The EARLIEST schools will open is 8th March!!!

[dingledongle]

I cannot believe this!

Stunned!

My kids have lost one year of school and are going to be paying for this for decades to come

@starrynight19

There will probably be fewer isolation incidents because more people have already had it.

@bumbleymummy with current modelling suggesting only 1 in 5 having had covid that’s highly unlikely.

1 in 5 compared to the 1 in 1000 that the previous poster stated. yes, a lot more people have had it so there should be fewer outbreaks.

@HerrWanksock that twitter thread of those children who have ended their lives is so incredibly sad. My heart breaks. This is the reality.

I do think they need to rethink education though maybe expand school years or make it possible for students to sit GCSE,s other than maths and English in college I'm sure for academic kids they will catch up but for those who are not that academic maybe need a catch up course

Stupid standards set by politicians that stress them out? This NEEDED to happen to reduce the pressure on children and teens.Hopefully it will mean a whole new method of assessment. Kids are under ridiculous pressure.

Yes, I do agree with that actually. Have often considered home schooling for that exact reason. The one thing that has put me off is the social aspect of school.

I don't see how it's a surprise.

For weeks MN and social media was full of people crying out for the schools to close again and the minute they were shut everybody switched to demanding when they were going to be opened again.

If you'd been paying any attention to the news etc then March would be in no way a shock l, in fact, you'd be mildly surprised they hadn't just bitten the bullet and said "after Easter" (which realistically is what I think might happen).

For weeks MN and social media was full of people crying out for the schools to close again and the minute they were shut everybody switched to demanding when they were going to be opened again.

It’s not the same people. In most cases anyway.

Kids aren’t going to be ‘irreparably damaged’ for decades.

Most kids absolutely adore being off school, dossing about all day, having more screen time than usual, rediscovering board games, hom pom, the formerly mostly ignored back garden!, their immediate local green spaces, cycling, walking to the corner shop, and are knuckling down to remote learning just fine, certainly over age 11 they need barely any supervision at all thanks to well structured teaching online.

Many are spending more time outdoors than they ever did going for walks and getting fresh air.

Many are spending more time with their family, enjoying playing with siblings again, those bonds are growing.

When asked how their mental health is doing, my 11 and 13 year old shrug it off and say things like all their friends love being off school, admittedly missing seeing their friends in person, but they know that will get back to normal eventually.

They’re finding security and comfort in their home base and their family connections, and having grown up into a digital world, learning by screen is no big deal to them

Where remote learning lacks, they’ll pick it up when they go back to school.

None of this probably applies to SEN kids and other disabilities and disorders of course, it is obvious they may struggle more. So that minority of children, indeed, will suffer.

But for most kids, they’re bloody loving the lockdowns in my experience

This is one of the smuggest, most out of touch posts I’ve read on here in a long time, and not remotely representative of the many kids I know personally, all of whom are struggling to a greater or lesser degree with remote learning and the isolation of lockdown. Not SEN - some are only children, some have siblings they’re sick of the sight of, others have parents who are attempting the impossible daily juggle of work and homeschooling - all were previously well-adjusted kids.

Even for a so-called ‘digital generation’ it’s not healthy or desirable to be spending so much time on screens, especially for the younger ones for whom real-world contact and experience remains so important.

Regardless of how much your own kids are loving lockdown and the extent to which you see school closures as necessary and inevitable in our current predicament, it is disingenuous to suggest that it won’t be associated with harm for many, many other children.

I'm currently sat listening to my DP cough his guts up upstairs. We are both teachers and he got his positive results through on Monday evening. We have only been to school since Christmas (which was a doorstep drop off, no mixing) and to click and collect our shopping. Our children obviously haven't been to school so he has caught this at work. Another colleague has tested positive and we can directly trace this to a student who came in whilst waiting for their own test results. Mum had them taking cold and flu capsules so they could go to school. Mum is a carer and had to go to work.

I have never seen him so ill, and so panicked about making us ill. But he also can't walk to the bathroom on his own or sit himself up without help, so I need to be with him and not isolated.

