Those wanting school open - are you not worried about your DC?

[Hicksville21]

Just that really. Do you not think it’s time to keep our kids home safe until this wave passes?

It’s not so much kids catching it and getting very ill, it’s that schools are breeding grounds and they bring it home and the rest of the family get it.

No. I'm much more worried about the impact on their education and socialization.

@cantkeepawayforever I hear you

@cantkeepawayforever I'm sure it is incredibly distressing for staff but it doesn't change whether or not children should be in school.

They should, of course. There are so many reasons for that. As a teacher I would have expected you to acknowledge those.

If staff don't feel able to teach, there ought to be an allowance for that but I don't think this conversation was the best place to insert that hysterical comment. It came across badly. I'm sure that's not what you intended.

I’m more worried about their education. If they get the virus they will more than likely get it very mildly. If they miss month and months of school then they won’t get an education during that time because I work full time in a very demanding job and it will have a major impact on their education and therefore their future. This thing could go on for another year - or another two years - no one knows. Our kids futures are at stake.

I worry for vulnerable teachers or for the ECV household members of teachers / students. Fining them for not sending their children to school is outrageous.

I don't worry about my or other people's kids getting Covid.

I do worry about kids with chaotic home lives; those living with domestic abuse or neglect or at risk of exploitation. Or those who will miss out because they won't be able to home school.

But no I don't worry about kids getting Covid.

@cantkeepawayforever

You need to have a word with yourself about how selfish you are being. This isn’t all about you.

Why isn't this about school staff? For a school to be open, I has to be staffed. As schools are unsafe, all the staff are unsafe. We accept that, and teach your children to the absolute best of our ability. We put on our game faces, and assure parents that we love being in school.

I would say that, perhaps, teaching full time in unsafe conditions DESPITE being stressed to the point of physical illness every day is perhaps more unselfish rather than the reverse?

I’m sorry you have anxiety about the situation, I’m not sure your assessment of your own risk is necessarily accurate but let’s leave that aside for now.

Teaching and education is a vital irreplaceable part of our culture, development, long term wealth and health. We cannot afford to throw this away. What you are proposing in closing schools does that, and I would hope you are damn sure that you are not creating a worse problem.

People posting about their child’s mental health was dismissed as nothing by you. That really comes across as selfish. You are a key worker, and like other key workers, you find yourself in a situation where there is some risk in you doing your duties.

You can of course decide your role as a key worker is not for you and get another job. People do that all the time. You can’t expect the service that has been decided to be vital in our society to be changed completely just because of your personal circumstances

And I do feel really sorry for the teachers - if I could go in to school and help I would

My son (year 11) is suffering MH health issues due to repeated periods of isolation! Christmas Day we bubbled with his cousin and his face was a picture! He was so happy to be able to see other people. He was on top form.

Being stuck in the house and unable to leave for two weeks at a time is devastating, but I’m sure we have more of the same coming when schools reopen.

Ds went back to school shortly after lockdown began because he was constantly stimming, shrieking and hurting himself and going for us. His routine had changed overnight and all the familiar people and places had disappeared and he didn't know why and we can't explain it to him.

Why would I be worried about sending my children to school? They could be ill in any school year. DS1 missed a week last year with some random virus that took weeks to feel himself and a couple of months to really get his energy back. Nobody had issues about it 12m ago even though 1/3 of the class was off ill.

I am worried about them staying at home. Isolation from their peers, DS 7 shows depressive behaviour when he's not got school or his sports. DS 10 has multiple SENs and while I'm a former teacher who can support him, he can not cope with me masquerading as his teacher, and home learning was a disaster back in the spring.
We need the routines, external motivation and physically going to school for the DCs to thrive.

DS1 said today that he can't remember whar normal is. At just turned 10, he's spent about 9% of his life in this shit and he needs as much normal as possible to keep him functioning in a NT world.

Not concerned about sending them to school. Wasn’t in the spring lockdown either (but wasn’t allowed to as they’re not in priority yeargroup).

Not concerned about long covid.

Slightly concerned about the new strain but all the scientific data to date has found it to be no more dangerous to children.

Main concern is their mental health if schools close. And we are a family who will do anything for them, have time to educate at home and have garden and countryside around. I shudder to think of the damage wrought to children less fortunate through lockdown (and working in education I know some of it).

[quote Nohomemadecandles]@cantkeepawayforever I'm sure it is incredibly distressing for staff but it doesn't change whether or not children should be in school.

They should, of course. There are so many reasons for that. As a teacher I would have expected you to acknowledge those.

If staff don't feel able to teach, there ought to be an allowance for that but I don't think this conversation was the best place to insert that hysterical comment. It came across badly. I'm sure that's not what you intended.[/quote]
Children cannot be in school without staff. We know that, because of the number of schools that have closed due to staff illness.

Nobody knows better than teachers that children need to be in school (we know who is vulnerable at home; we know who is struggling mentally and physically; wee know the educational toll). Equally, we see our ECV colleagues teach classes of 30+ in unsafe conditions, and we worry about our colleagues who fall ill and go to hospital.

So teachers campaign tirelessly for schools to be open SAFELY.

