Schools could be closed until Feb half term!

[DfEisashambles]

Reported in the DM. I’m surprised at this and don’t think it’ll go ahead.

Gove has said this morning that the plan is still for primaries to return on 4th and a phased return of secondary pupils, although they are keeping things “under review”. I generally don’t believe much the man says but I have never hoped so desperately for his words to be true.

[quote rookiemere]@EasterIssland there has to be a balance between reducing virus numbers and protecting the mental and physical health of our young people.

I would argue that a lot of schooling is about socialisation as well as education. The education can mostly be provided at home by sacrificing the mental and physical health of working parents but the socialisation is just as important. At least if the DCs are outside, it's mitigating the impact of mixing. Or would you prefer we have a Spain style lockdown where DCs were not allowed out at all and developed rickets ?[/quote]
No I’d not prefer a Spanish way (I’m Spanish ) but I’d also prefer not to need to close the schools because adults aren’t following the guidance hence the virus spreading faster than what it should.

If everything that it’s going to change in January is that the schools are closed but we carry on living like nothing is happening then which is the point of closing schools ?

@Dodie66

Just said in sky news schools back on 4th jan for years 11 and 13 and the rest the week after

It's old news and I wouldn't hang on to what the Govt announces, given previous U-turns.

The PM said Christmas bubbles would remain unaffected before putting half the country in T4 last mi ute.

We know by now they backtrack and make last minute chaotic announcements.

It’s so hard. I struggled last time with two primary kids at home and a demanding full time job. Home became a total battle ground for our 5 year old and he’s flourished since being back in school. Our 9 year old is easier but I think she will struggle more this time.

I’m already having sleepless nights about how to cope with home schooling, ten hour working days, and my own dive-bombing mental health.

We do all we can to restrict contact to ensure the kids can go to school. Plenty of others are not even following the basic rules.

I was expecting them to be closed for the whole of Jan, so Feb half term makes sense.

Gove has just said what schools and parents have already been told since mid December. It’s before all the new information and the DfE meeting...to be honest. Gove has been so spectacularly wrong on most things, I would see it as the biggest indicator they won’t stay ‘open’. They live sending him out to trot the party line then u-turning. It makes him look stupid which is what Boris wants as he’s his nearest competitor for the ‘top spot’.

Because the daily mail is always right.

More fake news from the Daily Fail. I never believe anything that newspaper reports!...

This Government lies as easily as it breathes. So I wouldn’t believe anything until it says until it actually happens. And no one will know about it until this very last minute, and it won’t be properly planned, because as well as being liars, they are incapable of making decisions or forward planning.

I think the schools should all be shut until February, by which time the vaccination programme will be well underway.
Unfortunately I don't think this will happen, and so far indications (BBC news this morning) appear to suggest that secondary schools will remain closed initially, except for years 11 and 13, while primaries will be open.

When will they learn? Many moons back they were saying secondary schools aren't really spreaders and so long as older children wear masks....ah, didn't work, did it?

They're holding out on primaries only because it is so difficult for parents; however, in due course they will realise just how much small children spread the virus, often without showing symptoms, and that they must do a re-think.

We are vaccinating but it will take time. The virus mutates, all viruses do. If we leave it spreading unchecked, before long we will get a mutation which renders the vaccination useless. Why not keep it in check until we can get enough of the population vaccinated?

the, not this

I'm resigned to schools needing to close and see it might be necessary. I do find a lot of the smug 'good!' type posts on here awful though.

I'm a single mum of three young DCs and was made redundant after trying to manage work and childcare and homeschool during the first lockdown - officially not due to homeschooling but in reality they reviewed our recent performance and cut everyone except the top 25%, which unsurprisingly included zero working mothers of small kids, even though many of us had been at the top in 2019.

Fine if it has to happen but have some fucking empathy. I'm likely to lose my house, and how am I going to get another job with no childcare?

Gove has said this morning that the plan is still for primaries to return on 4th and a phased return of secondary pupils, although they are keeping things “under review”. I generally don’t believe much the man says but I have never hoped so desperately for his words to be true.

Gove has clout, and is worth heeding for that reason alone.

Key words in this are "under review"

The plan he outlined was promulgated before Christmas. Does anyone really think that things have not moved on since then?

