Full time mask wearing in schools

[JS87]

Would you be prepared for your child to wear a mask in lessons etc (even in primary school in say KS2 upwards) if it meant they caught less colds/coughs/temps and didn't have to keep isolating to get a cold? I would definitely be happy for DS 9 to wear one if it meant he got to spend more time in school

Yep fine with that. I think it would be healthier to keep them on rather than remove in classrooms and shove in your pocket, as they do now.

As a secondary teacher I was really against mask wearing as I thought kids would just muck about with them, but actually we have a few who have chosen to wear them all the time and they have been really sensible with them. Those who were just wearing them to muck about stopped bothering to bring them after day two.

@Keepdistance I would prefer it on the outside of my kid's mask than in their lungs.

But that's not the choice. The mask is almost entirely to stop them spreading if they have it - it's if they have it that the virus ends up on the outside of their mask as their breath condenses, and is therefore a risk when they inevitably fiddle with it, adjust it, take it on and off to eat etc.

Masks make a lot of sense on public transport or in unavoidably crowded places for single trips but are very hard to justify being worn in a haphazard way in schools.

The obsession with worrying about touching the mask is bizarre
If they get covid on their hands the person is likely in the room so they are breathing it in.
Kids do touch their faces a lot. But they without a mask have covid on hands and face then.
With a mask the covid might be trapped mostly in the mask rather than around multiple rooms in the air and surfaces.co
If your kid is in a class with a thumb sucker rtf that kid likely has a high risk of getting it (if there is surface transmission).
Anyway I know dc isnt hugger, stays quite a distance from kids and is in a small friendship group. still already caught a cold at school. Despite this amazing hand washing.
Having the kids and increasing distance is likely most effective

you don't have much faith in kids do you?

Erm no not really. Having seen the local secondary school in action I can guarantee you it will make no difference. It's not an insult to the children. They are young, happy to see friends again, playful, social creatures and in general care free. It should stay that way imo when the alternative really wont make much of a difference.

But if that person hasn't better a small amount on a hand which might be washed than all in the air for everyone to get!

*Has a

Some children of course will do it properly but surely it takes one child not doing it properly, who then infects the others Etc. I support masks on transport and shopping so am not anti mask.

Absolutely not.
DS(9) would be exempt due to his ASD/ sensory issues anyway but if everyone around him is mumbling through masks and impossible to read their non-verbal communication, then we may as well go back to wastjng another 6 months of his life watching youtube and playing Minecraft at home. Home learning is already a fail because school belongs in school and home is for relaxation and escape in his way of thinking, and he does not engage with Zoom type stuff because he can't "read" and track what's happening.

Better to get some real education in school with real faces than fucking about with the other non-options.

Thank God I'm no longer a secondary teacher. Teaching in a school with enhanced status for Hearing Impaired students taught me so much about non-verbal communications. I'm exempt anyway. But as someone who lip reads due to auditory processing issues there's no way I could effectively teach masked up pupils, learn their names and actually I can't even looka mask wearer straight in the face anyway. It's repellent (something which I suspect is rooted in birth trauma).
I'm not scared of the virus, it's all these restrictions against the inevitable that are tough to cope with. I would just want to teach as normal and take my chances the same as I did every other flu season or the occasional outbreaks of stuff like scarlet fever or measles.

adults aren't even doing it correctly, as i said, just stuffing them in bags then re-using in the next shop and the next....

but we can only get better, and kids will do too. we will learn....as others say, other countries do ok

Yes.

What a hideous thought, no way should kids be muzzled all day at school! Mine has been back 1 week and caught a cold and I’m glad. Kids needs to catch common colds they need to test and build their immune systems. I’ve just read a very interesting report from Professor Carl Heneghan who talks a whole lot of sense.

Theoretically, yes. If it makes the whole situation safer for pupils and especially teachers.

In practice... My younger DD would be fine. She was a bit sad she couldn't wear the mask that matches her school uniform.

My 9yo... She wears a mask in shops etc. She won't look at anyone, acknowledge she's been spoken to, or speak. She just shuts down. She does the same on video calls. She doesn't speak on the phone either. She's getting some spark back now she's back at school (and no school refusal this term!). I think she would have to withdraw from school rather than be in a room of mask wearers all day, even if she was granted exemption personally. She has n official diagnosis... She's just accepted as being a bit different.

No way. Not for primary or secondary .

@popfan dont you think the teachers need protecting? why should every other workplace suffer the masks if teachers aren't? and the kids spread covid amongst themselves then it comes home to families who wear masks all day but can contract covid in that time after school from their own kid!

This site gets worse. On another thread we have posters saying that 8 teachers who tested positive and had been to the same party but hadn't been in contact with any of the same pupils would have caught the virus off of 8 different asymptomatic pupils rather than at said party but on this thread we have posters suggesting 4 children in the same bubble will have caught the virus separately outside of school...

RingORingORoses
But this is the conundrum that is school. The governments had plenty of ways to organise schools, they could have asked who was willing to home school and helped those people out, they could have had specific days for different groups, instead they chose all in with a few rules thrown in to placate people.

@RingORingORoses have you seen children with masks? They fiddle with them constantly and no way are they being washed. It wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t less hygienic rather than more.

I wrote an email to my DD’s school head teacher whether my dd could wear it. She was happy to wear it in he class but he had rejected. I was shocked as he gave me very quick response as he would not think about it. It’s horrible idea that wearing a face mask ban in primary school. Terrible

Absolutely not.

@Goingdooolally yes ive seen them.....not seen anything worse than with adults, in fact i've been impressed with young kids mask wearing and social distancing. a bit of educating and coaching in school with peer groups and the won't be perfect but will embrace it better than adults!

No. Because I wouldn't want to wear a mask all day, every day. If that's the only option for them all to be back, I'd rather a hybrid version of half in / half at home so they can be sat further apart and not need masks - and I say that as a parent who works full time and really struggled with home schooling.

@ihearttc I appreciate what you’re saying, but I don’t want them to have to adjust to it. It’s inhumane and they have sacrificed so much and been forced to “adjust” to a disgraceful extent.

It hit me hard the other day. My DD had her HPV jab and was so scared. She very sadly pointed out that she wouldn’t even be able to give or receive a hug from her best friend. It is human nature to offer comfort to another person and that it being slowly conditioned out of us.

@RingORingORoses I’ve not seen one child social distancing! They don’t. My pupils, my own kids. I don’t expect them to. I did remind a couple of my older pupils who were hugging each other! We’ve been asked to encourage it “where possible” for older teenagers. We’re not in a hot spot mind you so things are a bit more relaxed. Think God as I don’t think I could do my job in that state of tension all day.

My 6 and 8 year old have been wearing them with no problems at their school and have been able to handle them safely and sensibly. I have also been teaching my own primary class wearing one too. I really do think it’s the way forward if we are to have any hope of keeping our kids in school.