Vulnerability is not just to the virus.

[OpheliasCrayon]

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with people just calling for schools to be shut immediately. I absolutely understand the risks in keeping them open, I work in them and have seen covid spread in my workplace like wildfire. I also don't know what the correct answer is. Fortunately I don't have to make the choices though and for as long as I am required to be in work, I will be, gladly.

I am not in this for a fight. I definitely can't be bothered with that. But I do want to explain and remind people of something which does not come from Science papers, medical journals or government policy. Rather from what I've seen and worked alongside during decades of experience in the classroom working with vulnerable children.

Vulnerability in this situation does not just relate to becoming unwell with covid and dying or getting long term illnesses. I don't belittle those things, this said, I have multiple chronic illnesses and have lived with them for decades and ive lost a child (not to covid) so, I wouldn't ever belittle either thing and understand the gravity and tragedy of both situations...

However when people say that vulnerable children may be in school I'm not sure they are truly understanding the situation. It's true, they can be in school, they should be in school..... Tragically though, the children who are the most vulnerable are not likely to be in school. Their parents for whatever reason may not want /be able to take their children into school. Therefore we, as education staff, cannot keep an eye on the children we MOST desperately need to keep an eye on. Abused, neglected, malnourished children aren't going to be willingly brought into school during a lockdown and if they are not in school them we cannot monitor what is happening to them. If people from outside the family cannot monitor what is going on then we cannot act to keep these children safe.

We may well be protecting the most vulnerable to covid, if we lockdown (I'm CEV so that does technically apply to me although I haven't shieled and worked throughout despite letters but I reserve my right to my personal choice )...but surely we need to, people need to realise that there are other extremely vulnerable people, people who cannot and will not speak out for themselves in the vast majority of cases, people who need us to look out for them.

There is more to life than covid and there are more vulnerabilities than covid. But because of covid we are losing sight of these vulnerable young children more and more and I am wondering do we have chance to get them back into our care if this continues?

Im an SEN teacher but I have been in countless mainstream schools over the years and have enough experience and knowledge in all settings to know these vulnerable children are across all settings.

For those of you who did realise this theny apologies. For those of you who didn't.. then please understand that whilst I hope for you your children are safe, fed, loved and cared for, this is not the same for all children. I have seen things over my years of work which have affected me still 20 years on. I'm not going to repeat them because this isn't what this is about , I'm not going to give details of children's desperately tragic lives to prove my point. But every time we mention vulnerable, we are thinking of the most obvious sort of risk - that of covid itself, but whilst you're calling for schools to shut, please realise what that means.

If we are working together to protect the vulnerable, why are we also not working together to protect the most vulnerable children,? By which I mean mandating school attendance so they have to attend along with their peers, and we can keep the eye that we very much need to keep on ALL the children in our care.

The problem is, this new strain is putting kids in critical care. Where they were once not even on the priority list in terms of receiving the vaccine, now there are discussions about testing it on under 16's. So re-opening the schools may not be a good move.

I'm with you OP

Spectacularly missing the point there leafyhouse.

There are children who are at extreme risk being at home. Catching covid is the very least of their worries.

I can't see much saying it is worse for kids?

@Leafyhouse

The problem is, this new strain is putting kids in critical care. Where they were once not even on the priority list in terms of receiving the vaccine, now there are discussions about testing it on under 16's. So re-opening the schools may not be a good move.

Where is the source for the new strain putting children in critical care?

@Leafyhouse

The problem is, this new strain is putting kids in critical care. Where they were once not even on the priority list in terms of receiving the vaccine, now there are discussions about testing it on under 16's. So re-opening the schools may not be a good move.

Do you have a source for this please?

X post!

@Leafyhouse

The problem is, this new strain is putting kids in critical care. Where they were once not even on the priority list in terms of receiving the vaccine, now there are discussions about testing it on under 16's. So re-opening the schools may not be a good move.

I've seen no evidence of this. Even the new strain being more able to infect children is just a hypothesis being considered at this point.

The new strain is not more dangerous than the other one, from what I've read around the place.

@Pinkflipflop85

Spectacularly missing the point there leafyhouse.

There are children who are at extreme risk being at home. Catching covid is the very least of their worries.

That's if they are at home....

Completely agree - everyone I've seen calling for schools to close is able to keep their child safe at home, has a safe house, can feed them, is not at risk of DV etc.
Home is not safe for many children.

Exactly, OP.

And there are many schools in the country which have no or very few cases of Covid. What is the point of closing them and depriving children of their education when Covid is not spreading in them?

It may come, in which case the school can decide if it appropriate to close, and at that point a school with lots of cases in December, which did perhaps close may have so few that it deems it safe to reopen in say, late January.

Other agencies need to be intervening for those children rather than the nation at risk from a disease with some bleak long term repercussions

I agree OP. People have lost their minds when it comes to covid. We haven't had a single case in our primary school, the prospect of it not opening after Christmas is utterly astonishing and horrifying in equal measure.

Our whole approach to vulnerable children and the pressure we put on schools to pick up the slack of underfunded services is unfair and is just a sticking plaster for the children. We need to look at a longer term approach for the children.

What is the source of that scaremongering nonsense @Leafyhouse?

Hmm, no, I don’t agree. I have worked in SEMH and currently main stream with a MH remit on some days. In my experience, in both settings, the support required and provided goes beyond the child in school, it’s a whole family focus and the main requirement is making good relationships with the child and parents, this should be possible during any closure when vulnerable children continue to attend school and the family is supported in succeeding this aim.
It also should be a multi-agency response. I don’t think we need, or should, make a blanket requirement that all children should attend school no matter the risk to themselves/family because some are vulnerable.

I agree OP.

Powerfully worded. Thank you OP.

One thing that haunted me through the last lockdown, was those children whom had their safe place, school, taken away from them. Young people that dreaded, for many different reasons, not being able to go to school.

@OpheliasCrayon - social services have a role to play in this too. And GPs. Schools staying “open” but with inadequate funding and staffing, and constant disruptions, is chaotic, inadequate and dangerous, and thus not an effective safety net for vulnerable children, especially if it contributes to the overwhelming of the healthcare system.

Those poor children are just another forgotten casualty to the harm caused to so many by lockdowns. I wish Chris witty et al would put up graphs of numbers for other medical problems found now too late, older people left alone for so many months their mobility and cognitive ability has depleted, suicides, depression, unemployment, bankruptcy, forced evictions, domestic abuse increases, reduced fitness in children and adults, poor dental health, I could go on....

.....but none of those numbers matter anymore, they’re not covid cases.

Non-Covid lives matter!

Why is school the answer for these children?
Why isn’t more being done to help them?

@PurpleDaisies

What is the source of that scaremongering nonsense *@Leafyhouse*?

Adding to the voices wondering where this came from.

OP I totally see your point.

This country is a complete and utter basket case if people really think that schools are the only place children can spend a few hours each day to be kept safe from the rest of their shitty lives - and then not even provide schools with enough funding to be cleaned properly, let alone shelter deeply damaged human beings.

I agree with all of this, and: Even children in a safe home are spectacularly disadvantaged by school closures. I watched my children get depressed and sedentary in the last lockdown, both much bigger risks to their health than Covid, and just transformed (for the better) when they returned to school in June. I never want to see them go through that again and I would keep taking them to school as long as they are open. They need real life interaction with friends and teachers and time out of the house, and especially their sport and clubs. I'm gutted that there might even be a few days remote learning in January (although I'm also resigned to the fact that my worst fears will probably become reality).