Will schools close in January/February?

[BaileyBoos]

Just that really.

Given the huge rise in cases and the inevitable,
upcoming January fiasco, do we think schools will close? Primary and secondary, or just secondary?

Purely speculative I know, but the recent lockdowns haven’t been hugely effective, so I can’t help but wonder.

Wasn't there supposed to be a tier system for schools going from rotas in secondary to everything shutting apart from special. What happened to that?

But no-one wants to shut schools because everyone is saying the kids' education will suffer, which is really parent-speak for 'we want them to be in school so that we can get on with our lives/work' or whatever.

I know, the audacity of parents wanting to work. They should be ashamed of themselves.

We had a total of 415 kids off today, either with confirmed positive tests, or self-isolating. Year 7, 9 and 11 'bubbles' burst earlier this week. Many staff are off, too. It's carnage. So yes, it needs to be extended for secondary schools beyond the first week back. We have excellent plans and timetables in place for home learning. Staff will be in school with year 11, 13 and KW kids, and delivering online lessons. The government needs to make their decisions earlier, though. It's unfair dumping this on us at the last minute again.

But no-one wants to shut schools because everyone is saying the kids' education will suffer, which is really parent-speak for 'we want them to be in school so that we can get on with our lives/work' or whatever.

Are you willing to give up your pay for the period in which schools are shut, @WanderingMilly, with the possibility that you might not get your job back when they re-open? Because that's what you're going to be imposing on many parents if you want to shut primaries.

Same here , tier 3

Schools are certainly not helping with infection rates but every restaurant or pub we went too (not many), none had a single window open or even a door.. There was no even brief airing of the rooms...

@Sleepyblueocean

Wasn't there supposed to be a tier system for schools going from rotas in secondary to everything shutting apart from special. What happened to that?

They scrapped it. Briefly heard it alluded to yesterday in grilling of Susan DfE boss on parliamentary tv where she sort of said it was not thought to be workable or something like that. Can't remember her exact words (she was umming and ahhhing so much through it it was difficult to pick out substance).

@KnowingMeKnowingYule

Just popping this here. I personally think secondary schools should go online until end of January. I can't comment on primaries as I'm not fully aware of the issues in them.

The massive uptick of primary age children here is actually frightening.

Why is it dramatically going up now versus say, November?

@flowerycurtain maybe the new strain Hancock referred to?

@Foobydoo I agree

Primary schools and special schools will remain open, with bubbles closing as and when.

Best guess for secondaries is that testing will prove unworkable and be scrapped, with non-exam years working from home, possibly on a rota.

(This will be declared to be the fault of teachers, not the government, and the government's solution will be to cut schools' funding).

@WanderingMilly how is wanting to work a bad thing? I'm concerned about DS's education but seeing as I cannot work from home and cannot leave a 7 year old home on his own then of course that is a concern to me if schools close. Who do you think is going to pay my bills if I can't go to work?

I don't think primaries will close, hope not anyway. Possibly a rota system for secondary if things get really bad.

The thing is, infection rates DID start falling during November lockdown but when everyone started piling into shops again it's started to go up. Christmas mixing will not help.

Primary schools and cockroaches will be the last remaining signs of life in the post covid world.

My DD goes to small (1 class per year group small) primary school.

No cases at all before half term

Between half term and now every single class has had to isolate at least once. 5 children in DDs class tested positive, there were probably other asymptomatic ones.

3 classes now isolating until Xmas eve.

The problem is not just secondary schools. Primary schools need to go on a Rota or parents who are able to/vulnerable should be allowed to home school without losing their place or receiving a fine.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Primary schools and cockroaches will be the last remaining signs of life in the post covid world.

Too bloody right

I also thought how depressing it would be in food shortage era to be the product with full shelf

Primary = good! Of course

But reminded me of that

The thing is with so many children becoming ill in primary’s it is going to impact on staffing levels. Schools cannot stay open when they have too many staff off no matter how much parents need them to.
But they will be ignored until it can’t be ignored any longer , just like what’s happened in secondary schools. Then the DFE will say they are moving fast

If they had planned rotas in secondaries and masks in classrooms and improved ventilation etc we could be avoiding all this now

Not necessarily, I don't think. Spain and France pretty much did this, didn't they? But they still got the awful second wave - and earlier than we did too. I don't know, I'm starting to think that a virus is a virus - it will spread regardless of what we do (short of total lockdown, obviously).

That's not to say that I don't think some of those measures are a very good idea! I'm not a fan of blended learning at all but I do think larger or very overcrowded schools should have done it (as long as vulnerable children were in both on site groups and never at home without support).

@WanderingMilly your post is contradictory. You’re saying schools should close because children are spreading it round whilst asymptomatic or not showing typical signs but what you’re actually describing is the adults not doing things properly!

Sharing desks, not cleaning equipment between adults using something, allowing singing and multi-year discos to go ahead.

It’s an adult that’s responsible for those very poor decisions

Many secondary schools will close for a short time - they will probably run out of staff for a while - and then move to some form of rota system/blended learning, as of course they should have done from September.

@manicinsomniac I think Italy did it better but then they closed down the schools (secondary) weeks ago now for remote learning. Not sure about Spain but I think France has been pretty much the same as us with mitigations until very recently (although they may have had masks in lessons but no rotas I don't think).

No, because as has been noted on many threads, it is the hill this Government is willing to die on.

Why is it dramatically going up now versus say, November?

Lockdown ended and the petri dish school incubation exploded into the general population, which immediately went Christmas shopping.

Thanks, Knowingme - I think I've got Italy confused with Spain and the masks thing in France was so publicised that I assumed they had other measures too - maybe they didn't.