Schools MUST stay open.

[motherrunner]

I hear this a lot on MN.

Schools maybe ‘open’ but they’re not really depending on where you live.

I’m in Tier 2, due to go into Tier 3 next week prior to the lockdown rules.

Since Sept Yr 10 have isolated twice (4 weeks out of a 8 week half term), Yr 12 and 13 three times (6 weeks of a 8 week half term). My own DS is isolating due to being in contact with a positive until next week and I am isolating until next week as one of my pupils tested positive (and before anyone asks why I wasn’t 2m away well let’s just say, that’s school life).

Before lockdown in March my school had to close just to the numbers of staff off, at one point admin staff were supervising classes.

This morning I read a comment from a poster on the ‘lockdown my thread that teachers just have to ‘hope’ they get a mild viral load. Have we become so disillusioned with this virus that because “schools must stay open” then we minimise they health of school staff?

I am happy to be back teaching my pupils, I’m not happy that I feel unsafe. I am not happy that other workplaces have ‘Covid secure’ measures but I have sanitiser and a ‘hope for the best’ attitude.

So, if you really want schools to stay open then please email your MP and voice concerns about safety and hopefully we can stay open in a meaningful way because there’s a difference between ‘schools open’ with us delivering a quality education and ‘schools open’ with a body providing childcare.

@GoldenOmber I teach in a classroom that doesn’t even have a window 🤷‍♀️

so wrong and pathetically ignorant I dont i know where to start. But if you want to make childish insults do carry on

Oh the irony coming from you!

@MrsHerculePoirot You are so right.

I don’t often see eye to eye with my SLT but I really feel for Heads at the moment. This is their holiday too. We don’t get paid for weekends or holidays yet they are in charge of the contract trading 24/7. The stress must be awful.

*contract tracing

*contact tracing

I give up!

Ventilation is mentioned on the government guidelines for schools. Opening doors and windows is advised but there is so much disparity in school buildings. Some windows can hardly open or are so old they're painted shit. some v modern buildings don't even have opening windows and rely on artificial ventilation but in some schools there is a question as to whether they could make the problem worse not better. The fact that schools have been given no funds to address these important issues is another matter. It's appalling and so shortsighted. Even if we ever get out of this pandemic good ventilation should be a necessity regardless.

[quote motherrunner]@GoldenOmber I teach in a classroom that doesn’t even have a window 🤷‍♀️[/quote]
When we had a big row over blended learning here in Scotland back in summer, there were lots of community halls, churches and so on saying schools could use their space. But local authorities weren’t given funding and time and guidance to actually make this happen, so it didn’t (and then blended learning got dropped and everyone forgot about it).

I know it would be a massive logistical hassle to make this work but surely it’s the sort of thing the government should be providing resources to do, even if it’s just a Plan B that never needs to be used. I don’t get how it’s nearly November and we’re still at “hmm, ventilation is important, maybe we should do something about that?” I mean FFS.

It's so sad to read how many people seem to simply not care about school staff. Apparently we are expendable in order to 'save the children'. Two things here. 1. We work in schools because we care about children, don't paint us out like we don't have their best interests at heart. 2. It's the same language we used first time round for those in the NHS. 'angels', 'sacrificing' etc. No, we are workers and we deserve (legally and morally) to be safe at work

A lot of us do care, honestly. And I say that as the parent of two teenagers. I also worry about the numbers of school staff who will end up on long term sick leave, dead or just having to leave the profession because it is too dangerous for them.

There is a strange denial among some people that children can catch and spread this virus.

There is also a strange denial about the greater impact on the economy of not locking down now.....in order to get things open for Christmas. Christmas isn't just about food/wine/ partying, it is also the time of year when many people spend a lot of money and so, this year, could save jobs in hospitality and retail and even the tourist industry.

I'm going to be flamed for this, but I'm fed up with hearing about how we should all make sacrifices for children. Frankly, children may be future tax payers, but right now we need to be protecting current tax payers - not just the small number who are parents of primary age children. Sorry.

My autistic child absolutely cannot go without regular schooling. Everything is delivered through his special school: speech therapy, occupational therapy.

He regressed so much in lockdown that he was unrecognisable. We only just got our boy back and I can't lose him again.

@Piggywaspushed

Germany also heavily invests in funding for schools.

This is the main problem funding! Whether schools are closed or not they arent getting any more funding. Maybe they are keeping schools open because actually they arent going to change anything for them if they do close , they'll just be re opened as they are now.

Tier 3 here. Kids in primary and secondary. Primary has good control with only 1 burst bubble, although lots of kids isolating short term due to waiting for test results
After symptoms.

Secondary is out of control. Both kids have been isolated by school at least once. One year is now on the fourth isolation. Attendance is 50% at best.

They are doing their own extension of half term by going online for a week to try and wrangle back control.

@SecretSpAD 100% agree, common sense has gone awol sadly.

@SecretSpAD

I just wanted to say thank you. I read your post and burst into tears. I know it wasn’t particularly emotional, but it really hit a nerve for me and it’s nice to see someone genuinely understand and care.

I can't understand why, when schools are the priority, that nothing has been done to help us stay open.
My husband's company has installed screens, give everyone as many disposable masks as they need, gloves, sanitizer, temp checks, full time cleaners wiping 'touch points' with anti viral cleaning products regularly through the day and fogger machines to use in offices and on machinery.

