Schools - what has changed?

[Indecisive12]

Post after post about closing ALL schools (and yet I start another one). What has changed for most areas to prompt calls for this?
In my area (tier 4). Rates are the lowest they have been since July! So why should my towns schools close? Why are they suddenly riskier than any time in the first term? I should add I’m in the north west where there is little of the new variant.
I want my children to be educated. I want my children to be able to see their friends. They deserve that.

The biggest issue is consistency.

We are Tier 4 and schools are open because "they're safe" yet the next major town that borders us is also Tier 4 and all primary schools are shut because it is not safe.

Either schools are safe to open in Tier 4 or they are not. And if they need to amend the tiers, sort it out now and not on the 13th or 2 weeks when the majority of children will not have been mixing will be wasted in the space of a few hours.

@BaronessVonCake woah, I'm NW - it would take me nearly 2 hours to go to Liverpool and I know nobody that would do that

I'm in Yorkshire, we are landlocked by tier 4 areas, cross the main road near me & you are in tier 4, everything south of us is tier 4, some of what we consider local areas are tier 4. As far as I can see it is only a matter of time before we are in tier 4. My ds read in the news today that our children's hospital is unable to accept any more admissions at the moment. Problem with living where I live is many children travel over the border to school & many from over the border travel to here for school, same for people working, that is why us being tier 3 doesn't make sense.

@BaronessVonCake

Am also in the NW in a Tier 4 area and our rates are shooting up very very fast.

I expect Liverpool'a rates will do the same as people from my area are going there because it's the only place nearby (tier 3) where the shops are open and - well you know- sales are on 🤦🏻‍♀️

Halton currently has one of the highest rates per 100,000 in the NW. Its T3.

It really should not be.

Teaching unions want schools closed while new safety measures are put in place they are not calling for a unending closures of schools with no end date.

The areas of London and SE who went into tier 4 over the Christmas period were in tier 2 and a large number (not all) had low rates two weeks earlier. What has changed is people have been mixing and spreading covid over Christmas as there is a more transmit-able variant which we need to prevent the spread of rather than fail to try and stop once it has already started.