If so many people wanted schools closed then why are some schools seeing up to 75% of children in?

[Waxonwaxoff0]

I have never wanted schools closed although I do recognise why they need to and that they need to be made safer.

Yet it seemed like I was in the minority, all over the internet people wanted schools closed and their children safely at home.

So why are so many trying to send their children in? Is it a case of "schools should be closed except for my child?"

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@Comefromaway but how could that realistically be achieved ? How can you have smaller classes.? Schools don't generally have lots of spare classrooms and we don't have spare teachers , and if you say blended learning then still the same issue.
Same as tests , yet it shows you don't have it the day of the test.
Some schools were ar breaking point and kids were being sent home regularly as bubbles burst .

[/quote]
It's been achieved in my son's college by splitting the classes in half. On week 1 half the class attend fact to face thus giving the space to sit at 2metre distances (and making the corridors and dining areas etc less crowded). The other half of the class are on zoom or completing tasks set the previous week.). On week 2 they swop over. It's not ideal and doesn't make the environment 100% safe but it's better than the alternative which is everyone rammed in together and constantly being sent home at no notice to isolate.

@Spiratedaway

I didn't want schools to close and my son has gone in as my partner a key worker and judge me or not I don't care I work from home and the school are expecting me to help him with his school work each day ... so it is my job or sending him in ... also I had a breakdown just over a year ago and feel myself slipping again so it is good for me and my son if he is in school that way he does not see his mum cry each day and I don't fear losing my job .. call me selfish I don't care I stick to the rules but I am going to use this place

Fair enough you are entitled to a key worker space so have taken it but you aren't unique in that you can't work and home school. Neither can non key worker children but they're having to anyway!

I really hope Boris does a u turn and tightens the key worker list otherwise we're going to be stuck in this mess for months with the amount of children still in schools.

Teachers. SAHP, and parents whose kids aren’t in critical exam years are the only people I know ( on MN and IRL) who demanded that schools closed. I actually get the feeling that Boris and co literally just reached a point where they they FFS just close the fucking schools and stop the whinging

It would also be interesting to see figures for actually in general how many pupils are in . I haven't seem lots of kids walking to and from here.
Although I do know a family who have a full time nanny , one is a keyworker and the other work from home and they have sent there children in , all school age which does take the piss .

Because Mn is skewed

Well, people didn't really want schools closed, they wanted school provision to be safer. Yes, really.

I don't know where these schools are, but my local schools have a handful of children in.

@comefromfaraway yes at college but how do you achieve in primary as every other week the kids need to be home but some will be keyworkers children so in all the time.
Parents would need to stay home every other week.
Agree it can work in college and secondary but people with this age can go to work and are leas likely to need childcare anyway

He doesn't need to tighten the list, if they were key then, they are key now.

What would tightening do, send us further into a spiral of economic failure?

He ought to focus on getting schools provision to be safe places if that's the reason they are closed, then all kids can go back.

The virus isn't going away.

The schools had to close in the end because the government ignored pleas for them to be made safer for staff and DCs. They have had nearly a year when money could have been spent to make them more Covid safe but they were just prepared to sacrifice the health of adults working in schools - well that backfired on them.

Schools shouldn't open again until better measures are put in place, otherwise they'll be closed again.

The people who were wanting the schools closed were the people who don’t have school aged children....

The people I know who wanted schools closed were those without children, those with available grandparents, those whose children were old enough to learn independently, and teachers. The rest of us were hoping against hope. I'm not surprised that some parents that might not have to are still clambering to get places. In our school it is at the discretion of the HT, and to be honest, I was disappointed that some parents who were not KW managed to talk to the HT and secure places in March. Those that shout the loudest and all that ...

@MyDiamondShoesAreTooTight

The people who were wanting the schools closed were the people who don’t have school aged children....

Of the SAHPs

@mrshoho

And surely these schools with 75% of children attending will be sending home classes/bubbles to isolate in a matter of weeks and thereby putting essential key workers in a position of being unable to work either because of childcare issues or through illness due to transmission brought home.

Exactly.

@whittystitties ans how do you propose to make them safer ? Realistically ? The idea of vaccinating the most vunerable is what will get us back eventually
With 50000-60000 cases a day just wearing a mask wouldn't make them safe.
Getting numbers in the community down and vaccinations for the vulnerable is only way out at the moment .
People mention blended learning which throws up exactly the same childcare issues
We don't have lots of spare classrooms within schools and spare teachers to offer say 15 in a class

@decembersun what meaaures do you want put in

If people say blended learning to make them safe it’s like this but worse for non KW dc.

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@comefromfaraway yes at college but how do you achieve in primary as every other week the kids need to be home but some will be keyworkers children so in all the time.
Parents would need to stay home every other week.
Agree it can work in college and secondary but people with this age can go to work and are leas likely to need childcare anyway [/quote]
I said in my posts that these were measures for secondary schools but I am sure that those working in primary can come up with simple measures suitable for their settings. I can't as I have no up to date knowledge of primary schools.

However, primary schools do not, on the whole have bubbles of up to 200 children intermingling freely. They can at least stick to classes of around 30 although that is obviously not ideal in inadequate spaces.

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@whittystitties ans how do you propose to make them safer ? Realistically ? The idea of vaccinating the most vunerable is what will get us back eventually
With 50000-60000 cases a day just wearing a mask wouldn't make them safe.
Getting numbers in the community down and vaccinations for the vulnerable is only way out at the moment .
People mention blended learning which throws up exactly the same childcare issues
We don't have lots of spare classrooms within schools and spare teachers to offer say 15 in a class[/quote]
Vaccinating the vulnerable won't fix the spread ifs it's really children spreading it.

Vaccinate those who need to be out in the world. Get schools set up for lateral flow tests, get children wearing masks. Stop putting the fear of god into everyone.

I have two children who are in separate bubbles, and also attend a before/after school provision where all the bubbles mix, making the bubbles a joke.

Both children didn't have a day off between Sep and now. No burst bubbles, no cases.

It's not all as doom and gloom as MN would have you believe.

I'd be interested in the figures (but I net they aren't available). about the difference in spread between children in primary and older children in secondary.

In my area we have the middle school system. The first schools have had few, if any cases. The middle schools have had some (we are in a high case area). The high school/6th form have been more out than in.

@whittystitties

He doesn't need to tighten the list, if they were key then, they are key now.

What would tightening do, send us further into a spiral of economic failure?

He ought to focus on getting schools provision to be safe places if that's the reason they are closed, then all kids can go back.

The virus isn't going away.

They aren't going to open schools now until the virus is more under control. Numbers won't go down very much with schools 50% to 70% full so by tightening the amount of key worker kids in the numbers will go down and with the vaccine underway we can start to get a grip on it and get back to normal sooner. With schools open like this we'll be stuck in this situation for longer and the economic damage will last longer.

@itsgettingweird who was going to staff these libaries and office blocks that i assume would also be easily accessible for the children and all safeguarding measures in place.
Blended learning throws up the same childcare issues just every other week ,

@whittystitties vaccinating the vunerable means less people die over 90% less and reduces pressure on the nhs .
That is what it is about

@whittystitties also in dec before schools broke up we were not seeing 60000 cases a day .
Vaccinating those who go out would not protect the vulnerable the nhs and 100's a day would still die. I can't beleive people would choose that option just to haves schools open.

@Newnamedillydally but your both keyworkers you are entitled to that space
Like i said I know a family with a full time nanny and one parent a part time wfh who are using the spaces , that I see pointless and could go to someone like a single mum who is the only earner who may not have total keyworker status but def needs the space more.