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

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

Sorry.
Likely to result in disappointment.

[quote Watchingbehindmyhands]@Rosesaresweet

The point is, some of us have cv children who also need to be in school. It is not acceptable to just say ‘well, stay home’. My child deserves the same consideration of his mental health and his right to an education as any non- vulnerable child. You can’t say that mental health matters if what you really mean is only the mental health of physically healthy children matters. Which is exactly what you mean when you say they can stay home. Why can’t measures be put in place to make schools safer for all children?[/quote]
I completely agree. It honestly feels like no one cares about CV children and their families. So often the answer is: "keep them at home if you're worried". So my children don't have any of the same rights to education, socialisation etc that everyone is up in arms about for other children? It's not realistic or fair for my vulnerable dd or her 3 siblings (one of whom is in year 11) to stay at home indefinitely just so that other children can go back to normal with no restrictions in schools whatsoever.

The tone of tonight's briefing wasn't full steam ahead with lifting restrictions at all, was it? It was very much better to go slow and surely than have to backtrack

Agree - it's going to be step by step, possubkymwith pauses to check what effect each raft of relaxations actually has.

I thought they sounded quite worried about the potential for new variants to throw a whacking great spanner in the works

nether
How would that work for a year 11 or 13?

And those are the two groups which really need to be back in asap

Teachers need to know what is happening with them before they go back.

Of course it’s just testing the waters. They’ll be reading public reaction on this and take the lead from there.

BJ is saying the opposite to play safe and be the other end of the barometer.

All the more important to post our opinions here. We know the DfE likes to sift through mumsnet 🥴

@Sweettea1

So do we want schools open or not? Personally I think children getting an education is more important than adults seeing friends indoors. Simple if everything opens at once then we will be locking down again in weeks. so let's get the children some education first or are they not important because well their children so dont matter. Yes sod the schools an the children let's open up the pubs an be done with education.

Couldn’t agree more! Getting the kids back to school is surely the priority, getting an education is so important for their future, much more so than whether we can all get together for group outings!! I miss my family and friends as much as the next person, and this whole Situation sucks.

I don’t know what the answer is. Perhaps staggering the return to schools eg certain year groups going back first?

I want all schools back open for all children.

@FrippEnos

nether How would that work for a year 11 or 13?

And those are the two groups which really need to be back in asap

Teachers need to know what is happening with them before they go back.

I meant the CV pupils, or those with a CV person in immediate household, who other posters are recommending just stay home.

Not the uncertainties about the year group in general.

I mean it's a bit shit to say 'oh your dad has blood cancer, so just stay home and miss any last chance to amass evidence for your GCSEs and A levels'

I don't have an answer, and I suspect it's just a case of living with the fear as happened in the autumn term. I'm just irritated that 'staying home' is trotted out irrespective of the age and stage of the affected pupil

Would much prefer it if it was October.

@WouldBeGood

I want all schools back open for all children.

So do we all. It's just a question of listening to the scientists about how fast to do it.

@PurpleRainDancer

Would much prefer it if it was October.

Oh ffs, why not wait until the turn of the next decade?

People on a parenting forum are obvious going to be pro schools opening. Just as they were last June.

But does this not feel like Groundhog Day? We had this conversation last June. People were itching to get rid of their kids and get to the pub and swore there could never be a second wave and look what happened.

I would rather wait a few more weeks for everyone in their 60s and 50s to be vaccinated than have to every go into lockdown again.

At this stage the people who are being hospitalised are on average in their 30s, 40s and 50s. This is the big number that needs to be taken care of before we can all rush around again.

RoseandRose

“I thought they sounded quite worried about the potential for new variants to throw a whacking great spanner in the works”

Good, at last maybe they’re finally learning from experience. Another 2 months and everyone over 50 and the CV in other age groups will be vaccinated. After everything everyone has given up over the past year, it would be foolish in the extreme to throw it all away on the home straight.

The figure I took from today was the PM stating that 60% of those in hospital with Covid are under 70. People are overlooking this, possibly because they don’t want to hear it, but it’s a vital stat. Open up too soon and the potential is to be right back up at deaths over 1,000 daily until the next 5 groups are jabbed.

Teachers should be vaccinated and schools opened safely, SD, masks on a rota system to start with. Schools are huge vectors for transmission.

Bloody daft ,its to soon.
unless we want to spend the next 3 years plus .we all have to
stick to the rules take it seriously and wait it out just a wee bit longer,
dig deep and WAIT >>>>>>>>>>
REALLY HARD BUT STICK TO THE RULES FFS AND WE WILL BE OUT SOONER

I’m sick to the back teeth of it and I’m very very concerned about my DC mental health. Completely isolated from peers that they were just getting to know. Climbing the walls because both dad and I work.

I can see her MH deteriorating because if all of this. We are social beings and it’s an important age to be forming relationships.

It’s not just my DC it’s most DC. If we didn’t work then it probably wouldn’t be as bad but the loneliness and isolation is causing harm to most people.

They can’t justify this level of control once the vulnerable groups are vaccinated. It’s atrocious!!

And the teachers should be vaccinated as priority!!

Wow nice to hear this

Teachers should not be vaccinated first.

There is no need.

Vaccination is by clinical need. It’s a medical decision.

They’ve eradicated it in New Delhi just through herd immunity. Not a vaccine in sight.

@VinylDetective that’s interesting. I’m fascinated by how other places are dealing with it.

VinylDetective

They’ve eradicated it in New Delhi just through herd immunity. Not a vaccine in sight.”

What’s the average age in New Delhi?

Don’t worry, quick google tells me 29, with the median around 26.8.
Probably explains a lot.

@VinylDetective

They’ve eradicated it in New Delhi just through herd immunity. Not a vaccine in sight.

Lucky them. Doesn’t appear to have worked in Manaus though.

Covid-19: Is Manaus the final nail in the coffin for natural herd immunity?

www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n394

I have read the news from Israel

Israeli hospitals warned to brace for increased COVID infections in children: experts warn the reopening schools will cause a spike in children being infected with Covid.

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israeli-hospitals-warned-to-brace-for-increased-covid-infections-in-children-1.9540612

And the news of children with long covid in Stockholm
www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/stockholm/allt-fler-barn-utreds-for-langtidscovid?fbclid=IwAR3EakTM55VGHCOr8hmSTz3xw8HbplAVOa9QYY64GX8XOKS5gQO-pJYvnKk

We have long covid and our little boy too but milder than us. Has truly ruined out lives. Opening the schools now will absolutely backfire and all we have done now will have been in vain.

Anyone else thinking of moving to another country once this has calmed a bit?