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

[Amithetoxicone]

😱

Shutting them isn’t the answer

I can’t understand the absolute lack of value given to education and schools in this country at all. It’s a race to the bottom every time. Why aren’t we standing up for our kids more?

Oh boy, I wish they would crack on and make a decision. I've spent the holidays planning and preparing for both a term in the classroom, as well as creating content for online learning. I'm now ready to go whatever they decide, but it hasn't been much of a holiday

I really hope not but think they will. Equally concerned about nursery closing.
My eldest is in Y10 and although we're key workers she's unlikely to get a place but my Y8 will.
However if the nurseries fully shut as in not even key worker children we're screwed. Can't work without childcare, can't work from home in the evening or weekend instead. My dad suggested if they close I could get my 14 year old to care for the baby 🙄🙄

Hopefully. The teaching unions seem like they might finally step up.

DD 15/year 11 is still required to go into school for a lateral flow test on Tuesday next week. Tier 4 area.

She has still not recovered from the effects of trying to study at home last time and the uncertainty of the exam situation. She is not the same child.

DH is technically classed as key worker and I am CEV and we have both WFH since March.

DD is luckier than some kids in that DH bought DD a secondhand Mac at the beginning of lockdown, she has her bedroom to study in or a room downstairs, the house is quiet, of a comfortable temperature, she has access to regular food and snacks, we love her and want to support her. But she won’t allow us to help her and she just gets down and behind and depressed working from home. Dreading it.

@getwhatyougive

Either the government shuts them in a controlled way or they will shut through sickness and teacher absence.

You are right though. I am utterly sick of the way the educational value of school is undermined in favour of treating them as free babysitting services.

If we valued education we’d be doing all we could to make online or blended learning work. It has worked for countries all over the world. Why are children uniquely unable to do it?

I’ll tell you a secret- it’s parents that don’t like it and refuse to ask their children to stretch themselves in the same way children in other countries do.

Who will be better equipped for the future- the children in the UAE who have adapted to the online world or our kids who have been told it’s impossible.

The short sighted view that education only happens in person will be damaging to children in the long term.

I live in Kent in tier 4 but schools in my area are open. I work in a different area 5 miles from home and the schools there are closed. Many secondary school pupils bus across to the next small town which is 8miles from here and those schools are closed, many pupils do the opposite and travel into this area which has schools open when the schools where they live are closed. It’s madness!

@AdultHumanFemale

Oh boy, I wish they would crack on and make a decision. I've spent the holidays planning and preparing for both a term in the classroom, as well as creating content for online learning. I'm now ready to go whatever they decide, but it hasn't been much of a holiday

You're a star, have some deserved . It's bonkers that teachers are spending so much time preparing for a term. I'm sure it much have been much easier for teachers in the days of using text books. There must be other teachers up and down the country preparing exactly the same stuff as you have. I really hope that is something positive that comes out of this pandemic that every course curriculum is prepared at a national level and available to teachers via Oak Academy or something.

I really truly hope not....as a working mum this situation is untenable.

@Sockwomble

"So any children with EHCPs or a social worker can go in."

That didn't happen last time. Some schools had too many needing keyworker places so didn't offer places to those with EHCPs. LAs decided that all children in special schools were CV so shut all special schools without considering other needs. Some children who also had a social worker got places but most didn't.

I am very rural NE. Cases low but affected by Newcastle/Sunderland numbers so in some sort of restrictions since March really. Tier 3 for months, now 4. Both my kids Autistic and SEN and High school age, one Y11. Not offered a place last time, despite MH issues needing support. Not a lack of places just an exceptionally inadequate school (officially, not just my opinion) No comms from them yet this time either, despite kids being Vulnerable

As a teacher, myself and most of my colleagues do not want schools to be closed.

What we want is better standards of safety for school staff and students. The ability to wear proper PPE in classrooms. Plastic shield desk dividers that many other countries are using successfully. Compulsory mask wearing for those aged 6+ in the classroom.

As a parent I want the government to not penalise parents who chose not to send their children to school, whether for a medical reason, or because the parent has made the decision it's the best option for their child. In the vast majority of cases the parents know what is best for their children. Many other countries simultaneously deliver provision in classroom and online and that's what we need to be doing moving forward.

@getwhatyougive

Shutting them isn’t the answer

I can’t understand the absolute lack of value given to education and schools in this country at all. It’s a race to the bottom every time. Why aren’t we standing up for our kids more?

I don't agree. We are the only country with cases still high who is insisting on non masked pupils in full classrooms.

Education needs to continue.

It's very narrow minded to think that can only be everyone in school full time.

@80sColourfulChristmas

Totally understand why you'd be feeling stressed, and I would hope that the school would have your child in under the vulnerable category.

Yes, there are a few threads on here though on “where did you catch it”
Mostly school and kids is the answer.

