Childs School insisting on face masks in lessons

[GrapefruitsAreNotTheOnlyFruit]

My son's school are now insisting face masks are worn at all times indoors except when eating. It's secondary age group. I think this is going to impact on learning but I don't know what if anything I can do about it. I don't know how effective it will be either. If they are supposed to wear them for hours I think they will be fiddling with them, taking them on and off etc. What do people think?

Good!

Probably because of a fucking global deadly pandemic?!

@GrapefruitsAreNotTheOnlyFruit

Doesn't it impact on communication? I mean often in shops I find misunderstandings happening where people are having to repeat themselves, raise their voices to be understood etc. I can't imagine a French lesson.

And how effective are cloth masks anyway? Any teachers doing it in the UK? Wondering what your experiences are.

Yes, I teach languages and it does make it harder to hear people in whole-class work. Not so bad with groupwork.

You just get on with it and talk a bit louder, use gesture a bit more, write what people have said in case others didn't hear it or check meanings, echo, clarify etc. No big deal.

@NC4NW123

Oh these comments make me despair 😩 can’t these poor children be allowed some sort of normality.

Tell me about it.

What did the official communication from the school say about it?

*You just get on with it and talk a bit louder, use gesture a bit more, write what people have said in case others didn't hear it or check meanings, echo, clarify etc. No big deal.a

Exactly. It's only an issue if you choose to make it one.

The point is kids are way more adaptable and resilient than we generally give them credit for. No need for drama, they learn, play and have fun and forget about the masks. Mine are thriving back at school.

My older one is doing a GCSE language and the younger one is doing two languages as part of the normal curriculum and as kingsleyhimself said it's not ideal but they're still able to learn, a few adjustments but they're getting there.

Some of our teachers actually wear a mini lapel type microphone to be heard over the class. Secondary teaching friends say it’s helping in many ways as it cuts out all tge low level mutterings and chit chat!

@NC4NW123

Oh these comments make me despair 😩 can’t these poor children be allowed some sort of normality.

A global pandemic does tend to reduce normality a bit.

I think wearing masks and keeping schools open is a bit more "normality" than an open/close cycle due spreading cases being exacerbated by not wearing masks.

Good about time. What’s the problem? I think it should be compulsory to wear them outdoors too for everyone not just schools.

Good, I wish more were!

All schools should have masks in classes

Just for balance as everyone seems to be for it. I wouldn't like this at all. I can't see how it doesn't affect communication, I had to wear one for a hospital appointment a while a go and I just gave up explaining in the end as he couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand him it was a nightmare. It took 10 tries to get him to understand one statement.
They are hot and uncomfortable and I am avoiding going anywhere you need to wear them so basically avoiding going anywhere.
So glad children under 11 are exempt in Wales. But I would feel very bad for any secondary age children if this comes in as a rule.

@NC4NW123
possibly because these are not normal times?
Before Covid hit I use to think how lucky I was to live in the time & place I did - & how long before something drastic happened - most of us have lived in this sheltered bubble (except on personal individual levels) of a society where these kind of world wide issues have never hit us & our society just roles on.
Please don't think I am ignoring the insecure poverty or violence or terrorist acts or crime that many have experienced or illness & disability in our society but there is a difference in insecurity & shifting of boundaries & the feeling that things would just roll on as before inmost of our previous lives.
Maybe we should really learn something from this - ie empathy -sadly I don't think this is happening

I wish my children's schools would do the same. I have to wear a mask all day at work and it's no big deal, but at the moment just over 40% of the pupils at DS's primary school are in self-isolation. I think most parents would like measures that will reduce spread throughout schools.

Utterly ludicrous, good bye to discipline and concentration..and they don't even get the bloody virus that badly.

If people have to wear a mask for a ten minute visit to a practically empty supermarket, then it seems completely logical that they should be worn at all times in schools. Unless of course, masks are generally ineffective and making them mandatory was just a sop to pacify the hysterical mob.

My kids have been wearing it since April. Back to school. Also did summer camp. No communication issues including for the almost 4 year old.

@BillywilliamV

Utterly ludicrous, good bye to discipline and concentration..and they don't even get the bloody virus that badly.

Why would that happen in UK schools when it hasn’t happened in other parts of the world?

In fact because it was compulsory to wear masks everywhere our kids went to parks and were able to socialise much earlier than in the U.K. As I said some summer camps opened, schools are now opening (K-3 is in person for now and the rest are opening up) and we have seen no crazy jump in numbers. So my kids actually didn’t mind wearing a mask if they could go to the playground and see their friends.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

I wish it was compulsory in all schools, for the staff and children. Where else can you go in large groups with no distancing without one? If they are needed elsewhere they are needed in schools.

Agreed.

Excellent, all schools should be doing this.

Good, what a sensible headteacher.

Good.

Wearing a mask at home (a similar environment to a classroom, where a group of people are in close contact for a prolonged period of time indoors) has been observed to be 79% effective at preventing transmission before symptoms start. Students who have symptoms will be self isolating so a siginificant amount of transmission in schools will during the incubation period. Masks seem to be effective at preventing that and could be very useful in preventing transmission within schools.

www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/wearing-face-masks-at-home-might-help-ward-off-covid-19-spread-among-family-members/

Wearing a mask in the classroom is a lot less disruptive to education than having to self isolate every time someone in your bubble tests positive.