA and landed another teacher on a ventilator in hospital. Even better, how children who take home COVID from school will manage when a parent dies.

Someone up thread said that most children won’t have parents over the age of 50. You might want to have a look at the average we’re having babies now - I’m 50 with a 10 year old. Presumably he deserves to lose his mother?

OP - as a type 1 aside, have you read the diabetes and COVID data crunch by Partha Kar?

@Howaboutanewname

Get your point re: 6 foot teenagers but they weren’t dying in their droves were they pre lockdown when corona was rampant? Risk is still low enough for that age. Also teachers weren’t dropping down dead pre lockdown?

Also teachers weren’t dropping down dead pre lockdown?

Do have a google of how many teachers have died. 4 schools in my town closed day after opening due to infections.

The risk isn’t about teenagers, is it? It’s about the risk they pose to the wider community. I am not sure how much clearer we can make it.

Do have a google of how many teachers have died

Irrelevant as we have no idea when or how they caught it!

I agree.

I'm not worried personally about dropping down dead, but I am worried about community spread. Cases are coming down all the time - we had the lowest amount of deaths for months today. We've sacrificed so much to get this under control and it's just getting to the point where if the government don't fuck this up like they've fucked up everything else so far we should be able to keep it that way. We just need to be really, really careful as we open things back up. Doing too much all at once (and I think all students back at once is too much, unfortunately) could undo all our hard work.

@Howaboutanewname

I have. It’s pretty similar to loads of other professions.

Following. I too think it's a disgrace that our children are being deprived of an education. Fortunately we just about manage (I have lost my income due to Covid but due to husband's wage we can just about afford for me to be a SAHM for now) but there must be lots of children 'homeschooling' in very poor conditions at home. The consequences of this gap in education will have severe long term ramifications.

There’s more knowledge now. Young people have a right to an education. Extremely vulnerable people should self isolate, and adhere to stringent social distancing etc until there are perhaps better treatments/vaccine. Is that shit? Absolutely. Do I have all the answers? No I don’t.

Do I think ruining a whole generations education and quality of life, for the half a percent who will die is absolutely fucking crazy? Yes, yes I do.

Never before have we closed schools for infectious diseases. Polio being one good example.

I mean what is it? A collective lack of resilience? Can we not face our mortality? Have we been completely spoilt by the advancements of medical science?

What frustrates me is the lack of innovative thinking. Rather than looking how to give as many children at least some teacher contact/ support time a week it's a bit all or nothing.