Secondary school aged children are at the aboslute bottom of the pile aren't they?

[Weepinggreenwillow]

I feel so so sorry for the nation's teenagers and secondary school aged children. They have been pushed to the absolute bottom of the pile haven't they. Absolutely no plan for what will happen with secondary schools in Septemeber. A half baked nod to next year's exam years, which in some cases ammounts to a couple of hours meeting with a from tutor before end of summer term.
I mean all children have been treated appallingly, and it is all an absolute disgrace, but at least they occassionally mention plans for primary aged children.
No one is talking about the teenagers - why not??? (well I know why really, because they are not a "childcare issue" and not technically stopping parents returning to work so as far as the government is concerned they can fester alone in their rooms for onths on end while their parents keep the econpmy going.)
The goverment really, really doesn't care about them do they. The harm this is doing to our young people will be felt for many years to come. I cant believe they are getting away with this.

@Weepinggreenwillow

MitzK Well, if you are going to use the possibility of a 15 Yr old being orphaned as you describe (the chances of which happening as you describe are statistically really, really tiny) as an argument for keeping schools shut then maybe they should never have been allowed to exist in the first place. Because children and teenagers can spread flu you know, or other illnesses which can also kill elderly or vulnerable relatives.... Or in fact did you know a child is more likely to die from being struck by lightening than from Coronavirus? So maybe schools should close every time their is a storm forecast? The fact is that life is FULL of risks. We don't normally respond to them by locking our children and teenagers up and denying them an education indefinitely. And your comments demonstrates the ignorance there is about the dreadful negative effects this is having on young people. This has been widely written about by the country's leading child and adolescent psychologists,so I would suggest they possibly have a better understanding of this than you do.

No, it means I've already been part of a team working to help children who HAVE experienced this as a result of the current situation.

Not much more negative than the death of a parent. Especially in demographics that are far more likely to die as a result of Covid, more likely to be poorer, more likely to be single parents and more likely to have further risk factors for mortality. That and being in one of the areas with the highest death toll in the country so far.

Posh white people with Psychology degrees don't tend to know as much as middleclass white people think they do.

"Posh white people with Psychology degrees don't tend to know as much as middleclass white people think they do."

Wow! Just wow!

I'm bame. The groups of kids hanging around in the park instead of being at school are BAME. The suicides are both white and BAME. Fuck off with your scaremongering bullshit! The reason BAME people are more affected is because of racism and social factors. We are still human, we dont have different genes and we dont need germaphobe white people denying our kids an education and lying that they are doing it to protect us.

At my school BAME students make up a big proportion of the key worker places so Mitzi you’re clearly not speaking for the majority.

@MitziK

Of course there are children who have sadly lost parents and it is tragic. Let’s not over egg the pudding though, it is statistically very unlikely to happen, even in somewhere like London. There aren’t huge numbers of children who have been orphaned. It doesn’t take away the sadness but you cannot half an entire education system for this minuscule number of tragedies.

Given you clearly work in a school with a low socioeconomic demographic, you’ll be aware of the risks when young people are unseen by adults at school. There will be those subject to additional abuse with no reprieve. Safeguarding referrals have significantly reduced, we know it’s not because children are magically be safeguarded....

I’m not saying open the schools tomorrow with no protective factors for staff and students but acting as if schools are closed for the sole benefit of these young people is laughable. Well, it would be if it wasn’t so damn sad.

^^ halt an education system, not half

There will be no provision for catch up. How can there be? Any plan for September? Only 4 weeks of term left.