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.

[quote Monkeytennis97]@TheKeatingFive I'm just getting a bit sick with the blunt language aimed at teachers from those that have no clue.

Schools must open.
Provision is poor.
Etc etc.

[/quote]
Agreed - I want all the kids in for MH so sod you all type comments.

They do need to go back for many reasons but I don't see how it's going to be feasible until the vaccine rollout is more advanced.

I work in Camhs.

We have A LOT of suicidal teens. Youngest I know of is 12.

I’m guessing they don’t matter.

@CountessFrog

I work in Camhs.

We have A LOT of suicidal teens. Youngest I know of is 12.

I’m guessing they don’t matter.

Did anyone say that ?

What a disgusting thing to write.

Because we don't necessarily agree with sending all the kids back now we don't care about suicidal teens.

You are a disgrace.

They do matter. Every life damaged by this is a disaster.

But clearly we can’t have everything....that’s why the whole thing is so awful. There are and will be casualties. Every casualty whether a Covid casualty or a knock-on consequence of Covid or the measures needed to deal with it are disasters. And we can’t avoid them all.

The new auK variant is 30% more deadly and is affecting younger people. Maybe more people on MN might start taking it seriously instead of moaning about having to make sacrifices for others.
It really annoys me when people say their child's mental health is suffering because their kids miss their friends. It's insulting to those with actual mental illness.
I and my TA colleagues are putting our lives at risk every day supervising a class of 24.

Also @CountessFrog if you think the solution to suicidal teens is sending us all back to school (and an inevitable lockdown again) your role worries me.

I'm absolutely disgusted by your comment.

@CountessFrog

I work in Camhs.

We have A LOT of suicidal teens. Youngest I know of is 12.

I’m guessing they don’t matter.

God help the teens if that's your take on this and you work in CAMHS. My daughter is receiving treatment with our CAMHS and believe me that service was desperate long before covid appeared on the scene.

Wheresmykimchi

Countessfrog has been a back to school as normal and at any cost since this all started.

@OwlWearingGlasses

The new auK variant is 30% more deadly and is affecting younger people. Maybe more people on MN might start taking it seriously instead of moaning about having to make sacrifices for others. It really annoys me when people say their child's mental health is suffering because their kids miss their friends. It's insulting to those with actual mental illness. I and my TA colleagues are putting our lives at risk every day supervising a class of 24.

First lockdown left me with a self harming 8 year old. Is that enough mental health problem for me to be legitimately worried?

@FrippEnos

Wheresmykimchi

Countessfrog has been a back to school as normal and at any cost since this all started.

In absolutely fuming she thought that was an acceptable thing to write

Note that I don’t think full time indoor schooling is practically any time soon, but I’m desperate for some kind of rota or outdoor education to give my son a wider world than I can provide alone.

@TheOtherMaryBerry

Rude

How is it rude!!? What is online provision doing for early years socialisation? What is it doing for highlighting children's weaknesses or identifying issues? I don't doubt that teachers are working really hard and doing their best but it really really is no substitute.

Early years teachers know this. This is why we've been asking for more support to stay as safe as possible and keep schools open.

Teachers want to be in school teaching children. It breaks my heart to see them all at home via Zoom meetings. But it needs to be safer.

If we're talking about MH, we should probably acknowledge the fact that there are many, many teens and children whose mental health will be improved by online learning and not being in school. This isn't something that only works one way.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

If we're talking about MH, we should probably acknowledge the fact that there are many, many teens and children whose mental health will be improved by online learning and not being in school. This isn't something that only works one way.

Based on?

The care I’m getting from my GP is not the normal standard of care. Same from my physio. The standard of leisure activity I’m used to has gone...a walk around the same park daily is a poor substitute. The standard of service from utilities etc is substandard. I can’t get a normal boiler service, it has to be an emergency. I have to wait hours on the phone for a customer assistant. And yes, teaching is remote, which is never going to be the same as face to face.

But there’s no other option...because if there was, we’d be doing it.

A virus spreads from person to person. In a short space of time, many thousands of people can become ill and then hundreds will need care. When tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people get ill, you have real issues and thousand need care and thousands die, some due to the virus and some due to lack of access to medical resources.

We can’t have sports events or concerts or shopping malls open, because people congratulate and that gives the virus opportunity to spread...but people are clamouring for schools to open and conduct their own little super spreading events, because that’s what happens when hundreds of people (thousands in secondary) get together.

Yes, mental health is an issue. But we have to try and deal with that in others ways rather than by just putting everyone at risk. Yes lack of socialisation for little ones is an issue...but socialising is exactly what enables the virus to spread, so that answer is that socialising has to simply wait.

Teachers are largely parents too and we are tackling the same issues as everyone else. Working from home and home schooling. Dealing with MH. We aren’t in an easier place because we are teachers, we are human too.

So as much as it pains me to say it, there’s nothing to do but suck it up. Because we’re in this lockdown and dealing with ‘across the board’ substandard services until otherwise told and no amount of whining and saying ‘schools must open now!’ is going to make a blind bit of difference.
I want to escape to my Florida home and enjoy some fucking sunshine, but I’m not going anywhere right now and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

If we're talking about MH, we should probably acknowledge the fact that there are many, many teens and children whose mental health will be improved by online learning and not being in school. This isn't something that only works one way.

True home ed (not the unsustainable hybrid that is the current remote learning) can absolutely be the right choice for some. I have experience of this.

But social contact with peers outside of school and extracurricular activities then become even more important. Currently with lockdown, children who are struggling may have no way to help them out of a sense of isolation. As time goes on mental deterioration can be rapid.

@DBLM Agreed.

Schools aren’t unlocking in Feb at all. It’ll be September at the earliest.

It’s going to be a long year. I just hope the spring is as good as last year.
Lockdown was fab April May, it made up for the lack of summer holiday.

[quote Thewiseoneincognito]@DBLM Agreed.

Schools aren’t unlocking in Feb at all. It’ll be September at the earliest.

It’s going to be a long year. I just hope the spring is as good as last year.
Lockdown was fab April May, it made up for the lack of summer holiday.[/quote]
September. Based on what!

Lockdown was fab, was it? What a tone deaf , ridiculous post.

Oh it's you @Thewiseoneincognito

My incredulity has lessened now I've realised it's you.

September at the earliest, when it's been confirmed they'll be the first to reopen before everything else? So all businesses under mandatory closure just stay shut until Autumn or Winter.

That's ridiculous, well unless state school teachers are clamouring for redundancy and their buildings to close permanently due to the diversion of funding that would become necessary.

It won’t be September.

They will attempt to get some children back maybe a few weeks prior to Easter.

After Easter there will be a return, but unlike September.

Certain year groups will be prioritised.

There will not be ‘normality’ perhaps until September at least.

@Wheresmykimchi hi 👋🏼 🖖🏼

The weather in lockdown April/ May was fab wasn’t it? What’s tone deaf about a fact like that?

[quote Thewiseoneincognito]@Wheresmykimchi hi 👋🏼 🖖🏼

The weather in lockdown April/ May was fab wasn’t it? What’s tone deaf about a fact like that?[/quote]

@Wheresmykimchi

🦆🦆🦆🦆 for your biscuits