Now is not the time to open schools to everyone. We need to stay locked down and reduce community transmission significantly. Even with vaccinations, a high rate of community transmission will still be devastating when combined with schools opening like in September.

Working from home with your own children is difficult, I know. Myself and my colleagues all have ours at home rahter than in a keyworker place. My kids have been great with it, but for the past few days ours have been inconsolable as their dad is so ill. They have seen family members die, some now with long tem conditions, friends losing grandparents and one a parent, and they are now terrified the same will happen to them.

As for children missing so much school that it will ruin their future; they will be fine. I've taught students from war-torn countries missing years of schooling, witnessing the murder of their families, losing many in bombing. They will catch up. If we rush back they will just miss more.

Regardless of how much your own kids are loving lockdown and the extent to which you see school closures as necessary and inevitable in our current predicament, it is disingenuous to suggest that it won’t be associated with harm for many, many other children.

EXACTLY. That is what I mean by a nuanced viewpoint. It is perfectly possible to both KNOW school closures are necessary and yet also know that they will be a hugely damaging to a large number of children.

Temps completely agree re pp

@Whyarewehardofthinking

Hope your DP will be ok soon and fingers crossed you and DC will be ok too. Sending hugs and

When I read posts like this I honestly despair. They are YOUR children! It’s your job to do your best by them. If learning was so poor from March to September then you needed to step up. Even if you are working full time you have weekends, days off and holidays. You could have had them doing a few hours work every day you weren’t working, right through the summer holidays.

I did..and so did a lot of parents. They didn’t just whinge about all the lost learning, they did something about it. My children were working 6 months to a year ahead when this all started, they are now 1.5-2 years ahead. Did that just happen? No! It was dedication to their learning over the holidays and every day I could spare. It was working to get them on board with it as well. Anyone can buy appropriate workbooks for their children, use oak academy etc. If children are behind academically then maybe some parents should have stepped up more.

What the actual fuck is wrong with you? I’ve seen some smug, privileged, oblivious, unempathetic, twatty posts on mumsnet, but this has to be one of the worst.

No, some parents can’t teach their children, because they’re not well educated or very bright. Some parents are struggling to pay the bills, working 3 jobs on their own. Some parents are struggling massively with their mental health or have physical disabilities/illnesses. Some children have diagnosed or undiagnosed SEN. It’s really not the case that anyone can buy textbooks and get stuck in to educate their children to the standard of a trained teacher, while simultaneously working full time.

Actually, your post is so so clueless that I think you’re probably a childless goady fucker with too much time on your hands.

Actually, your post is sosoclueless that I think you’re probably a childless goady fucker with too much time on your hands.

Sadly I wouldn't be so sure.

@HerrWanksock That Twitter thread is absolutely heartbreaking. I have no idea and so many people refuse to acknowledge that these tragedies - and the uptick in domestic abuse, gang recruitment etc - are happening.

It doesn’t make you a rabid Covid denier to recognise the many and varied harms that are associated with lockdowns and school closures, or to insist that we need some kind of plan to confront them.

@dingledongle

My retired ndn are planning their travel back to their second home in Spain after their vaccination

Great while the rest of the working population are at home working and educating our kids

Sounds fair to me- NOT!

You might not be home working and educating your kids when they get to Spain. They can't travel now can they unless they have a valid reason to.

What do you think they should be doing? Making plans, staying positive is probably good for them.

That's awful Whyarewehardofthinking.

I really hope your husband gets better soon. I agree with you. People don't realise the risks with opening schools too soon.

@movingonup20

I'm sure they will be more damaged if we don't get this under control and their parents die.

This.

It's a bad situation all round.

@dingledongle My kids have lost one year of school and are going to be paying for this for decades to come
Oh get a grip, that is one the most ridiculous Covid-19 related commentS I have heard.
Your dc are not going to be 42 crying into a bottle of vino bemoaning those few months of lost in school learning.

That earlier that I thought. Was expecting after Easter Hols. Suppose they can’t win, everyone was in up roar few weeks again wandering why he wasn’t shutting them.

