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Original poster

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

999 replies

Worriedmum999 · 06/09/2020 23:24

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.

OP posts:
Timeforanotherusername · 09/09/2020 23:59

So a lockdown with no furlough is the answer?

Thats essentially what you are advocating when you are encouraging this virus to spread unchecked.

noblegiraffe · 10/09/2020 00:03

Thats essentially what you are advocating when you are encouraging this virus to spread unchecked.

With the addition of it being the fault of the vulnerable if they get sick and overwhelm the NHS because they should have become hermits and have no life at all so that the more selfish among us can do what they like. Fuck their mental health and their ability to see anyone at all...

IloveJKRowling · 10/09/2020 00:03

Gypsy am beginning to wonder if they might be bots

If you want things to stay open / to avoid job losses, the obvious thing to do is to follow the rules and encourage everyone else to as well.

Stopping distancing, mask wearing and going to lots of large gatherings 'as normal' will end up with lockdown (exactly as it did before)

Perfect28 · 10/09/2020 07:27

People like you who downplay this really do my head in. It's not OK to just say, well most of us will be OK, don't worry. There are hundreds of thousands of elderly or otherwise vulnerable people and your attitude is basically 'if they die they die'. Not caring. Not compassionate and not acceptable.

IloveJKRowling · 10/09/2020 07:45

Perfect yes, and it's also behaving like a toddler.

I can't do exactly what I want RIGHT NOW, regardless of the impact on anyone else. So I'm going to have a strop and disobey all the rules and harm other people in the process. Because it will harm other people. Every time anyone gives this virus a chance to spread, it will take it.

As a society we have lots of rules, no stealing, fighting, killing. Society wouldn't function without rules.

In comparison to the rules we already follow (e.g. speeding, traffic rules etc) and have followed in the past (food rationing, curfews during the war), covid rules actually aren't THAT restrictive. It's not going to be forever.

JulieHere · 10/09/2020 08:08

It does feel like we are all being punished for a few outbreaks whereby mainly young adults have had parties/mixed together in large groups (university returners gathering in their groups and drinking as per the news) and so the virus is spreading amongst them.

Two thoughts

  1. Let them get on with it - they don't tend to die and let it sweep through them telling them to avoid all old/vulnerable people for a few weeks - let it run rampant through the healthy
  1. Shut the pubs/clubs fine them heavily where these younger adults go - shut the lot down.
  1. Let the rest of us following the SD etc rules get on with our lives away from them. Some areas - ours for example very very low transmission and none of these groups of young people at all.

Why be punished when we are ok

EDSGFC · 10/09/2020 08:10

@Vinoonasunnyday

Kids will get it and will be fine

No child in uk has died

Not one

Stop scaremongering

Kids will get it and may pass it on but they were all in school at peak of virus without so much as a mask so I think they’ll be fine now

That's not true. Children have died in the UK. A tiny number, granted, but it's a lie to say that not one child has died.
NorbertMeubles · 10/09/2020 08:10

The Death toll is huge??? It was 2? OP, you need to consider writing for the Daily Mail.

RedToothBrush · 10/09/2020 08:30

2. Shut the pubs/clubs fine them heavily where these younger adults go - shut the lot down.

Won't solve the problem. It will just push bored young people to house parties and illegal raves which was starting to happen before the pubs reopened.

Illegal raves and house parties make it harder to track and trace.

There also the issue of youth unemployment. The danger of closing bars etc is that you push youth unemployment dangerously high - which itself carries the risk of civil disobedience and unrest (youth unemployment rates over 30% are historically related to problems of this nature). And thats before you think about financial implications.

The government are instead trialling bar and takeway curfews in Bolton. This apparently has been effective in Belgium. The point is behaviour encouraged is much more likely a mentality where people go out, have fun and then dont feel as much need to go on after curfew and instead go home.

mintpeonies · 10/09/2020 08:32

Posters are still confusing Primary and Secondary needs.

