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 think this is interesting. If you look at the death rate graph in this article, this year's death rate, including all the COVID deaths, is significantly lower than the death rate in the early 2000s and the same as 2008, when there was no recorded pandemic. No one thought we should close schools then.

Just the odd 1/8 of the population plus teacher now in mass gatherings daily. With no SD.
So which other countries have done this?

More to do with pubs reopening I think. Drink and social distancing etc don't go together. Binge drinking etc in the towns and cities on a night are the issue for me.

I know pubs were open before schools however I think the pubs and bars is where the major problem lies

It can stay in the air 6h and on surfaces. I wouldnt do half days.
It is spreading too fast in the schools.

Interesting also how everyone has ignored that the gov said it was schools on US tv.

And we are still going ahead and starting universities, when thousand of young adults crisscross the country and pack themselves into a communal bus to get into their classes.....

Madness!

Rubbish - it's workplaces here, hospitality venues and university students causing issues here. Very few cases in schools

Cases are rapidly rising in my area presumably because of all the tourists who came down here. From having been near the bottom of the table we are now midway. It's obvious that the return to school and university was going to cause a surge in cases but as some have said already, worse is yet to come because the consequences are still to be properly felt. We might as well admit that any idea of 'getting back to normal' is wishful thinking. Schools had months to plan an online programme of lessons and haven't, but then the government had all that time to plan track and trace and that hasn't worked well has it? From what I can gather, school is going to be disrupted continually when cases emerge so it will be one week on and one week off at best. How will all those people who are claiming closing schools will wreck their chances of working/their child's education going to cope with that? The sooner we face up to the fact we can't beat this until there is a vaccine the better. I'd close schools and colleges tomorrow.

Cases were increasing before my kids even started back. Some schools also delayed re opening as number students tested positive after returning from holiday. I think it is also down to people not quarantining after returning from abroad. I don’t understand why people were rushing back to miss quarantine so they could get back to there life straightaway not even knowing whether they could had it. Symptoms can take number days to appear so many most likely had it already

[quote ProperlyPdOff]@noblegiraffe - the year groups with the 4 of the case have been sent home for 2 weeks though - so they are containing the cases! No-one can pass on Covid-19 while isolated at home.[/quote]
That may be 'containing the cases' - but it also means the school isn't open ....

Of course, if those year groups aren't in school for 14 days, there won't be any more cases in school in that year group. However, there is absolutely nothing to stop - and in fact everything to suggest - the year group only being back for a couple of days before having to isolate again for 14 days....

So it is 'containment', but at the cost of closing the school regularly to a significant minority, or increasingly a majority, of pupils.

Israel is being hammered as well. 6000 cases for them. They were like 10 cases in June. School reopening was the reason there.

Just reading an article on Israel. Didn’t realise their deaths were so low.

Israel has reported almost 170,000 cases and more than 1,150 deaths

You are absolutely right OP. The one key thing that stops this virus is social distancing- which is completely impossible in classrooms. Gavin Williamson needs to announce far stricter and mandatory requirements for schools to become as COVID safe as is humanly possible :
Masks should be mandatory in all corridors and communal indoor areas.
Temperature checks should be happening at least twice a day. (my daughter was at school last Thursday with an undetected temperature of 38.2! and she won't be the only one).
Children with persistent coughs/colds etc should be required to wear masks in classrooms.
Classroom windows MUST be open at all times for ventilation.
As someone who works in a school and has two school age children I know that these things are not happening in most schools.
We all want schools to remain open but not at any cost!

Holiday makers from all countries allowed in without screening..I dont mean at airports but countries such as madeira and cyprus have made it mandatory that you have a negative test result. England has no safeguards

Gavin Williamson needs to announce far stricter and mandatory requirements for schools to become as COVID safe as is humanly possible :Masks should be mandatory in all corridors and communal indoor areas.Temperature checks should be happening at least twice a day. (my daughter was at school last Thursday with an undetected temperature of 38.2! and she won't be the only one).Children with persistent coughs/colds etc should be required to wear masks in classrooms.Classroom windows MUST be open at all times for ventilation.

Agree 100% - doing this is the ONLY thing that will keep schools open.

@Sossen agree with you 100%

@Annie1919 - I don't disagree with your suggestions for what to do to make schools covid safe. But honestly, it will make no difference given how the high school kids get in and out of the schools. They travel in huge groups, laughing and chatting with each other. Strangling and poking.... exchanging phones, etc... all this across year groups... so it is a feast for a virus to spread.

I can see that schools will have to close or at any rate a constant open and shutting of bubbles due to cold scares as is already happening. I don’t know if I can cope with any more home schooling. I am barely coping now with kids back to school. After the kids were in school for a couple of days, we had to self isolate as a family for a week again because one of them came back with a cough and cold. We have been careful and it can only have been caught at school. A cold is a coronavirus and that has ripped through the school even if it isn’t Covid 19, it shows that straight away things are spreading quickly. It was so depressing going straight back to juggling work and home school. I am now thinking that I will have to give up work if schools close as I don’t think I can do this for another six months. I love my job and we need my income but I think I might have a breakdown if I carry on. There doesn’t seem to be any provision for working parents in any of the government plans. I do realise though that many have lost their jobs or their loved ones lives and therefore in a far worse position than I am but I still can’t help the rising fear of trying to do two full time jobs.

This is a worry OP and I totally understand. I work in education myself, so like you I see the same issues as you on a daily basis.
With the best will in the world, strict social distancing in a school is a pipe dream with such large numbers, and makes me wonder how much longer this can go on for.
At the same time, with some persuasion from Boris, many people have returned to work, so it's not totally the schools' fault that there has been such an uptick in infections.
I for one want the schools to remain open 'normally' for as long as possible, as childrens' education is so vitally important, but it has to be safe too, for both children and staff. That's the $64m question and no-one really has the answer.
We just have to wait this one out I'm afraid.

@IloveJKRowling

Gavin Williamson needs to announce far stricter and mandatory requirements for schools to become as COVID safe as is humanly possible :Masks should be mandatory in all corridors and communal indoor areas.Temperature checks should be happening at least twice a day. (my daughter was at school last Thursday with an undetected temperature of 38.2! and she won't be the only one).Children with persistent coughs/colds etc should be required to wear masks in classrooms.Classroom windows MUST be open at all times for ventilation.

Agree 100% - doing this is the ONLY thing that will keep schools open.

This would be great if we could open windows, but many modern school buildings do not have opening windows! Mandatory masks are a good thing though,

Our secondary school is full of supply teachers. No idea where all the teachers have gone. Not much learning is happening though.

I think the school cases and associated closure will just ramp up until schools can't function.
We have schools already with kitchens and school offices closed due to positive cases. Children now have no hot food. Teaching and TA staff awaiting test results and the HT trying to do the job of all those missing, admin, lunches, first aid, etc etc. Schools will lose too many adults to be safe to open.

My girls school has had 3cases in 3days,different year groups.only sending home those in direct contact(less two metres) rest year group watch and wait whilst attending still.suggesting maybe advisable wear masks in classrooms.
Oh and end email remind us after-school.clubs reopening on Monday....

And this is secondary setting

I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad...
This would be great if we could open windows, but many modern school buildings do not have opening windows

And in our old Victorian school buildings, that haven't seen any investment by the Tory gov, the windows would just fall out if touched...still, there's the need for good ventilation solved....😂