@hedgehogger1

No one wants them to close, but it is necessary, reports in the telegraph of hospital wards full of kids struggling with COVID. (Although the story has mysteriously vanished, it went like this)

Covid wards 'full of children' for first time in pandemic, warn nurses
Clinicians say high levels of nursing vacancies and staff sickness will make it near-impossible to use Nightingale hospitals
By
Patrick Sawer,
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
1 January 2021 • 7:00pm
Paramedics wearing PPE prepare to remove a patient from an ambulance at The Royal London Hospital on December 31, 2020
Medics are starting to see “whole wards of children” suffering from Covid for the first time during the pandemic, a senior nurse has warned.
Laura Duffell, a matron at King’s College Hospital, London, said the new strain of Covid was affecting children and younger adults with no underlying health conditions in worrying numbers.
She said: “It’s very different. That’s what makes it so much scarier for us as doctors, nurses and porters and everyone else who is working on the front line.
“We have children who are coming in. It was minimally affecting children in the first wave... we now have a whole ward of children here and I know that some of my colleagues are in the same position, where they have a whole ward of children with Covid.”
Ms Duffel, a Royal College of Nursing branch official, described a picture of NHS hospitals close to buckling under the strain of rising numbers of Covid patients.
She told Radio 5 Live on Friday: “20 to 30 year olds with no underlying conditions are coming in. In intensive care you could have up to two or three very sick ventilated patients at the moment, which is far beyond what you should have.
“Some of my colleagues across London have been looking after up to 15 adults on a Covid ward with one health care assistant supporting them, so you don’t stop.”
Senior clinicians have now warned that severe staff shortages mean there is little prospect of the Nightingale hospitals riding to the rescue of the NHS as it struggles to cope with the imminent threat of being overwhelmed by Covid patients.
Consultants and nursing leaders say that high levels of nursing vacancies, coupled with high numbers of staff themselves going off sick with coronavirus or stress will make it near impossible to use the Nightingale hospitals built around the country at the start of the pandemic.
The makeshift hospitals were built at sites across England at an estimated cost of £220million, including in London, Manchester, Bristol, Sunderland, Harrogate, Exeter and Birmingham.
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Of these the Exeter site received its first Covid patients in November while Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are currently in use for non-Covid patients.
But Mike Adams, the Royal College of Nursing's England director Mike Adams said on Friday that the expectation that the Nightingale hospitals could deliver a significant increase in capacity was "misplaced".
He said: "I have real concerns that the expectation that this mass rollout in capacity can happen is misplaced because there aren't the staff to do it. If we are having to cancel leave to staff these areas, the obvious question is where will the staff come from to open the Nightingales?”
There are already one in eight nursing vacancies, with existing shortages in the type of Intensive Care Unit nurses needed to treat the most severely ill Covid patients, and recent figures showed that one in 10 Covid admissions to hospital are front line health workers - depriving the NHS of badly-needed staff.
Professor David Oliver, a trustee of the Royal College of Physicians and a senior consultant working on Covid wards, told The Telegraph: “Where are the staff going to come from for the Nightingales? The day-to day, hands-on care is carried out by nurses and health care assistants and there already aren’t enough of them.”
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The warnings came as the picture across hospitals struggling to cope with a spike in Covid cases grows ever more serious, with consultants estimating that London hospitals are now operating at more than 200 per cent over capacity and even those hospitals in regions not as badly affected by the current wave working at 150 per cent over capacity.
Medics transport a patient from an ambulance to the Royal London Hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues
Medics transport a patient from an ambulance to the Royal London Hospital as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues CREDIT: HANNAH MCKAY/Reuters
Clinicians say this means beds being placed closer together to make space, increasing the risk of cross infection between patients, and other Covid beds being moved into “every corner” of a hospital. Some major London hospitals have been forced to treat Covid-19 patients in ambulances.
As a result a growing number of non-Covid patients are having to wait longer for potentially life saving treatment for conditions such as cancer.
Department of Health data shows there were 23,813 people in hospital with Covid-19 in the UK as of December 28, the most recent figures - more than at any other point during the pandemic, even during the devastating first wave in March and April.
Some 1,847 of these patients were on ventilators in intensive care units.
There are now real fears NHS hospitals are close to being overwhelmed, with some doctors predicting this could happen when the wave of infections from the Christmas and New Year period hits them in two weeks.
Dr Shondipon Laha, a consultant in critical care medicine and honorary secretary of the Intensive Care Society, described the situation in London hospitals and some parts of the north west, as "dire".
He added: "We are close to being overwhelmed now and we will be overwhelmed soon. We are already at the limits. It's very worrying.”
Dr Laha said that patients would soon have to be transferred beyond their immediate region to areas around the country in order to create space for new admissions.
"Covid patients will soon be piling up in casualty departments because there will be nowhere else to treat them. The second peak we’re going through now in London is going to be massive. Bigger than anything we’ve ever experienced,”
“On top of that some planned operations are having to be delayed because there is no capacity at the moment to deal with them, which means people are not being treated for life threatening conditions such as cancer, including brain and stomach cancers.”
NHS England medical director Stephen Powis has described the Nightingale hospitals as "our insurance policy, there as our last resort'"

All hospitals are struggling and it seems that it's kids who are spreading it

Thank you for this article. Just reposting because it is important. I’ve already listened to the R5 interview with Laura Duffel. I don’t understand why this is not out there on mainstream media. Discussion this morning on sky news (from what I’ve watched any way) has centred around informing us there is no issue.