Hope they vaccinate TAs as well as teachers.
Many over 50 and get closer to children as a necessity...

It depends really if you want your hospitals open to deal with your mums’s cancer or your dad’s heart attacks really.

Like as someone much more clever than me said, we’ll pay for our summer holidays with winter lock downs, it seems we might pay for our Christmas dinners with women’s jobs.

Hate to say it but the Mail are usually right on stuff in the summer we were scouring the papers to see which countries were going in and out of be travel bridges as we were directly affected - the Mail called it right every time they are obviously being briefed by government whatever you may think it them

@OverTheRubicon

I'm resigned to schools needing to close and see it might be necessary. I do find a lot of the smug 'good!' type posts on here awful though.

I'm a single mum of three young DCs and was made redundant after trying to manage work and childcare and homeschool during the first lockdown - officially not due to homeschooling but in reality they reviewed our recent performance and cut everyone except the top 25%, which unsurprisingly included zero working mothers of small kids, even though many of us had been at the top in 2019.

Fine if it has to happen but have some fucking empathy. I'm likely to lose my house, and how am I going to get another job with no childcare?

I'm really sorry to hear about your situation but unfortunately it doesn't surprise me.
All the research is showing that it is women who are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in terms of their ability to participate in the labour market.

You're very, very lucky if you can manage school closures without losing your job. People need to have some compassion.

@OverTheRubicon

I'm resigned to schools needing to close and see it might be necessary. I do find a lot of the smug 'good!' type posts on here awful though.

I'm a single mum of three young DCs and was made redundant after trying to manage work and childcare and homeschool during the first lockdown - officially not due to homeschooling but in reality they reviewed our recent performance and cut everyone except the top 25%, which unsurprisingly included zero working mothers of small kids, even though many of us had been at the top in 2019.

Fine if it has to happen but have some fucking empathy. I'm likely to lose my house, and how am I going to get another job with no childcare?

I agree. The ‘good’ posts are so bloody thoughtless about the impact on kids and adults, on a parenting site too! You have very much sympathy from me.

@JacobReesMogadishu

And I agree that The Main seem to be spot on with their “predictions” which are obviously coming from a high level leak with I’m sure the full approval right from the top. The govt want this drop, drip leaking of stuff, it suits their agenda. Now which newspaper has a columnist married to a govt minister?

We can't be the only people to have realised this surely! The Mail and telegraph in particular get it spot on. Didn't boris used to be editor of the telegraph?

My dds secondary ensured every one was set up for remote learning in the last week some girls were even lent lap tops. They are having a “delayed start” so week of Remote learning well initially a week...

They surely can’t shut primaries though

The government couldn't really have handled this worse if they tried.

Most countries have masks from age 6 - if we'd had that maybe the new variant wouldn't have got out of control so quickly. As it is, in my area cases are rising exponentially. If schools open as they were before Xmas the hospitals (which have already cancelled all non urgent surgery etc) will be overwhelmed and people - not just those with covid - will die. Including children who don't get the care they need in time.

It seems to me that in areas such as mine with such high rates the choice is planned, controlled school closures, or endless isolating with no forewarning or ability to plan. Out of these two unappealing options I would prefer the former because at least then we can get out for exercise etc. With the latter you can't leave the house. I know which would be worse (of two bad options) for my kids mental health.

But it's the government's fault. I've been writing to my MP asking for money for better mitigations in schools since the summer. They haven't followed ANY of the scientific advice for what is needed to open schools during this pandemic - smaller class sizes, masks, social distancing. So it was obvious that this was going to happen at some point.

Belle it would an outrage if schools still needed to train on teams or meets. It really would.

Many places before the march lock down were proactive and did training in class with teachers and pupils. When lock down came they smoothly transitioned on line.

So there is absolutely no excuse if a school hasn't organised this yet. I'm not tech savvy by a very long shot and I had 40 mins training on Google stuff, hangouts, classroom and meets, which was enough to get on line and learn more as we went along.

There is no excuse for poor provision

Most countries have masks from age 6 - if we'd had that maybe the new variant wouldn't have got out of control so quickly

Mn is full of threads where parents refuse for their kids wearing masks in schools all the time. So good luck with that

@SellFridges I’m already having sleepless nights about how to cope with home schooling, ten hour working days, and my own dive-bombing mental health.

You just described me. Stay strong.