@noblegiraffe
I was just talking about this on another thread. Heads and teachers cannot be honest about whether they think the situation is safe or not because they have to manage the anxieties of their staff, parents and children.
They don't have the power to change anything, so what will telling them the measures are inadequate achieve?
Then they come on MN and post what they really think and they're lambasted by posters saying 'all the teachers I know talk about how happy they are to be back in the classroom' not realising that maybe it's those same teachers that are posting.
A head of a friends school, which has had no cases or closures, has proudly shared with parents the % of schools in the area which have had closures as per council info disclosed to heads. Some schools have had complete closures.
I do wonder what other heads in the same area who have had closures have told their parents. I'm not sure that they would be taking quite the same line.
Its also telling what the head hasn't said to parents. The staff at this school have been struggling all the same to a degree unheard of previously. There's no outside cover available so they've had to juggle the situation as best they can. They are all on their knees. There no proper breaks and the staff have to cover breaks in a way which isn't normal. Stress levels are through the roof.
They are fortunate to be in a position where some of their TAs have teacher level qualifications and have been able to step into the void when teachers have had child care issues or been isolating pending a test. This is part of the benefit of the school being in a particular affluent area and having the means to have TAs who are above average (even if they aren't paid to that grade). This wouldn't be the case in other areas of the same council.
So even the fact the school has managed to remain open is something of a reflection of inequality. Other schools with very similar problems would have been forced to close.
Even then the response by some parents to certain things has been decidedly shitty. The gap between what parents know and what their expectations are and the reality of the pressures the schools are under is pretty vast.
I would imagine that since cases in deprived areas of the NW are far higher and they have less resources to cope with a problem that if the data for school closures by school catchment are ward deprivation were available you would see some pretty stark patterns emerging.
And thats before we start talking about council level closures or even regional ones.
My point is however closures occur they are massively compounded by deprivation. The conversations about how planned closures v localised closure affect the most deprived and vulnerable more rather miss the point.