I keep hearing talk about school closures....

[november90]

Which is just talk at the moment, no facts behind it (or at least I don't think so!).
Does anyone know if this will likely be secondary school or all schools and nursery's? DS1 is currently in preschool which he absolutely loves! If it closed for the rest/majority of the school year I would be devastated for him!

sohatdtochoose if working parents aren’t expected to homeschool then who will homeschool my child?

Hoping the school will do some via zoom but after last time I don’t hold out much hope. Mine didn’t do a single lesson.

Our secondary (tier 3) has been instructed they have to open for year 11, critical workers (not key workers) and vulnerable but all others must have online learning for the first week. I’m supportive of that step (but our state school secondary was awesome during lockdown 1 and I feel dd is not behind).

My Dd is yr 11 & up until now I’ve very much wanted schools to be open, but now I’m worried.

On the one hand she’s got exams next year & has already missed so much.
On the other hand I’m terrified of how quickly the virus is spreading here (London) and it’s not just adults. I know of several children that have tested positive & are unwell (as are their parents).
My feeling now is that I would like her working from home for at least a couple of weeks extra - if it comes to a choice her health is more important than exams

Our schools are closed until at least the 18th of January.

I'm gutted. My DC has exams scheduled that month.

Interesting what everyone is saying about the US - my cousins in Wisconsin and Minneapolis and Aunt in Florida think it’s an absolute shit show compared to here. Every nation is battling on and struggling and looking at US rates I don’t think we can be jealous.

If he is only one, it won't hurt him. Many kids don't start until they are three or so. Just play it by ear.

KnowingMe my kids school has had a very successful 1st term. Some of it luck I'm sure, but some of it is surely down to the measures they have put in place.

Measures that went above & beyond guidelines.

I said schools in Scotland should close for a month, I’d wanted 11 Dec to 11 Jan but 18 - 18 is fine.

My kids’ school of 1600 kids had no cases til November and since then only a handful. We have been lucky

@Wakeupin2022 they are indeed very lucky to have measures above the guidance.

Our HT has emailed, essentially saying 'yes we're paying attention to everything that is being said, delayed start (with online learning) is distinctly possible; we intend to prioritise GCSE and A level years, but our staff need some of the holidays as a proper break so do not expect more detail until the start of January'

Which I think is also code - I think - for 'we expect the goalposts to be moved several times between now and the original date for the start of term. We've mapped out the big picture, but there's no way we're going to spend all Xmas making the detailed plans only to discover it was nugatory work. Yes it'll mean a bit of a long hours scramble later on, but we'd rather that than blight nearly every day'

@m0therofdragons

Interesting what everyone is saying about the US - my cousins in Wisconsin and Minneapolis and Aunt in Florida think it’s an absolute shit show compared to here. Every nation is battling on and struggling and looking at US rates I don’t think we can be jealous.

Indeed I've been watching Dr Campbell daily and have seen the awful rates in the US. The problem seems to be some districts have great mitigations others, more like us...

I am not actually against a short closure of all schools in England now. I have changed my mind since last week

This new strain is extremely concerning. So even though infection rates where I am are lower that most, a lockdown now may prevent this new strain becoming prevalent locally.

I would not support a long term 'closure' though even if Schools in London / SE needed to go online for longer.

Our secondary school and college here have delayed opening a week and instead of going back on the 4th as they usually would do, there's a week of online lessons at home instead they're expected to be at.
What if you don't have access to online lessons easily?
That's what gets me.
Assumes you have internet access (we do) laptop (we do) and able to access yourself.
Mine can (and I'm here to make them if they don't lol) but some aren't that fortunate.

@KnowingMeKnowingYule

It sounds like my friend's child might be benefiting from your friend's expertise, since he's in that general area :)

Honestly, it's such an example of what IS possible. He's happy, his parents are happy, his education is consistent and good.

But of course, not all states are doing well. Some are a bit like the UK - people claiming they can't possibly wear masks etc with predictable results. But some states are doing REALLY well. We rarely hear about that over here on the news.

I just wished we had better mitigations to begin with in September. Oh well... we are where we are.

@knackersknockersknickers

Oh god I can't do full time school closures again. I'm front line NHS and my husband was juggling home schooling with our 5 year olds and his very technical, high stakes mistakes job. I genuinely think I'd have to leave work, it's nearly broken us this year.

Wouldn't your child be able to continue at school if you are a key worker?

I will pm you @IloveJKRowling

What if you don't have access to online lessons easily?

I've seen discussion of letting those who do not have access to tech to come on site to use the school computers (just as socially vulnerable or key worker DC can still be supervised on site)

As an aside, if someone in your family is getting new tech for Christmas, it might be worth seeing if there is any form of 'wipe and donate' scheme near you that would put your old (but still good) stuff into the hands of a family in need

What if you don't have access to online lessons easily?That's what gets me. Assumes you have internet access (we do) laptop (we do) and able to access yourself.Mine can (and I'm here to make them if they don't lol) but some aren't that fortunate.

Like many parents, we would happily sign up to 2/3 days a week in school with half class sizes which would presumably halve the risk and then we facilitate learning the rest of the time. Ours are infants school age so zoom etc would be crap to be honest and definitely not pushing for live online classes! Not to mention not possible with teachers in school with the other half of the class . But suggested activities worked well.

We had this at the end of last year and it was better than normal to be honest. Teachers said they loved it as they could spend 1:1 time with children.

We also had no possible COVID in that time. Whereas it’s been yo yo education since.

I wish we could have some say. It’s ridiculous that over so so many issues whether it’s primary school testing or schooling in COVID, parents and teachers would probably want the same thing but government has its own ideology to push.

What if you don't have access to online lessons easily?That's what gets me. Assumes you have internet access (we do) laptop (we do) and able to access yourself.Mine can (and I'm here to make them if they don't lol) but some aren't that fortunate.

Posted too soon. 🙄

In these circumstances, our surrounding secondary schools ask children to attend school. They understand some children are disadvantaged and step up. We have family further north than, 3 of them are teachers and the same thing happens there. I don’t like posts like yours as people repeat it when they don’t have the facts. Schools are really trying to make sure that every child is educated.

There are some interesting articles i have read coming out of the US.

Interestingly they give a different view point and almost look longingly at the UK / EU.

Knowing if you don't mind me asking what are the demographics of your friends district like?

Yes it will be shit if schools have to close but they should not be open if it isn’t safe either. My school has not been fully open since around mid November and since that time we have had around 1/3 of teachers test positive and some have been hospitalised. Yet there is still no mention of teachers being given any sort of priority for the vaccine! The situation in my school is a lot more widespread than people are aware of. I know of teaching colleagues who have lost family members due to catching the virus in school and then passing it on. Similarly kids who have taken the virus home which has infected and killed vulnerable relatives.
This is being massively underreported in the media because it does not suit the governments ‘in school at all cost’ agenda. Schools are not safe and a public health crisis has to take priority over education just as it does many other aspects of life at the moment. It’s not ideal but then nothing is at the moment.

We are in Scotland and have been told it’s key worker and vulnerable children in from the 6th and online learning from 11th until the 18th at least. We will be given more details tomorrow. Ds says he was asked today if he wanted a school place from the 6th or preferred to learn from home. He declined the place (what a surprise)! I’m assuming it was offered as he gets FSM’S.