We were doing ok until we opened all the schools....

[Bbq1]

After lockdown was lifted pre September and pubs, restaurants etc were opened we seemed to have a handle on Covid with cases, hospital admissions and deaths all declining fairly steadily. Since we released millions of school aged children and thousands of teachers etc back into the classroom- boom, cases and consequently deaths, are now growing very rapidly again. It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out that this would happen. I work in a school and I have a 15 year old starting his gcse's so I 100% don't want the schools to close but surely there must be a more workable solution? Couldn't schools be one week, one week off for different bubbles or alternate days? Nobody wants schools to shut but surely in the long term if we don't get something safer in place and just continue sending kids and adults in day after day, then eventually they will close again?

I will clarify that I follow the rules and do still socially distance. However I see friends, eat out, shop, exercise, live my life.

What I don't get is that 1 child has tested positive for Covid in my DD's year so the whole year plus his school bus (with mixed years) have been sent home today. (Know who it is as he's texted most of the year)

Now in my friends children's school in a different part of the country they've had a child test positive for Covid in Y7 but have only told the pupils on her desk & the desks within 3 metres of that child to isolate.
Luckily my friends DS wasn't anywhere near that child.

Both schools are in England so why are they being told to do different things by Public Health England?

@TheClitterati

Schools are back in my part of England and our rate is currently very low at 1.8 cases per 100k pop.

So I think perhaps it isn't necessarily about schools.

There’s the elephant in the room that everyone is scared to say on here.

@Washyourhands48 what 🐘 ?

Of course it’s because of schools. They should be open a week in week out. As for the economy any high school child that does not have a disability/Sen/anxiety etc can stay at home while their parents work. It’s not ideal but it’s for a very short time, we really don’t give children enough credit these days for what they are actually capable of.
Primary schools it’s harder but people had to cope in lockdown and that was every week.
I am wfm (self employed) and home educating six children while my dh works . You just have to get on with it sometimes.

The elephant in the room is that schools massively contribute to transmission where infection is high and / or rising.

Logically if infection rates or low there is no infection going into schools to cause all this. But that can change. It doesn’t have to ti if we’re careful though.

Areas of rising and high transmission are the areas where schools play a part and pupils and staff and families are at risk.

@emilybrontescorsett

What has struck me is this: The huge amounts of pupils roaming around the streets before school opening time and closing time. Really they should be going straight to school, alone, not meandering past school, calling for friends, who probably aren't in their bubble. Then all walking side by side in large groups. I'm all for schools being open but what I have seen is ridiculous.

So true. Disgorging schools are like a vast sea of bodies, with just centimetres between them. Colston Girls, Bristol, I mean YOU.

Yes, it's because of the schools. Predictable, and no matter what we shut down, numbers are going to go up until schools shut.
Lots of folk out at restaurants and so on during August - most were properly distanced - so no rises during that time except in pockets (eg. Leicester) which was for completely different reasons. As soon as schools open, numbers start to climb.

BUT...I agree that children need to be in school, it isn't good for their mental health or education not to be, parents need to work and the economy needs to be supported. So there's the conundrum. We can't shut the country down forever and a vaccine is some way off...

Kids meandering the streets chatting to mates are probably less at risk of catching it than they are in school, because they're outside.

So if seeing kids congregating outside makes you uncomfortable, it's much worse inside schools.

It's ridiculous to just blame the school kids!
If it wasn't for the selfish action of adults ignoring 'the rules' over the summer, the poor kids wouldn't be transmitting a virus that they were given by these selfish feckers not bc quarantining after coming back from specific countries plus other daft things these adults have done.

The blood is on these peoples hands.

You're wrong.

Opening the pubs was (and is) the problem. One man in Bolton who refused to quarantine after a holiday is directly responsible for the massive outbreak there.

Kids follow the rules, most normal people follow the rules. Pissed up arseholes do not. Its them we have to blame.

Yes the pub industry is on its arse, but its that that needs to close before anything else. I say all of this as a person who is certain they will get made redundant from that same industry within 6 months.

It is precisely because education is so important that we, or rather the government, should have engaged with the risks of schools being transmission hubs.

In areas of high transmission, schools shouldn't be just open with no limiting measures.

We are in a huge mess because parents were lied to and schools reopened just as the situation was worsening.

Parents should really demand safer school arrangements, as that will help them stay open longer.

@RepeatSwan absolutely agree.

