When will schools reopen?

[notevenat20]

If we take Johnson’s promise seriously the first four categories from the JCVI priority list will be vaccinated by some time in February. This includes essentially no teachers. Vulnerable teachers are in category 6 with the majority being in 10 or below. We then have to add on 21 days to whatever date most teachers will be vaccinated by.

Realistically, are schools reopening before July?

I don’t imagine anyone wants them off longer than they have to be.

No-one knows. However given the situation with literally everything else to do with covid, it will take way longer than the government suggest.

The initial school closures were never imagined to have lasted through to The end of the school year. Maybe that's why more people are using the KW provision this time? Because they know it isn't going to be 6 weeks and cobbling things together for a few weeks is one thing but long term, if the option is there, then it's better to send them in.

I thought I heard Nicola Sturgeon say she was looking at getting teachers vaccinated in the early phases now. Hopefully the rest of the UK will follow.

I am putting bets on April / May IF they can get the vaccines out quick enough, and possibly include teachers too.

When the priority list was first announced for the vaccines a handful of us on here dared to suggest teaching staff were put on it, and high up. The response was pretty unanimous that vaccinating teaching staff (most of whom had no option but to mix in the covid swamp that was schools) over those who would and could and have been supported to shield was wrong.

Failing to see that the public don't want teaching staff at home, but they don't mind the CEV/Shielding groups staying home.

I’m still hoping after February half term!

I’m still hoping after February half term!

How is that possible if no teachers have been vaccinated? I guess the govt could just ignore the unions who will be screaming about it.

I am putting bets on April / May IF they can get the vaccines out quick enough, and possibly include teachers too..

For schools to open in April most teachers would need to be vaccinated by 21 days before wouldn't they? That seems impossible (unless they all move to Israel).

No-one knows. However given the situation with literally everything else to do with covid, it will take way longer than the government suggest.

Sure but even if everything goes exactly as the govt says it still seems impossible for schools to open in April, for example, unless they open without teachers being vaccinated.

Vaccination isn’t a condition of reopening though. It’s a false equivalency.

We opened before with no vaccine and I’m sure will be made to do so again. The question will when will rates of infection in the general population be low enough for it to be socially acceptable to reopen schools.

Many under 50s will be back at work with no vaccine. Vaccinating the vulnerable will reduce the pressure on the NHS and that’s the aim.
It would be great to bump teachers up the vaccination list though.

Yes we had a full term sept-Dec with no vaccine. Kids have already missed so much. I think end of Feb.

It depends on when we can get down from 'extra hot' on the Nando based alert system. We need to be around the border of 'hot' and 'medium'

So it's a mixture of seeng the outcome of vaccination programme (into the top 4 priorities by mid Feb, 2 weeks or so for it to 'take', so start of March?) and how seriously the population at large takes restrictions.

But schools opened before with no vaccinated teachers or TAs and several round here currently have 2/3 of their usual roll in, so I don't think the two are connected.

Realistically it depends on the compliance of the population and the path of the new variant/s. The question is more: when will the NHS have capacity again for a potential third surge? That’s tricky to answer because with the current trajectories the new variant is hard to control.

It looks like the govt are not expecting schools to reopen before the next academic year, unless Johnson is suddenly being realistic/cautious in his language which seems very unlikely.

Teachers are high up the priority list in some US states.

However, schools haven't been closed because of teachers safety. They've been n closed because the rates of positive covid cases have exploded, inlcuding in children, and that is contributing to community spread.

Schools should open when the R number is low enough.

I'd like to see clinically vulnerable teachers moved up the priority list though.

I said this all along when mnet was crying out for school closures that it was absolutely impossible they would be closed for 2 weeks (this was everyone's thinking at the time) and that again it would be months.

There is no way schools are going to be open in feb, my best bet is after Easter but potentially longer. This is why I didn't want it all along. The government cock up time and time again. They did it with track and trace and they'll do it with the vaccination programme as well.

If the plan is that schools stay closed until next academic year, then children really are being failed. Last time it seemed everyone else got their lives back long before children did. That cannot happen again. We can't have people going on holiday, people playing golf, people hanging out at pubs, everyone back at the office, whilst children and young people are trapped at home with no face to face education or sports and clubs open to them.

We could at least go to part time rotas for schools so only half the kids are in, or even let pupils be in one day per week. Breaking the home/school link for too long is detrimental to all young people, not just vulnerable children. Some more innovative thinking is required.

I personally think that is it until the summer. Both mine are in on keyworker basis

It's true we opened before with no vaccine but the problem is the new variant which appears to have changed everything.

I'm planning on schools returning in the Autumn term. Anything sooner seems a bit optimistic.

We could at least go to part time rotas for schools so only half the kids are in, or even let pupils be in one day per week

The problem is there are so many people claiming places for their child who ‘can’t work at home’ that many schools have loads of children in. My SIL has 20/30 in her class! If ALL of those children are entitled to a place every day under government guidance, how can a rota be implemented?

If it was 15 children in week A and the other 15 on week B, it would work. It’s down to the criteria of those allowed a place.

@ThatDirection

If the plan is that schools stay closed until next academic year, then children really are being failed. Last time it seemed everyone else got their lives back long before children did. That cannot happen again. We can't have people going on holiday, people playing golf, people hanging out at pubs, everyone back at the office, whilst children and young people are trapped at home with no face to face education or sports and clubs open to them.

We could at least go to part time rotas for schools so only half the kids are in, or even let pupils be in one day per week. Breaking the home/school link for too long is detrimental to all young people, not just vulnerable children. Some more innovative thinking is required.

100% this. The ridiculous situation in the summer where lots of things were starting to open up but children's play areas weren't shows how children are a very low priority.

I feel the government squandered the opportunity in June/July 2020 when the rates were low to get all children back into school for a bit. As well as giving the children face-to-face learning, we could have seen what impact it had on cases before the natural firebreak of the summer holidays. That data could then have informed how best to mitigate the risks when they returned in September. It would have been far more useful data than knowing what happens when you only have a few children in each classroom.

Instead, during the first lockdown the government seemed to switch to a half-arsed attempt to eradicate the virus and lots of people were saying cases still weren't low enough to reopen schools when they were below 1000 a day. For those years who were lucky enough to be able to return in June/July, lots didn't return because it wasn't considered "safe". But the virus is highly seasonal and we ended up sending all children back when it was starting to ramp up again.

To make the same mistake again and squander the summer months would be criminal. September is not a magic month, as the government proved with its approach in 2020.

@Redlocks28

We could at least go to part time rotas for schools so only half the kids are in, or even let pupils be in one day per week

The problem is there are so many people claiming places for their child who ‘can’t work at home’ that many schools have loads of children in. My SIL has 20/30 in her class! If ALL of those children are entitled to a place every day under government guidance, how can a rota be implemented?

If it was 15 children in week A and the other 15 on week B, it would work. It’s down to the criteria of those allowed a place.

That's what I mean, innovative thinking. They've done it in other countries. It's better for all young people to be in some of the time face to face and be left to self study the rest of the time than it is for the majority to be at home for endless months.

After Easter holidays at the absolute earliest and probably on a staggered/rota/priority years basis only.