Is anyone going from quite chilled about schools reopening to being nervous/frightened?

[Nosebogey]

My ds has been at school throughout lockdown in a small bubble. It took a lot for me to send him because I was scared but his mh was suffering badly so I put that first even though I found it very hard. He was in a bubble of around ten kids and the bubbles were kept really separated (apart from drop off and pick up which was a bit close for comfort).

Now though, I’m starting to get very frightened about September. Our school is doing what they can with having class bubbles and one way systems (including an exit route that is also been designated an entrance for some children so not such a one way system) but I’m still scared.

Pubs round here are packed. These adults will go home and be around their children. Their children will be crammed into classrooms with other children. Parks are absolutely chock full of families atm all playing together etc. So adults are mixing and children are mixing outside of school but magically social distancing inside school will stop infection? Parents send sick kids in all the time. Why would they suddenly stop doing that for coronavirus symptoms? Won’t they just decide “it’s just a cold” and send them in anyway?

I don’t know. I just feel like the closer September comes, the more scared I get. Is anyone feeling the same?

I’m far more scared about them potentially not reopening.

Very nervous here too. 17 year old asthmatic son and extremely vulnerable husband.

“Very dispiriting to see the snowflakery and entitlement of the coronaphobes”

What a very, very nasty person. I don’t know if our little unit will survive the winter season intact and there are hundreds of thousands in the same situation.

You may be invincible. Bully for you. Many aren’t, through no fault of their own.

I am quite anxious about it due to my personal circumstance of having a vulnerable toddler. His surgeon believes he would be hospitalised if he got Covid-19.

DH and I are both teachers (I’m primary and he’s secondary) and we have an older DS going into Year 2, so between us we will be mixing with a lot of people.

However my older DS really needs to be back at school (educationally and socially) and as a teacher I know that the vast majority of children need this too. I was back full time from June 1st and we were all OK, so staying positive at the moment.

@Useruseruserusee so let's open schools carefully and safely. So they all get back but part time to start with. Exam years in full time. Then we can have SD and hopefully keep everyone healthy. I am glad lots of people don't worry about their kids health. I think until you know someone young whose life has changed you don't realise what COVID can do. I hope that none of your kids ever get the complications.

As for mental illness. You do realise that some kids in Australia have remote school all the time and they seem fine. Research School of the Air. Not sure why our 'snowflakes' are struggling so much. A few yes but not a whole generation having missed 13 weeks of school.

@TheMotherofAllDilemmas

I’m totally convinced that having pubs and schools open at the same time this winter is the perfect recipe for a national catastrophe.

But each to their own...

Isn't the bigger problem the fact the government are trying to get everyone back in offices (and in effect onto rush hour public transport) just as the schools are due to go back?

Kids get Covid from school but is asymptomatic. Goes home and passes it onto parents who then go on the train/tube to the office and that's how it spreads.

@mumsneedwine I get what you are saying. It’s not been that long at all.

I also know of people who say that their children have regressed in speech and behaviour (no special needs). I don’t get how that can be the case - if you take into account half term holidays, Easter it’s not been that long. I don’t understand how it’s possible for so many to have regressed in speech - school isn’t the be all and end all. They are at home more than school anyway.

With only 1 person in our local hospital with covid I am not worried about kids going back to school. I think shops etc will close before schools. I do think if anyone is high risk in teaching staff they should be given the chance to work at home or with small bubbles only.

Numbers are so low now I am cautiously optimistic.

Cases are rising again though. That's the problem. If we only had 100 cases a day then I'd agree with you. But estimates say about 4-5000 a day at the moment (think they extrapolate from the positive tested). I want the kids back. But I don't want any more of them to have their lives changed forever.

@mumsneedwine my DS had live timetable with his school and he has absolutely thrived, and I think the school found that many pupils had too. I know we were lucky that the school and the pupils all had the technology to make this possible, but they certainly didn't lose out on their education.

@IfNotNowThen2 it's not nice being called a snowflake is it ? I hope your child is ok, I really do. But I'm sick of being called names so thought I'd show people how horrible it is. I deserve that F off, but it's what I feel like saying to people who have no respect for my feelings. None of this is easy. On anyone. I just wish we'd pull together and not just talk rubbish about what we want.

