How/when did the tide turn on schools?

[LaceCurtains]

In the beginning the mood here was almost desperate calling for schools to be closed.

In the last week or so there's been a marked shift to getting them open (from peope here).

Is it the same people who wanted the closed, now calling for them to get back to normal or have the original campaigners gone quiet/new people got louder?

FWIW I always thought schools closed as early as they did because of public pressure and it seems to me that "other" things are getting back to normal more quickly than originally planned/expected (because of DC and the need to distract?) but schools don't seem to be included in that.

I'm at a loss as to why schools are being treated so differently. I'm SLT in school, if that makes a difference and the government guidance is a shambles. Changes daily but doesn't seem to have any clear aim.

I don't think the tide is turning where I am. I understand what a nightmare, for example, time tabling is in Secondary normally yet alone now.
I have played it down to my dd who is in year 7. I hoped she might get back this year but mentally prepared her and me for it not happening.
But now I'm saying to her, let's assume you will be part time in Sept and not back fully until January 2021. It seems such a huge chunk of time to miss, bearing in mind this time last year we were being told that even 1 days absence mattered and anything less than 95 percent attendance would have a devastating effect on education.

I am angry that children have been left until last. The vast amount of businesses will be back at work.

Grandparents will be looking after children but schools cannot reopen since unsafe! Ridiculous that some appear to be happy to pretend to wft providing sub standard levels of work for children, meanwhile full pay and getting the garden done, topping up the tans and teaching their own children - some teachers are a joke. There are some very good ones - my older child's school and some are lazy and really didn't bother at all - younger child's school who are working from home producing a weekly email of lists of websites to use for 'home schooling' 10 minutes to sort that out.

Children failed massively. Meanwhile parents that are WFH are trying to do everything with no childcare at all.

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-asymptomatic-expla-idUSKBN23A21S

For anyone interested in asymptomatic/pre symptomatic transmission.

Previously linked to by Redolent

I thought we should have closed schools (and lockdown) a week earlier than we did - like countries such as Norway who have managed the crisis far better. At our school lots of children were already ill, coughing, off sick etc. I think I myself caught the virus from the school children.

I also thought we should delay opening the schools as it seemed to me that we were rushing out of lockdown too early. But whatever I said made no difference and everyone is ignoring the rules anyway. So I have just gone quiet. What will be, will be....either it will be OK or else there will be a second spike, and we really don't know.

I haven't changed my mind, I think the country should have concentrated on small steps back to normality including slowly letting families come together in their own homes etc. before children finally go back to school. I can't understand why schools can open, shops, outdoor activities, garden centres, protesters...but I can't go over to join family. Yet I could be in a class full of kids? Just daft.

what do people think has changed other than their own sense of lethargy

Erm, have you seen the news or looked at the figures.

The infections and deaths now are a tiny, tiny percentage of the population.

Apply those figures to children and the figure is so minuscule it’s not even worthy of mention.

Balance that against the impact of kids not being at school, out out of school clubs, and that their parents are not able to go to work and are losing businesses etc and it makes no sense whatsoever for kids to still be at home.

In fact I would go so far as to say hey everything back to normal, sack off social distancing etc and see what happens. My money is on nothing of any significance.

I’m a teacher and I can’t wait to go back to school! I’m lucky enough to work in a school where online learning has been managed exceptionally well. We have set work in line with our usual timetable, have adapted the schemes to manage teaching new content, we (try to) regularly contact students and parents and have explored new online platforms to gauge what works best for our learners. Our performance has been monitored throughout and we regularly give feedback on our students engagement.

Despite all this many of our students and parents are not engaging with the work. It’s understandable. We are in a very disadvantaged area. Many of our families do not have the technology available to do the work effectively. Many of our students live in overcrowded households and cannot access an adequate learning environment. A lot of our older students have had to take on caring responsibilities for younger siblings.

Our kids need to be back in school. I haven’t spoken to a single colleague who doesn’t want to be back in school. We have hundreds of children who have hard enough lives as it is without this carrying on.

I have submitted my frustration to both my mom and the daily briefing. I intend to do so every week from now on. I suggest ALL of you do the same

The more voices out there better.

