Safe to reopen schools

[askmehowiknow]

Article from oxford professor summarising new data that it's safe for children to be in school. Great pre September reading!

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/18/children-covid-19-english-schools-virus-safe-reopening

Same applies to you to be honest but hey ho

We've read the woolly article in the OP and found it massively wanting.

So you’ve now read my post of 11:47, Uhoh and you appreciate the consequences this will have for school staffing?

And therefore the idiocy of focusing on the safety of children in a school setting and ignoring the safety of adults?

Previously if I had a cough or had lost my sense of smell I wouldn't have considered staying at home. If I had a temperature that could be controlled with paracetamol I'd also have gone in. Now I'd have to stay home and be tested. Add in that you have to isolate every time a family member has these symptoms and you are going to have staff in and out all the time. In a school if there aren't enough staff the school partially or fully closes, as it isn't safe to open. It's not going to be fun.

This study and everyone else seems to have forgotten when we discuss how many children tested positive during the first wave of covid....that testing was not readily available and we also didn't start making public testing available to children until much later down the line !
Yes they may not have been getting symptoms therefore not being tested they weren't Ill enough to get a test but to come out and say only 1% of children tested positive for covid when we were doing very little testing of them is imo an accurate representation of what may or may not happen in September with lots of asymptomatic children spreading home into households and adults then spreading into workplaces etc etc

Uhoh2020

Also where have I said I think they are safe? I've implied we have no other option but to go with it but feel free to highlight to me where I have stated SCHOOL IS SAFE

So you are saying that schools are not safe?

*inaccurate representation

@FrippEnos

Uhoh2020

Also where have I said I think they are safe? I've implied we have no other option but to go with it but feel free to highlight to me where I have stated SCHOOL IS SAFE

So you are saying that schools are not safe?

In terms of infection control and virus transmission i don't think schools have ever been safe in that respect . Hopefully in the future when new schools are built this will be remembered and better contingency for virus transmission but of course that doesn't help us now.

Uhoh2020

Thank you.

So do you also believe that we should be doing all that we can "In terms of infection control and virus transmission"?

Boom!

There are those saying, why do we think there will definitely be school closures, school closures will be the last resort.

School closures being the last resort is part of the problem, in my opinion. If schools try to continue with 1 case, 2 cases, all they are doing is letting the virus get a hold in their school. The way to deal with Covid is to get ahead of it, not follow behind its lead.

Yay. A thread about schools

I remember there being smug posts about children not catching it at all, then slightly less snug ones about them catching and spreading but not very much, then slightly worried ones about how, er, their rate of transmission actually seemed to be the same as everyone else, and now I hear these sort of desperate voices saying well, what can we do? Has anybody got a plan which doesn't cost any money? No? Well, let's just throw all the science we like onto Mumsnet every day and desperately try to discredit and ignore the science we don't like.

Why do people lose sight of the realities of this virus?

1. Death rate is low even for vulnerable people.
2. The NHS is not overwhelmed with covid patients
3. 0.05% of the population currently have the virus.
4. Current measures are working at keeping rates very low in the vast majority of the country.
5. I could go on and on.....

Perhaps you should have just stuck to your original post and popped off to a non school thread.

@Piggywaspushed

Perhaps you should have just stuck to your original post and popped off to a non school thread.

My point is that the hysteria about schools reopening doesn't reflect the actual reality of the current situation.

I know what your point is.

The current situation is the English schools are not back yet.

@FrippEnos there's doing all we can and wanting things to happen that can't within the parameters and budgets given. Its total bullshit that more money isnt being ploughed into schools.
I understand that some schools could put in more measures like enough teachers and IT software to enable blended learning but many can't. I understand masks could be made compulsory. I also understand that these measures are probably more likely in more affluent areas where each child has Internet access and a device to work from and parents who would willingly provide masks etc. But there are those in deprived areas that maybe can't afford to buy masks or the parents cant be botherd to provide them and don't have Internet access or a device for each child to work from . A state education should mean all children are given the same opportunities regardless of which area they come from. Therefore if measures cant be brought to all schools they cant be made mandatory and given the choice to some and not others is creates all other hosts of problems.
I dont say that the situation is fair by any stretch of the imagination but its the reality as I see it that we don't have much choice

Not sure Mumsnet is a fair representation of parents view. Everyone I have spoken to can't wait for schools to reopen.

Current measures are working at keeping rates very low in the vast majority of the country.

They are, aren’t they? What do you think will happen when those measures are abandoned and large groups are suddenly shoved in a building together with no mitigation?

Is everyone you have spoken to a better and fairer representation??

@noblegiraffe

So you’ve now read my post of 11:47, Uhoh and you appreciate the consequences this will have for school staffing?

And therefore the idiocy of focusing on the safety of children in a school setting and ignoring the safety of adults?

Ah, ignored again by Uhoh when posting something inconvenient. How unexpected.

If everyone is desperate for schools to go back, why is the government having to run a campaign to persuade parents to send their kids in?

Teachers also want schools to open and I bet if they were talking to parents face to face they won’t be mentioning their fears about the lack of mitigation, but on here they can.

@noblegiraffe read my post at 13.50 that could answer my thoughts on safety

Ps I promise to reply quicker next time 👌