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!

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

OK, I appreciate that schools are trying to make the best of a horrible situation.
What happens if you're not entitled to any help though but still no money left over at the end of a month to have a regular internet coverage?
Not sure what being North has to do with anything either

@Wakeupin2022 I don't really want to give too much information away on a public forum tbh hope that's ok but I have alluded earlier to where her district is. If she were on here I'm sure she would expand further.

In really worried about this.
DS has SEN. He needs 2 more assessments for his EHCP. In the first lockdown in our area, these assessments weren’t carried out. If this happens again and he doesn’t get his EHCP, this then means I can’t apply for the school he is going to need come October. 0-5 SEND team and 5/6 mainstream schools have already told us his needs cannot be met in mainstream.
I also have DD Y3 who hasn’t been at school since 10th Dec when her bubble burst. As of 18/12; her small 7 class primary school had only class left.
In some ways isolation is harder than school being shut as she wasn’t even allowed out for a walk. DH was working so that meant me and 3 DC stuck in the house until 4.30pm.
I’m supposed to be going back to work Monday 4th Jan - keyworker - but if schools close and I have to home school again then I will have to leave my job. I’m already only part time due to the amount of appointments I have with DS.

I am a teacher and I have heard absolutely nothing except the high schools / stagger a week / test thing which is apparently riddled with mistakes. Not sure I believe that anyone has much more information.

@landofgiants we had a vets children in work as key worker children, we interpreted this: as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines) from the government guidance as vets being key workers

I am in Wales

We finished a couple of days early before Christmas - switching to distance learning for the Weds/Thurs/Fri (exactly what you want just before the holidays!)

We are providing distance learning week beginning 4th with the intention of being back full time on the 11th.

I'm Nursery and was meant to have new starters on the 6th! So have spent the first day of the holidays reorganising that...waiting till the 20th to start them to fingers crossed we won't be off for more than 2 weeks!

I agree with PP who have mentioned the importance of early years education...it really isn't as simple as having years to catch up, the experiences and exposure they have at this age have long lasting impact.

Exams in Wales were cancelled back in October to that takes some of the pressure off the exam years this year.

I must admit I am worried about schools. We are in tier 4. Our cases have doubled each week for the last two weeks.
Dd1 has exams in January year 12. Yes Govt it is an exam year.
Dd2 and DD3 are probably both PDA and home schooling will not go well.
However if cases continue to rise I guess they may have to do it.

@VividImagination

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.

I doubt FSM is a criteria for a school place.

My kids are actually vulnerable with SNs and didn't' get even a sniff at a school place. The eldest's school (they are both at now) was closed, full stop.

Dumplings are you in Scotland? I wonder if it differs from council to council or if you should chase it up with the school. My friend is a teacher and her class has lots of vulnerable DCs. All the vulnerable DCs have been offered spaces. Likewise at my DB's school - which is in a different council area.

LOL at those thinking schools will be kept open. The new mutation affects children, it also makes it extremely dangerous to have children mixing passing the mutated strain around so it could change again. I’m expecting it to be admitted soon that the vaccine is redundant against the mutation too. Get ready for home learning kiddos!

@DumplingsAndStew I think FSM kids are sometimes considered potentially disadvantaged with chaotic home life environments making learning at home difficult. They are in the Manchester LEA anyway

@Thewiseoneincognito

LOL at those thinking schools will be kept open. The new mutation affects children, it also makes it extremely dangerous to have children mixing passing the mutated strain around so it could change again. I’m expecting it to be admitted soon that the vaccine is redundant against the mutation too. Get ready for home learning kiddos!

Schools are already delaying going back for a week. Do you think schools have not been affected by the virus before?! Children have hardly been exempt, they've no doubt been passing it on before the new strain.

@TheCrowsHaveEyes

Dumplings are you in Scotland? I wonder if it differs from council to council or if you should chase it up with the school. My friend is a teacher and her class has lots of vulnerable DCs. All the vulnerable DCs have been offered spaces. Likewise at my DB's school - which is in a different council area.

Yes I'm in Scotland. My daughter's school were not open. They had no pupils in.

My younger daughter was in P7 and her school was the local hub for several primaries. They had a handful of kids in, very very few. Nobody even called to check on my daughter, not once. I even emailed her teachers to say how disappointed I was in that. Still noone checked on her.

My eldest daughter was partially in a support base setting, with one on one from a specialist outreach team. She's not been allowed in the support base or access to the outreach team since.

Many children with SNs have been very badly let down during this time. My kids are alright, because I will move heaven and earth to make sure they have what they need. Many kids don't have someone like me in their corner.

I don’t think I can cope with another school closure. Two dc and I work from home under normal circumstances. I don’t have another adult to tag team. If I don’t work, we loose the roof over our heads. Another single parent was struggling hugely asked our primary school to make an exception to allow her dc to school, half way through the last lockdown, they refused. Lone parents have been largely forgotten about during covid!

