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?

I am assuming those calling for a delay on return to school mean for a few weeks rather than an end to education altogether, which makes the posts about the children losing out on education seem a little, well, OTT.
A few weeks out of a school career honestly won't make that much difference, everyone would be in the same boat it's not as if your dc have gone on holiday while the rest of the class learned long division.

I find it hard to accept the "children are not affected by Covid" argument at the moment. So far it's been true that only a very small minority have been seriously ill with it. But until now, proportionally relatively few younger children have tested positive. With the new variant, those numbers have taken a big jump. Even if it's still only a tiny minority who get very ill, the overall number of those children will be higher as there are more children catching it. Perhaps I am more concerned than others as the new variant is out of control where I am so the chances of my kids catching it are much higher than many others in different parts of the country.

Also there are a lot of grandparents who provide wraparound care for their DGC. If schools shut they could have them for the full day as childcare support

And they’re all ready, willing and able to provide full time childcare?

You know this how exactly?

It’s a balance more worried about lack of education and mental health vs risk to health of dc getting COVID.
Happy to not go out or see people and shops closed to ensure education for my dc and others. I believe teachers need more protection but shudder at the thought of any parent who does not put education first. It explains a lot about how Britain’s problems.

I worry for my children about,
Bullying
Mental health
Meningitis
Childhood cancer
Accidental injury
Car accidents
Social and educational development
Food poisoning
Choking

I don't worry about them having covid. I would worry about them passing it on.

A few weeks out of a school career honestly won't make that much difference

A ‘few weeks’ on top of the months lost March-June of last year.

And does it end there?

As a parent, I’m mightily sick of being fobbed off with ‘it’s a few weeks’. The impact on education is hugely significant. Lets stop minimising.

No one cared about me working in a care home and before people say you all have adequate PPE we didn’t.

I am definitely worried about care home staff, shop workers etc but the difference is I spend an hour and a half with 30 kids four times a day so approx 120kids per day and over 500 per week in an enclosed room with no social distancing between each other or myself, adequate PPE etc. These then go home to their vulnerable family members. I as well as most other school staff have DCs at different schools so we are potentially bringing in/spreading it to different schools.

It is not possible to slow the spread as schools are right now.
I don’t know what the answer is and I am just waiting for the inevitable that schools will end up closing as they can’t carry on like they are and expect to see a change.
I feel like maybe a part time timetable would be better than nothing so half the school is in or to shorten breaks so they can get home earlier.

@lavenderlou

I find it hard to accept the "children are not affected by Covid" argument at the moment. So far it's been true that only a very small minority have been seriously ill with it. But until now, proportionally relatively few younger children have tested positive. With the new variant, those numbers have taken a big jump. Even if it's still only a tiny minority who get very ill, the overall number of those children will be higher as there are more children catching it. Perhaps I am more concerned than others as the new variant is out of control where I am so the chances of my kids catching it are much higher than many others in different parts of the country.

The science is that many don’t show symptoms Hence not been tested Hence only few tested positive

A few weeks out of a school career honestly won't make that much difference

Is it just a few weeks though?

My one year 10 son has not been in school for 42 days since Sept, my other year 10 20 days, due to high cases of Covid at their respective secondaries.

This is in addition to the initial March to July lockdown.

Remote learning was a mixed bag during lockdown and in my one son's first two out of six self isolations from school, we had days without any lessons whatsoever, before Ofsted guidelines re remote learning were introduced.

My year 10s have actually missed months of in-school learning in a GCSE year, not just six weeks. There is simply no time to catch up.

A seemingly endless cycle of self isolations have now dominated my home for months and while I do believe that a temporary closure is the lesser of two evils for US, the missed education in school is not minimal, sadly.

@LoveNote

are you not worried for their teachers, school staff and other parents?

Not especially The numbers of teachers I am aware having got it in RL.... 1.

I'm more worried about the impact of my DC not going to school.

A different perspective as a teacher without children, I don’t worry about myself going to work but I worry about my class spreading it to their families. I barely see anyone other than my DP due to work, and we are both young. It won’t be long until my parents are vaccinated anyway and then I can see them.
My kids on the other hand - some have parents who were shielding and I do worry about them taking it home to those family members. The children themselves are likely to be fine.

