AIBU to stand up for children and parents...

[alwaysraining123]

... and say that closing schools is not an option. Some observations.

(1) millions of children will suffer poorer mental health, educational deficits and be at risk of physical harm.
(2) if schools close now the government will struggle to get them back open.
(3) the unions are playing a highly political game preying shamelessly on people’s fears.
(4) online learning is of no use for most of the primary school years. Parents basically need to be available all day to support children.
(5) more parents are going to find themselves unable to work causing more financial hardship. This won’t affect your middle class sahps or people who can work from home as much- there are people who actually have to go out of their house to earn a living.
(6) if you’re parent and you’re worried you can keep your child at home.
(7) educational transmission of the virus is low and infection control standards can be escalated where needed.

Whatever is done we need to place maintaining educational provision for children at the heart of it. We need to make it work...there’s no other option.

Just out of interest, will you show this unforgiveness by refusing to contribute to the Christmas whip around?

Or will you glower at pick-up?

Yanbu!! but i think the ship sailed when the new variant was allowed to get out of control. I don’t think there’s any way around it now.

@Whataloadofshit

Yanbu op.

Many of us think the same.

Mumsnet is an echo chamber of the unions. The unions have ho didn't even want the reception and year one's back in June when cases were 509 a day. Wankers.

Do you know what Unions are for? I taught a Y1 bubble in Summer term with the full agreement of my Union. Can I just remind you that unions were calling for rotas etc which would have allowed more children to access at least some schooling in the Summer term. Guess who opposed that? The government.

@Jangle33

There needs to be an urgent movement to put teachers higher up the vaccination list. I’m surprised to not see this covered more in the media.

There also needs to be proper fines for parents who have been failing to isolate their kids.

This. Teachers need priority vaccinations. Kid need to be in school.

YABU OP.
SAGE said on 22nd December that schools needed to close to bring the rates down.
Think of those poor NHS workers and their patients - schools must close.

@bookworm14

I understand your frustration and you have my sympathies. I was trying to teach, homeschool ds1 and look after toddler ds2 as his nursery was shut. There are no winners and it's shit for everyone.

All teachers I know realise that parents just want the best for their children and are dreading the possibility of home schooling for many reasons. We don't want it to happen either. We just want to feel safer. I'm scared for my CEV colleague.

I do feel that the government have caused much of this by not supporting schools to stay safe, by misrepresenting them in the media and pitting schools against parents, making the schools look like the bad guys.

@Whataloadofshit

Yanbu op.

Many of us think the same.

Mumsnet is an echo chamber of the unions. The unions have ho didn't even want the reception and year one's back in June when cases were 509 a day. Wankers.

Yes they did want them back. But they wanted them back SAFELY. The unions have only ever wanted schools open SAFELY.

But the govt simply lies to parents and tells them that schools are safe when they're not.

The present actions isn't just about teachers. It's about safety for everyone in schools - staff and pupils. And for the families they go home to after a day in a room with 30 others, shoulder to shoulder and unmasked.

@Whatafustercluck

This won’t affect....people who can work from home as much- there are people who actually have to go out of their house to earn a living.

You show a staggering ignorance of what it's like to actually wfh and homeschool a primary aged child whilst simultaneously caring for a 3yo. I'd have rather been furloughed. For this comment yabu.

I agree with the rest, but genuinely cannot see another way atm.

I completely agree. My comment says ‘as much’ recognising the difficulties faced by wfh parents but also highlighting the financial impact for those who have to leave their home to work. Wfh people normally continue to get paid but it’s very stressful. I know having two children and a ft job.

sherrystrull Thank you. I completely understand your concerns too.

Goodness me.

The government is the body who decides whether schools open or close. Unless an individual school is forced to close due to too much staff sickness or imposed isolation, as was happening before Xmas.

Local councillors in London asked the govt for transparency about their rationale for why the primaries in some Tier 4 boroughs were being instructed not to open their school sites for all children next week, and the govt backtracked and instructed all primaries in London not to open to all children.

The NEU has invoked section 44 to support their members who don't want to return to an unsafe working environment next week. They'll be working remotely.

The NAHT has requested that the govt work with them and PHE to create and implement plans so that schools can open in as covid-safe way as possible.

The unions have virtually no power - they haven't even been able to ensure that their members' working environments are safe, which is their actual job.

Their agenda all along has to been to make schools safe for children and teaching staff. It's hardly an unreasonable demand, is it?

I understand that for some parents it must be very upsetting not to be able to palm off all responsibility for their kid's learning onto the schools and teachers

Wow what a year.

Swap teachers for nurses/doctor's. They didn't necessarily sign up to work through a pandemic. Perhaps they should all go home and full pay.

I mean why should they risk their lives so that you can outsource your healthcare.

Same for fire fighters, police, social workers, supermarket staff.

It's too dangerous for them to work

This is about political point scoring. It isn't about the safety and wellbeing of children.

Unions are calling for a strike in an attempt to weaken this government and doing it in the middle of a pandemic crisis.

