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?

It's so draining just waiting.

Clearly it'll spread in schools. So we only have two choices - ignore the spread or try to limit it.

What we've got now is so stressful.

My preference stated everywhere is limit the spread.

But tbh I just wish the government would admit it is happy to accept the spread, because I feel that's what they are really doing. They should be honest with parents.

From the health experts they have come out and said it’s not through schools or work the virus is spreading but through social settings vast majority in house parties or pubs and clubs

schoolsweek.co.uk/availability-of-testing-key-to-safe-school-reopenings-say-medical-officers/

“The international real-world evidence suggests that reopening of schools has usually not been followed by a surge of Covid-19 in a timescale that implies schools are the principal reason for the surge. There has, however, not been sufficient time to say this with confidence.”

I think they’re waiting for parents to take their kids out, teachers to strike or unions to put their foot down- or just for kids and teachers to die. This needs to happen before schools are shut so government doesn’t get blamed for kids missing out on school🙁

100%think more chance of this being more schools than pubs (a huge amt of pubs here in Ireland are still closed) but not fully schools, I honestly believe it's a mixture of everything opening- we aren't being told to stay home to stay safe anymore, we're being told its all about house visits. They're not saying try to limit what shops and cafes you go into because they can't. Saying that chances are kids are carrying it home too. And they had other options, they could have asked sahm would they homeschool or half homeschool to get numbers down. Unfortunately we are where we are and their only solution seems to be house visits

100%think more chance of this being more schools than pubs (a huge amt of pubs here in Ireland are still closed) but not fully schools, I honestly believe it's a mixture of everything opening- we aren't being told to stay home to stay safe anymore, we're being told its all about house visits. They're not saying try to limit what shops and cafes you go into because they can't. Saying that chances are kids are carrying it home too. And they had other options, they could have asked sahm would they homeschool or half homeschool to get numbers down. Unfortunately we are where we are and their only solution seems to be limiting house visits

@allnatnee1 we had to self isolate as a family for a week again because one of them came back with a cough and cold.

I'm interested why you chose to self-isolate - were you unsure it was a cold or did the school ask you to?
I kept my child home for a couple of days with what I could clearly see was a very typical cold, no temp (yes I told the school) but I went to work as normal. I think we have to hold our nerve and trust our instincts with regards to the frequent common illnesses that children catch.

it’s not through schools or work the virus is spreading but through social settings

Honestly? How can that possibly be? Why should close contact with other people in schools (which it is - there's not social distancing!) be safer than in social settings?

I'm a teacher. No problems at our school and we are in a BAME-heavy community (whom it has been found are more susceptible to Covid).

You absolutely can't do one week on one week off. Disastrous for working families.

And as others have pointed out, other factors have contributed way more (e.g. pubs reopening).

Furthermore, "cases and consequently deaths are growing rapidly again" is not entirely true. Cases may be going up but this does not seem to be translating proportionally to hospital admissions and deaths. If this holds true then does it really matter if cases go up? It seems to be mostly young people getting it who don't need to be hospitalised. 37 people died of Covid yesterday in the UK. THIRTY-SEVEN. That's such a vanishingly small percentage of the population that it can barely be calculated and definitely does NOT merit everything stopping AGAIN.

@stayathomer LOL most people here don't know what homeschooling really is. Most people think homeschooling is what has been happening (school sending work home) when actually that's just glorified homework. Actual homeschooling means you do it all on your own - curriculum design and everything. I can't see many SAHPs being behind that. It's a full-time job in itself.

Oh FFS the increase is down to the summer relaxation not to the last 2-3 weeks of schools being open. 2 cases in our school of 1500, both from outside sources.

Schools need to reopen, for many many reasons. The virus is here to stay for the time being and we have to adjust to that. We cannot fuck up the education and prospects of kids by closing schools again. It would be a betrayal of that generation.

@RepeatSwan

It's so draining just waiting.

Clearly it'll spread in schools. So we only have two choices - ignore the spread or try to limit it.

What we've got now is so stressful.

My preference stated everywhere is limit the spread.

But tbh I just wish the government would admit it is happy to accept the spread, because I feel that's what they are really doing. They should be honest with parents.

And maybe be honest with teachers who consequently are often mothers themselves? Not you @Repeat but the attitude on here of many seems to be that schools and the school staff are there to serve them and their childcare needs. So many people seem to forget we too are people, with lives - children and partners, vulnerable family members, our own health issues...We are trying to protect our own and our families health whilst also trying to protect and educate the children in our care. Nobody seems to worry about what happens when OUR children's school bubbles are sent home. We're not wfh and able to homeschool but we would have to take time off to do that. I love my job but it is a stressful unknown atm to be working in a school environment.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. My kids need their education however I work in a school kitchen and have caught it within a week and a half of us being back. In that time I didn’t even step foot in a shop or anywhere else. I only went to work and did the school run (both whilst wearing a mask).

Absolute rubbish

That's all.

@Bbq1 for the blooming hard work of all in schools

No bubbles closed at our 350 pupil primary yet. Barely any social distancing from parents and only a handful of us wear masks so it's a miracle no covid outbreaks yet.. but add yo that the fact that the local kids are all still playing out together. I know these kids from the area amd know they're in mostly different bubbles at school. Bloody parents. Keep your children in.

Of course it’s the schools going back, I have been saying this for days now, I said it would happen before they went back. Kids are spreading it at school and every child goes home to a different group of people. It’s absolutely bonkers. Education is not more important than life. They should take the kids back out of school immediately but I know they won’t because they need parents working. There should have been a reliable track and trace system in place before the children went back to school.

DoughnutWorryBeHappy really hope you feel better soon

YANBU OP. Cases were on the rise before schools reopened, but the rate of increase has rocketed since then. Terrifyingly in my area. Levels were looking ok when DS went back to school, now we are in local lockdown. It's at least a sevenfold increase in 3 weeks where I am.

DS's school has had 6 cases already in 3 weeks and I am a nervous wreck sending him each day. There's at least 50 schools with cases confirmed locally according to our local paper.

There's 6 groups of kids self isolating already, so a blended approach might actually give secondary kids more consistency than they have now. I am wondering how bad it needs to get before they implement tier 2 of the plan for secondary schools www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions/how-schools-can-plan-for-tier-2-local-restrictions

I want DS in school but I also want to feel that he is safe (and by extension, that we are safe - I am clinically vulnerable).

The test and trace shambles is at least part of the problem, and needs sorting urgently. There's other things they could do too to make schools safer without closing them, but there doesn't seem to be the political will there unfortunately.

For anyone else worried about the test and trace shambles and how it affects safety in schools, there's a petition here if you would like to sign. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/551300

Now that parents will be working from home, perhaps they should have the choice to home tutor with video recordings of lessons or go to school. I'm sure significant numbers of parents would prefer them to be at home and less children in schools means less risk of transmission.

We wasn’t doing ok. The north was still spiking. But London and the south were ok so that was all that mattered!