I have to provide my own mask, hand sanitizer and desk wipes. The school stocks of sanitizer quickly ran out. There is no extra cleaning. The students are definitely not following strict hygiene procedures. Social distancing is impossible. Students with symptoms being sent in because "mum thinks it's just a cough".

£12 billion wasted on a track and trace system that is unfit for purpose, over £500 million on eat out to help out, nothing for schools........shows exactly how much of a priority we are.

@mintyfreshh although I sympathise greatly, this is an example of people not putting things into perspective. Please spare a thought for the 46,000 lives lost and the ones to come.

If they lockdown regardless of schools being open I will not be sending my child in. Her school lacks decent management there's multiple mixing of bubbles and it's a very small school so absolutely no need for mixing of bubbles. One of the local primary's issued an email 4 days into the half term because of an outbreak. If they had stuck to smaller class sizes the spread wouldn't have been as bad as it is now.

It's SO hard to know how to balance the needs and priorities of different areas, ages and vulnerabilities. It's not a decision I'd like to have to make.

I agree that something has to change for these senior schools in tier 3 (or sometimes not even tier 3). But I don't think the solution is national closure. That's almost like 'race to the bottom thinking.' There's no point in damaging the education and mental health of children in schools which are functioning well just because there is a need to act elsewhere.

I know that throws up awful inequality but I don't think making everyone's experience equally bad is the answer. Instead we need urgent, targeted help for Y11 and 13 teaching in badly affected areas. Whether that's top of the range virtual teaching or small group tuition in place of traditional school. It would obviously need money and organisation that is not currently available.

I'm in rural tier 1 in a private school. No cases. 15-18 children per class. Already struggling to stay afloat financially due ti Covid. If we were forced to shut physically, I think that would be it for us. We'd never reopen. And there's no need for us to close. We've worked so hard and spent so much money on opening as safely as posdible with as much value added opportunity as possible still happening. It seems wrong to have to close down, disappoint all those children and parents and probably lose our jobs and business when there is no local need for it at all. Right now, anyway.

Just on a point of order , Prof Semple said women aged 18(not 20) to 30 were disproportionately arriving in hospital and was very clear that some of those women worked ;in education'.

He said it was a very fine line to tread in terms of secondaries remaining open but said he believed it was entirely possibly 'some' might have to close.

he also said the data is not yet clear (so they definitely ahve some) but it was evident that secondary pupils were playing a key role in transmission. The data on this would 'become clearer' this week.

On the topic of ventilation : many schools are very poorly ventilated . Most have limiters to prevent wide opening, some classrooms don't have windows or opening windows, changing rooms are packed and not ventilated and modern new build schools often have no ventilation. It's expensive. It is all well and good saying 'open windows'. In practice this is not even always possible.

18-40, sorry!

I actually can’t believe people are saying it’s about free childcare!

I am now genuinely worried my children are slipping behind educationally. Times this by a nation, the long term impact is very very scary.

We need to unite behind our teachers fight for better safer environments for them to allow schools to stay open. The half arsed attempts the government has done so far is embarrassing!

Government prioritising education over other things isn’t about children mattering more than adults, it’s about what tools the government has at its disposal to make up for the damage. There are levers the government can pull to make up for purely financial damage - they can borrow, they can put schemes like furlough in place, they can slash business rates. They don’t have those levers for education. There is no way to furlough educational progress.

You’re free to think the current Tory government is just being impractically sentimental about the needs of children if you want, but I think Marcus Rashford might want a word!

@SecretSpAD

It's so sad to read how many people seem to simply not care about school staff. Apparently we are expendable in order to 'save the children'. Two things here. 1. We work in schools because we care about children, don't paint us out like we don't have their best interests at heart. 2. It's the same language we used first time round for those in the NHS. 'angels', 'sacrificing' etc. No, we are workers and we deserve (legally and morally) to be safe at work

A lot of us do care, honestly. And I say that as the parent of two teenagers. I also worry about the numbers of school staff who will end up on long term sick leave, dead or just having to leave the profession because it is too dangerous for them.

There is a strange denial among some people that children can catch and spread this virus.

There is also a strange denial about the greater impact on the economy of not locking down now.....in order to get things open for Christmas. Christmas isn't just about food/wine/ partying, it is also the time of year when many people spend a lot of money and so, this year, could save jobs in hospitality and retail and even the tourist industry.

I'm going to be flamed for this, but I'm fed up with hearing about how we should all make sacrifices for children. Frankly, children may be future tax payers, but right now we need to be protecting current tax payers - not just the small number who are parents of primary age children. Sorry.

Agree and thank you.

I think it’s very hit and miss at the moment with schools. We’re primary and have had no positive cases yet. My head has managed things pretty well, however, schools have been given little guidance and support. Currently all extra provisions and Covid measures have to come out of our school budget.

I do think schools should stay open but I think more support (including financial) should be given.

I know it would be a massive logistical hassle to make this work but surely it’s the sort of thing the government should be providing resources to do, even if it’s just a Plan B that never needs to be used. I don’t get how it’s nearly November and we’re still at “hmm, ventilation is important, maybe we should do something about that?” I mean FFS.

The DfE guidance is absolutely explicit on this point : it must not happen. No explanation as to why. Presumably because thinning the class numbers out requires more staff!

Rubbish post quoting : sorry. the 'it ' in question is using community buildings.