Also the idea that they use FSM to access a child’s vulnerability is insane given the criteria to qualify is deliberately quite high.

By the way, despite moving heaven and earth for my kids, I wasn't alright. I am disabled and have my own needs. No-one checked in on me either.

Sage said ages ago with the original strain that closing schools reduces the r by 0.4. Closing them with this strain could reduce it more. Even 0.4 is the most effective reduction there is. If everything else is closed and it’s not working, we have to ask ourselves if keeping schools open is worth totally destroying all the closed businesses. A drop Of 0.4 could really have an impact and get us back to normal. A crap economy and unemployed (or ill) parents isn’t great for kids’ mental health either. And no we can’t let it just rip so we can crack on because that leads to more mutations and more illness and the economy fails due to a lack of workers.

Schools should at the very least switch to Rotas and blended learning to allow distancing. This keeps some contact with peers.

OK, I appreciate that schools are trying to make the best of a horrible situation. What happens if you're not entitled to any help though but still no money left over at the end of a month to have a regular internet coverage? Not sure what being North has to do with anything either

The schools I’m aware of through my own children, family and friends, allowed any child who didn’t have access to online learning for whatever reason, a place in school during lockdown. They issued work that wasn’t online if any child had to self isolate but didn’t have internet access. They also issued laptops to children if they needed them.

The north comment was meant to mean that this is happening at schools up and down England so it’s not just our local authority. They really are doing their best to try to help all children. If people are struggling, then my experience is that schools will try to help in any way they can.

"I really think however with this mutation that may affect children more they also need to consider the actual health safety of our children too.. They have a duty of care to keep then safe on the school site..."

Even with the old strain, secondary kids were the most infected age groups in the country. The numbers got so bad in London they could no longer pretend that schools were safe, but that didn't stop them taking legal action to keep them open.

In reality the government have not been worried about the health of kids or staff in schools since sept.

I didn't know anyone who caught covid in April but around a half of staff at my school caught covid last term. I teach some classes were a third of the pupils have had covid. In reality it is probably higher as bad headaches, sneezes or mild runny noses is all some kids had and many had no symptoms at all.

The government have plans for what to do if community transmission is very high and will have to use them until they put a workable mass testing system in place

The schools I’m aware of through my own children, family and friends, allowed any child who didn’t have access to online learning for whatever reason, a place in school during lockdown
They really are doing their best to try to help all children. If people are struggling, then my experience is that schools will try to help in any way they can

That's good to know, hope that's the same for all schools then.

@TheCrowsHaveEyes howcome schools in Scotland will close for an extra week rather than going online? I can’t see how it can be good to just arbitrarily shut them.

Exams years must take priority, but please don’t forget the impact on working parents last time, particularly of young children. For those who weren’t key workers, didn’t have a sahp or weren’t on furlough, the fallout from the need to both work and fully support and supervise young kids (mine were 4 and 7) was immense. For months I had barely more than four hours sleep a night, I became really unwell because of it. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t negatively affect my kids too.

My point is that closing schools has different implications for each age group, children and parents. Despite that, I’m actually in favour of closing them again.

My problem is that it will be another last minute snap decision. Lessons haven’t been learned from last time. The govt has done sod all to make it work, relying simply on their mantra of keep the schools open without preparing for greater risks such as situation we are in now. To me it was clear schools were spreading the new strain, we know of ten or fifteen cases in the past two weeks all of which originated in different primary schools.

I worry that rates will go down enough for schools to go cave, simply because schools are CLOSED for the holidays. I also worry that we could not possibly have a more incompetent government at the helm. The thought of Gavin Williamson being in charge of this fills me with dread. But the thought of what could happen to our health if we do go back worries me more. Not least because it could give the virus a chance to mutate again in an even more devastating way.

*to go back

@ConiferGate
howcome schools in Scotland will close for an extra week rather than going online? I can’t see how it can be good to just arbitrarily shut them.

I guess that extra few days closure at the start is for teachers to prepare? Most lessons aren't set up to directly switch to online learning, and it is incredibly unfair to expect teaching staff to making these alterations during their much needed break.

There are exams scheduled in England second week of January. OCR subjects like Health and Social Care, Sports Science. Year 10 and up. No news what happens to them.

Our school open to Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 first week, plus vulnerable, SEN, keyworker children. All other years online.

@DumplingsAndStew I don’t know why he was offered a place but assumed FSM as I can’t think why else. He is awaiting assessment for ADHD/ASD but as he was complimented on how well he had worked at home during lockdown I don’t think it could be that. We might learn more today. It’s bad that your school didn’t keep in touch over lockdown. Ds had to fill out a form re. his well-being and email it to his guidance teacher every week. It made it clear that if this wasn’t done the school would contact his parents.

@SpaceRaiders I don’t know why he was offered a place. I can’t think of any other good reason.