Primary schools back sooner than expected?

[deeplybaffled]

It’s hard to know what to believe, but PHE now seem to be suggesting that primary schools can safely return after half term - which seems to contradict all other recent reports and government comments
focussing around Easter!

@Motherdare but some hospitals are overwhelmed, and it is not just the elderly and sick who are now being admitted into hospital

I really hope so, it is also a good sign that the news channels covered the problem more yesterday.
Imo if we are saying schools cant open after Feb half term then I dont see what would change that much a month later and so either we open them or admit it wont happen this year and have a plan for that.
It is not good enough to "wait and see" and pretend online learning is the same thing for primary aged childres esp early years.
I dont get why we can't look at moving holidays around and spend some face to face time in school in summer or repeat the term next year.
Yes, it is complicated and wont work for every single family, but so is everything else and that doesnt stop humans finding solutions.

My children’s primary classes have half of the kids in, more back in today as parents have decided to utilise their one parent key status. My school has no live online provision as the tech doesn’t work in our rural area. Those in class are being taught as normal. It simply isn’t fair to those kids not in and puts them at a disadvantage. It’s creating a two tier system and division. I hope they do go back after Half term and measures are put in place for teachers as they are being failed here along with many, many children.

@Motherdare
Did you know that up to 30% of ppl needing hospital care because of covid end up in hospital again?
or that about the same % end up with long covid? Including children!

I want kids back in school. With proper masks all the time, SD/half the kids in at any time and proper ttr. It's "simple" as that.
Just opening up again will lead to this exact situ in a few months.

@itsgettingweird

Just to say thank you for the balanced and measured reply to my post I agree with you that I wouldn't be wanting to make the decisions.

@LucyLockdown

All this ‘our kids have suffered enough’ and ‘our kids have been sacrificed’ just makes me laugh. Get a grip. The overwhelming majority of kids are fine. They’re learning from home not being sent down the mines ffs.

How old is your child and how is homeschooling going?

[quote TheSunIsStillShining]@Motherdare
Did you know that up to 30% of ppl needing hospital care because of covid end up in hospital again?
or that about the same % end up with long covid? Including children!

I want kids back in school. With proper masks all the time, SD/half the kids in at any time and proper ttr. It's "simple" as that.
Just opening up again will lead to this exact situ in a few months.[/quote]
You want little kids to wear masks and SD from each other? I'm glad you're not making the decisions. Can't you see how harmful that is?

@BooksAreNotEssentialInWales

The fact primary children don't get very ill or die from a disease, aren't major spreaders and teachers aren't at any great risk is a cause for celebration. I'm not sure what motives people have for saying this can't be true when study after study shows it is. The damage being done to children is heartbreaking and there will be no money or resource to repair it, some won't be repairable. Having a well educated, socially developed population means healthier futures for everyone. This is fantastic news.

100% this.

The fact is that primary schools have closed not to protect the health of the people who work in them but closed to protect community transmission which gets to those at greatest risk.

Everyone expects other key industries to open because we need our cheap washing powder (B&M) or food shop, or bins collected, or meat processed, or to take buses to work etc, or catch criminals, or clean hospital beds etc etc. There are other industries who are also at great risk and under strain.

The science is showing that primary schools do not greatly increase risk of community transmission and there are huge risks to vulnerable children. It's time they went back.

Even if the teachers were to take the kids out for a walk in the woods and do some den building, I'm sure a hell of a lot of parents would appreciate that right now seeing as indoor poorly ventilated classrooms is what is causing the most stress. Inner city kids I realise that won't be so straightforward but I'm sure something could be setup outdoors.

I think they need to look at getting the infants back and exam years, even year 7. My KS1 child is no engaging and it is becoming a minecraft fuelled holiday while I work. I would accept that in a pandemic...but I won't accept it when half his class are in school having full education provided. My KS2 is ok, he can learn online but socialising is the issue there. Year 7s need to be at secondary i think, i don't have a year 7 but it is a massive year imo. Surely they can do something part time to accommodate all rather than a select few (or select majority it seems!).

They need to make schools safer or it's going to be open school, shut school, open school, shut school.

Why haven't they learned ANYTHING from recent history, science, or what's worked in other countries?

I'd be totally ok with outdoor school or rotas. Anything to making schooling more consistent. It's worked elsewhere.

Ridiculous
Mine won’t be in that soon. It’s not safe. Honestly why does nobody have any patience this constant reopening of things too soon is fuelling the problem. If the first lockdown had been extended, no holidays abroad and pubs etc shit for longer plus no eat out to help out in august then kids could have gone back in September and remained back.
A gradual reopening of things could have been done but it seems to be chaotic open shut open shut all the time

@LucyLockdown

The damage being done to children is heartbreaking

So bored of this kind of statement. It’s not true just because you say it is.

COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has brought about a sense of fear and anxiety around the globe. This phenomenon has led to short term as well as long term psychosocial and mental health implications for children and adolescents. The quality and magnitude of impact on minors is determined by many vulnerability factors like developmental age, educational status, pre-existing mental health condition, being economically underprivileged or being quarantined due to infection or fear of infection.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7444649/

See also

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55781859

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55138429

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55551913

Shut obviously not shit !

@IloveJKRowling

They need to make schools safer or it's going to be open school, shut school, open school, shut school.

Why haven't they learned ANYTHING from recent history, science, or what's worked in other countries?

I'd be totally ok with outdoor school or rotas. Anything to making schooling more consistent. It's worked elsewhere.

Totally agree

The overwhelming majority of kids are fine

Where did you get this statistic from?

Primary school kids need to go back but it needs to be compulsory at the school gates for parents to wear masks (unless exempted) and not chat. This is part of the problem. There should be big fines too for parents not complying. All our teachers want the kids back in ASAP. Live teaching those at home and keyworkers kids at the same time is very stressful and we can’t have this two tier system, it is too divisive, there will be legal challenges to it soon.

I sincerely hope you’re right. I hope secondary go back too even if wearing masks more.

I hope they are. I was listening to a headmaster on the radio saying he wanted the children back in school. He was talking about the effect of was having on a generation of children and so many children were falling through the cracks something he added that people are not admitting to. He talked about his school being open last term and because of the robust measures he had put in place there wasn’t a single case of covid the entire term - which was evidence that it can be done. He was certain that other schools had equally robust measures and his teachers were ready and willing to go back.

We DO have to look at the wider picture. Covid is not the only thing we should be worried about.

Wax then can you show the documentation that shows that no masks or distancing are allowed in your factory.
That you provide personal care .
That you are likely to have staff throwing up, unable to wash hands for the 20s.
That the management have to wait for staff to be collected by someone if they are sent in with symptoms or feel ill.
That they pick noses or lick things.
Sneeze on you.

The rates in schools were in thousands/100k before xmas

How many staff work there vs number of cases?
At dc school 2 staff cases maybe 15 teachers so 12% already.

Not sure a local ht here will be able to claim about robust measures as they recently had covid.

I think it's luck, the schools with no cases. DS's school had no cases (small village primary, fewer than 100 pupils), just a couple of children isolating due to contacts outside school, who didn't get ill. They worked very hard to avoid infections but so did the other schools locally, they all took the same measures, DS's was the only school which escaped. Luck, pure and simple.

Great news and about time! Now they need to open secondary schools as well.

One of our local schools closed the other day due to number of cases. Their risk assessment had been signed off the previous week. The 'robust' measures many schools have really aren't robust, it is more the luck of the draw.

Everyone should be pushing for safer condition's, what does it say about us as a society to say - " I am in danger, so you should be also?"

There are many measures companies can take!