Can we unlock the schools at start of Feb?

[MeandT]

I'm totally supportive of the lockdown BUT by the end of next week, case numbers nationally will be the same as they were at end of November. Hospital admissions are falling again.

Rather than going back into tiers with the shops and food pubs open (where all the spreading happened in December), can we not issue all the teachers with N95 masks (and vaccines for the clinically vulnerable), make all the kids wear triple layer face masks all the time, and just get on with the important job of educating this country's kids in person? Starting again 1st of Feb.

AIBU to ask if we can send the kids back as soon as we hit the case rate we unlocked at on 2nd December?

IABU= no way, the cases will shoot up too quickly again, even if they all wear masks all day.

IANBU = yes, get them back before half term, the only reason it went nuts in December was because everyone was out Christmas shopping and seeing family.

@trying22432

I am selfish? How about the ones having people around when we are in lockdownS ?

As I said I am angry that my child cannot have a normal life. I know people who preach the rules and they held Christmas parties....because hey ho they were allowed because Covid took a break at Christmas. Who is more selfish.

I want my child to go back to school and stop being in front of the tv and iPad all day long as I work all day trying to provide him with a roof over his head

Yes, you are selfish. You dismissed the real trauma of other people's children as "drama". As I said, that's absolutely disgusting behaviour.

But as long as everything is alright for you, eh?

Hopefully your son's teachers are able to teach him empathy when he returns to school.

SCHOOLS AINT REOPENING FOR A LONG TIME.

They’ve cancelled the Olympics AGAIN. 2021 is a rinse and repeat of 2020. As 2022 will be too.

Start looking at those Covid threads from exactly 12 months ago. This is our new way of life, adapt and get used to it, things get easier that way.

No one wants the lockdown to continue. Everyone wants schools and businesses open as soon as possible however it can’t happen whilst the number of cases and deaths are so high. The risks are too high. There aren’t the NHS beds and staff to treat people needing care, particularly ICU.

@Rosesaresweet

I am hearing more and more voices saying schools should stay closed to allow other businesses to open. These are people who work as beauticians, hairdressers, actors and restaurant owners.

I would not want to live in a society where profits are valued more than education! I really hope that our Government continues to prioritises education.

I do not want to live in a society where so many people’s livelihoods are destroyed for the sake of schools being open, when parents could now educate them at home.

All these businesses that are being destroyed are needed to keep children fed and housed, their parents need to pay for it somehow and that is as important as providing them with an education. If education is so much more important than the economy then the government should be insisting that every parent that needs to can be furloughed so that they can do home learning.

When schools open, everything should open.

when parents could now educate them at home.

Stop spouting shit.

A sizeable proprtion of children are not being educated right now, compounding the problems caused by months of non school last year.

But oh well, let’s not make education any kind of priority, huh? It’s not like society needs it or is paying people to do it.

@trying22432

I don't agree with the lockdown and there are thousands out there not agreeing either. Just on MN you get the ones that are so rich that couldn't give a shit if this country burns

Teachers - rich?

That's actually hilarious.

@solittletime

I just wish there was some sort of creative approach to help children socialise. Instead of re opening completely, even just half the class coming in twice a week for a few hours, doing the daily mile and chatting, a simple PE and drama games in the playground, even a local open space! It would give the children such a morale boost and help them cope with lockdown for longer. Instead of everyone bashing heads on opening or not opening, shy are the government not giving any scope for creative discussion and creative solutions? We are in a crisis but no one seems to want to look at h the e situation from a different angle

Um, the problem is ‘socialising’ is what we are all being asked not to do.

What would be the point in allowing kids to socialise during a pandemic, when we know that contributes to the spread of the virus?...children bring the virus home.

It’s not nice for anyone. I have a child myself. But socialising in a pandemic is literally the worst thing to do isn’t it?

Get children back PART TIME. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Instead of all year groups back every day, if say you have 2 or 3 year groups in, they can have smaller classes and spread out throughout the building. Each child gets a few days a week at school, remote learning the rest of the time.

Schools have been asking for rotas but have always been told not allowed

@bendmeoverbackwards

Get children back PART TIME. Why does it have to be all or nothing? Instead of all year groups back every day, if say you have 2 or 3 year groups in, they can have smaller classes and spread out throughout the building. Each child gets a few days a week at school, remote learning the rest of the time.

