Schools to remain closed until October half term?

[stopcollaborateandlisten]

Lots and lots coming out in the news how schools will finally be re-opening - anyone else think it might get pushed back at the last minute to after the October half term?

God, I hope not. Are people just making up any old shit now so they can gleefully observe people scramble to work out how they'd operate in these vacuous hypotheticals?

One factor to consider is that Johnson will not have the private schools playing ball in September. The Government tipped its hand in the Dolan lawsuit saying that it had only 'advised' schools to close, not forced them.

Given the sums at stake and the evaporating furlough scheme, the private sector will do everything in its power to open, creating a politically untenable situation.

I think they'll open as planned in September and then shut again by Oct half-term. Absolutely dreading this coming term- it's going to be a nightmare for schools, parents and kids.

@monkeytennis97 massive respect for teachers and think they should have access to masks. But you do realise you and your husband have been teaching already when the R rate was very high in the UK?

Basically the whole period after Feb halfterm in the UK, the virus was freely circulating in the population with high R rates in all the major urban areas. By looking at the deaths 3 weeks after lockdown (peak period), which are freely published on the ONS - you can see occupational risk. Teachers really weren't a high risk group (though some teachers died, being older and male increased that risk as it does for all covid deaths). Taxi drivers, security and care workers (as opposed to healthworkers in general) and construction were the highest risk occupational groups.

So there is some risk (but there is risk from all winter viruses and actually influenzas are definitely caught by kids who are very symptomatic with them, unlike Covid) but whether it is a higher risk and more than the risk of further lockdown on educational and economic outcomes (also key determinants of health) is probably not the case.

Well nothing will change re September and October or even Christmas really Given the virus isn’t going anywhere if they cannot open in September we probably need to accept that school closure will last well into next year.

I would be interested what they will do with key worker provision I cannot see it continuing with the current “list” re who is key since that will defacto open schools to a lot more pupils if parents use it to gain access to education. This was already happening in the summer term (Key worker kids at our school grew from about 12 to over 200!) and likely to grow expenentially as parents realise its a loop hole allowing access to education for their children.

No, it isn't in the news - just thoughts.

I don't mean to be rude, but I wish people would stop bloody speculating! If you have some sort of insight or expert knowledge, fair enough, but otherwise just having a funny feeling in your big toe is pretty irrelevant to what will actually happen.

I am a teacher. That has literally never been mentioned or considered by anyone in my school. We have two plans; open fully in september (90% sure this will happen), or partially open with non exam years doing online learning.

So no. They wont just not open. No way.

I don't think they will close again unless it's for local lockdowns. If they cause the no of cases to rise again massively, I think the gov will then need to change tack and go for the herd immunity idea again and let the virus pass through the lower risk people with limited impact on the health service. Can't close schools nationwide again to deal with something that is not a risk to children. The large number of deaths so far is purely because it was allowed to spread unchecked amongst our most vulnerable people (hospital inpatients and care home residents) - it does not mean that ordinary healthy people are at any inflated risk than they are to all other circulating illnesses, as statistics have shown.

@Qasd

Well nothing will change re September and October or even Christmas really Given the virus isn’t going anywhere if they cannot open in September we probably need to accept that school closure will last well into next year.

I would be interested what they will do with key worker provision I cannot see it continuing with the current “list” re who is key since that will defacto open schools to a lot more pupils if parents use it to gain access to education. This was already happening in the summer term (Key worker kids at our school grew from about 12 to over 200!) and likely to grow expenentially as parents realise its a loop hole allowing access to education for their children.

The biggest risk of spreading sits with the teenagers in secondary school. These young people are old enough not to need the childminding component of schools so much. They could have blended learning, but would need to feel ownership with this, be motivated, engage, for it to work. I would be concerned that this part might not happen well.

They should have reopened for all by mid June early July - if nothing else but the kids mental health! Excluding specific year group was a disgrace.

Now most families seem to take their kids away whilst they can, and in case of another lockdown (England at least)

If the schools close again after refusing to admit some children, they need to be made accoutable

as parents realise its a loop hole allowing access to education for their children.
it's no loop hole - pretty much everyone qualifies as a "key worker". at the beginning of the lockdown parents chose to give priority to Essential frontline workers because it seemed like the right thing to do, but when it was safe enough to admit some year group, why refusing to send your own child when they qualified?