I bet they’ll let each council decide for their own area. Hope it doesn’t get pushed back to after Easter!

@TempsPerdu

That is why the post also states that some children will struggle. It is not one sided. Did you not read that bit?

My own children are not living an idyllic life, it just is what it is.

The younger one was positive Covid just before school broke up at Christmas, so we are aware how horrible the virus can be.

They are coping fine, yes. Perhaps because their school’s online learning is well structured, perhaps because we’ve managed to find a good balance between home, work and school life.
For many people this is the case. Just because you don’t personally know anyone who is coping, does not mean they don’t exist. I also know people who appear to struggle.

Who on earth would think during a pandemic that just because a family have found a way to cope, it must be ‘idyllic’ for them. It really isn’t.

@Justthebeerlighttoguide

Good q on press conference, how can school be safe and simultaneously a vector of transmission.

I think it means your children are not at risk (because they tend to be asymptomatic or not suffer too badly) but that having schools open increases likelihood of spreading the virus, so makes the situation more dangerous for the community as a whole.

I’ve taught refugees too. Who’ve come to school in year 7 with little English. Lots go onto do degrees.

This is why this rhetoric is wrong. Yes, for mental health and peer contact. But not for ‘falling’ behind. As l said previously, falling behind what?

*When I read posts like this I honestly despair. They are YOUR children! It’s your job to do your best by them. If learning was so poor from March to September then you needed to step up. Even if you are working full time you have weekends, days off and holidays. You could have had them doing a few hours work every day you weren’t working, right through the summer holidays.

I did..and so did a lot of parents. They didn’t just whinge about all the lost learning, they did something about it. My children were working 6 months to a year ahead when this all started, they are now 1.5-2 years ahead. Did that just happen? No! It was dedication to their learning over the holidays and every day I could spare. It was working to get them on board with it as well. Anyone can buy appropriate workbooks for their children, use oak academy etc. If children are behind academically then maybe some parents should have stepped up more.*

Agree with this poster . It isn’t ‘smug’ at all. It just presses a button for the parents who feel guilty they can’t juggle working from home and supervising kids education too. That certainly is difficult. So instead they tell you that it is ‘smug’ of you to say you are coping well and have it sussed. Some people cope better, that’s all. I don’t find that post offensive at all really. It is helpful to know it can be done.

@MintyMabel

My kids were self isolating for 4 weeks with school closures after October half term so they had about 6 weeks teaching

No point in opening if half the kids are going to be isolating for weeks at a time, especially as the other half of the kids are in and getting a proper education.

People bleating about "losing a year of education" just need to re-adjust their thinking. The year groups who are mostly going to be affected are the kids in their exam years, but they have put things in place to make sure they aren't disadvantaged.

By the time the kids lower down the school come to sit exams, the exams will be adjusted to take in to account how much of the curriculum they have learned. They aren't going to be expected to answer an essay question on the Manchurian Crisis if they haven't been taught the Manchurian crisis, and no child's life is going to be affected in the long term because they didn't learn about the Manchurian crisis.

The purpose of education is not to ensure that children leave school armed with the same stuff in their heads having learned a fixed amount of knowledge. Beyond them learning the basic skills which are developed through primary school, the purpose of education is to give them the ability to think critically, the ability to "learn how to learn" and to give the state the ability to sort people by educational attainment so they can be assessed for FE or job suitability. Missing one year of school in the same way as their peers have missed one year of school will not put them at a disadvantage.

The only group of children who will lose out in any way are those who are already on the wrong side of the attainment gap and who will now be even further apart. As far as I am concerned the government should throw huge amounts of money at closing that gap so these kids have the same advantage as the kids of those who are weeping about "one lost year of education"

It would also be lovely if people would spare a thought for the thousands of children who have missed years of education because successive governments have failed them in providing for kids with additional needs, kids who are in hospital long term etc. And will continue to lose out after March 8th when your kid goes back to school. We've been fighting for years to try to get them what they are entitled to. Where were you then? Or does it only matter that your child is missing out?

Great post especially your last paragraph.