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.

@Pundemmic

France- schools are open Italy- high school students back Germany- closed Greece- schools are open Spain- schools are open Portugal- schools are open Netherlands- schools closed Ireland- schools open Sweden- schools are open

Source bbc.co.uk. @donotdelete your post wasn’t clear or helpful. Was this what you were trying to say?

Uk - Schools are open.

Fixed it.

I reckon after half term - a few more weeks for vaccines to kick in and hospitalisations to fall.

Vaccines won't kick in for months. Need 2nd one and then 3 weeks so if get first one now you don't be ''safe' until May.

School still open by the way. I'm still here with 102 KW and vulnerable students. While teaching remotely to the Deakin's kind 1,600 (not all at the same time 😊).

Too tired to spell 😂

@Itisasecret

Or I don’t know, it maybe increasing at a faster rate in primary children because a lot of them are still in school. With no masks, no sd, small classrooms and all the rest of it. It’s not exactly rocket science.

All a moot point anyway. Schools aren’t locked and they won’t be back as normal in February. Which is a shame but that’s the way it is. No inside knowledge. It’s pretty obvious to anyone capable of critical thinking.

I think that the data we are seeing currently has to many what ifs. The numbers for the next month will be easier interpret.

The primary school children numbers compared to the secondary children numbers in particular. There being more kids of primary age attending school still. Especially because primary kids are supposed to transmit the virus less.

@Itisasecret

Or I don’t know, it maybe increasing at a faster rate in primary children because a lot of them are still in school. With no masks, no sd, small classrooms and all the rest of it. It’s not exactly rocket science.

All a moot point anyway. Schools aren’t locked and they won’t be back as normal in February. Which is a shame but that’s the way it is. No inside knowledge. It’s pretty obvious to anyone capable of critical thinking.

Oh and don't be so rude

Try debating not having a playground fight

There isn’t a lot to debate, the data is pretty clear. Unless you mean let’s just deny. Then, no sorry I don’t want to play your game.

Sorry but that BBC explainer is wrong : they would have to say schools are 'open' here, too, in any fact check. Schools are closed in Malmo, for a start so whilst they may be open in Sweden the oldest students are not in school and no one is in the whole area around Malmo.

Most countries with 'open' schools have masks and other measures.

When schools were closed in Spain and Italy, there was no keyworker provision at all.

Italy put huge amounts of money into reopening schools and has decreased class sizes. Many Italian teachers are still unhappy though as they tend to be , on average, older.

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

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

To be fair to BBC , it is largely the PP's summary of their explainer that is inaccurate. Here is a link:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-53640249

@sundowners

The R rate is now under 1, infections are in retreat. Let’s keep the vaccinations up, let’s all be good for another 4 weeks and let’s get schools back after half term.

It will take until March to get the numbers where they need to be and that is only if no hiccups.

Hopefully all will go well and schools can open for a couple of weeks before Easter. That would also be a nice Easter fire breaker.

However in schools masks (for older kids at least), staff vaccinations and other measures are now going to have to be taken. Else the schools will be opening, closing and isolating large numbers all spring.

The R rate is only just under one. Ten people are still infecting between another eight and ten people. The epidemic is going to shrink really slowly at that rate.

Apparently, two thirds of all secondary schools in Sweden are closed.

Lower secondary schools: Mixed

For lower secondary schools (högstadiet, typically for 13-15-year-olds), it's up to the manager of the school (either the municipality or school board) to decide if they want to continue in-person teaching or switch entirely or partially to distance learning. This decision should be based on the spread of infection, and a National Agency for Education survey showed that two thirds of schools had switched entirely or partially to distance learning.

www.thelocal.se/20210122/list-whats-open-and-whats-closed-in-sweden-during-the-pandemic

@mumsneedwine

Vaccines won't kick in for months. Need 2nd one and then 3 weeks so if get first one now you don't be ''safe' until May.

School still open by the way. I'm still here with 102 KW and vulnerable students. While teaching remotely to the Deakin's kind 1,600 (not all at the same time 😊).

Prof David Spiegelhalter at the University of Cambridge said: "Overall it looks like getting down to nearly half of where we were three weeks ago, which is enormously hopefully".

But he explained that the change in infections was taking a while to feed through to a fall in new hospital admissions, and couldn't yet be seen in the total number of hospital patients or deaths.