If the schools close again after refusing to admit some children, they need to be made accountable

The government closed schools.
The government decided which year groups could go back.

If anyone needs to be made accountable, it should obviously be the government.

Absolutely dreading this coming term- it's going to be a nightmare for schools, parents and kids.

I am also dreading it - with three teens at secondary school and I am also due to start an admin job in a different school.

It’s a worry personally and at a wider level of course. Friend told me to stop reading stuff and “worrying myself” 🙄.

If the government actually seemed to give a shit about schools and the people in them it would massively help people’s confidence I think.

the government allowed ALL year group to go back and the school to use their discretion.

Those who refused did it because they made that choice, not because the government told them to.

Closing the schools was the right thing to do, it might be the right thing to close them again. Specifically excluding some children from the reopening was not acceptable.

No they will open apart from possibly those in local lockdown and even they will be open to some children unless there are cases directly linked to the school.

I think going back in October would be an odd choice as that would be when things cool down and we might see a resurgence. How much school time can kids lose without it having a negative effect?

Areas that are seeing cases disproportionate to the rest of the country need to be careful, but in my area it would be daft for kids not to go back in September.

I think they’ll open in September as expected but I don’t think it will be long before they shut again 😢

Close pubs unless they have a garden.

I think schools will open.

I’m hoping masks will be compulsory in secondary schools. I think they will just have all kids in as normal - which is daft because that means there will be local lockdowns all over the country.

The aim of the local lockdowns NOW are to ensure that schools CAN open in September.

HOWEVER yesterday Downing Street DID confirm that some schools WOULD remain closed if they were in an area of particular concern.

This has been reiterated today after there have been warnings that track and trace isn't good enough.

There is evidence to back up the scientists on this: its become apparent that the percentage of contacts successfully traced in Blackburn have been particularly low. Its thought this is in part because of language barriers and poverty with many individuals having no telephone number. The centralised track and trace system ONLY contacts people via phone or email and does not have personnel assigned to knocking on doors.

As a result Blackburn council have set up their own local track and trace services which do have that capability. They have only set this up as a reaction to a problem after its become apparent.

Realistically either the national system should be enhanced to feature this ability where necessary or all councils should be drawing up plans for their own track and trace system to bail out central government's lack of proper oversight. The problem with this is the sheer number of local councils who are on the verge of bankruptcy and simply can't afford to do this. Many have yet to recieve the money they were promised by government for the inital phase of full lock down and to date there has not been any more money offered by government for areas forced into additional later restrictions.

Despite all this, my suspicion is in terms of local school closures I wouldn't expect it to be council wide whereever possible. Track and trace can see where clusters are occuring and many are restricted to particular electoral wards rather than across an entire council area.

I think the idea that schools will remain closed until October is nonsense in almost all cases. If it happens it will be in a tiny number of schools.

I do think its more likely that schools will reopen and we will see them closed at a later date - probably with a spike around half term.

Johnson has promised the schools reopening is the priority, so thats what will happen come hell or high water. The wisdom of doing this in certain areas is the more questionable thing though.

It's not getting pushed back. Schools are reopening in September. If anything has to shut it will probably be the pubs.

I am also expecting a u turn on the policy of no masks in lessons for secondary school pupils to be announced the 3rd or 4th week in August.

@SantaClaritaDiet

the government allowed ALL year group to go back and the school to use their discretion.

Those who refused did it because they made that choice, not because the government told them to.

Closing the schools was the right thing to do, it might be the right thing to close them again. Specifically excluding some children from the reopening was not acceptable.

Schools had to stick to the guidance given by the government. This made it impossible to reopen fully as nowhere had twice the number of available staff and space.

No school refused to open or made a choice to reopen.

Different schools have different contexts so how many years they could accommodate varied (depending on the amount of keyworkers for example).

@FourTeaFallOut

God, I hope not. Are people just making up any old shit now so they can gleefully observe people scramble to work out how they'd operate in these vacuous hypotheticals?

Surely it is wise to plan in advance what you would do in these situations - we saw last week how quickly restrictions can be put in place.

Well the government have started their defiant stubborn use of the word definitely ... which usually comes before a u turn.

So maybe.