@BelleSausage it doesn't matter how good the online education is, if parents are working full time and don't have the time to dedicate to helping their children with schoolwork too then it's an impossible situation.

There’s an online petition to close all schools in tier 4 and it’s got 500+ signatures in the last hour.

Is there a petition to keep them open too?

Waxonwaxoff0

@BelleSausage it doesn't matter how good the online education is, if parents are working full time and don't have the time to dedicate to helping their children with schoolwork too then it's an impossible situation.

This.
Fine for SAHP but not so much for WFHPs

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@BelleSausage it doesn't matter how good the online education is, if parents are working full time and don't have the time to dedicate to helping their children with schoolwork too then it's an impossible situation.[/quote]
I agree. I don't want decisions made with a sink or swim mentality where socially and economically disadvantaged children are left behind. Oh, and we are a working class single parent family before anyone starts on about middle class parents.

I’ll tell you a secret- it’s parents that don’t like it and refuse to ask their children to stretch themselves in the same way children in other countries do.

I agreed with you up to this point! I was very lucky with my school. The online learning was up and running after a couple of months. My children thrived with it. My friendship group setting up spelling zoom sessions. Other schools in the area were a complete dead loss. My friends desperately ordering books and trying to recreate school at home. Those who have no laptops? iPads? Working from home. Poorly? Have a bit of empathy for others.

@Juststopswimming

I hope not but im becoming increasingly resigned to getting my head around them closing.

If they do shut, and are shut for a sustained period again I think this entire school year needs repeating. So many kids were already behind. Its just not ok to expect them to "catch up".

This is so frustrating. It is literally (and I mean, literally) impossible to repeat a year.

BelleSausage
I do agree that it makes more sense for the government to close schools in a controlled way.

Yes much more nationally should be put into levelling the playing field, ensure every child has the IT equipment required and access to the internet. Because that's a big argument against online education not every child has access.

I disagree with you blaming parents, the issue is parents are being asked to do the impossible, work, teach, and childmind at the same time 3 into 1 doesn't go.

Parents in the UK work the longest hours in Europe. Employers are ruthless, if your not doing your job they'll get someone who will. Parents aren't stupid they know that their job is at risk. Furlough still has a cost for employers. And actually they still need a job done.

I gave up on home school a week before the term ended last time round after I stuck my own nails into my other arm and pulled my own hair. Frustration trying to keep the eldest concentrating, I'm no teacher, trying to explain what he couldn't understand while keeping the youngest out the way.

Countries like the UAE I bet the schools are better funded. The teachers have less kids. Less red tape regards doing things like MS Teams or Zoom. Money to fund such things. I bet many have multi family households with women who don't work. Therefore the women could divide and conquer, one take the small children out the way letting another support the school children.

I simply don't know how parents are meant to work out of the house, in supermarkets and the like without schools operating. It's on thing finding a babysitter it's another asking Grandparents to educate.

I'd love to know if parents in other European countries actually coped much better. What support was given to working parents of young children, without nursery, school and afterschool.

I am in an area with all schools closed. I hate the discussion that online learning is ever any real kind substitute for primary schools. Please show me anywhere in the world this is working?

4/5/6/7 with a tablet or phone, completing some online tasks is not an education. They need sports, play, peers, socialisation and a little literacy and maths. I work but can easily supply the latter, but it is the rest I send them to school for.

I understand schools need to close given the current situation but we need to accept for little ones that does mean education, friendship and socialisation are currently closed with all the negative implications.

Pretending online is any kind of substitute for eyfs or ks1 (at the very least) is in my opinion just wrong. We should be doing everything we can to get these children some actual education, rotas, outside classrooms, sports clubs for all, whatever is needed - not just online videos / worksheets for months.

Why aren’t we standing up for our kids more?

I am only hearing more parents speak out now. Sadly, I have not heard many parents (including on these threads) standing up for their kids by demanding that teachers have PPE, ventilated classrooms and masks at all times. Infra red cameras and plexiglass like in other countries.

There could have been mass parental pressure on Govt to provide this, if aren't were truly concerned about safety. Now it's too late. Had schools been allowed to mitigate against the germs, implement rotas - all backed by parents - then maybe schools could be safer.

I've been writing to my MP for months about this, contacting local journalists and supporting groups like Parents United.

My child did catch Covid at school in the end due to so many cases and no protections.
I did everything I could to protect them and push for better conditions/raise awareness of conditions in school, but short of moving two year tens out of school in key exam years, not sure what else I could do.

What did you all do when teachers warned schools weren't safe?