Govt attempting to force schools to remain open with court order, against advice of PHE

[Bluegreen70]

Just that.

I've never hated any politicians so much

Government.

"New strain of virus, possibly spreading faster, cause of exponential growth in SE, biggest spread in 10-19 year olds"

Can mix for 5 days over Christmas.

But schools are safe and must stay open. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I'm curious as to what parents in Greenwich will actually do today and how many will keep kids off anyway.

Why keep them shut for so long in the spring and summer when the spread of the virus would have been less? The seasonality then the break for summer would have helped and at least they could have had a month or two then. Lots of outside learning etc. Then they could have shut them at the beginning of December or switched to in-line learning to stop this inevitable rise at this time of year just before Christmas mixing.

I dont get this at all. Its only a few days. And teams lessons for the whole year ( with some support for those without devices or who need to come in) is probably more effective than having half of them in and half of them isolating.

@middleager "Evidence" is not someone on twitter saying it is happening I guess Trump won the US election as he says it everyday on twitter......

This thread has just turned into a scare mongering exercise.

The schools need to stay open, end of. Otherwise it will be a free for all up and down the country. Each council doing something different.

The DoE need to make the call. We have three days left, that is all, we can get to the end of the week without a drama.

Politically motivated campaign to undermine the government possibly.

The schools should remain open full stop.

In terms of saving lives, I would much rather keep schools open and not have a free for all tier 0 over Christmas. I am sure that will kill many more people and won’t educate anyone.

”New strain of virus, possibly spreading faster, cause of exponential growth in SE, biggest spread in 10-19 year olds"

Chris Whitty (credible source albeit not a peer reviewed journal) says the new strain may or may not be driving the faster spread of the virus. Not sure of source of ‘biggest spread’ claim above though, or what this means - bigger than what?

I didn't say it was, Rosehip. I said I followed the Long Covid Kids account.

I agree not Christmas does not come before education. Education is for life, not christmas ( I couldn't resist that one I am afraid)

Education is for life, not christmas ( I couldn't resist that one I am afraid)

Truth about transmission in schools is coming out now, despite the farcical attempts to suppress it.

This is just a desperate attempt to save face and exert control that is slipping from their grasping hands .

It’s a bit like Trump suing about electoral fraud with no evidence. Just this time there is evidence, it just goes against the government position.

@middleager Brilliant, a twitter account that can't even spell "Patient" right in their description. Again, people simply saying "their kids have long covid" is not evidence for it.

@houseinthesnow

This thread has just turned into a scare mongering exercise.

The schools need to stay open, end of. Otherwise it will be a free for all up and down the country. Each council doing something different.

The DoE need to make the call. We have three days left, that is all, we can get to the end of the week without a drama.

Politically motivated campaign to undermine the government possibly.

The schools should remain open full stop.

In case you haven’t noticed it is a free for all up and down the country. Hundred and hundreds of schools have closed. Hundreds of thousands of children have been sent home over and over again. Thousands of people are dead and dying. Schools need to close. Full stop

I really can't see issue they offered home learning for a couple days whilst staying open I believe for those that need it
.sensible decision I think by the schools , williamson could end up
With egg on his face after this if they loose
My son finishes thursday but today last day I am sending him just to give us a little more time at home as the most likely place he will catch it will be school.

Why are the government making such a fuss about a few days of online lessons when my kids have been doing these since September? it is a state sixth form with limited space, and they are not having year 12 and 13 in together, so each year does 2/3 days a week in and 2/3 days online. Why is this ok but 3 days at the end of term not ok?

But can you not see how that would disadvantage millions of vulnerable children whose parents haven’t got the resources, time or will to educate them at home? For whom school is a refuge?

I don't think the 3-4 days in 3 London boroughs is going to produce disadvantaged DC on a scale beyond what is likely in Wales, where there upis a weeks closure already underway.

Thousands of people are dead and dying

Not children though.

If you are that worried about thousands dying we should be cancelling the five day multi generational mixing planned over christmas, not close the schools a few days early!! The pressure will see in the coming weeks won't be the last three days of school but the christmas nightmare that hasn't even begun yet.

Op do get a grip - we can not deprive our children of their right to an education, to a future and their mental well being for a virus that has zero chance of damaging them. It is outrageously unfair that they should be sacrificed.

So no, schools stay open to the end. Reopen on time and continue as normal. Poor kids.

A school just a few miles from us has shut down due to too many covid cases nothing has been said about that as far as I am

@houseinthesnow you do realise that many of these children go home to vulnerable parents or multi generation households or are part of a bubble maybe with a lonely single grandparent. Cases are rising in many schools around myself where as there were not many
Also if you follow advice on a someone isolating with covid and keep to separate rooms etc , doesn't make for a nice xmas for a child even if just home with people they live with

The scientists tell us it is better to isolate 10 days before visiting elderly relatives. The schools break up on 18th and the last day of the christmas visiting window is 27th, so only 9 days. Breaking up 3 days early could make a big difference. Of course private schools have already broken up so can isolate before visiting family.

Politically motivated campaign to undermine the government possibly

The dispute is definitely about the relative roles of local and central government

But is it to undermine the government, or to find the right solution to a specific issue at a specific time? I don't buy into the thinking that it's a campaign to undermine, and think that the working relationship between tiers of government should be under constant review which of course means it changes, can be agile , flexible and responsive, and non precedent setting.

It's a nonsense that pupils are in school in the normal sense at the moment anyhow. Abandoning the soundbites and making schools safer is a much sounder basis for policy (assuming the policy is that DC's education should be minimally disrupted)

Isn’t it Germany or Holland that have closed their schools for 5 weeks?

British exceptionalism again.