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.

Children come first. Close schools. New strain of covid is affecting children. Schools are not safe for the masses and science says this. Our government isn't listening

I am a teacher and a mum. I want schools open. I just want guidelines tightened at my school they are interpreted too loosely.
We are asked to stay away from colleagues by remaining in rooms all day. We can't go to toilet without fully cleaning it, we also have to clean kids loos after each child has visited. We have to support learning by getting close to discuss work and touch all equipment kids have touched like books and paintbrushes. All this allowed as we are a bubble. No children from other classes mix all play and dinner times covered by class staff to prevent mixing. I havent objected as I want my class safe.
But at 330 the class goes and at the gates they mix with siblings and other families it is outside of school that the virus spreads. Schools closing would minimise contact between families as they are more likely to adhere of they don't leave their houses in the first place.
I will finish with I don't want to lockdown schools. Last lockdown my working day was 7am to 11pm and most of weekend after school gave out our emails parents contacted me at all hours. I spent my own phone bill ringing pupils daily as only 4 out of 29 in class have computers and spent God only knows how much time money and effort on work for my class, most of which wasn't done.
So I say leave schools open just give us vaccines and safety rules our senior leaders must comply with.

I would love to see headteachers be able to ask heir parents if they could would they send in or want home. I imagine a 5050 split. Then allow parents to do so. Solves half the issue..

Keeping schools open wouldn't be putting children first because the outcome would be even worse.

I would love to see headteachers be able to ask heir parents if they could would they send in or want home. I imagine a 5050 split. Then allow parents to do so. Solves half the issue..

OK so what about teachers who want to keep their children at home?

I completely agree OP.

Yanbu. But I would also prioritise vaccination for teachers.

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.

OP- genuine question: what do schools do if too many staff are ill to teach?

Also, OP.

Should children wear masks in the classroom to reduce infection?

@Biscuitsareessential

It’s a shame voting isn’t enabled as a show of overwhelming support for the op might have been noted by certain media outlets and authorities

Not sure the vote would be showing that!

I'm not reading the whole thread, but you aren't speaking for me op. I'm a parent. I'm not a teacher and nor is anyone close to me. I want schools to remain closed, at least in tier 4 areas, (where I am at the moment).

[quote Cam77]@loustew12
Risking their longing term health in an environment where proper social distancing is impossible isn't what teachers signed up for. Sorry.[/quote]
'Potential' not even guaranteed exposure to a virus they have a 99% chance of surviving might not have been what they signed up for, but it's not what bus drivers, supermarket workers signed up for either. And they work with adults who are better spreaders than children. Being critical services as health and education are, you just have to either isolate if you are vulnerable, and get on with it if you're not. Otherwise you're in the wrong vocation. The mental health effects on children are devastating and not proportionate to the tiny risk of death each teacher faces.

I agree and hope that those shouting for schools to close are the loud minority while the majority of parents who want to send their kids in are keeping quiet. If schools close it will be at least until Easter and I think a lot of people will regret pushing for closures like in the first wave.

What I don't understand is why teachers want schools to close to non-keyworker children but are happy to have vulnerable and keyworker children in with no more ppe, social distancing etc than before. Do keyworker children not transmit Covid but non keyworker children do? Some schools will have masses of keyworker kids in - how is that better than now? It just creates a division between children allowed into school and those who will be excluded for who knows how long.

Sorry but no, as a parent you don't speak for me.
Children are dying from Covid now.
Education isn't just about exams.
Yes, SN children will struggle, but better to struggle to write than struggle to breathe.

Je55ica - When my shopping is delivered the driver now leaves it on my doorstep and asks me to step back from the door. My doctors appointments have almost all been on the phone and when I did have to go in I had to wait outside until the doctor came to get me, then I had to wear a face mask and doctor was in PPE. The shops in my area are strictly enforcing limited numbers and I have to queue up before entering with a mask. When I had workmen I had to have all the windows ooe. And all doors open so they could enter the premises without having to touch a door.
The classroom is the place where I have to be with those outside my household without major changes from before.

And, should schools be set up to follow the hands, face, space rule (as all other work places are required to)?

Not sure why you think there would be a show of overwhelming support when the majority of actual posts here are disagreeing with the OP (and add me to that number)?

Tbh a lot of the time the vote varies to the replies as only people who are really passionate will take the time to reply. Secondly there have been for a long time a loud minority campaigning on this issue.

Seems that, just like the OP, the inconvenient fact that reality won't conform to your wishful thinking is not stopping you from believing what you want anyway.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but I don’t recognise that I haven’t read all the replies but it seems to me the ops main point is that education is essential so even if schools spread it a lot nothing can be done because education is essential. That’s not to say schools can’t be made safer because they absolutely can be!

Teachers may be in the frontline here, but it's everyone else who later stand to lose when schools continue to spread COVID to families and then the wider community, the hospitals continue to struggle and then anyone who needs emergency or even normal care will suffer.

I agree schools could be safer but the answer must not be to close schools due to the devastating impact that it would have.

Vaccinating teachers may help them - it won't help anyone else though.

Well yes but then schools would be full of people who were a tiny tiny risk of becoming seriously ill.

Similarly OP saying parents can keep kids at home is just either outright trolling or outright stupidity - I would love to have the choice but the government have shown they will fine parents for doing so.

I always strongly disagreed with the fine policy and that’s for the op to comment on it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to get involved in that

Allow some flexibility in the system. My children have completed all online work set. I am confident they have learned a great deal in lockdown one where they benefited from 1 to 1 tutoring. Not all people are in the same situation. I want to keep my children home.

Finally, in a national emergency should we really be prioritising allowing children to socialise over and above saving lives?

Surely enforcing social distancing and mask wearing isn’t too detrimental and can help stop community spread.

What @jellyBabiesSaveLives said.

I am not a teacher, I am a frontline child protection social worker and have been totally amazed by how my teaching colleagues have kept going since March. This government have done an amazing job of screwing over teachers since they came into power and obviously the rhetoric is working as they remain fair game. The public still believe teachers did not work during lockdown rather than keep schools open for vulnerable and key worker children. deliver online learning and drop off lunches etc....

I used to be a nurse as did a few social workers I know and allhave had a few calls with nursing friends who laugh at the lack of PPE/ policy we have in place. For teaching staff this is amplified by however many hundreds of children they have in school.

Every teacher I know wants to teach children face-to -face. They would like to do it safely. So instead of throwing all the focus into furlough schemes etc our government, if schools are a priority, could start to attend to that issue. Maybe not in the middle of the night just before schools are due back. Possibly not a knee jerk reaction about exams after the event. How about not telling teaching staff at a few days notice they can just get on with track and trace/ testing 1000 + students on top of their working day?

@BelleSausage

OP- genuine question: what do schools do if too many staff are ill to teach?

This already happened at a school near me in a part of the country where many schools actually did have to partially close due to so many teachers being off. The school moved to a rota system with one year group (excluding exam years and key workers/vulnerable) was off for a week at a time

YABU.

This was predictable and I’m angry that the government have yet again failed to preemptively act. What a shit show.

@Biscuitsareessential

I agree. That’s the system that we need. But I assume the OP would find this unacceptable because school would be ‘closed’ to some children. There appears to be no contingencies or flexibility in her ‘plans’.

I agree with you OP. But the rabid mob are clamouring to close the schools.