Secondary pupils apparently much more likely to catch it and can work remotely with live lessons.

mintpeonies · 10/09/2020 08:33

As key workers, teachers’ children have always been allowed into school throughout.

mintpeonies · 10/09/2020 08:36

Secondaries should be used as hubs to give wifi and devices (and a desk or outdoor space) for the vulnerable, and poor without tech, to access Live lessons.

The majority should be LFH (learn from home) with live lessons.

Those who whine that live lessons for secondary are not possible should look up what 100s of independent schools did during lockdown. It’s one thing that we are actually world-beating at (exceptional secondary education in independent sector) and England is heaving with experienced experts in this area.

mintpeonies · 10/09/2020 08:36

Needed : wifi; device; pen; zoom or teams etc; paper; calculator = not expensive

TheKeatingFive · 10/09/2020 08:39

The majority should be LFH (learn from home) with live lessons.

So what are working parents of 11/12 year olds supposed to do? Leave them at home all day by themselves?

motherrunner · 10/09/2020 08:40

@mintpeonies

Secondaries should be used as hubs to give wifi and devices (and a desk or outdoor space) for the vulnerable, and poor without tech, to access Live lessons.

The majority should be LFH (learn from home) with live lessons.

Those who whine that live lessons for secondary are not possible should look up what 100s of independent schools did during lockdown. It’s one thing that we are actually world-beating at (exceptional secondary education in independent sector) and England is heaving with experienced experts in this area.

I teach in a state school and we taught live to timetable throughout lockdown.

As all students were off at the same time I had time to plan meaningful lessons. This week I have a Yr 11 pupil isolating, she can’t get hold of a test. I have no time to send her meaningful work so she is stuck with working through the PP I use in the lesson with no guidance or feedback.

Mistressiggi · 10/09/2020 08:40

@mintpeonies

As key workers, teachers’ children have always been allowed into school throughout.
Not in Scotland - you could get the space if you were working yourself looking after key worker children, but not to enable you to work from home. Which I think is right, personally.
Perfect28 · 10/09/2020 08:45

Yes. Children can stay at home alone from this age. Granted, some with SEN perhaps not, but they will be allowed into school. It's 6 hours in the day. An 11 year old should know what is dangerous, how to make or heat a simple meal and how to call 999 in an emergency.

TheKeatingFive · 10/09/2020 08:47

Frankly, before this, leaving 11 year olds home alone all day would have been seen as neglect and I’m staggered that people have suddenly decided it isn’t. Confused

TheKeatingFive · 10/09/2020 08:50

Quite aside from the safety issues, are we really advocating 11 year olds being isolated for 8 hours a day, day after day, with no interaction with anyone outside of a screen?

MarshaBradyo · 10/09/2020 08:51

@TheKeatingFive

Quite aside from the safety issues, are we really advocating 11 year olds being isolated for 8 hours a day, day after day, with no interaction with anyone outside of a screen?
Sounds woeful to me. A severe under prioritisation of a low risk group.
canigooutyet · 10/09/2020 08:52

@TheKeatingFive

Frankly, before this, leaving 11 year olds home alone all day would have been seen as neglect and I’m staggered that people have suddenly decided it isn’t. Confused
Can you show me legislation that it's neglect?
MarshaBradyo · 10/09/2020 08:53

If people are so pro their dc learning from a screen the option is there.

JulieHere · 10/09/2020 08:55

The problem with saying live lessons learn from home is that the last time the vast majority of the school children were sent home our schools didn't provide any lessons just an email with links - now that isn't teaching. We did our best but it was rubbish and so doing more of the same isn't a great idea. Why would the teachers in our school do any different this time if the school is closed (unless you force them to provide live lessons), they didn't bother last time.

TheKeatingFive · 10/09/2020 08:56

Sounds woeful to me. A severe under prioritisation of a low risk group.

I know right? I can’t get over how blithely it keeps getting put forward on here as a solution.

We have to do better than that.

RedToothBrush · 10/09/2020 08:57

Leaving an 11 year old home alone on the internet unsupervised... ???

Yes thats a cracking idea. facepalm

Yes in certain circumstances that WOULD count as neglecting you child.