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.

Can you show me legislation that it's neglect?

I’m not familiar with legislation in the area, so no. But are you actually going to argue it’s okay and fair on that age group? Knock me out.

@mintpeonies

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

Might not be expensive to you but where do you expect funding to come from to finance this? Schools have been given no additional money. Millions of families haven't got a pot to piss in, are living in poverty and using food banks.

@motherrunner

I wish my child was at your school '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.' All we got was an email suggesting BBC Bitesize .... no meaningful anything.

If everyone had a live timetable then I wouldn't be pro keeping schools open but sadly that didn't happen for a lot of us and our children were failed. Brilliant for ones like you that did it. Hence I say keep the schools open and shut bars etc.

@TheKeatingFive

Can you show me legislation that it's neglect?

I’m not familiar with legislation in the area, so no. But are you actually going to argue it’s okay and fair on that age group? Knock me out.

It might not be fair, but it's the reality for millions of working families to have their children at home all day so the parent(s) can work. At secondary age you are lucky to find childcare.

So if your not familiar with the legislation how can you claim it's neglect?

Teaching wasn't happening, or shouldn't have been, because the government suspended the curriculum. Any packs schools did send out should have been stuff they had already covered.

It might not be fair, but it's the reality for millions of working families to have their children at home all day so the parent(s) can work

No, the reality is that they’re in school.

So if your not familiar with the legislation how can you claim it's neglect?

You know, sometimes common sense is enough.

Think of it this way. Imagine you’re the adopted parent of an 11 year old. You leave them alone all day every day with only the internet for company during the school holidays or similar. Would social services be happy with that? No of course not. So why would we be advocating it en masse right now?

I honestly can’t wrap my head around you arguing for this.

And what about during school holidays and weekends? Those parents still need to work and their kids aren't in school

And what about during school holidays and weekends? Those parents still need to work and their kids aren't in school

I seriously doubt 11 year olds are being left home by themselves in front of a screen, day after day during the holidays. If they are, they shouldn’t be.

Again, I doubt they’re left a whole day by themselves during the weekend, but at least that would only be two days in a row.

What you’re suggesting is full day after full day of no physical human interaction. I’m actually gobsmacked.

Are you a teacher?

Think of it this way. Imagine you’re the adopted parent of an 11 year old. You leave them alone all day every day with only the internet for company during the school holidays or similar. Would social services be happy with that? No of course not. So why would we be advocating it en masse right now?

And none adopted children?
I know the answer btw, SS wouldn't give a shit. THey cannot tell parents to put themselves into poverty and give up their jobs.

NSPCC advice there is no age you can leave a child home alone all day. It's down to the parents to decide if they think their child is capable of doing this. It's overnight they advice not under 16.

I am not advising masse anything. I simply asked for legislation that says this is neglect.

@TheKeatingFive

And what about during school holidays and weekends? Those parents still need to work and their kids aren't in school

I seriously doubt 11 year olds are being left home by themselves in front of a screen, day after day during the holidays. If they are, they shouldn’t be.

Again, I doubt they’re left a whole day by themselves during the weekend, but at least that would only be two days in a row.

What you’re suggesting is full day after full day of no physical human interaction. I’m actually gobsmacked.

Are you a teacher?

Used to work in education, primarily with 11 - 19.

The reality is that because of a lack of provisions secondary school kids are "latch key kids" and these kids spend a lot of time home alone.
Those with additional needs a parent doesn't work, and many of these are one parent families.

I'm not making this up. Google latch key kids. It's nothing new, it's been happening for generations.

THey cannot tell parents to put themselves into poverty and give up their jobs.

It’s a moot point as it’s not being considered. Thankfully.

I’m just very shocked that so many on here (often teachers) are advocating it. I would have thought basic welfare standards were important overall. Apparently not.

The reality is that because of a lack of provisions secondary school kids are "latch key kids" and these kids spend a lot of time home alone.

I’m familiar with the term thanks.

I’m just shocked that you can’t distinguish between an hour or two after school and day after day of sitting by yourself in front of a screen with no human contact,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latchkey_kid

Clearly you aren't familiar with the term

A latchkey kid, or latchkey child, is a child who returns to an empty home after school, or a child who is often left at home with no supervision, because their parent(s) is/are away at work. The term refers to children as young as 5 years old who provide self-care or to older children who supervise their younger siblings.[1]

@TheKeatingFive

THey cannot tell parents to put themselves into poverty and give up their jobs.

It’s a moot point as it’s not being considered. Thankfully.

I’m just very shocked that so many on here (often teachers) are advocating it. I would have thought basic welfare standards were important overall. Apparently not.

Of course basic welfare standards are important and this also includes parent(s) working to provide for their child.

How is it a moot point? Neglect was mentioned which involves social services and they would have to advice parents to do what?

