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.

YABU.

I would love my kids to be going to a school that is safe for them and the teachers, but that’s not an option at this point in time. Pretending it is won’t make it so.

Perhaps there should be some middle ground where it is optional and parents can send them in or not, and maybe that would be enough to reduce the number of kids in school to allow distancing, but I don’t imagine that would be workable without additional teachers.

Schools closing is a nightmare for working parents and I say that as a working parent who relies on school to be able to go to work. However, my dh works in a special needs school and I am honestly so concerned for his health and the risks involved in schools fully reopening that I think it is the only option for schools to close in areas where cases are high. Schools have been hugely thrown under the bus by the government and dfe they should not have to work in an unsafe work environment.

Have any of you have ard the Matron of a London hospital on 5 Live. With the new variant, there is now a Covid children's ward.
I kept DD until they were sent home but her primary has had 6 classes sent home, wraparound closed and locally cases are really reducing.
I have changed my view as she has 80+ years and those could be with complications from long covid. Teachers deserve a safe environment and in terms of risk assessments, the hazards can not be mitigated to make it safe.

I am mentally preparing myself for the fall out of home schooling but I would rather have an angry DD than a sick one.

@totiredtocaresixk any child with an echp will still be able to attend school.

"Then all half term and Easter school holidays cancelled and summer holiday reduced to two weeks or less so children can catch up."

Patent nonsense. Children will not "catch up" in a week or two here or there. This isn't about cramming. Some younger children, especially those whose parents are working will, have lost skills - there was a Torygraph article saying the attainment gap has widened by years. It won't be over by Easter holidays anyway, sadly. This needs strategic, long term rethinking and investment. And, Christ, those children will need their freedom this summer - or whenever it is possible.

@funinthesun19 The government pledged to give schools sufficient laptops for all that needed them in the summer. When these materialised, the allocation was a fifth of what was needed. I don't think many expect 'perfect parenting' in the way you describe, teachers certainly don't. To me, perfect parenting at the moment is getting yourself and your family through this time the best you can.

Ah that’s reassuring. Thank you.

How long do people think the schools will be closed for if they do get closed?

I'm on the keep them open side. But I'm also on the vaccinate teachers and all school staff. I work in an nhs role, but I'm middle management and see no patients, I distance myself from clinical staff etc so I'm happy to give up my dose for a teacher. I agree that my children should wear masks and could also see how part time would work. Closing them should not be an option and they should remain open. My dd will be going in, she's year 10 but as I need to be out onsite at work I'll be sending her in like last time. I think the unions have this wrong and should be campaigning for safety not closures as they are losing public sympathy

I didn’t mean the bit about the laptops. That’s never materialised at my children’s school. I meant the bit where most people aren’t expecting parents. The lass thing we need is to be judged on what we did or didn’t do while schools were closed, especially when options for some families are so limited.

sewingwarrior
That interview has been widely discredited.
By medical professionals, not the government.

You've got to wonder if the people shouting so loudly about schools not closing were shouting loudly back in September about making them safer? I wonder if OP emailed their MP or contacted anyone about increasing mask use for teachers/pupils in schools, or implementing daily temperature checks? Did he/she lobby the government for portable classrooms and increased hygiene facilities, products and cleaners? Rotas? Or did they turn a blind eye right up until shouting loudly about it now?

You've also got to wonder how much people in general cared about and lobbied for better mental health care for kids, and support for children in poverty - I mean, before the pandemic hit and they were something to latch onto to shout about schools staying open so that their own kids could go.

Schools should (and I believe will) close.

*arent expecting parents to be perfect

I very much want schools to be open, but if closing them is going to mean that the rest of society can open up more quickly than it would do otherwise, then that’s what needs to happen.

The tier 4 measures that we have atm are harmful, and everything should be done to bring them to an end quicker. It was right to prioritise education for a time, but it’s not right for everything thing else to continue to be sacrificed.

There will always be some risk of illness in a school, but right now, anyone asking for schools to stay open in tier 4 areas so that they can work is basically expecting school staff to risk their health and their family’s health for the sake of other people’s jobs. People need to recognise what a big ask they’re expecting.

Parents with Primary school children, if schools close and you can't keep up with the work provided keep reading with them, but also try and do some maths, spelling and writing practice. The last 3 skills really dropped in our local Primaries during the summer term. There are many fun resources out there that can help so hopefully it doesn't have to feel a chore but more of a game

There were 57,000 new cases today. And kids have been at home with their parents for two weeks.

