Sunday Times just reported that all schools in England will be back on 8 March

[LimitIsUp]

This quote from the article:
"All schoolchildren will return to the classroom on March 8 under plans to start lifting the lockdown, Boris Johnson will announce in a national address next week.

Under the government’s blueprint to reopen society, adults will initially have only small new freedoms so as to prioritise the return of schools — a move ministers know will raise the coronavirus R number for infections.

Adults will be allowed to sit down outdoors for a coffee or on a park bench with one friend, or with members of their own family — a slight relaxation of the current rule, which permits outdoor meetings only while standing up.

The decision to reopen both primary and secondary schools goes against the advice of some government scientists. But the prime minister was swayed by faster than expected reductions in hospital admissions and infections."

I can link to the article but for those of you without a subscription, there is a pay wall

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/back-to-school-on-march-8-as-johnson-starts-lifting-lockdown-0v5zbz5bt

===========

• Title edited by MNHQ (it said October, we've changed it to March as reported) *

@Chollok

They don't mix freely at school they are all in class bubbles and not allowed to mix at all!!

This is nonsense. At my son's school they are in year group "bubbles" which in his case is 90 other children. And if they go to after school club they are not kept within bubbles- they mix freely.

That's not even counting the fact that many have siblings in other year groups etc.

Thats YOUR kid's school. You can't tell us that you know that is happening in every single school across England because you just blooming well don't.

My kids' school - bubbles of 30, very tightly limited to 30 - staggered start/end times, staggered and zoned playtimes so they don't get to mix at all. Separate toilet areas for each class and separate outside doors from each classroom (they've got very lucky with the layout to be fair). After school club folded due to lack of numbers anyway because people are working from home - so no mixing there, breakfast club didn't reopen.

One bubble went during the entire time the school was open. I know of one other child in the school who got covid and the train of transmission there had gone - parent who was frontline NHS - so child was kept off school as a contact - then the child and family developed it during their isolation time so school was unaffected totally (and they were my kid's best friend so if they were needing to contact trace we would have been high on the list - I know about it because the mum was telling me directly).

The only people NOT socially distancing in the school were the flipping staff howling with laughter with colleagues at the classroom doors on a morning - then going onto Twitter to shriek that the schools need to be closed because they are NOT SAFE!!! (On the fucking school's twitter account politicking away as well)

Ombivaccine has group 6 by end of march. Group 9 april-may.

@unmarkedbythat because they won’t have been vaccinated by 8th March

@minipie

Please can the people who are scared this will cause another wave remember that millions of the most vulnerable have now been vaccinated. So it’s not going to be the same as the last time restrictions were lifted.

Exactly. And I am sure it would not be beyond the wit of headteachers to get in touch with local vaccination centres and get their under 50 and non-vulnerable school staff on the lists for any left-over vaccines. in fact I am sure school staff could get themselves down to vaccination centres at the end of the day to see if there are any doses left. Get it done this week and you've a good two weeks for the vaccine to take effect.

But no doubt someone will say that can't possibly be done.

I have a teen dd but I don’t that schools should be rushing to fully reopen if it means other restrictions are in place for longer.

Children are important but I think many adults have suffered a lot more than children.

@poppycat10 tried that already. We are not in the list so spare vaccines not available unfortunately. Shame but nothing I can do to get vaccine earlier.

And what about all the parents @poppycat10? It’s the children (who aren’t being vaccinated) who will be the main vectors

Will all the people of parenting age have been vaccinated? Will the teachers? So which age group is it going to rip through as soon as schools are opened without any difference to before? How many are going to be left with lasting virus damage?

I don't want them to remain shut forever, of course I don't, but it's madness to think you can throw the doors open without an effect.

They have decided a certain level of deaths is acceptable, that's all. Not to the children who lose their family members though, is it?

@unmarkedbythat

If 1-4 have mostly been vaccinated and 5-6 are getting called now, I don't see why school reopening would be the disaster some predict?

I think most of the concerns surround mutations getting out of control (that escape the vaccine), long covid (kids and adults) and that hospitalisation do happen in all age groups.

@poppycat10 We've tried that and been told no. They have a list and teachers aren't allowed unless in priority groups. There's also not hundreds of thousands spare vaccines lying around.