The current set up will fail millions of children. Over 400 schools are currently closed, if online learning was in place then these students would still be getting an education. But the government said no to blended learning. How does this help to educate our children?

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

Not sure when 8.30-3 became 8 hours, and no, they don't have to be locked up all day. They could meet friends once they have done their work, in groups no bigger than 6 like the rest of us.

Think of it this way. Imagine you’re the adopted parent of an 11 year old. You leave them alone all day every day with only the internet for company during the school holidays or similar. Would social services be happy with that? No of course not. So why would we be advocating it en masse right now?

What a pile of shit. I think SS have bigger fish to fry.

Nice to see this thread has turned in to a working mums bashing thread.

Covid deaths will increase

How do you know?

Current data coming from Germany is showing that death fatality has decreased across all ages. Which we are seeing here too. The U.K. data tells us that hospital admissions are still declining along with deaths. We are at our lowest point.

We can’t keep using ‘it’s only young people that are getting infected’ because those young people live with older and at risk group. We never locked all 45 year olds and above and vulnerable people in the shed!

And I agree MN is now the place for COVID anxiety doom riddled people to congregate.

@Byallmeans

Covid deaths will increase

How do you know?

Current data coming from Germany is showing that death fatality has decreased across all ages. Which we are seeing here too. The U.K. data tells us that hospital admissions are still declining along with deaths. We are at our lowest point.

We can’t keep using ‘it’s only young people that are getting infected’ because those young people live with older and at risk group. We never locked all 45 year olds and above and vulnerable people in the shed!

And I agree MN is now the place for COVID anxiety doom riddled people to congregate.

It's not about being anxious or doom riddled and I'm completely sick of this straw man. It's not unreasonable to think that the government could have, in 6 months, put in place a good half way house with schooling, to make sure that young people aren't penalised whilst also keeping communities safe.

This has all the details in regards to latest hospital admissions etc

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/916454/Weekly_COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_36_FINAL_V2__003_.pdf

Someone on a previous thread suggested 'homework clubs' or similar in village halls etc - somewhere where they can actually properly SD like they can't in school, with TAs (government would have to give money for this) supervising. sticking to best practice covid guidelines so not more than 15 at a time etc. (Masks ideally). Work set by teachers. You could ask people to volunteer resources like art zoom classes or drama, I'd volunteer and lots of others would too. There was loads of free stuff online during lockdown.

It really only requires money from the government.

Also, I really don't think we can compare Germany to the UK. They have better testing and smaller school class sizes and more spacious schools. They managed the first wave way better than us, Spain, France, Italy. We're better off comparing France and Spain - both of which have huge increases in cases and hospital admissions now.

I think it was me who suggested the homework club idea. It would work and lots of kids might actually make better progress as they would get more attention in smaller groups, both in school and in the clubs.

@Byallmeans

Covid deaths will increase

How do you know?

Current data coming from Germany is showing that death fatality has decreased across all ages. Which we are seeing here too. The U.K. data tells us that hospital admissions are still declining along with deaths. We are at our lowest point.

We can’t keep using ‘it’s only young people that are getting infected’ because those young people live with older and at risk group. We never locked all 45 year olds and above and vulnerable people in the shed!

And I agree MN is now the place for COVID anxiety doom riddled people to congregate.

I think this is a misunderstanding of the German data. It looks at death rates ( eg proportion of deaths) in different age groups. Germany, like most other countries has been stepping up the amount of testing as time has gone on. So they are picking up more mild cases that just wouldn't have been tested earlier. So death rates are dropping as a proportion of cases because the "pool" of detected cases has become much bigger, not necessarily because the virus is suddenly less lethal!

Also, hospital admissions with Covid are now starting to increase in Greater Manchester. They have doubled in the last 11 days.

@IloveJKRowling

Someone on a previous thread suggested 'homework clubs' or similar in village halls etc - somewhere where they can actually properly SD like they can't in school, with TAs (government would have to give money for this) supervising. sticking to best practice covid guidelines so not more than 15 at a time etc. (Masks ideally). Work set by teachers. You could ask people to volunteer resources like art zoom classes or drama, I'd volunteer and lots of others would too. There was loads of free stuff online during lockdown.

It really only requires money from the government.

Also, I really don't think we can compare Germany to the UK. They have better testing and smaller school class sizes and more spacious schools. They managed the first wave way better than us, Spain, France, Italy. We're better off comparing France and Spain - both of which have huge increases in cases and hospital admissions now.

No disrespect to TA's I wouldn't want them teaching GSCE Math for example unless they have the ability to teach it correctly. They need to be confident when teaching and to be able to answer questions.

There is lots of things that individual schools/lea's could do, but as you pointed out, government aren't handing over funds. The government have excluded any variation to help with continuous education. At the moment all we have is all or nothing.