The science is that many don’t show symptoms
Hence not been tested
Hence only few tested positive

The ONS randomised testing showed a sudden big jump in the number of children in school years 2-6 who tested positive in December, suggesting that that age group were becoming infected more readily. Because it's random testing, it picks up cases which are asymptomatic or which show symptoms other than the three people are encouraged to get tested for.

My children spent time with my positive MIL and didn't catch it, or didn't get symptoms at any rate. So if they encounter it at school they may or may not catch it but no one in our household is vulnerable anyway

Good for you, I hope your children were in isolation after contact with your positive MIL and not back in school....just thinking of school staff I work with who have died of COVID...and their families and children....

Children need to be in school .. the impact of them missing education / socialising etc etc is far far great than them getting covid which doesn't affect children.

Online learning doesn't work. My son did it on trans, very well organised but he said he hadn't learnt a thing.

The government etc know this , hence why schools are open.

The numbers of teachers I am aware having got it in RL.... 1.

Well that probably depends how many teachers you know. I don't know any NHS staff that have had Covid - because I only know about 3 people who work for the NHS. Doesn't mean not many NHS staff are catching it. However, DH and I are both teachers so we know lots of them. Between us there are 30+ colleagues who've had it, at least.

A few weeks out of a school career honestly won't make that much difference, everyone would be in the same boat it's not as if your dc have gone on holiday while the rest of the class learned long division. Everyone would not have been in the same boat. Same storm not same boat. For example, everyone gets the same time off school in summer, but disadvantaged children are more likely to go backwards in their learning. Also, it hasn't been a few weeks, it's already been the full summer term. I'm worried that my year 10 will fail his English GCSEs.

I’m a teacher and surprisingly few of my colleagues have had covid. Those who have are mostly in the same department and have probably passed it to each other in their dept base.

Much much more worried about the effect on them, and DH and I, of them NOT being in school.

Haven’t read many of the comments, but I’m not really that worried for them, I’m more worried they will pass it to DH who is shielding. I don’t want them to be off for to long but I do think they need to delay it by 2 weeks

I am worried because I don’t trust our government to handle things effectively. They are so blinkered about wanting to keep schools open/exams to go ahead. Mainly in my opinion so as not to back down. They are prepared to ignore advice of scientists and just push on regardless with no thought for the teachers pupils and their families

@Hicksville21

I am worried because I don’t trust our government to handle things effectively. They are so blinkered about wanting to keep schools open/exams to go ahead. Mainly in my opinion so as not to back down. They are prepared to ignore advice of scientists and just push on regardless with no thought for the teachers pupils and their families

Nah, they'll see which way the wind is blowing then make their minds up.

@ByersRd

My children spent time with my positive MIL and didn't catch it, or didn't get symptoms at any rate. So if they encounter it at school they may or may not catch it but no one in our household is vulnerable anyway

Good for you, I hope your children were in isolation after contact with your positive MIL and not back in school....just thinking of school staff I work with who have died of COVID...and their families and children....

Yes we all isolated for 10 days and finished isolation yesterday. So over the school holidays.

They were actually off for two weeks at the end of term due to a positive case at the school. But that's moot anyway.

@ItsIgginningtolookalotlikeXmas

I am assuming those calling for a delay on return to school mean for a few weeks rather than an end to education altogether, which makes the posts about the children losing out on education seem a little, well, OTT. A few weeks out of a school career honestly won't make that much difference, everyone would be in the same boat it's not as if your dc have gone on holiday while the rest of the class learned long division.

A few weeks here, a few weeks there, a month or six. Yeah. No harm at all.

I’m not worried as my child and myself already caught Covid19 from school last term (both only had rashes as a symptom and nearly didn’t get tested which doesn’t bare thinking about but highlights just how many cases in pupils will have been missed) but I am frustrated with a number of agencies who have withdrawn their face to face contact (CAMHS, Social Services etc) and left it largely up to schools deal with the vulnerable, MH issues in children pushing everything at such breaking point.

It’s also slightly annoying to read posters catashrophising lost time from school and education when many could not have cared less for the thousands of children who had lots of lost time self isolating (believe me it is worse when they cannot leave their homes for exercise) many of whom were also vulnerable, just because ‘well, there have hardly been any cases in my school so it shouldn’t be my problem’.