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.

"Just 800 kids in yr6 got covid in the week ending 25 October?"
"Out of 700,000 kids the same age."

We have NO IDEA how many children got Covid that week or any other, because most of them are not eligible for testing, as they are either asymptomatic, or their symptoms don't match the adult ones.

Masks should be made compulsory (medical cases exempted) for all teachers and students. It happens from kindergarten upwards in other countries and those are the ones who have the lowest cases and most normal life again.

Just remember that on the internet people can claim to be anything they want.
Some people claiming to be teachers or NHS workers etc may not be.

Masks should be made compulsory
This is complete irrational -there is NO DATA that shows masks are anything more than a talisman to cling to.

@Susanwouldntlikeit

Masks should be made compulsory This is complete irrational -there is NO DATA that shows masks are anything more than a talisman to cling to.

bangs head on hands

@PeonyandDahlia

Just remember that on the internet people can claim to be anything they want. Some people claiming to be teachers or NHS workers etc may not be.

I’m not sure what point you’re making?

Do you think I’m lying in my OP?

The countries where they are wearing masks aren’t struggling to manage rising numbers of cases - they seem to be doing something right which we’re not.

@CallmeAngelina

"Just 800 kids in yr6 got covid in the week ending 25 October?" "Out of 700,000 kids the same age."

We have NO IDEA how many children got Covid that week or any other, because most of them are not eligible for testing, as they are either asymptomatic, or their symptoms don't match the adult ones.

Or their parents keep them off for a couple of days and send them back in without testing, because the family wants to avoid 14 day isolation without pay for the adults.

Of course they could have invested to make it safer with more money for supply teachers to cut class sizes down, created Nightingale Schools as well, repurposing other public spaces that are currently empty. They did NOTHING. Oh there was plenty they could do for education.

Where is the mythical tutoring program that was supposed to be part of the Summer Catch-up?

Downing Street press conference at 4pm today

Where is the mythical tutoring program that was supposed to be part of the Summer Catch-up?

A lot of the money is mysteriously unaccounted for.

www.tes.com/news/investigation-dfe-silent-missing-ps143m-tutor-cash

"The government has refused to account for £143 million of its Covid catch-up tutoring fund, after Tes found the cash has yet to be assigned.

And the Department for Education will not say whether it is sticking by its original pledge for the money – amounting to 40 per cent of the whole tutoring fund – to benefit pupils this academic year.

Heads have said it "beggars belief" that a "big chunk" of the money has not yet been allocated, and warns that there is a "real danger" the benefit of the fund will be lost "the longer it takes to turn it into tangible support"."

I'm disgusted by the "schools open at all costs" people.

The health of the staff matters more than your child going to school. If you want your child in school lobby for safer conditions for teachers.

Too late for the Welsh one who died last week.

To demand that your child is in school at the expense of the health of others is disgusting.

Thank you @LastGoldenDaysOfSummer it is a relief to hear somebody say this. Everyone should be requesting and supporting more protection in schools. Protecting adults and children. I am a teacher. Two of my own children (at home) have high needs - one mentally, one a severe disability. Me being alive and functioning is essential for their wellbeing. I am a real human and I am ECV. There are children in my school who may become very ill too. But this would all be less likely with masks and more funding into the school situation.

Schools should stay open if possible of course. However, they need to be open in a safer way. I feel sick that so much impact could have been avoided, but we forged ahead, pushing everyone into school at the same time at all costs without decent TT and T in place and with lip service mitigation. It's also piss poor that our narrow testing system doesn't even acknowledge well known other Covid symptoms or that kids present in a different way. The way the government and media portrayed parents trying to get tests as "over cautious" was disgraceful.

It is beyond disgusting what we are asking of teachers and vulnerable families. It's like knowing interest rates on a credit card are going to soar and waiting til they go through the roof before you try to pay some off, whilst having the money to do so much earlier, then scratching head as to why the bill is so high and you can't afford to pay. I would 100% back teachers wanting to strike. We can't eradicate all risk, but to encourage the perfect conditions for the spread of the virus in schools as schools "should stay open" with crap mitigation measures is beyond disgusting.

If universities hadn't provided tests for students, that would have made official numbers lower. Instead of blaming students, I think we should be grateful that many had to isolate who otherwise would not have done as they were asymptomatic. The real numbers would have ended up a lot worse. Of course we could have then pretended the situation was a lot more rosy, just like we do with schools. Kids don't get covid badly generally, but they also don't live alone. We also don't know long term effects.
As for schools being told not to use additional community buildings where they could etc, it's fucked up.

Thank goodness lots of firms where people were able to still work effectively from home pushed back on the government's "get back to the office" line or we'd be even more fucked.

Boris said schools should be "open" for everyone (not "open in a safe way"). Boris said "get Brexit done" (not "get brexit done well").

With all the will in the world, increasing PPE, sanitising, cleaning and hygiene further within the schools, will do little when it is undermined by the large numbers of parents congregating and not social distancing at the school gates twice a day. The school runs have been horrendous in my area, there are very few people sticking to social distancing and immediately letting their children mix on the playground with those in other year groups, despite being constantly asked not to by the heads. This is not just "our" school, but all of those in the area. Not one is managing to mitigate parent behaviour at the gates.

Sams - the school will have to act tough. Follow the social distancing at drop off and collection or your child won’t be able to attend school. Why should a small number ruin it for everyone else!

Not one is managing to mitigate parent behaviour at the gates.

I agree that needs to change.

How about staggered start times? Police at school gates enforcing social distancing?

The school I’m a governor of has staggered drop off and collection times with no parents on school premises.

To demand that your child is in school at the expense of the health of others is disgusting.

And how do you propose these parents do their essential jobs, put food on the table, pay their rent/mortgage if they aren’t facilitated by schools being open?

Equally, how does the government continue to fund health, education, other essential services, public sector salaries, if it forces significant chunks of tax revenue producing people out of their jobs and onto benefits, making them into takers from rather than contributors to the system? That’s top of the absolute economic carnage we’re facing?

And how do you propose these parents do their essential jobs, put food on the table, pay their rent/mortgage if they aren’t facilitated by schools being open?

So - you want me, as a teacher, to provide childcare for your child while you are at work. I understand that.

In return, would it be possible for you to campaign vociferously for my health and safety rights, even if that is only because I cannot provide continuity of childcare for you if I am ill?

In return, would it be possible for you to campaign vociferously for my health and safety rights, even if that is only because I cannot provide continuity of childcare for you if I am ill?

Are you doing that for food production staff? The police? Those working in social care? All of whom will continue to work regardless of lockdown.

I’ll support measures that teachers want to implement, but it is fundamentally the job of the unions to ‘campaign vociferously’.

Press conference at Number 10 will now be 5pm not 4

There's some astonishing magical thinking around schools. Clap your heels three times and say 'schools must stay open'.

Or you know actually try some science based strategies like mask wearing at secondary schools and opening classroom windows wide. Try blended learning at secondary to avoid classes of 30+.

Or.. nah, magical thinking.

@Susanwouldntlikeit have a read and watch: english.elpais.com/society/2020-10-28/a-room-a-bar-and-a-class-how-the-coronavirus-is-spread-through-the-air.html

How dare some posters say that parents are selfish for wanting schools/nurseries to stay open? Either me or my DH wouldn't be able to work if our DD couldn't go to nursery and then where would that leave us - unable to pay our mortgage and unable to feed ourselves