How? With what extra staff and space. There are already so many key worker kids this is not possible.

@ineedaholidaynow

Schools have been asking for rotas but have always been told not allowed

That’s because the U4T brigade lobbied against it. They don’t want schools closed but their hardline stubborn mentality stopped so many safety measures... this led to huge transmission in schools and schools closed again.

It’s almost ironic,

@ineedaholidaynow

Schools have been asking for rotas but have always been told not allowed

How do you do this in primary at 50% capacity?

Do you take KW children out for the days the non KW are in?

Ask the many countries that did manage to do rotas. And/or other measures. Invest in space snd staff like they did.

Ok good let’s go for that then.

Rotas are a good idea but they would now involve lots of people who have been given a full time place because they have one parent as a key worker, no laptop, don’t have a quiet work space at home would be told their place was now every other week, otherwise there’s no one to rota ‘out’.

I blame Us4Them for a lot of how schools opened AS NORMAL in September, and the government for doing what they wanted. I hope there is a lot more investigation now into what’s going on there and their links with the government and sway in the press.

Some thought needs to be put into how schools so reopen now. If they have yr/1/2 back full time because ‘childcare’, that will stuff all infant schools and they’ll be crammed in to capacity. With no social distancing or masks, they’ll just start closing again which will really screw frontline workers.

Although shortage of staff apparently.

I don’t think schools will go back now til after Easter

@MarshaBradyo

Although shortage of staff apparently.

It’s not a necessarily a shortage of staff that’s the problem- certainly for our school-we have plenty of part timers who would do more hours and good ex teachers now on supply who would come in and do more. It’s the budget-we have nothing to pay for it.

trying by the way is peddling the website of a new political campaign group with strong links to Us4Them (they have released joint statements).

One of the things this group wants is to replace close contact isolation with lateral flow testing.

More shady astroturfing.

Letseat that does sound more positive than many posts on here on that so that’s something.

If someone offered my non KW child extra space and teaching staff I’d be pretty happy about it, I just can’t see it’s a reality any time soon. I’d love it though, many would take it up.

@Turtleshelly

Ask the many countries that did manage to do rotas. And/or other measures. Invest in space snd staff like they did.

Good plan.

Now
a) how long will this investment take to roll out in terms of recruitment? Will this be later than Easter?
b) persuade the government to cough up for it properly rather than them expecting schools to magic it out of their arses on negative budgets.

Its funny how people think of magic ideas but don't think them through in practical terms of whether the idea is feasible or workable in reality. They just sound like nice plans

Schools shouldn't open to full capacity until every single member of the school staff have had the vaccine. It's the only workplace where it can't be insisted that everyone wears a mask and social distance.
Primary Kids and social distancing is Impossible.
Kids DO NOT social distance, they can't - anyone suggesting that they are capable of it is a fool.
School staff are not and have never been provided with effective PPE.

@2fallsagain, "That doesn't really help. You can't say something is bullshit and then not reference how or why. I'm not saying you are not right but if you are going to challenge the evidence given to the committee then it's helpful to back it up rather than just say "they don't know their arse from their elbow. I'm not following every detail and I don't tend to venture on to these threads."

Well, if you had ventured onto these threads more often, you might know that @noblegiraffe is famous on them for endlessly providing statistics and links to reputable articles. Regardless, she has still endured a lot of abuse and shit from people who are determined to stick their fingers in their ears and shout 'lalalala,' as it doesn't fit with their preferred narrative.

We need to stop rushing to get back to 'normalcy' the reason we are still in this situation is because people want to back to normal.

As much as I would love my children be back in school with their friends, back not to have them in school worried if they are going to go back into isolation, or back into lockdown. We need to get the virus down to as low as possible and as many vaccines done before we can even think about getting back to normal.

I don't think children will be in school until after Easter break. And the rest opening up from May onwards. I don't think we will be anywhere normal until Autumn if not until next year.

@MarshaBradyo although some people have mentioned other stuff if would be useful to learn, overhauling the way some stuff is taught and I'm not against that. It's not that I think the curriculum is perfect atm more that you never know which little nugget of a subject is going to catch your little treasure's imagination and set them off on the path to greatness, do you (this is an attempt at lightheartedness!). What I am quite confident about is that home school for most is an unsuitable substitute.