Children will do better in schools where teachers are not ill, whether with Covid or with stress. There are no 'sides' here - teachers and parents should be on the same side because the ONLY way to get all children in school continuously is to make schools safer.

We should be allowed to decide if we want to risk it or not

that most certainly is not allowed. The govt is deciding what risks we're allowed to take. I would take many MORE risks than OP is comfortable with, but I am not legally allowed to choose to do that.

I guess I'm defeated. I have given up stating the same reasons over & over why I want schools to stay open as much as possible. One thing I know is that I have no influence, anyway.

I'm worried about DC not passing GCSEs.

I'm worried about the impact on their mental health for DC only having seen their sibling and me for the best part of a year.

I'm worried that my directly linked to education business will have to close again, and how I then feed my DC.

I'm worried that my Y9 DC didn't get their booster immunisations.

I'm worried about the effect of all this my DC mental health and actual childhood.

I'm worried that life will never be back to normal.

Unfortunately @hamstersarse I don’t think cant is alone as you suggest, or even in a minority for that matter, within the teaching profession in wanting safer working conditions. I don’t really understand why anyone would object to that.
I guess you’d have to see it to believe it, parents have been well and truly lied to about the true situation within schools. That might have been largely fine when we were dealing with the previous strain, but with the new strain rearing it’s ugly head (which does appear to be/potentially be far more transmissible by younger children) surely you can see why school staff are concerned with the apparent lack of any measures being put in place to keep people, children and staff, safe in schools.

If you are worried, keep your child home and school them yourself

A vulnerable child still needs education, still needs to be alongside their peers and needs as normal a life as anyone else. Why do you think otherwise? Better put, why do only children without vulnerabilities to covid matter?

And I am a shortage area teacher with huge experience and expertise. I am also a single parent. I can’t just give up working because both my child and I are vulnerable. How about we do everything possible to make schools as safe as possible for everyone?

There is so much variation in response to OP's question.

It should be down to parental choice, I think.

People posting about their child’s mental health was dismissed as nothing by you. That really comes across as selfish. You are a key worker, and like other key workers, you find yourself in a situation where there is some risk in you doing your duties.

I apologise that, by posting about the 'mirror' mental health issues amongst school staff, I appeared to be minimising children's MH difficulties.

That was absolutely not my intention. As I say, I know full well - from trying to obtain help for children who are suffering, from non-school services who are offering either no service or no face to face help due to covid, and thus having to fill the gap myself - the toll the pandemic is taking on the MH of all.

i have no wish to see schools closed - it is interesting that you think I do, as it shows a set of assumptions that are untrue. I want them open SAFELY.

@cantkeepawayforever you didn't say that though. You dismissed the mental health of children with a swooping "spare a thought for me".
There can be thoughts for everyone. Like I said, it came across badly.

No.

[quote Nohomemadecandles]@cantkeepawayforever you didn't say that though. You dismissed the mental health of children with a swooping "spare a thought for me".
There can be thoughts for everyone. Like I said, it came across badly.[/quote]
And for that, I apologise sincerely. Ironically, it is worries about the MH of my pupils that has contributed to some extent to the degree of strain I am under. I know their issues don't stop over Christmas, and I am worried about them.

@cantkeepawayforever

People posting about their child’s mental health was dismissed as nothing by you. That really comes across as selfish. You are a key worker, and like other key workers, you find yourself in a situation where there is some risk in you doing your duties.

I apologise that, by posting about the 'mirror' mental health issues amongst school staff, I appeared to be minimising children's MH difficulties.

That was absolutely not my intention. As I say, I know full well - from trying to obtain help for children who are suffering, from non-school services who are offering either no service or no face to face help due to covid, and thus having to fill the gap myself - the toll the pandemic is taking on the MH of all.

i have no wish to see schools closed - it is interesting that you think I do, as it shows a set of assumptions that are untrue. I want them open SAFELY.

I honestly didn't read it like you were dismissing anything. You were explaining that children's mental health and staff's mental health both need consideration.

@hamstersarse

I’m sorry you have anxiety about the situation,

That is a really offensive way to dismiss the teacher's concerns.

Teaching and education is a vital irreplaceable part of our culture,development, long term wealth and health. We cannot afford to throw this away.

So why not fund education properly to open safely. As without proper precautions funded by government the schools cannot stay open.

People posting about their child’s mental health
We have MORE people in hospital with covid than in April and 40k cases per day (a fraction of the real total, let's see the next ONS survey).

I do not think being in the centre of a pandemic, watching their teachers and possibly their parents get ill, will be very good for children's mental health either. Especially if they are almost inevitably going to be infected by the damn virus and some of them are going to, at the very lest, feel very poorly with it.

You can of course decide your role as a key worker is not for you and get another job.
Just fuck off with that. Why can we not make the schools safer? Or offer options like work from home if pupils and parents can manage to support that?

We don't have enough teachers (when will you right wing apologists get that into your heads). Please don't piss them off, for the rest of our children's sakes.

#not a teacher, just a parent

The risk of missing school will be far more serious long term than covid could be! Surely by now we know it’s actually not as bad as we first thought so know most are not at any risk at all and those who are know and will be taking extra precautions. It won’t affect my kids that much we have a nice house they have lap tops computers yet for some kids this is going to be detrimental to their lives now and their futures!