So it looks like we're being prepared for children not to go back until after Easter

[choosingcrumble]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-face-months-at-home-as-schools-stay-shut-until-easter-wp5ltpm82?fbclid=IwAR1l0gRSzuJLIv508reRmBEojbYfoGOsWwe3_pBFmKpA4EbI1IgC5dKC2uE

I suspected it wouldn't be until then, let's just hope that it doesn't stretch into the summer.

There’s plenty of evidence that schools aren’t safe and also just bloody common sense. Why the hell would they be?!

The problem with vaccinating the staff at schools means that there will be a high turnover of staff. Many of my friends who work in teaching are planning to leave if vaccinations become neccesary as it is something which should be down to individual choice.
Whilst we are screaming for teachers and other front line staff to be vaccinated we also have to bear in mind that the same laws may come into effect within the private sector. There is no evidence as yet that the current strains are effective against the vaccines and it states itself that it doesent stop you from getting covid.
So why is it neccesary to vaccinate staff when they don't know whether it will work?
I just need someone to break it down as to why we need to vaccinate the teachers?

@DBML it just feels like when we get them in school then they are off again. And more childcare headaches

People were suggesting MOVING the summer holiday to spring, not depriving you of your holiday.

@ekidmxcl

I feel schools should remain closed. Last term at ours there were more than 50 cases. The true figure remains a secret.

It’s hugely unfair to teachers to make them work in that environment. Some have died, some are permanently disabled. Also to parents - your child brings covid home! At the end of August, we had sod all cases. Opened the schools, cases rose ridiculously, culminating in hospitals being over capacity. It’s a clear cause and effect, people have to remain home to prevent this. If your child is vulnerable, they can go in.

It shouldn't be a blanket decision. Our school was open august to Christmas and had one case in the nursery just prior to Christmas. My children could be at school now and it would be the same.

Haven't RTFT because it's too upsetting, but I have an extremely resilient 7yo DD who is sobbing daily because she's so lonely.

I'm getting angrier and angrier that our children are being scapegoated like this. I honestly don't know how they can justify fucking up their heads and their education like this.

@Frozenintime

It might feel like a disappointment; an inconvenience; a pandemic....but it is a world away from feeling like a holiday.

Sadly, anything other than getting schools ‘back as normal’ doesn’t seem to have featured with this government. They don’t want masks, they won’t allow schools to use additional spaces, they won’t allocate money for additional teachers and won’t allow rotas.

This school closure probably will end up being longer than the first one because the government are allowing more children in.

I’m all for vaccinating teachers but it won’t mean schools can open any earlier. Schools being open are huge points of contact for communities and whilst COVID rates are so high, they can’t open them yet and have a repeat of the last few weeks.

I expect when the government announce their ‘schools open as normal’ plan-they know rates really need to have significantly dropped with the weather being warmer, for it to stand a chance.

I've already told my workplace that I won't be going back after my planned break if the schools remain closed. I did it last year, working and homeschooling and I'm just not prepared to do it again. Imagine if redundancies happen, I'll be first in the firing line.

So that's a decent amount of tax I won't be paying and the government won't be receiving.

If teachers and other vulnerable categories are vaccinated then can't we just let the virus do it's thing? We can't keep living like this. No one I know has had it badly, thank goodness. Including a 100 year old!

I don't know what the answer is but I am so so sad for my children 😞

@ChevyCamaro

People were suggesting MOVING the summer holiday to spring, not depriving you of your holiday.

And my holiday is booked for end of July. I am more than willing to move it if I am reimbursed all the costs involved with that.

@TheOtherMaryBerry

Well, I'm going to be starting to explore some options as of tomorrow. Will ring the school and see if they can let him have a place. I can't accept that my decision to send DS to a school attached preschool rather than a nursery means that he can't go. How can it be fair that some early years provision is open and some isn't? I cannot accept my DS going for over a year without being able to play with others. And if it is May what then? He has a few weeks to settle in and then is off for the summer? How is he going to cope with that? I can't do this to my child.

I know I completely get this. A few of us were talking about moving to a school based one but stayed in private and now can go but nearly wouldn’t be.

Can you move to a private nursery? Not sure how hard that is

@devildeepbluesea

Haven't RTFT because it's too upsetting, but I have an extremely resilient 7yo DD who is sobbing daily because she's so lonely.

I'm getting angrier and angrier that our children are being scapegoated like this. I honestly don't know how they can justify fucking up their heads and their education like this.

Oh my gosh

I have children roughly the same age. They’d be more than happy to chat to your dd?

Please pm me. They’d love to chat to anyone. I’d supervise. So it was all kept safe.

The problem with letting the virus ‘do it’s own thing’ is the more people it moves through. the more times it mutates, thus the evidence of new variants. Now you could argue it could turn the virus into something more mild but equally it could turn into something much more deadly. That’s the worry.

The decision is weeks away, if the infection rate continues to drop then it is still possible.

A lot of the kids who are at home are probably a negligible risk for passing covid on because parents are not working in high risk environments.

@ChevyCamaro

People were suggesting MOVING the summer holiday to spring, not depriving you of your holiday.

My son is in his GCSE year and his grades will be based on evidence generated between now and June. Some remotely and fingers crossed children will get back to school sooner rather than later.