Can you even begin to imagine what will happen to those numbers when children and teenagers are back at school, unmasked, in small classrooms with 30 others?
And can you imagine what your children be bringing home to you and the rest of the family?

I'm all for keeping schools open as far as humanly possible. But this is not September. This is Jan 2nd, with 57,000 new cases today, and hospitals with no ICU beds left.

YABU and you should have fought for better conditions in schools earlier if you care as much as you say you care.

Imo the secondary schools should have been closed weeks ago. They are in massive year group bubbles rather than class bubbles which causes a higher level of spread. As kids quite often don't show symptoms they are moving around different groups all day, potentially passing the virus on to several others.

My grandson is in year 11 so I am very worried for his education but I am more worried about the ways in which this virus spreads. We need to bring down cases or the nhs is going to be totally overwhelmed.

Primary school children are in smaller bubbles [have family teaching in both primary and secondary] but I think the time has come to also close the primary schools.

They all need their education, but even more they need their parents ext to be safe. It's true that kids mainly get it quite mildly or are asymtomatic, but that doesn't stop them passing it on in a more serious form to the adults in their families.

YABU. You don't speak for me. I'm more worried about the strain placed on hospitals atm. Running low on oxygen and patients dying in ambulances. I'm keeping my children home regardless of what next week brings.

The government is in a difficult situation atm because if they insist primaries open as normal and there's a huge rise in tier 4 areas (which there likely will be because so many were in tier 3 until Boxing day) then they've lost even more public confidence. Then again many have already completely given up on this government.

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

"Then all half term and Easter school holidays cancelled and summer holiday reduced to two weeks or less so children can catch up."

Patent nonsense. Children will not "catch up" in a week or two here or there. This isn't about cramming. Some younger children, especially those whose parents are working will, have lost skills - there was a Torygraph article saying the attainment gap has widened by years. It won't be over by Easter holidays anyway, sadly. This needs strategic, long term rethinking and investment. And, Christ, those children will need their freedom this summer - or whenever it is possible.

Sorry. Catch up' wCas probably not the best term to use. What I meant was that they could have more schooling in the year and have more opportunities for any kind of learning and social skills.

However, why shouldn't the summer holidays be reduced. They are somewhat in Academy schools. People can't complain about lost opportunities, without at least trying in whatever way to mitigate it, in part if not in full.

I am starting to have doubts schools are safe enough, as we are in an area with high incidence and the new variant.
I now welcome the delay in starting the term. Until we find out more of the truth.

@SewingWarriorQueen76
Please be careful what you post - that comment from the matron is widely discredited

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9106509/Coronavirus-London-childrens-hospital-consultant-says-wards-NOT-youngsters-Covid.html

I agree. Keep schools open

YABU.

Whilst I do think its important for children to be in school for a number of reasons the situation has fundamentally changed since September.

This new strain now means that schools pose a potential threat both to teachers asked to work without protection, but also a threat to the wider school community - that children, their families and the communities those schools belong to.

If schools are a hub for transmission then keeping them open only prolongs a problem by increasing the number of cases - putting hospitals at risk of overwhelming. This means there is no health care available - including for any child that has an accident.

No one seems willing in this context to consider the impact of children's mental health. We have moved from them not being at risk or posing a risk to them being recognised as people who can spread it, including to their familiy who may be at risk. So they are being asked to go into a risky situation on a daily basis now. Thats going to impact a lot negatively just as much as a lot of kids will suffer from not going in. The assumption that children aren't aware of whats going on is poor and the assumption that all are better in school is a myth.

There isn't an easy answer to this, but ultimately the buck has to stop with government dogma that schools must stay open no matter what and that school staff are being lazy / difficult for asking for basic health and safety. The government approach since the beginning with regards to education has been utterly appalling and dismissive. There has been a complete breakdown in communication and subsequently in trust.

Williamson should go for that alone. He won't, but he certainly does NOT have the interests of children centred here. His behaviour just before Christmas blocking London schools from closing and then vindictively leaving those same boroughs off the list for closure just smacks of what he has earned a reputation for within Parliament (and the Tory Party itself) as spiteful. He's a nasty little man and even his own think this.

You’re not standing up for me or my children with that list. And I didn’t ask you to. YABU.

Disagree . The last week things have escalated.schools need to close .

Not for just teachers , but even Boris said it’s not the threat to children it’s them bringing the virus home to the family.

Things have changed.

Only the parents who have the luxury of not having to work in demanding jobs, or who are ECV etc and don’t want to be fined for not sending their kids in (which could be easily fixed by not requiring parents to send their kids until the pandemic is over) could possibly want schools to close. For rest of us, it is a disaster.