How do people feel about their kids being a herd?

[wondersun]

It seems that Boris never did put down the herd immunity idea.

I’m wondering if he still wants that big win? Take a risk with the kids but get normality back before any other country.

First with the vaccine. Thinking a little bit of short term herd immunity on the side can’t help?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/14/herd-immunity-boris-johnson-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2C-wGREPNhwfGAvgM06MbN-6ErvHImRXwbbiH4KAIulTnCCtUSYIa-4tA

"And for those saying they need to be in school- it's four days! And they don't do any proper learning this week, even if the teachers are trying the kids are excited for Xmas and aren't in the mood to learn."

Not the case in ds's school. The children need routine and some won't even understand that it is Christmas.

There's no point to a tier 3 with schools and non essential shops open.
That's how my friends are I see it.
It won't achieve much. A lot of children will be kept off anyway this week I bet.

Schools are staying open because the government are not seeing the bigger picture here.

No the reverse. For the current situation anyway. They are in this instance avoiding precedence that would allow councils to close schools.

A good spokesperson just now from Harris Academy recognising important role of in clsss learning.

There's no point to a tier 3 with schools and non essential shops open.

If you look at the data since tier 3 was started it seems to work. What doesn’t work is tier 2 it seems.

To me, it's far more stupid that we all travel around the country and get together in 'Christmas bubbles' for 4 days than schools staying open.

So a lot of people on here are saying schools are safe basically? I'll still go into work as it's my job but people don't feel safe there.
That is how it is where I work but obviously other mumsnetters have children whose schools are fairing much better than our ones are. It's clearly a school lottery.

We've kept our DS off school today so that we can quarantine before seeing my terminally ill MIL. DS tells me lessons this week largely consists of watching films so I'm not terribly concerned that this will affect his future!

I bet the primary school I work in will only have a few children in it by Friday.
The staff will be passing it around in time for Christmas. Nobody wins here do they?
People are genuinely scared and unlike last time when the media were behind a full lockdown this time they are not. Schools are being used here.
People under 50 without underlying health problems have died of this virus but that's ok as long as they can go into school and they can fine schools and councils that don't tow the line. It is madness.

If you look at the data since tier 3 was started it seems to work. What doesn’t work is tier 2 it seems.

It seems to be ok here so far. Not enough time passed though.

London is a different kettle of fish......

There was some middle ground to be had here, I think. With a few notable exceptions, primary schools have largely been ok. Not easy, not comfortable, but ok. In secondary, the ok schools are the exceptions. Year groups closed multiple times, students isolating when they should be doing mocks, lots and lots of cover teachers. The ONS shows spread is much worse in secondaries. All the stories I've heard of kids being really ill with Covid have been secondary age. And secondary parents are likely to be older and so potentially more vulnerable than primary parents.

They should let secondaries in tier 3 go on rotas to break the chain of transmission and have given all parents carte blanche to take their kids out for the last week to avoid infecting granny.

The south east has a new strain around too but that's fine : carry on spreading it about is the message here.
As I said before , I will go into to do my job and do my best but it's so hard for everyone and some of my colleagues are on the brink of breakdowns over it all.
It's so sad.

I'm sorry but tier 3 should mean shutting the schools.
I know people don't like hearing this.
They go on about the children's mental health , but what about the staff here? Are they expendable? Clearly they are!

willsanta I am not against actions at a local level.

I do wish the government would do more to help schools.

Do I think my children's school is safe? I genuinely don't know. They have not had any instances of Covid. Community infection levels do not support the suggestion by many that there are lots of asymptomatic spreaders in our school at least.

So do i think my children's school should close? No I don't.

Would i be against it closing early this week?- it is closing Thursday anyway but another day or so would not be end of world!

The OP though doesn't really just want schools to close for a few days though.

I get frustrated that so many seem to want to move primary school children onto online learning with little justification, except at some local levels.

They want that, but i have yet to see a proper answer how that will work, without the children suffering more than they already have.

I have yet to see how that can be managed without significant investment from parents.

It would be a real struggle for the best of teachers who is also a working parent, never mind the rest of us.