"We probably won't see that until the end of the month," he said.

And by next month, "we will start seeing the benefits of the vaccine".

It will still take time for the effect of vaccinations to trickle down but everyone agrees. We will be seeing the effects on hospitalizations pretty soon. A care home in Devon has seen it already.

@sundowners

The R rate is now under 1, infections are in retreat. Let’s keep the vaccinations up, let’s all be good for another 4 weeks and let’s get schools back after half term.

Fully agree with this. It's a whole month away! Plenty of time for millions of vaccinations and the pressure on hospitals to ease.

By then my children will have been out of school for two whole months and only in school for three months out of eleven. This time, once they go back, it needs to be for good. No more school closures.

Primary schools are open in Greece, but not the rest, unless this website is out of date.

primary schools are open, but other schools and educational establishments (including universities) are likely to remain in distance- or online-learning formats;

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/greece/coronavirus

@Itisasecret

There isn’t a lot to debate, the data is pretty clear. Unless you mean let’s just deny. Then, no sorry I don’t want to play your game.

It isn't a game that is my point. No body can say clearly what the data means at the moment.

You can make a non scientific guess or suggestion and debate it or stamp your foot like a teenager and refuse to listen to opinions that not to your liking. Then be rude to the poster.

I personally have similar views to you but like evidence to be clearer and don't think being hostile wins an argument. It is like all this how is more at danger teachers or retail staff business that people have a fit over. So not the point and unhelpful.

Carlislemumof4
sundowners

The R rate is now under 1, infections are in retreat. Let’s keep the vaccinations up, let’s all be good for another 4 weeks and let’s get schools back after half term.

Fully agree with this. It's a whole month away! Plenty of time for millions of vaccinations and the pressure on hospitals to ease.

By then my children will have been out of school for two whole months and only in school for three months out of eleven. This time, once they go back, it needs to be for good. No more school closures.

Are you expect schools to stay open no matter what with no preventative measures in place?

It’s fact. You’re the one being personal and rude. You remind me of another poster who used to be on these boards. I’ll just start reporting every post where you make personal remarks.

I am well aware of what is actually happening because I’m in the thick of it. So stop patronising me.

This time, once they go back, it needs to be for good. No more school closures

Let’s hope the government’s plan is not ‘open up all schools full time just as before’ without spending a penny on any risk mitigation or telling people to wear masks in classrooms, then.

The R rate is now under 1, infections are in retreat. Let’s keep the vaccinations up, let’s all be good for another 4 weeks and let’s get schools back after half term

This is great news. Over the next few weeks case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths should continue to fall.

Hopefully schools can then reopen after half term or in early March!!

@FrippEnos

Carlislemumof4 sundowners

The R rate is now under 1, infections are in retreat. Let’s keep the vaccinations up, let’s all be good for another 4 weeks and let’s get schools back after half term.

Fully agree with this. It's a whole month away! Plenty of time for millions of vaccinations and the pressure on hospitals to ease.

By then my children will have been out of school for two whole months and only in school for three months out of eleven. This time, once they go back, it needs to be for good. No more school closures.

Are you expect schools to stay open no matter what with no preventative measures in place?

Once the most vulnerable are vaccinated and the winter pressure on the hospitals eases the justification for shutting a percentage of children out of the classroom ceases to be valid. Plus schools must be first to reopen and there are many, many businesses that desperately need to open straight after that in time for Easter.

Happy for my DCs to wear masks, wish my DCs teachers would keep the windows open, sure they'll make more and more use of the (limited) outside space in the coming months.

This time next year the vaccination programme will have been further developed and there'll be no justification for more damaging school closures.

Carlislemumof4

Yes would have been a quicker answer.

@FrippEnos

Carlislemumof4

Yes would have been a quicker answer.

You don't see vaccines or masks as preventative measures? An interesting viewpoint.

@Soontobe60 why 🤣?

"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

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣"

In the countries where kids are consistently wearing masks every day in school across the age ranges, their case numbers are low, their ICUs aren't rammed to the gills, their medical teams aren't getting so far behind on other care, and more businesses can be cautiously open because case rates stay low.

I don't see what there is to laugh about in the abysmal rate of effective face mask wearing in this country!