They are going to close the schools again aren’t they.

[Amithetoxicone]

😱

Sooo still no news about closures? :(

@Flapjak

Why arent unions and teachers petitioning the governmnet to be first in line for the vaccine. We really cant disrupt kids lives anymore than we have to. The 70 and 80 year olds can isolate a bit longer rather than forcing kids to isolate at home away from school and their friends.

The elderly often can't isolate. Many need frequent assistance. My grandparent is in hospital at the moment (not covid, but how long until they catch it?). Older or CEV teachers are on the priority list.

I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong to close schools but it is important to note that the Royal college of paediatricians has confirmed that this new strain is not any more harmful to children and they are not seeing a significant increase in admissions. I think the issue relates more to teachers feeling safe. Schools have been open for good while and not many teachers have died thankfully so fingers crossed it's true that the survival rate is still 99%

@Loustew12 the government have refused to release data on how many teachers have died, actually.

And even if it’s zero, how do you think the virus is getting back into the community, and reaching the clinically vulnerable?

The government have had 10 months to make schools safer for the staff and our children.

They chose not to.

And look how bad things have got in just one term.

If they're not going to make education safer then they're going to have to close schools.

Schools are probably the only place left where dozens (hundreds?) of people are indoors together for many hours/days at a time.

How can that possibly be "safe" Prime Minister?!

@cansu

80sColourfulChristmas If you think she is deliberately being unhelpful, you need to put your request in writing and take it further. Can you approach the CEO of the trust if it is an academy or the LEA? If you think your child needs an EHCP, there is a template letter on IPSEA's website to apply for one yourself. You don't need the school's agreement to do this. What do you think is behind the refusal to help? Is it because your child refuses to follow staff instructions?

She def doesn't need an EHCP. She has autism but doesn't need any additional help in school. Both her previous & current teachers have said so. It's just at home she is a nightmare, combined with my mobility issues.

I don't want to cause any hostility at school for the sake of what may end up as only a couple of weeks.
HOWEVER..... If closures are extended then believe me, I'll be fighting it tooth & nail. Not just on the basis of her needs but mine too (re: my disabilities). Not least because of the lack of school routine but also because of how difficult it is for me to implement & maintain home learning. She is the type of Autist who behaves a certain way based on her environment.
What I mean is, because she's not in the classroom with the teacher (this may be the case for NT children but I only have DD so I have no frame of reference), she seems to switch her brain off completely and so any suggestion of schoolwork results in either a full meltdown or she behaves all daft and won't even hold her pencil. Head goes on the table. Pretends she doesn't know how to write/doesn't know the answer to the most basic questions that she very much does know etc etc! No matter how much I prepare her beforehand or 'plan it' it makes no difference. Always ends in tears or shouting or both! 😩

@80sColourfulChristmas she sounds so similar to my son. Homeschooling has been nigh on impossible.

[quote GloGirl]@80sColourfulChristmas she sounds so similar to my son. Homeschooling has been nigh on impossible.[/quote]
Exhausting, aren't they?!

With most things, I've discovered that forewarning helps tremendously! So sometimes up to 4-7 days before something that had I sprung on her, she'd have gone nuts about, if I warn her, it becomes a little 'plan' and she's great about it. Just wish it worked with homeschooling xx

What is the exit strategy though is schools close, at what point would it be deemed safe to re-open them.

Realistically if they all close now, the rates per 100,000 will be worse in 2 weeks than they are now, and I can't believe anyone would say, ok well the 2 weeks are up, the numbers are worse but let's reopen schools anyway.

We know from last year that with full actual nationwide lockdown it took about 3 months to see a consistent stable improvement in death rate, testing for cases was useless so that's all guesswork but the working theory is we were at about 150,000 new cases a day at peak.

So would schools stay closed with remote learning till Easter?

Does anyone think 4-11 year olds can learn online effectively?

I know my 6 yr old can't. She needs me to help her navigate the computer and is asking questions every 2 minutes, which would be fine if I weren't on 5 hr conference calls, or trying to read and annotate detailed contracts and bids.

Me and DH are not keyworkers according to the govt list so no access to schools and we have no childcare options, pre-Covid we had some support from in laws but they're both ECV so not an option now.

I think they should close schools for 6 weeks and teach in the summer holidays to make up for it.

That'll be useful for the kids having their lessons after their exams

@FatGirlShrinking
What is the exit strategy though is schools close, at what point would it be deemed safe to re-open them.

Realistically if they all close now, the rates per 100,000 will be worse in 2 weeks than they are now, and I can't believe anyone would say, ok well the 2 weeks are up, the numbers are worse but let's reopen schools anyway.

We know from last year that with full actual nationwide lockdown it took about 3 months to see a consistent stable improvement in death rate, testing for cases was useless so that's all guesswork but the working theory is we were at about 150,000 new cases a day at peak.

So would schools stay closed with remote learning till Easter?

Does anyone think 4-11 year olds can learn online effectively?

I know my 6 yr old can't. She needs me to help her navigate the computer and is asking questions every 2 minutes, which would be fine if I weren't on 5 hr conference calls, or trying to read and annotate detailed contracts and bids.