My DS is in Year 10. Honestly, on a selfish level, I am glad he is at school due to GCSEs and the fact that he got a bit depressed over lockdown BUT we are in Manchester and he already had Covid in May. He was extremely unwell with it (slim, no underlying health conditions) and was nearly admitted into hospital. I cried over him as I was so frightened about how ill he was.

His form tutor had it recently and even though she is back at work, she was telling my son she feels awful and has a very bad memory now (same thing happened to my DH).

So I feel ok on a personal level but it’s not actually ok for all the kids who will be as unwell as my son and I feel terrible for the teachers who are basically being abused and left utterly unprotected. They must be very depressed.

My friends are keeping their children at home ( they are teens)
Not an easy decision for them to make. They might be fined ? But they feel it's unsafe. I'm so glad I don't have this decision to make about my children.
It's bad enough working a few hours in one where there have been many cases the last few weeks. So many problems here.

So a lot of people on here are saying schools are safe basically? I'll still go into work as it's my job but people don't feel safe there.

Do you think it is less safe for teachers than the parents of the children who are being sent to school?

Not all kids have internet or a device to learn on. The kids most vulnerable to missing education are least likely to have a computer. In a perfect world parents would prioritise a working laptop over xboxes and the latest phone when their kids ask but we know this isn't the case - in wales they said around 20% only had mobile phones and gaming machines, not computers for home schooling (and 5% had nothing)

Our school provides laptops to those who don't have them. Maybe that isn't possible in a secondary school though, as there are so many more pupils? But there are fewer schools, so you'd think it would even out. Maybe it's a funding issue. Wonder how our school managed to get the money for it.

Not all kids have internet or a device to learn on. The kids most vulnerable to missing education are least likely to have a computer.

Although this sounds sensible do you have any facts and figures? DCs school kept on saying this but as far as we could tell had never actually counted how many children would be affected.

@middleager

Exactly RM I follow a long covid kids account on Twitter and there are some pretty damning stories.

What an unbiased, scientific source of information

@loutypips

And for those saying they need to be in school- it's four days! And they don't do any proper learning this week, even if the teachers are trying the kids are excited for Xmas and aren't in the mood to learn.

A few days here and there all adds up. Primary may be different but my year 10 DS is doing proper learning this week.

Not all schools in tier 3 are suffering either. I'm in tier 3 and there have only been 2 cases of Covid at DS's primary school. We're in Derbyshire and our cases are low despite being tier 3. Why should his school shut for only 2 cases?

And as for online school working - no, it doesn't. Certainly not for primary. That was obvious back when schools shut in March and working parents could not do their jobs and educate their DC at the same time.

Schools need to stay open. My dcs are lucky, we have a nice house, live in a nice area, I was able to teach them blah blah blah. Despite having hobbies we could still do, ponies and an allotment then later on watersports, both suffered due to the affects of social isolation. They need to be with their peers, not sat with their parents at the kitchen table.

Wrt being a herd, there is no other option other than closing schools. If you don't want your dcs there, withdraw and homeschool. If you don't want to work there, resign. No one has a gun against anyones head to attend or teach at school. Don't try and force your own personal desires or worries onto a generation of other peoples dcs.

I'm happy my kids ate in school, and any of their teachers I've spoken to ate happy too. But, they are y11 and 13 and their school has excellent measures in place. I believe out of a population of 800 students only one has tested positive and only a handful had to isolate. They also bought a rapid testing machine so anyone could have results in ten minutes.
So many during first lockdown argued how their kids were suffering not seeing their friends, getting depressed and missing their education. Now they are back, people can work, so everyone is complaining again!
Maybe some schools are not adhering closely enough to safety measures. Maybe some kids are getting it from home or other place.

DC came back from school today to report that other than PE she has been watching movies and doing quizzes and Christmas stuff in lessons. Tomorrow is a similar plan for lessons apparently. I agree that normally schools should be open as much as possible but a move to online learning for just a few days this week and for the first week back could make so much difference to this pandemic and probably have minimal impact to actual learning unless movie watching and charades are now on the curriculum