I’m only worried or nervous if they don’t open fully. My kids need to go back and I need to restart my business. We’ve had nothing off the school except we’re still discussing it.

I've always been the sort of person who has tended to assume that brighter minds than me will work things out and that the government has things in hand but these days...

The plan to open the schools is obviously mental. "Bubbles" of hundreds of children?!

If I was running a school I'd be waiting to see the Scottish kids to go back. Their plan is far better but I bet they still have plenty of problems.

As it stands the English schools will be closed again by half term.

@mumsneedwine

Cases are rising again though. That's the problem. If we only had 100 cases a day then I'd agree with you. But estimates say about 4-5000 a day at the moment (think they extrapolate from the positive tested). I want the kids back. But I don't want any more of them to have their lives changed forever.

That’s just not true. I do t know where you have got those numbers from but you need to have a look at the proper stats. 670 cases were recorded yesterday which is the lowest it’s been in a week. Also targeted testing is being much more readily available. We are doing the more testing than we have ever done so more tests = more positive results - BUT the most important thing is there has been NO rise in hospital admissions.

Please stop scare mongering.

I think it's so important that schools go back, but we've had zero leadership from the government on how this can happen safely. All the evidence seems to suggest that the virus spreads when people from different households are indoors together, yet classrooms will somehow be fine?

I'm a secondary teacher in the vulnerable category and I'm really worried.

[quote Wankpuffin]@mumsneedwine I get what you are saying. It’s not been that long at all.

I also know of people who say that their children have regressed in speech and behaviour (no special needs). I don’t get how that can be the case - if you take into account half term holidays, Easter it’s not been that long. I don’t understand how it’s possible for so many to have regressed in speech - school isn’t the be all and end all. They are at home more than school anyway.[/quote]
It's been quite common for children to regress - because they are in an insecure situation and contained within their family unit. I know my children have to some extent, but actually that's been a positive for my early teenagers, who have had a bit of a respite from peer pressure to act older for a few months which they have valued.

@LizzieBlackwell oh dear. 892 positive tests today. Which extrapolates to about 4,290 cases according to PHE calculation. Not scare mongering, just facts. And hospital admissions are going up. DD working on COVID ward so know that from first hand info. But you believe what you what and I'll do the same. Good luck.

[quote Wankpuffin]@mumsneedwine I get what you are saying. It’s not been that long at all.

I also know of people who say that their children have regressed in speech and behaviour (no special needs). I don’t get how that can be the case - if you take into account half term holidays, Easter it’s not been that long. I don’t understand how it’s possible for so many to have regressed in speech - school isn’t the be all and end all. They are at home more than school anyway.[/quote]
My nearly 3 and half year old definitely has. At nursery they do a lot of targeted work towards speech sounds development. This is implemented in specific games, singing and activities. Plus activities that investigate and discover new words and meanings. It really isn’t free play - or it shouldn’t be.

I’ll hold my hands up, I can’t do that for six hours a day. I have a seven year old who needed to try and do a whole days worth of online work and classes ( which was amazing and I really can’t complain about it) and I have to do my own work. In fact I’ve had to put my business on hold because I couldn’t do all three.

So please stop with ‘it’s not that long, it’s only been 13 weeks, don’t understand why they’ve regressed’ crap.. obviously it’s an issue because people are talking about it.

@bookworm14

I’m far more scared about them potentially not reopening.

Me too!

Dd2 is due to start secondary school and I've just spent a fortune buying her the full uniform. She better get to wear it before it's too small 🤣

Not Dd2. Dd1 ffs!

@LizzieBlackwell I agree, being told you're talking crap isn't very nice. Teachers are trying to say that the current plans for schools opening are dangerous but we are then called names and told we are negative. Regressing is reversible, lung damage isn't. That's all.

@LizzieBlackwell I do understand that we are all different.

I’m just one of the ones who’s children haven’t been adversely affected (6 and 17 year old). So I can’t pretend to understand what other families are going though who’s children are finding it very difficult.

But ... no nursery will be doing that with children for six hours a day.
Children are sponges and will pick a lot of this stuff up at home if they have access to adults who are engaging with them, speaking to them, singing songs and sharing books. By your own admission you stopped work so why did you not do this with your child?