Schools staying open during lockdown

[JulieGS]

Is anyone else worried about sending our children to school during lockdown?

The NEU has launched a petition calling for schools to be closed - you can find it here:

actionnetwork.org/forms/close-schools-and-colleges-now

Natt66

There is disparity among staff, sometimes one teacher will begin with covid at the forefront, others are simply not that worried about it. Those who are however can only verbally ask students to wear their masks and practise good hygiene... There comes a point where the message gets lost, its just noise...

Like everywhere, some students don't care about covid, some students do, some Staff are very worried, some are not.

This is why there needs to be a clear mandatory line that those who don't worry or wear masks properly or won't open windows get reprimanded.

It's this wishy washy and frankly deeply confusing messages that is working agaisnt us. Some students, quite diligent and careful think they are safe in their bubbles and they can't catch covid!!

@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer

Let's not worry about the staff getting ill as long as the childcare is there, eh?

The health of the staff matters. I hear precious little understanding of this from parents, just demands that schools stay open and to hell with their health.

Nice.

^ This

Fuck sake. Let's just lock our kids up and let them fester, eh?

@PickAChew

Fuck sake. Let's just lock our kids up and let them fester, eh?

Some would lock up forever 🙄 sad they cannot actually look at the real risk which is mininiscule to under 65s

Fuck the youngsters, eh?

It’s not just about lack of education, it’s their development on every level. Those calling for schools to close ought to remember that this is ALL that our young people have. They cannot do anything else.

So yes, they cannot do the normal stuff you probably did yourself. They can’t go shopping with friends, they can’t go to the cinema, hang out in a group. Their clubs are cancelled.

When will some utter fuckwits understand that we have a generation of kids here who have NO social lives. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. Nowhere to wear a special new item of clothing. Nothing to look forward to.

Do people honestly not understand that these kids are having their lives put on hold when they haven’t finished developing?

Fine, put my adult life on hold - I’m grown - don’t lock our children up. It’s such a fucking disgraceful attitude.

So why not argue for better protection measures in schools? The worse protected schools are while open, the longer this lockdown will drag on and the the longer it will be before they can actually go out socially.

@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer How dare you not care for the health of teachers and children?

Ohhh be quiet! I’m frontline for a START!! Do you see me complaining? You forget nurses and Drs need their kids to attend school otherwise how will you be treated when you fall ill? Will you still be harping on about free childcare? What a hypocrite your children are grown up but yet if they were small you WOULD rely upon a school for childcare most likely. Disgusting.

It's almost as though some want teachers to suffer. The hatred for teachers on Mumsnet is very strange.

@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer
So you deny implying we’re horrible human beings who don’t care about teachers THEN IN THE SAME POST say we want teachers to suffer and hate them! Couldn’t make this up! 😂😂😂

Yes, I genuinely fear that Covid would kill me. But then not being a teacher, I'm one of those invisible people who work in a school that no one sees or remembers so I'm not sure I count.

Ffs how many more threads. I'm an neu member and I won't be supporting my union on this because it is right that schools are staying open.

Teaching kids remotely while trying to also make sure my own kids do their remote learning (or in reality they just fuck around on the iPad) is a pain in the arse.

Also doctors, nurses, postal workers, shop workers, delivery people, refuse collectors etc etc would all still have to send their kids in while other kids are afforded the luxury of being 'kept safe'.

Kids who don't have iPads, printers, a decent WiFi signal at home are massively disadvantaged by remote learning - these kids are predominantly the ones who are already disadvantaged in some way already.

Kids who's parents are unable or unequipped (often through no fault of their own) to help with learning are also massively disadvantaged.

The risk to primary age children from Covid is minimal.

Also not all children live in a safe Happy home. For some kids the 6 weeks holidays are unbearable so I can't imagine what lockdown felt like for them. This is the issue that most concerns me tbh and compared to a bit of learning loss or people juggling childcare and working from home, it terrifies me. Can you imagine being 5 or 7 or 8 living with someone who hurts you with no respite and seeing no other adult for an indefinite amount of time?