If the summer holiday was now, that’s 6 weeks lost completely with no remote teaching and he won’t be able to recoup that back in the summer as he will have left.

Can you move to a private nursery? Not sure how hard that is

I rang the most local nursery but they weren't keen on taking on anyone new. I don't drive so am somewhat limited on where I can get to but if I have no joy with the school I think I'll have to start looking. Don't know how it all works with enrollment
and finding or things like that though. Worth looking at though.

@TheOtherMaryBerry

Well, I'm going to be starting to explore some options as of tomorrow. Will ring the school and see if they can let him have a place. I can't accept that my decision to send DS to a school attached preschool rather than a nursery means that he can't go. How can it be fair that some early years provision is open and some isn't? I cannot accept my DS going for over a year without being able to play with others. And if it is May what then? He has a few weeks to settle in and then is off for the summer? How is he going to cope with that? I can't do this to my child.

Technically the nursery attached to the school *should remain open as it is still classed as an EYFS setting.

The problem with this from a leadership point of view is explaining that it is fine for those school staff to go in and mix with, in some cases over 100 families, but those in the next corridor and across the rest of the school can't as it's not safe.

Some schools have taken the decision to close their school based nursery to the majority of those pupils due to this - I have. We are open to key worker and vulnerable nursery pupils though.

If the DFE would just stop equating schools being ‘open’ with ‘full time, no mitigation measures’ we might actually get somewhere.

Surely rotas with smaller groups is better than no in school provision at all.

Surely paying for cleaning and supply cover for isolating staff is better than random extra closures due to outbreaks.

Surely listening to schools explain what they can do to get more children back is better than blanket, unworkable, last minute policies.

@devildeepbluesea

Haven't RTFT because it's too upsetting, but I have an extremely resilient 7yo DD who is sobbing daily because she's so lonely.

I'm getting angrier and angrier that our children are being scapegoated like this. I honestly don't know how they can justify fucking up their heads and their education like this.

The full thread is still completely convinced it's all in our best interests.

@YardleyX - from 13 March 2020 through 30 June 2020, we were on the strictest lock down here in the Cayman Islands. We could only leave our homes for an hour a day for exercise between 7am-7pm, and could only go to supermarkets on surname letter days (surname is R so could go Tues/Thurs/Sat) where we would queue for 90 mins before getting in. Monitored distancing once inside the markets etc which would take another 90 mins. There was no online shopping either at the start as we have 3 supermarket chains who weren't set up for that technologically.

Borders were closed, beaches were closed, strata pools/gyms, you couldn't drive to exercise, you could only go within the vicinity of your property, dogs could only be walked outside your immediate home (or around a strata complex), no fishing, no driving for any reason other than to the store and only one person from each family. Those who needed assistance with grocery shopping had to find someone to do it for them. Schools were closed from 13 March and reopened in September. Homeschooling and WFH were all we did.

Those who broke curfew were warned for prosecution and all key workers had to carry a government issued letter confirming who they were and what their role was.

From July last year we've lived life as normal because we managed to contain our community spread which, if left unchecked, would have ravaged our island. 60,000 residents and 3 hospitals with 15 ventilators each. Our lockdown was brutal but absolutely necessary. We were all in the same boat and there was no "I'm alright Jack" mentality.

Of course this is far easier to manage on a small island with no way to leave, but this is an example of how a strict lockdown can and has resulted in living freely. When the UK was all about eating out to help out in summer last year, we were locked away.

Unfortunately the UK took a "wait and see" approach to the entire pandemic which has resulted in the clusterfuck you're all facing now.

@LickEmbysmiling

Betty lots more measures need to be made to make schools safe Er, but why didn't they simply request all dc over a certain age wear a mask?

I see to recall that got shouted down by many posters last year

At my school we are becoming more concerned with the amount of screen time both staff and students are having. We deliver full timetable of online lessons. We would much prefer to be in classrooms (in a safe and secure way)

And of course we are still waiting for the big assessment plan from Gormless Gav

@tatutata I don't think that's true. Some people feel that way yes but some of us don't. I'd much rather be back at school with all pupils in - this government just doesn't see this as a priority unfortunately.

@independent98

The problem with vaccinating the staff at schools means that there will be a high turnover of staff. Many of my friends who work in teaching are planning to leave if vaccinations become neccesary as it is something which should be down to individual choice. Whilst we are screaming for teachers and other front line staff to be vaccinated we also have to bear in mind that the same laws may come into effect within the private sector. There is no evidence as yet that the current strains are effective against the vaccines and it states itself that it doesent stop you from getting covid. So why is it neccesary to vaccinate staff when they don't know whether it will work? I just need someone to break it down as to why we need to vaccinate the teachers?

What laws are they? It’s optional but luckily most people have a social conscience and are able to assess risk v benefit which would lead to most (not all as some have reasons not to) having the vaccine.

I don’t know what I’m going to do if schools don’t open for all children soon. I have 2 children and I work in a school, and ‘need’ to be in school full time. My own children don’t qualify for a key worker school place and are at home everyday with dh who is working a high pressure job from home and can’t commit time to help the children. My daughter already has terrible anxiety about home schooling.