Me and DH are not keyworkers according to the govt list so no access to schools and we have no childcare options, pre-Covid we had some support from in laws but they're both ECV so not an option now.

Same here....

That'll be useful for the kids having their lessons after their exams

Everything would obviously have to be delayed by 6 weeks.

The current advice seems to be close school for two weeks now. We're in tier 3 and all the local schools are going back on the 18th (secondary, not sure about primary) unless your are key workers or you're a vulnerable child.
So they are having the extra time off but I bet they will still have to close when school closures are rolled out. It seems like they are trying to do the right thing but it will backfire because they will still have to close later in the year (probably later on in January).

@notevenat20

That'll be useful for the kids having their lessons after their exams

Everything would obviously have to be delayed by 6 weeks.

That wouldn't work though.

Say you delay exams into July/August.
Results wouldn't be back in time for A-Levels or uni to start so you'd end up having to shunt yr 12 and uni start dates back. SATs at yr 6 would be even more useless than they are right now as couldn't be used to put yr 7s in sets as wouldn't be marked in time.

When would you make back that time? How would universities cover the costs of losing a term? Who would mark the exams, at the moment the vast majority are marked by teachers as a second job during school holidays?

Add in that teachers are not contracted to work during summer holidays and are likely to have other obligations how would you even staff the schools?

Would all kids then go from working through the summer holidays straight through till October or would those holidays need to move around?

@notevenat20

I think they should close schools for 6 weeks and teach in the summer holidays to make up for it.

The thing is - THE SCHOOLS ARE NOT GOING TO BE CLOSED. Keyworker and vulnerable children will be in and teachers will have to be looking after those children plus online teaching. Teachers are NOT PAID for the majority of their so-called 'holidays' We are paid contractually for just term-time teaching hours but this pay is spread over 12 months.

So. Who's going to pay us for working outside of our contracted hours during the 6 weeks holiday?

I think if we did teacher assessed, and got those grades given out by late August, then it shouldn't impact too much on universities.

Is it more important that students know the course work they are studying, or that they are tested on how well they know the course work they are studying? What's more important, the knowledge or the assessment of it?

If schools are safe why are they closing some? If they have evidence that they are safe why did hey not produce that when asked to do so by the 10 London’s boroughs that asked them to do so? Instead they did a u turn and told them to close why was that? Either schools are safe enough to open or they aren’t. SAGE recommended schools close and the government ignored them to some extent but are not answering questions about why they did so. Their silence speaks volumes to me and many others I am sure

I am still intrigued to know how schools can be regarded as 'safe'. What does Boris mean by this and how could we make other places, where people gather in large groups, equally safe?

Is it the lack of social distancing or lack of mask-wearing that does it? Or the large groups sitting close together for long periods of time?

So we have roughly 24hrs left before I think it's pretty safe to assume that those of us who's schools open on Monday - will be attending as planned.
Does anyone really think realistically that he will close them at such short notice?? Perhaps it's just wishful thinking but I really don't think he will now. They had their meeting today to discuss, yet no announcement.

@80sColourfulChristmas

So we have roughly 24hrs left before I think it's pretty safe to assume that those of us who's schools open on Monday - will be attending as planned. Does anyone really think realistically that he will close them at such short notice?? Perhaps it's just wishful thinking but I really don't think he will now. They had their meeting today to discuss, yet no announcement.

Depends if teachers and support staff follow their union advice.

@80sColourfulChristmas

So we have roughly 24hrs left before I think it's pretty safe to assume that those of us who's schools open on Monday - will be attending as planned. Does anyone really think realistically that he will close them at such short notice?? Perhaps it's just wishful thinking but I really don't think he will now. They had their meeting today to discuss, yet no announcement.

This government often announce important things at 10.30 at night on Twitter. Once at 5 to midnight when it came into force at midnight. So it would just be par for the course.

@Shootingstar2014 my view is if they close schools they will be closed to Easter. Figures will not have improved in 2 weeks, in fact they will likely be worse. Might be better by Feb half term and so we may get a phased return (like in the summer).

By Easter they should have the first priority group vaccinated then. Teachers (who haven’t been vaccinated in first wave (under 50 and no health conditions) will then be top of the list in the second wave with other professions.

The only other option is they put teachers to the front of the vaccination queue, but if they do that then what about all the other professions who have equally good claims to need it: bus drivers, supermarket workers, factory workers, prisons (where there have been big outbreaks and they had no option for remote working)? Also that would go against what JCVI has recommended and their criteria was to vaccinate those most likely to die and reduce pressure on nhs.

@PrincessNutNuts But surely not something like schools? Millions of parents wouldn't see or hear about it before Monday morning and would result in hoards of kids stood outside locked gates, all confused

I am broadly supportive of a ‘firebreak’ school closure for all schools up to the end of January because the case numbers are absolutely frightening. If that does happen, parents need to keep children and young people away from each other and at home, not mixing with each other and having an extended Christmas break otherwise it will achieve nothing.

That being said, if schools do close a lot of parents will want reassurance that it won’t become another ‘for the foreseeable future’ scenario like it was in March last year. As well as a plan for how children will catch up on yet more lost learning as they would have missed most of an academic year. A serious conversation about repeating the year might have to happen.