I'm all for strict lockdowns and have said so many times on these boards, but children especially young children, need to be in school. It is vital and teachers are key workers. Not just for a childs education but for welfare monitoring too. They have already missed so much and now this. It means some children at risk in their homes, will not being monitored at all by any professional agency

It's disgraceful

@Saylethewayles

I am sure the people saying it are happy to accept deliveries from drivers, use the NHS, allow people to work in crowded essential shops, have the police breaking up gatherings, have plumbers fixing their boiler... anyone who works is at risk.

None of those professions work all day in unventilated spaces, with no social distancing or PPE, with hundreds of other households at a time. None.

What are you on about? Our school is very well ventilated. In fact, we are encouraged to keep windows open. And we only work 9-3, not all day. With kids in very specific bubbles and not mixing. We have enhanced hygiene and an effective track and trace system. All schools are the same. Teachers wear masks if they feel they are at risk or when in communal areas. The safest group of people statistically to be around are young children. The only cases were have had have been teachers passing on to other teachers. They've had flu symptoms for a few days and returned to class.

@Flaxmeadow

This is about political point scoring. It isn't about the safety and wellbeing of children.

Unions are calling for a strike in an attempt to weaken this government and doing it in the middle of a pandemic crisis.

I'm all for strict lockdowns and have said so many times on these boards, but children especially young children, need to be in school. It is vital and teachers are key workers. Not just for a childs education but for welfare monitoring too. They have already missed so much and now this. It means some children at risk in their homes, will not being monitored at all by any professional agency

It's disgraceful

Unions are not calling for a strike.

How on earth can you be 'all for strict lockdowns' and also advocate the groups with the highest rate of infection which are driving community infection return to over-crowded classrooms with no mitigation measures.

YY to some children not being safe at home. They're not safe between the hours of 3.30pm and 8am, or at weekends or during school holidays either.

It is social services who have a duty to these children, except they can't fulfil it because successive governments have cut their services to the bone.

@Loustew12 thank you for a dose of reality (excuse the pun)

I am not in a UNION and I am regretting that now, I just never got around to it.

I am also a parent and I am raging that I have to lie and keep my dc off school when its the bloody obvious safe guarding thing to do, even if I am forced in. At least with DH at home and DH our contacts are now reduced by a few hundred!

Listening to Van Tam the other day made my blood go cold, and " dangerous, precarious....don't go out on new years eve , covid loves a crowd " School?

and Jenny Harries, " yes wear a mask in a crowd"

everyone everywhere - " Look - just stay at home..."

I would absolutely love too, but the government wants to force myself and my dc into schools, into crowds!

"The safest group of people statistically to be around are young children"

That's not true anymore. Primary school aged children and secondary school aged children are the most infected subset of the population.

Loustew12 yet many school staff have been very very ill with the virus.

Don't gaslight people - the virus is dangerous. If your staff have been lucky, that's great, but don't try to pretend that this is the case for all teaching staff.

I quite clearly remember that Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney being on the news saying that it was too dangerous to open in June for 15 reception and year one children. They wanted to delay until September.

The unions and the government and sadly some (not all) teachers are using our children as political pinball and it's quite sickening. Neither parties have a our children's best interests at heart.

Why does Flax keep saying this? When it's not true. People keep correcting her ...

"Unions are calling for a strike in an attempt to weaken this government and doing it in the middle of a pandemic crisis."

Also @Flaxmeadow if you are reading - how will the Unions weaken the government?

“I understand that for some parents it must be very upsetting not to be able to palm off all responsibility for their kid's learning onto the schools and teachers”

This is very funny.

*everyone everywhere - " Look - just stay at home..."

I would absolutely love too, but the government wants to force myself and my dc into schools, into*

Yeah you're right, expect some things just have to keep going and have to be done.

Not everyone can hide away at home because it's essential for the country that certain things keep going.

@Loustew12

I feel so sorry for both NHS workers and teachers right now, bearing the irrational brunt of people's anger, when what is at fault is mostly the virus that doesn't give a damn, and partly our incompetent government who don't act on advice quickly enough.

YABU op. You do not speak for me or my children. My DS' mental health is much more affected by being in school than out as he is terrified of bringing covid home and infecting me (ECV). Thousands thousands more in this position. I have friends whose children were suffering greatly with their MH and anxiety before the pandemic and it's been much eased by being out of school back in the summer. You simply can't generalise and go on about millions when you have no idea how many are adversely affected. Many are, and many aren't. But you can't claim one side has the majority or should balance the scales.

And quite apart from that the virus doesn't care and is kicking off big time at the moment. If you really want schools to go back then in effect what you want is for this whole crap situation to be spun out for an even longer length of time as more are infected and break the NHS.

No good solution to this. None. But the tipping point has come and gone, and sadly it seems the only way forward is that schools do not open at this stage.

It's risky and dangerous to be face to face with Covid patients all day, but nurses are having to do it.

The paper mask isn't going to protect them.