Yes Covid is bad, but it's not the only bad thing going on. We can't stop all of life until it fucks off. I don't think Boris has done much right since this whole shit show started but he is right to keep the schools open.

I do feel sorry for teachers as I wouldnt want to be in a class of 30 people all day. But the same can be said of hospital staff, supermarket staff, bus drivers etc. The impact of closing schools is so big and for those of you saying it's only 4 weeks, it is not. It is 4 weeks in addition to the whole term earlier this year. My DD ended up at CAMHS after the last lockdown and my son who has SEN had a noticeable decline in his speech and language. It is impossible to hold down a job and teach your own child. If teachers had been able to provide a decent service during lockdown then it would have helped, but the unions prevented online lessons which meant parents were left doing the job of teachers. No doubt the same union who now wants school closures. Teachers cant expect parents to back them on this when they were so let down last time. Everyone else stepped up and adjusted to online work , but in many cases teachers didnt. My daughter is in year 10 and doing GCSEs and spent the last term of year 9 answering worksheets that were rarely marked. A teacher was on the other end of a messaging service some of the time, but mostly not and we had no contact from school the whole time. My son is at a special school and has an EHCP specifying the techniques to be used to teach him. I am not a teacher, let alone a SEN teacher.

@DenimDrift

‘Can’t have an education’

It’s 4 weeks! They can/will catch up

I’m guessing this generation of kids won’t want to be looking back and blaming parents for unnecessary loss of life in our older generation

Bless, if you think this would be for 4 weeks only.

I'd like to remind you of the many months the children missed in the spring. So even without another closure, they've already missed almost half a school year, for a child aged 5, 6 months is a significant amount of time in their development, but fuck them.

I'd also like to remind you that LESS THAN HALF A PERCENT of the population is killed by this virus.

Finally, without wanting to sound callous, people die. Nothing - not even shutting schools is ever going to change that. Unless you'd like us to all hide away in our houses until they find a magical unicorn vaccine for death?

9 weeks of the last lockdown was school holidays anyway! People forget that bit!

It’s not just the risk of my death, it’s the risk of catching it and passing it in to someone MORE vulnerable... it’s not just the elderly who are affected ( and why dismiss that group as unimportant)

Did you not watch the last briefing? Up to 4000 daily being predicted

Kids will be fine!

@Sara2000 yes I also feel sorry for the teachers. But I got an email from our school and masks are to be worn so it’s a step in right direction

@DenimDrift my kid won't be fine if I can't work and pay the bills because school is shut.

Schools do need better safety measures.

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

I’m annoyed that my kids’ socially distanced swimming lessons have been stopped while schools have not. I don’t see the point in a lockdown with schools open. I’m not quite sure how far to take this yet honestly.

The swimming pools are closing today anyway so you’ll be happy to know school children will no longer be having their swim lessons.

It’s 4 weeks! They can/will catch up

They are already trying to catch up from the last one! So they'll be catching up on their catching up.

Noitwontdo?? I meant, I don’t see why swimming pools with prevention and distancing methods in place must close while schools with nothing must stay open. I’m not setting up a school / non school pupil divide, it’s just the inconsistency. The swimming pools are safer.

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

Noitwontdo?? I meant, I don’t see why swimming pools with prevention and distancing methods in place must close while schools with nothing must stay open. I’m not setting up a school / non school pupil divide, it’s just the inconsistency. The swimming pools are safer.

Because only one of those things is providing an education?

Learning to swim is easy to catch up on.

It's not about which is safer it is about limiting numbers mixing. They could equally have said "only people with a surname in the first half of the alphabet are allowed out". That would have been daft though.

@SoupDragon

It’s 4 weeks! They can/will catch up

They are already trying to catch up from the last one! So they'll be catching up on their catching up.

Quite.

Also as I have said MANY MANY times on these threads, this virus isnt going anywhere. Shut schools now, god knows when they'll be 'SAFE' to reopen.

As for the poster comparing swimming lessons with an education - just wow. I dont even know where to start with that...

@DenimDrift 4 weeks is a long time to be out of education considering they are already behind from the last lockdown!!