Surely they can’t keep schools open as normal if cases keep going up like today!

[Worriedmum999]

My daughter went back to school last Thursday. She really needed to go as lockdown played havoc with her mental health. She was fine doing her academic work but she is someone who needs the social side of school.

We are a vulnerable family and, with this shitshower of a government, I had no faith that cases wouldn’t rise and I wouldn’t be forced to take her out of school again. But I cannot believe that she has been back 2 days and the jump in cases has been so huge. I honestly expected us to be able to get to half term. Of course deaths are going to rise now. Why wouldn’t we follow the pattern of the other European countries. Add to that the fact that people can’t get tested now and we’re fucked. And I’m so fucking angry and upset about the damage that this is doing.

What are the government going to do? Surely it will be impossible to expect parents to keep sending their children to schools when the death toll is huge again and the ICUs are full.

The NHS was never in disarray, and was always functional and was not overcrowded, I would not expect that to change.

I see we've got the jokers on today.

The NHS shut down in lots of areas, geographically and medically. Our GP surgery still hasn't opened it's doors. Still have to shout through the letterbox if we want a sample bottle. OH's cancer treatment was stopped and oncology dept was impossible to contact for months.

It wasn't overcrowded because they locked the bloody doors and wouldn't let anyone in except via A&E.

@MadameBlobby

Not bu the months of rubbish we had during lockdown it can’t. Plus school is for more than learning. It’s vital to the wellbeing of our young people.

A lot of schools did online learning really well. Don't judge all schools by your experience.

With not enough staff or the virus running through the school they will close. And rightly so. Or go to part time, which is better than nothing.

The occasional school closing due to a few people catching covid will concentrate peoples' minds and hopefully make them take precautions, remind them to social distance etc. Far too many people seem to have forgotten there's a Worldwide pandemic and we need something to give them a slap to remind them to wash their hands, avoid big gatherings, practice social distance, wear masks etc. Far better a few schools shutting than ending up back in lockdown if we have exponential growth again due to people not taking precautions.

We worked veyr hard and paid a lot of money to keep the NHS non functioning and wards empty including all the new nightingales - it must have made us an international joke. Whatever we did we had to ensure empty hospitals as if that were some kind of new God.

@Xenia

We worked veyr hard and paid a lot of money to keep the NHS non functioning and wards empty including all the new nightingales - it must have made us an international joke. Whatever we did we had to ensure empty hospitals as if that were some kind of new God.

The NHS managers must have been modelling it on that ancient Yes Minister episode where they were proud of their new hospital ward that was meeting all it's targets etc - then the PM went in and saw it had no patients. NHS managers must have been waiting for an opportunity to do it ever since, then along came Covid and they had the excuse to do it, but not just one ward, lots of wards, clinics, etc.

@thesunisstillshining my year 11 had to do home learning before its hard when its gcse year if home learning was so great don't you think we would if scrapped schools year ago , think how much could be saved with no school buildings
Im sure many children to great with online lessons , others not so well
Its fine for short periods but not a whole school year
My ds struggled with home learning and has a lot of catching up to do and is expected to sit exams in the not too distant future
What about the kids that have no space or no laptop or no internet
Schools are taking some measures its certainly not back to normal
The current increases isn't down to schools yet either as hasn't been long enough , and where are you getting extra room from for primary kids , they can't just whack on a few extra buildings or magic up some extra teachers
I am fully prepared that we may have to go back to online learning for winter months as what with cold and flu around as well there will be lots of absence , possible cases etc but of my ds manages to get a couple weeks in at school and some teacher interaction it will be something

I think he's different for schools to close due to a lack of staff or if there are positive cases.

Of course some schools had a great online provision but there's no doubt that not all did and that some children couldn't access it even if it was good.

@Egghead68 isnt the counting after 28 days though due to being inline with other countries incl uk ones and also often how other causes are determined

if home learning was so great don't you think we would if scrapped schools year ago , think how much could be saved with no school buildings

Exactly

If we did go down the online route, we could deliver teaching at a tiny fraction of what we’re paying now. It would be game changing from a finance POV.

However, given that we’ve decided to pay a huge premium for face to face classroom based teaching, then we need to actually deliver that unless things get really bad from the point of view of hospitalisations and so on.

@forgone90 i thought mask wearing in spain was pretty high too yet numbers are rising all over the place
Still not totally convinced on masks as people don't wear them correctly , keep touching their faces , shove them in pocket between uses , who knows how many people don't wash reusable ones often , i know someone who has had the same disposable mask for weeks , and what don't get me started on all the ones all over the floor

[quote Notfeelinggreattoday]@forgone90 i thought mask wearing in spain was pretty high too yet numbers are rising all over the place
Still not totally convinced on masks as people don't wear them correctly , keep touching their faces , shove them in pocket between uses , who knows how many people don't wash reusable ones often , i know someone who has had the same disposable mask for weeks , and what don't get me started on all the ones all over the floor [/quote]
My family are in Spain and they have to wear masks even to walk the dog.

@TheKeatingFive

if home learning was so great don't you think we would if scrapped schools year ago , think how much could be saved with no school buildings

Exactly

If we did go down the online route, we could deliver teaching at a tiny fraction of what we’re paying now. It would be game changing from a finance POV.

However, given that we’ve decided to pay a huge premium for face to face classroom based teaching, then we need to actually deliver that unless things get really bad from the point of view of hospitalisations and so on.

