1600 paediatricians have written to the prime minister

[havefunpeleton]

Demanding schools reopen or risk scarring a generation. Reported in Times today.

I am hoping this will be the push needed to ensure this madness ends and all our children can go back to school full time in September.

Sorry just checked, they don’t know on what basis they will open and are just acknowledging bookings at moment. So who knows. I can still wfh but not easy with 2dc as well.

@pigeon999

Dom our schools is reopening full time in September, I expect yours will be too. No matter how much you would like to work part time?!!!

Why would they be only open 'part time'? For what reason, we will have zero deaths and very very low or no infection in the community by September. Would you please tell me what possible reason there would be to only be part time?

I'm retired. I won't be working anywhere, despite begging letters from agencies wanting retired teachers to go back.

Classes will have to be kept to 15, how is your school going to manage that? I think you are going to be disappointed. Where are you? If you are so sure it's going to happen why are you knocking teachers every chance you get?

Shouldn't you be saying how amazing they are for opening up?

Schools here have the carpenters in to set them up for the maximum possible social distancing. And are planning part time time tables and distance learning.

Many schools were ready or in the process of making their plans to re-open, but local councils notified them that they deemed it not safe. Regardless of the government ruling, local councils also have to agree....

Haven’t the Chinese government just closed all the schools in Beijing?
Corona hasn’t gone.
The numbers are still high.

I think the government have been to weak and allowed the unions to set the agenda. We should have a central government that can assert authority when needed, and we haven't seen this.

Unions who ultimately get paid by the teachers went into those meetings with a very long shopping lists of demands regarding 'elf and safety' for the teachers, despite the risks being minimal to them. The compromise was a few years groups returning.
The gov in fairness wanted to play it safe because they did not know for sure what the outcome would be of the reopening, so they played it (too) safe. They will not make the same mistake in the autumn one would hope, as it is clear as day that we have seen NO INCREASE whatsoever in the infection rate!!!

Jeez. I am staggered that any teacher can come on here and lecture us about safety, when it is obvious to anyone that schools are clearly not going to cause a second spike or we would have seen it by now.

*too

My son went back to school on Monday (reception, he has attachment difficulties and issues resulting from early trauma, he couldn’t cope with the new set up so yesterday was his last day and we’ll try again next week).

Anyway, on Tuesday one of the bubbles had to close as a child tested positive for covid. So thats two staff members out of action and the parents of those children unable to work. This is the third time this has happened where a child has brought in covid.

When schools do open more what will happen when some is positive? At the moment it is inconvenient but at least it is one bubble. In a secondary where students move around for lessons, sit with friends at lunch etc do all students/teachers in their lessons to have to isolate?

how lovely that they have space and money for marquees

Pretty much all schools have outdoor space: playgrounds and Sports fields. Many private schools do not have the money but will be going into debt to try and keep parents from leaving and still paying fees. Many private schools are going to go bust over the next year. Most private schools are not like Eaton or Harrow but operate on a financial knife-edge.

And if the schools were at full capacity @pigeon999?
Do you think the numbers might be different then?

Jan and local councils can also make political capital by being difficult.......

In France the government has said that all children must now go back to school, I think by the 22nd June, or parents are fined. No social distancing. Schools here that I work with are looking at September for all children to return as normal. Lots of Children are suffering in lots of different ways and I can't believe that schools haven't been a priority.

rick Nope. The infection rate is going down regardless of all the protests, raves and parties. It is perfectly safe to open schools.

Thank fuck for that letter.

My lovely bouncy happy son has turned into a depressed wreck. And he has siblings, space indoors and outdoors to play with, in a financially ok household and all the tech he needs to engage in his learning.

He wrote that he thinks he is “unwanted by school” and cries daily.

I don’t frankly give a toss if they do nothing but play for a term on their return, but I’m deeply worried about six months mental health deterioration on his life.

Jeez. I am staggered that any teacher can come on here and lecture us about safety, when it is obvious to anyone that schools are clearly not going to cause a second spike or we would have seen it by now.

So silly.

Local school bubble burst on the second day of opening as a child tested positive. Now a teacher also positive. Other children being tested.

I'm sure it must have happened in other schools as well.

We will have to get used to small concentrated outbreaks, and respond faster and more efficiently as and when they happen. We could be living like this for the next 20 years or more...so we had better get used to it.

@pigeon999
Do you think uk lockdown was unnecessary as well?

Teachers unions are being obstructive throughout. It was the unions who told teachers not to do virtual teaching (either live or recorded), that councils couldn’t tell teachers when to do their work during the day (so they don’t have to be available to respond to children during the school day), and now setting unreasonable demands to return. Yet other sectors just get on with it.

@pigeon, it’s not the 2m rule that’s the issue for schools!! It’s the groups of 15 children that causes problems plus the fact that the government advised full time places for 3yr groups in primary which meant that there was no way other yr groups could return until full classes are allowed. Rather than choose one of the plans suggested by schools and unions, as well as ignoring the 9 plans modelled by SAGE, they created their own that was impossible for most schools to deliver. That is not the unions fault, that is the government’s. I agree with you that the government have been too weak but for different reasons to you.

dom I would like to say I am disappointed that you are retired....I am not sure why you are so invested in this thread if you are not even teaching? Are you that bored?

Given so much damage is being done to the children, it is in poor taste in my view.

aeso spot on.

dom can you link the schools where there has been an outbreak including a teacher please? I haven't heard of this at all.

@Aesopfable so you think that most schools have more than double the space they normally need? Most schools I know locally are barely large enough to accommodate pupils under normal circumstances, many of which have had ‘excess’ spaces sold off or already built on the expand the school

I'm a teacher and like many of you, I'm desperate for schools to reopen and it's no good faffing about saying they can reopen but keep 2m distance, because it just doesn't work in schools, so they need to scrap the 2m thing altogether in schools - even if they keep it in restaurants etc. I see loads of Y10s roaming about town, very definitely not socially distancing all the time anyway, and even in school, as soon as we are not stood over them in the actual classroom, they just instantly move back together like magnets!

For those wondering about the evidence, there is a large research study being carried out, where children in about 100 schools are being tested every week for COVID, until the end of term. I reckon this study will prove that there's hardly any transmission in schools, and the government will be able to use it to say that schools can go back as normal (Here's hoping anyway).

I'm also in a Union, but I despair of them and have done since they came out with the whole 'only open schools when it is safe to do so'. I'm a science teacher, and schools are not 100% safe! That's what risk assessments are for! Occasionally kids cut themselves, burn themselves or get acid flicked in their eyes - but we have systems in place so that these incidences are rare and when they do happen, we can respond very quickly. Children get a lot of injuries in PE as well. Again, I'm hoping that once the results of this research study come through, the Unions will change their stance.

It's going to be August realistically though before the results of the study come through

Do you know what’s damaging to children @pigeon999?
People they love dying without them being able to say goodbye.

@pigeon999 I’m not sure @DomDoesWotHeWants cares about your disappointment, he has much right to comment here as anyone else doesn’t he? I’m interested in what role you think other services also have to play in this crisis not just school?