I’ve worked in a nursery all the way through the pandemic. Less social distancing with those tiniest children than even school have with the older ones and far less pay for the risk so whilst I have sympathy for the teachers stance in this it’s a shame everyone forgets lots of people are working in less than ideal circumstances in regards to risk.

I don’t believe schools are to blame for the rise at this stage, although this may change in the weeks ahead. The current rise was happening before schools went back. I think it’s holidays abroad bringing back unfamiliar strains of the virus and people ignoring the quarantine rules along with lockdown fatigue in everyone else.

Everything hinges on a fully operational and efficient testing system but that isn’t in place. That would be the only way to keep the virus contained.

Now what will happen is that schools won’t know who has the virus and will have parents sending kids in who could be positive because they don’t want to miss work.

That may very well be true, it is a virus after all . However, it will always be waiting for when schools open up again . So , do we close schools forever ? Parents cant work , lose their jobs, home , kids turn feral?
It's like we are between a rock and a hard place .

Why do people assume that it’s schools open as they are now, or closed forever? Plenty of options in between. The issue is the lack of political will to spend money on education.

There's now more schools affected in my town than schools that aren't. Possibly more because parents of isolating children are being told not to share the situation and frighten others.

Maybe they should do a 'educate at home if you can' message to thin the numbers attending. It's impossible for it not to spread in schools with classes of 30 and children are just bringing it home to parents driving the spread further.

We're back to where we were in early March, aren't we - where people are not going to be happy unless we're put under house arrest.

At the moment infection rates are still very low. And they will stay that way IF all the "special" people stop saying they're special and follow the rules.

I'll be really annoyed if schools and colleges close again because some people are too selfish to wear masks and stay out of confined spaces if they won't. And particularly in areas where people are following the rules - why should we lose out because people in other areas think they are special, for whatever reason?

Schools need to stay open. Some schools have better staggering of their year groups. Locally one school has hoards of students who seem to collect on the pavement outside. All year groups. Three teachers supervising who seem to just stand next to each other and gossip. This school has since sent the whole of year 10 home to isolate because of infections. Luckily I don't send my DD there. Although we do have to walk past it (use other side to social distance) which is how I know.

School she is at has staggered starts/finish over an hour. She says there is nothing like the numbers/behaviour outside her school.

Lots of people not social distancing, not wearing masks properly and mixing at home. I really thought we would see a 'no households mixing indoors at home' on the new regulations.

Unfortunately that's how it is , it's not a option to close schools , I don't think they should of closed for some years anyway .
The younger ones will catch up but the teenagers will struggle.
We need to carry on but safely wfh if we can but schools / shops / restaurants can't and it's not a option to close those either .

@islockdownoveryet

Unfortunately that's how it is , it's not a option to close schools , I don't think they should of closed for some years anyway . The younger ones will catch up but the teenagers will struggle. We need to carry on but safely wfh if we can but schools / shops / restaurants can't and it's not a option to close those either .

Head in the sand. Nothing to see here.🤦‍♀️

It honestly makes me laugh how short sighted people are. They MUST stay open, we must carry on.

Have a look at the teacher thread, many schools are already on a knife edge for closing. Not through choice or because they have ran out of magic fairy dust to stay open. So many people have symptoms as you’d expect in a school in winter. They can’t get tested. School staff shortages will close schools because of the test system. Regardless of a poster on Mumsnet saying they must stay open because I have work.

It’s why schools are preparing for a full closure (behind the scenes). It’s also why Boris, oh so subtly hinted at it last night after insisting it was completely off the table only last week. They know what the issues are, which is why he mentioned it.

No one wants schools closed, no one.

Blended learning still is and was always the only way to keep everyone safe and learning effectively.

I have enormous sympathy for early years and nursery workers, I just don't know what the answer is there.

@TracyBeakerSoYeah

What I don't get is that 1 child has tested positive for Covid in my DD's year so the whole year plus his school bus (with mixed years) have been sent home today. (Know who it is as he's texted most of the year)

Now in my friends children's school in a different part of the country they've had a child test positive for Covid in Y7 but have only told the pupils on her desk & the desks within 3 metres of that child to isolate.
Luckily my friends DS wasn't anywhere near that child.

Both schools are in England so why are they being told to do different things by Public Health England?

I think the second school is following the advice of PHE. The first is taking a more cautious approach.

I guess it depends how confident a school is that they can identify who the close contacts would be.