Doubt it because a major objective of school is indoctrination socialisation!

if home learning was so great don't you think we would if scrapped schools years ago
Well no, you don't have to go back many years for homes not to expect to have fast broadband, a device per person capable of running various educational apps etc. Online meetings etc - just couldn't have happened.

@Kaktus thats what i mean if countries with strict mask wearing are still seeing increases it shows that those alone aren't enough ,people seem to think a mask is full proof my understanding is they may help a little but also alongside sd , hand washing etc etc
So many people with a mask on think they can stand on top of you now , whilst adjusting it or wearing incorrectly

[quote Notfeelinggreattoday]@Kaktus thats what i mean if countries with strict mask wearing are still seeing increases it shows that those alone aren't enough ,people seem to think a mask is full proof my understanding is they may help a little but also alongside sd , hand washing etc etc
So many people with a mask on think they can stand on top of you now , whilst adjusting it or wearing incorrectly
[/quote]
Yes I agree entirely. Masks clearly aren’t a magic bullet. They can have an impact on limiting spread when used in conjunction with social distancing etc, but many people seem to think that if they wear a mask they can do what they want.

@Mistressiggi many homes still don't have that
We have top broadband here but on lockdown 2 ds , and dh all wfh was a struggle , internet was slow etc
But my point is online learning is ok for short term / emergency measures but face to face is vital for many students
We have had internet for 20 years or so now and devices for 10 plus years so if was such a good idea it could if been slowly rolled out

we need to actually deliver that

Are you a teacher TheKeatingFive?

Or by “we” do you mean “you”?

They had to reduce the amount of patients in the hospital as they didn’t at the time have enough tests and enough PPE, had the NHS been fully open during the peak moe people would have died of covid. My relative died of covid shortly after receiving chemotherapy.

Yes the photo of tour de france where so many had masks - that were purposely not on right! At least 10 in 1 photo. And especially when they are probably cheering the people.

Unfortunately maybe all the unmasked areas just add up after a while. Then some superspreaders get it.
If you look at what has happened at some schools etc you can see what happens at parties in someones house or a pub etc.
Really people should not be inside together. But some people in an average week
Will be say as a family
School x2+
Pub for food
(Takeaway)
Coffee shopfamily
Swimming lessons x2
Brownies/rainbows/scouts
Gymnstics or karate etc
Library
Supermarket
Fill up petrol every other week
Park x2x2 kids
Zoo or Nt place

That is a lot for t&t. Although i think they probably only do 2d before.

If you look at what has happened at some schools etc you can see what happens at parties in someones house or a pub etc.
Really people should not be inside together. But some people in an average week
Will be say as a family
School x2+
Pub for food
(Takeaway)
Coffee shopfamily
Swimming lessons x2
Brownies/rainbows/scouts
Gymnstics or karate etc
Library
Supermarket
Fill up petrol every other week
Park x2x2 kids
Zoo or Nt place

Not only is this hard for t&t it's also just high risk in general. It should be masks, SD and also just limiting being around large numbers of other people as much as possible - limiting to necessities.

I've said many times I think it's crazy that all clubs etc are starting up at the same time as schools. If we really wanted schools to stay open - especially while there's no money for extra space to allow SD - we shouldn't be opening extracurricular clubs too. I'm not talking school wrap around care (which will be the same children as in a school) but many kids from many different schools doing dance / singing / brownies etc etc

I know it's hard for those businesses (and they should get help - perhaps they could do more in schools where at least all the kids would be from the same whole school bubble) but the fact is school should come first. Chris Whitty said we'd reached the limit of reopening and yet now you have children going to school in a class of 30 with no SD or masks then if each child does one out of school activity and mixes with say 30 other children from 15 other schools..... the risk ramps up a lot very quickly

@IloveJKRowling very good point the clubs. Our school has opened them all (often run by external businesses) and attendees are across year groups and junior/senior school. If “education” was truly the priority then these clubs need to be on hold. A lot are held indoors and are aerobic activities hence high risk for transmission. A bit silly in my opinion but then it’s an Independent School and parents demand that there’s a full programme running.

I wish more people with think intelligently and have some foresight.

Oak It's insane, it's like people have forgotten March/April and that sars-cov-2 is spread primarily via exhalation / breathing in virus in enclosed spaces.

Most of the 28 kids in my DDs class have more than 1 extracurricular class not at the school - many have 3 or more. Most of these are inside. Many, as you say are aerobic and some are doing singing too. All unmasked.

It's very, very, very stupid. Or some tin foil hat days I wonder if Cummings really does want the UK to just break down entirely so it can be 'built up again' as rumours say.

@Egghead68 isnt the counting after 28 days though due to being inline with other countries incl uk ones and also often how other causes are determined

Hadn’t heard that and don’t think it would make sense to apply the same time limit to all causes Of death - dementia can take years to kill you, for example

@IloveJKRowling the problem is the majority of people are unwilling to alter their own individual lifestyles to help get through this. Everyone wants their lives to remain the same but somehow want others to get them out of this. The fact is with an ineffectual Government we all need to inconvenience ourselves. Not many are prepared to though. What we will be faced with as a result is a huge mess in 3-4 months both economically and socially and people will all end up paying with far greater inconvenience to their lives.

But I don’t care about “other schools”. I care about the one my children go to @FlySheMust. the fact “other schools” did online school well has zilch impact on my kids’ education.