What do you think? Are schools going to be closed?

[mamamia2020]

We've just returned to the UK to live, my youngest is due to start his new school on 5th January. Big change, new country, brand new town. We're in a Tier 3 area. I know that it's all speculation but what do you think? I've been gearing my son up for his new school now thinking about adding the caveat that it might be delayed. I do hope whatever the decision it isn't left until the last minute...

www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/crunch-meeting-held-whether-reopen-19525748?ref=BNTMedia&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0nIDo3bQOuMbpRfY9MiPun9272DuWDmthepLXabmNC8tnAgPsNPiuH7N4

I am a teacher and parent and do not want primaries to close but I would like to see part-time rotas put in place to allow for social distancing in classrooms. Some school would be better than no school.

Or at least break things via the BBC rather than certain papers

2 things to factor in: DofE has sent out a missive to secondary schools reminding them that if they are due to host exams in January, they are expected to have plans in place to still do that, if that means having additional exam invigilators trained and/or other staff trained to carry out exam officers work, they are expected to have made said arrangements- which doesn't sound like a plan to shut all secondaries beyond the first work.

Then also the plan to test in secondary schools to pick up the asymptomatic cases.

This makes sense to have all secondary kids back in 2nd week to test them all in the most efficient way. Any asymptomatic cases will shut that year group down, many schools will close after thats done anyway.

Expect the school testing programme to move out to the primaries shortly afterwards, although that will be harder to do given the age of the kids involved. Lots of asymptomatic cases will close schools for a fortnight anyway.

The mass testing of kids in secondary schools needs schools open to do it.

I'm in tier 4, when we go back, we will have just have over a 2 week school break when it's pissed it down, nothing is open, you weren't allowed to see anyone on Christmas day, if this doesn't get the numbers down, not much else will.

Parents will continue to mix outside the school doors, at the shops/park on the way home/even doing play dates and sleepovers-we know this because the kids talk about it. Plenty of people think there’s no point not mixing their children if they are all bundled in classrooms together for 6 hours a day all week.

If primaries are kept open-we can expect Tier 4 everywhere, for months, with no end in sight and businesses collapsing.

I agree with this. If they keep primary schools open then people will carry on mixing without thinking of the consequences, because they mix at school so what's the difference

I really don't want schools to close, i've loved having the children back, but it does seem as though other restrictions and lockdowns are pointless when schools remain open.

Social distancing is good but even if you have half a class in it will still spread with this new strain. If children aren’t wearing face masks it won’t work.

What do you all think about plan to prioritise teachers for the vaccine?

I also have a dd in y11 , when I tested positive that meant she had to isolate for the fourth time. She missed some of her mock exams. Keeping schools going as they are is not working.

Any asymptomatic cases will shut that year group down

What makes you say that?

Testing all secondary school students will not go ahead no money’ staff or resources

Yes good point, why would the whole year need to shut down

The government has had March to sourt this shit show out. They don’t want to spend the money. What a surprise.

@Orangeblossom77777

What do you all think about plan to prioritise teachers for the vaccine?

Is this official? I've seen it mentioned in the press but not in any sort of official guidance. For what it's worth they absolutely should be prioritised. It would at last be something to mitigate against the lack of PPE & social distancing.

They really didn't think the testing through did they. No wonder he has a 'battle'.

I’ve just planned for my children not to go back January. If they do great if they don’t I’ve got something in place

I teach in primary and really hope the schools will open up. Online learning is complicated to organise (I have a mixed Reception- year 2 class) the children’s parents send work back in dribs and drabs and it’s often either obviously done by the parents (too supported) or done to a really low standard (below the child’s potential) or parents say they couldn’t access the online learning platform and need lots of support with technical issues.
I then have to give feedback to each child despite the lack of parity. DH works from home and DSD streams on the internet all day so my own WiFi drops out the whole time. It’s very stressful and ineffective.
Meanwhile my 3 year old is being neglected in the background.
It’s awful.

It was mentioned as a plan in the Times today (the vaccine priority for teachers)

@Pemberleys

The Scottish Government have confirmed holidays are extended until 11th Jan and then at least a week of home schooling. So I presume the rest of the UK might follow suit.

I never wanted the schools to close previously but I think they should close until feb it is rife here ! At least until more people vaccinated

Teacher’s should have a jab.

Today is 10 days since most schools closed, cases from tomorrow didn't catch it in school/at school pick up/from an asymptomatic child who caught it at school. If numbers don't drop dramatically from tomorrow, closing schools isn't going to help.

We still have another week or more of the school holidays. If (and its a big if!) people have been following the rules in tier 4 areas, we should be seeing a significant improvement by the time they go back in January, if schools really are the problem.

@BeamerTown

What do people think will happen to nurseries?

My son going back Tuesday and it is open

Could parents not test children at home?

I think Goldgreen is right, the messaging coming from Government has changed, they're nudging us to prepare for schools not opening.

I think this new strain of the virus has changed things significantly.
They need to make decisions soon and communicate them though as it's not fair for everything to be done so last minute.
Previously I thought secondaries were the main issue and they needed to address safety there, I thought mass testing plus other mitigations were needed though. I thought we might get the odd circuit break but didn't really expect closures in the way we had them earlier in the year.
But now it seems to be rife everywhere and increasing rapidly. I feel really quite scared again. I feel really angry that the government didn't allow schools to close for the last week of term, then there has been all this household mixing over christmas, and I am worried what the fall out will be from that.
I do think both primaries and secondaries need to close now, apart from to vulnerable and keyworker kids. They need to get IT sorted for the kids that don't have access, and sort some support out for non keyworker working parents (some sort of furlough scheme or similar) so one parent can stay home and not have to worry about juggling work/childcare. I think they need to close for a good few weeks, at least February half term, possibly Easter.
They also need to do something about the exams for the year 11/y13 pupils. And it would be good if they could put all the y11 kids though functional skills qualifications for english and maths as well as the GCSEs (functional skills are more flexible in terms of when the tests can be sat and in some career areas they are accepted as equivalents at Level 2, so if they don't make the grade 4 at GCSE but have L2 functional skills this can open doors for them).

@MargosKaftan I reckon that's what they are waiting on to justify schools staying in

[quote Mumofsend]@FoxinaScarf in all sincerity unless an individual can confirm they literally only go between school and home and back again there is zero way of suggesting they caught it at school versus anywhere else they have been. Teachers aren't magically only able to pick up the virus in school. Stop it.[/quote]
Oh for goodness sake. Of course it's highly likely a member of school staff caught it from an asymptomatic child or staff member when they spend so much time in close proximity with no masks.

To say 'stop it' minimises the risks that school staff are taking.

Thing is though even if they tested them at the start, does it really help much if a very contagious virus then gets in say the week / day later? It isn't really the solution is it.