It literally only takes minutes to do from a smart phone

Mom!! That was supposed to say MP

[quote Mascotte]@IncrediblySadToo I've read the whole thing 🙄[/quote]
It's a shame you don't understand it then

Try this...it explains it very clearly

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-asymptomatic-expla-idUSKBN23A21S

Not RTFT but when we closed, our school very much gave the impression it was for 4 weeks, until after Easter which I supported.

The lack of innovation and adaptation is now ridiculous. Our children will be out of school for getting on for half a year, and this whole September 'at the earliest' thing is just a nightmare.

No problem going to the shops or a beer garden though it would seem.

I'm not sure what annoys me the most, the education, or the role that women are being forced to take, we're being set back years and years.

I didn’t want them to close at all and now want them to open fully after summer. Our children are being thrown under a bus to save people over 75. It’s not fair or justified.

Does anyone else suspect that ‘closed until September and beyond’ is a deliberate plant to stir up parental anger as a tool for the government?

1. Our knowledge of how the virus spreads

We remain unclear about how children spread infection and how they themselves are affected.

2. Our knowledge about the actual risks of the virus

Yes you probably won't die. But have you researched the chronic illness which is associated with the virus and affecting up to 2/3 of hospital staff who got the virus. And what if the risks to children? Do we know enough about that yet to know it's safe?

3. The Imperial Model has not stood up

40,000 plus are dead and many, many, many are still ill.

4. Schools have opened in many other countries will no I'll effects

with PPE and in most cases, less cases in the community and better tracking and tracing.

@Nihiloxica

The evidence also shows that children do not spread this virus.

The risks of opening schools is tiny and of leaving them closed is enormous.

This is a type of mass hysteria.

This. In a nutshell.

As well as petitioning the govt I'm also sending my kids out to meet mates now. It's easier for me as that are teens but did it teens need peers and I am absolutely not keeping them apart till fucking September or worse from what I've been reading.

I'm absolutely furious about this as well!!

In our local hospital there are 3 cases of covid. All are over 80 and from care homes.

Yet schools cannot open here. People are losing their jobs, businesses are failing and we have 3 over 80's in hospital - some perspective please! Yes over 80's matter BUT not to the detriment of children who are just beginning their lives, not to the detriment of everyone else!

@whenwillthemadnessend

Mom!! That was supposed to say MP

Oh shit. I've just written to your Mom

I hope she can help. Moms are very resourceful.

In fact I would go so far as to say hey everything back to normal, sack off social distancing etc and see what happens. My money is on nothing of any significance.

Right. Have you seen the situation in Brazil? Have you seen the situation in New Zealand? It's this kind of attitude which will start the second wave.

Yes let's get kids back to school but not by just saying to hell with it all, through reinvesting in schools to make them safer.

In the beginning the mood here was almost desperate calling for schools to be closed.

In the last week or so there's been a marked shift to getting them open (from peope here).

In the beginning, I don't think everyone really understood what closing the schools meant. Now they do. In a lot of cases their childREN aren't getting the input they need from teachers and the parents are realising how much effort they have to put into home schoooling their children. Whilst working in some cases.

I think there was an expectation that schooling would continue to be provided by the school but completed at home and that this would only be for a short time.

We have been lucky - DD's school has kept to the normal timetable using google classroom. That, coupled with permanent Houseparty/zoom/FaceTime with her friends has made it very easy.

Luxembourg
All Schools closed on 15th March.

All nursery, primary and secondary schools are now back.

This started on Monday May 4th

Monday May 4th “Premier” (the final year before Uni) returned to School.
Monday May 11th over two weeks gradual opening of the rest of secondary schools with classes split in two. One week at home one week in class.
Monday May 25th over two weeks primary schools and Crèche have opened.

Luxembourg is not alone in having schools open

Admittedly Luxembourg Education has not been underfunded like Britain.

I have to say though that it would have been helpful to have had at least one phone call from the school asking about DD since they packed up in March.

Indeed whilst the knowledge of the virus increases and most people now know who is most at risk and how little risk there is to children the hand wringers and the lock up society and don't come out again brigade are still banging on. Seriously some would keep us locked up forever and they just love it. The hysteria from the very scared usually with not much to be scared of means schools won't open at least until September apart for a few children.

It's so wrong.

CHILDREN'S LIVES MATTER - Other countries opened schools but we cannot. It appears we get everything wrong including socially isolating children which will lead to far greater effects than the virus would ever have on them!

And I bet no second wave in Luxembourg either??

Who is your mum?

I want to write to her as well ......