@RMRM

Will all the people of parenting age have been vaccinated? Will the teachers? So which age group is it going to rip through as soon as schools are opened without any difference to before? How many are going to be left with lasting virus damage?

I don't want them to remain shut forever, of course I don't, but it's madness to think you can throw the doors open without an effect.

They have decided a certain level of deaths is acceptable, that's all. Not to the children who lose their family members though, is it?

Exactly! And that’s without the long void concerns for kids and adults and mutations that escape the vaccine.

What is so hard for people to understand. Can anyone lend me a bucket and some sand?

CoffeeWithCheese
Thats YOUR kid's school. You can't tell us that you know that is happening in every single school across England because you just blooming well don't.

And yet those saying that they want schools open are allowed to do exactly that.
Bit of a double standard.

@TryingNotToPanicOverCovid

Ombivaccine has group 6 by end of march. Group 9 april-may.

I’m in group 6. I’m getting mine on Thursday.

@Notcontent

I have a teen dd but I don’t that schools should be rushing to fully reopen if it means other restrictions are in place for longer.

Children are important but I think many adults have suffered a lot more than children.

In what way? Do you mean you feel it’s harder not to see people than your dc?

I have lasting damage from flu 6 years ago. I have a family member who had post viral effects from glandular fever for years on and off, impacting their teen years. It happens, and it's not nice. But, honestly, if I tell people that flu fucked my lungs they aren't that interested. It sucks but life is full of risk and these things happen.
I was pro lockdown, was pro part time high school, followed the rules, mostly. But this Spring it's time to start moving forward.

I have a year 13 DC but I see no point in rushing back to school as the damage has already been done. IMO cases are still very high and sending children back to school would just make them spike again which would just delay the time until workplaces can open properly again.

After Easter would be my earliest and then only for exam years.

@Bing12
Mutations will of course always be a concern but they will be so even when all adults have been vaccinated, surely?

And of course some people outside the riskier groups get hospitalised. There are always outliers. But the numbers are much, much lower than for the high risk groups and it wouldn't be the same level of pressure on the nhs.

I'm kind of suprised there isn't a difference with the secondary school and primary re-opening given rates in secondaries were higher and the parents would be older as well

Would it not be more cautious for some to go part time until the over 50s were all offered the vaccine?

In terms of working parents older children part time would be more feasible as well...

Are you not in the U.K.? Schools have not been shut for that long!
Or maybe you are referring to periods of isolation?

In the UK. Schools closed (for non-critical workers) in March 2019.
SOME year groups reopened at the beginning of the summer, the others were still out of school.
Many kids didn't even say good-bye to their teacher as they never saw them again after March.

The schools reopened for all in September until Christmas, closed (for non essential workers) since

So yes, schools HAVE been shut for that long.

@IfNot

I have lasting damage from flu 6 years ago. I have a family member who had post viral effects from glandular fever for years on and off, impacting their teen years. It happens, and it's not nice. But, honestly, if I tell people that flu fucked my lungs they aren't that interested. It sucks but life is full of risk and these things happen. I was pro lockdown, was pro part time high school, followed the rules, mostly. But this Spring it's time to start moving forward.

That’s awful. And long covid has a higher incidence rate too. Already plans for lots of long covid clinics. We need to be patient.

BBC is reporting a bit differently to the media headlines..

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56058744

@VinylDetective but that is not in every area, and the group sizes are larger too aren’t they, so will take longer. I am in group 9, even if I am vaccinated in the next couple of weeks it won’t take effect by 8th March

I think people have forgotten the reasons for restrictions on this scale. Not to prevent all deaths, not to prevent all illness, but to prevent collapse.

@SteveBrexit

*Are you not in the U.K.? Schools have not been shut for that long! Or maybe you are referring to periods of isolation?*

In the UK. Schools closed (for non-critical workers) in March 2019.
SOME year groups reopened at the beginning of the summer, the others were still out of school.
Many kids didn't even say good-bye to their teacher as they never saw them again after March.

The schools reopened for all in September until Christmas, closed (for non essential workers) since

So yes, schools HAVE been shut for that long.

2019-stop it!!

Isn’t there a risk of more serious mutations if left to run through the unvaccinated population