Boris to make imminent announcement on schools, any guesses?!

[Adviceneededalways]

Do we think an extension delaying opening or is he going to try and get children back in sooner...

I have to say I think the latter would be a fucking disaster but I wouldn’t be at all surprised...

39 days to go ...

If they prioritise teachers above the clinically vulnerable then my son will not be going back.

Both his parents are CV. So he could lose both his parents but Mrs Smith who teaches Y3 will be fine.

Fuck that shit.

@MiaMarshmallows but you need to wait 3 weeks after for immunity to start so even if teachers were vaccinated then it's a 3 week delay

@Zandathepanda

My clinically vulnerable Yr12 hasn’t been vaccinated yet. No idea of dates for her.

I have one of these too. I believe end of March is target date for this group.

I understand from a personal perspective wanting school backs but surely the bigger picture is the issue?

Sending kids back to soon just means numbers are going to keep spiking, and for much longer we will be in and out of various lock downs, it will just pro long the process significantly.

I cant comprehend how people think it's common sense to send kids back when it will just result in more deaths, more staff shortages, hospitals struggling and will no doubt extend restrictions for many more months.

And again its not about the teachers. Its about the spread. A class full of 20 children, one child is positive and passes it on to 5 kids in his class, one of those 5 kids goes to a supermarket after class and touches various items around the shop spreading it further, one child passes it to his dad who works in a busy factory and infects many of his colleagues who are vulnerable. One child goes to visit vulnerable granny over the weekend, one child passes it to their sibling who starts the same chain in their class and one child just passes it on to his mum who gets significantly poorly and isnt able to look after their children adequately.

It's a chain of events which children are the catalyst.

Absolutely the right decision not to send them back after half term btw. Opening up too early last time (not schools) is one of the reason we have over 100,000 deaths.

The govt. Are trying to do the right thing this time round

The Opposition needs to show its medical evidence, which shows the impact of changing the vaccination priorities - especially before the CV have been called.

Without that it's politicking, not science.

And I hope they have better foundations than it seems in absence of data/modelling

@DrinkFeckArseGirls

Why not Y5 of whom some will be doing 11+. Although schools don’t prepare for the exam, it’s important that this year group has good basics taught at school.

Because most of them are privately tutored anyway to within an inch of their lives? at the expense of the bright but poor kids.

@DareIask I’d fully support that 😂

Thank god we have a date to work towards!

I say this as a school leader and parent.

@marieantoinehairnet

Whatever he's saying now, take with a punch of salt, there'll be no chance if it going to plan, I predict schools out til Easter...

8th March is only two weeks before the hols. So I think you are right.

So vaccinate teachers above the clinically vulnerable? Firstly, that’s unscientific. Clinically vulnerable people are more likely to die. Many of these clinically vulnerable people will be parents

I am CV teacher and parent. I have a CV child. CV child is already a non-person as far as MN is concerned. He can, apparently, just stay home. That non-CV children are struggling with their mental health and need to be in school is one thing, but that CV children might also struggle with their mental health and need to be in school is beyond the realms of many people's understanding. As long as they're OK, that's fine.

I also don't matter, as long as you can get your kids into school. That my contracting covid may well result in my death or long covid is unimportant. The impact of that on my children's mental health and life chances totally ignored.

Everyone matters. Everyone.

Vaccinating young healthy teachers before the vulnerable makes no sense whatsoever.

The issue is deaths and hospitalizations. Not cases.

@movingonup20 for those areas that have the 11+, it's a big issue. Bucks is an entirely selective county, i.e grammar/upper and no comps. Families who are at prep school/can afford private tuition will benefit from much better teaching that state school pupils.

It creates even more division that it would otherwise and puts children at state school at a disadvantage. They made no allowance for this in the test last year (other than delaying it) so I can understand affected parents being concerned.

[quote PastMyBestBeforeDate]@forinborin mid Feb is the target for vaccinating groups 1-4 (over 70s & extremely clinically vulnerable). End of March is the target for everyone over 50.[/quote]
Yes, the total number of people in those groups is 13.4m, so far 6.8 have received the first dose (as of Monday). Same distance left to travel, how likely it is that it will be covered in ~2 weeks?

They won't fully open schools. They will make a formal announcement of how to get out of lock down week commencing 22nd February

Absolutely the right decision not to send them back after half term btw. Opening up too early last time (not schools) is one of the reason we have over 100,000 deaths.

The govt. Are trying to do the right thing this time round

I agree. Hopefully they won’t be swayed by public pressure again. Opening up too early and allowing mixing at Xmas were huge mistakes. I hope they won’t be repeated in other circumstances.

I can't believe people are still talking about vaccinating teachers first. ONS has data showing teachers are not getting it more than the community. I'm in my 40s and DH 50. I really don't think we should be getting it behind teachers in their 20s. On the other hand, if I'm a teacher, I'd be very worried about teaching.

It's a disease that kills older people, and even middle aged people can get it quite badly.

Why not Y5 of whom some will be doing 11+

Because the 11+ is not essential and the children will get a good education regardless of where they go to secondary school? (You may not believe that, but it will be the DoE line). It's the amount of out of school tutoring that their parents pay for that will make the most difference anyway.

No fan of Boris but mid March seems realistic tbh.

Beginning of summer term just so far away.

@CrackOpenTheGin

Praying common senses prevails and schools stay closed to most

phew

let's hope they go carefully

It is a real challenge homeschooling

but we need to follow the science about infection control

Open the schools ASAP.

Schools might open March 8th

Primaries aren't meant to teach for 11+ though are they?

@DarcyJack

If you care about transmission to anyone other than teachers, then vaccinating teachers is no good. The number of teachers getting ill has never been the problem (for the nation - obvs a huge problem for teachers). The problem with open schools is the children transmitting it to each other and then the community. This will definitely happen again if schools reopen with numbers so high. If you are happy with that fair enough, but people are despairing of our 100,000 deaths and this is the way to go to increase it.

This.