Anti-lockdown campaigners using children to push their agenda

[noblegiraffe]

I can't be the only one disgusted with how certain groups are using faux concern about children to push the earliest dismantling of lockdown restrictions.

They are loudly catastrophising on the front pages of the press about our kids. The lost generation. £40,000 in lost earnings. Articles about schools full of traumatised kids suffering PTSD caused by lockdown.

And the solution they propose is always to re-open schools as early as possible. Even before March 8th. Regardless of covid.

Now, the situation in schools before Christmas was awful. Some areas of the country had less than 50% attendance due to the new variant ripping through secondary schools. Secondary school kids were the most infected subset of the population by far, and are now the second least infected subset of the population behind the 70+ age group after schools were closed, demonstrating that there was a massive problem with transmission in secondary schools. It wasn't good for pupils' mental health or education to be in a situation when they didn't know if they'd be in school or out at the drop of a hat. But before Christmas, there was complete media silence on the impact that this was having on children.

CAMHS has been devastated by cuts. Waiting lists are intolerable and children in dire need of support don't even qualify. Same for social care around vulnerable children.

Yet you won't hear these people clamouring for schools re-opening as soon as possible talking at all about how to improve safety measures in schools to prevent the scenario we had before Christmas happening again. You won't hear them demanding more funding for children's mental health services and for more support for social care services.

And the reason you won't hear that is that THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

The reason that they want schools re-opened as quickly as possible is because the message was that schools had to open first.

They can't get what they really want open (everything else) until schools are open, hence the massive focus on schools and how terrible things are for children.

This catastrophising isn't good for parents or kids. It's scaremongering and unhelpful.

I know that there are kids (and parents) really struggling with their mental health and worried about their education. Blaring out messages about how terrible things are and how they will never recover because you want to hype up the message about schools going back is irresponsible and sickening.

We need sensible and calm conversations about how to support children and parents. We need funding for schools and massive investment in support services. We need a long-term program of recovery, not 9 months of a Catch-Up Tsar and quick fixes. We need a measured and sensible approach to schools re-opening that won't see kids in and out and in and out due to lack of mitigation measures causing rampant covid spread (particularly with the new variant).

We need these anti-lockdown campaigners to shut up and stop dominating the narrative.

@Shehz21 will do!!

Remmy12
I cannot see anywhere what noble is suggesting schools shouid do? Can anyone direct me to what page that is on?

It's in the OP's OP.

@Notonthestairs

French schools have an average class size of 23 which must aid social distancing. As I understand every child over age of 6 wears a mask.

Ah yes those magic masks.

Oh my goodness over the last however many minths Noble has repeatedly stated things that could make schools safer and was repeatedly NOT arguing to close schools (at times when I was) but to put measures in to make them safe. She had who guidance/sage guidance etc. Must have got fed up of repeating.

@echt

Remmy12 I cannot see anywhere what noble is suggesting schools shouid do? Can anyone direct me to what page that is on?

It's in the OP's OP.

It's not. She doesn't specify anything. It's all very vague with no suggestion of what to do next, if anything, no timeline, just money and conversations. Well yeah, I think all of us could suggest that as an answer but it's not really a plan.

Ah yes those magic masks.

They obviously had some effect, France managed to keep schools open.

France had worse restrictions, you had to have a permit to leave your home!

There's loads of threads on nobles plans, rotas, funding and masks feature highly. Obviously she can't draw up a fully budgeted idea fgs.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

Ah yes those magic masks.

They obviously had some effect, France managed to keep schools open.

France had worse restrictions, you had to have a permit to leave your home!

We don't know that lol.

We also test much more than them.

And yes you needed a permit that you filled out yourself and were permitted to do all the things we could do here.

Id take that if it meant now I could go in someone else's house tbh. I'm sure a lot of people would.

It's not. She doesn't specify anything. It's all very vague with no suggestion of what to do next, if anything, no timeline, just money and conversations. Well yeah, I think all of us could suggest that as an answer but it's not really a plan

This is what she wrote:

We need sensible and calm conversations about how to support children and parents. We need funding for schools and massive investment in support services. We need a long-term program of recovery, not 9 months of a Catch-Up Tsar and quick fixes. We need a measured and sensible approach to schools re-opening that won't see kids in and out and in and out due to lack of mitigation measures causing rampant covid spread (particularly with the new variant)

Seems reasonable to me. What can schools do? They have to follow the instructions of government.

Without the money, little will happen - government's job.
They will need to listen to schools , which they have shown no signs of doing so far.

Both sides (teachers unions and the so called nasty pro business lobby) are piggybacking on the crisis to push for changes that they want. Both sides are dressing it up with faux concern about kids. Teachers unions are there to get the best deal for teachers. Business leaders are lobbying for their members.

No one is representing children. Parents and pupils are caught in the middle of this turf war as neither side is putting children first.

Yes thats the other key ingredient missisng entirely from their decisions this last year - listening to schools. Talking to headteachers could have helped so often in this mess

@echt

It's not. She doesn't specify anything. It's all very vague with no suggestion of what to do next, if anything, no timeline, just money and conversations. Well yeah, I think all of us could suggest that as an answer but it's not really a plan

This is what she wrote:

We need sensible and calm conversations about how to support children and parents. We need funding for schools and massive investment in support services. We need a long-term program of recovery, not 9 months of a Catch-Up Tsar and quick fixes. We need a measured and sensible approach to schools re-opening that won't see kids in and out and in and out due to lack of mitigation measures causing rampant covid spread (particularly with the new variant)

Seems reasonable to me. What can schools do? They have to follow the instructions of government.

Without the money, little will happen - government's job.
They will need to listen to schools , which they have shown no signs of doing so far.

Yes I can read. For instance what does it actually say about a return to school? Nothing.

Yes I know schools need more money, I have always agreed with that.

As for listening to schools, they're not a hive mind and they don't all have the same problems and they don't all agree with the best course of action so that would be particularly difficult I think.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

There's loads of threads on nobles plans, rotas, funding and masks feature highly. Obviously she can't draw up a fully budgeted idea fgs.

Genuine question with regards to masks.

ALL the schools in my area had kids in masks when it reopened. I was surprised to see even the younger ones who are exempt from wearing them were actually wearing them. What is the issue with masks then?

The issue is the gov told schools not to wear masks in the classroom.

[quote Boredsobored]@mrshamlet I'm sure some schools were like that but the minority. Closing down every school in the country (for most kids) is one way to deal with it - or maybe they could have looked at how well that school was managing covid. There's only so much you can do with teenagers, or even in a particular area where many parents work for a small number of employers - but some schools have had better practices than others.[/quote]
@Boredsobored This has made me feel awful. My school started isolating years from the 3rd week in Sept. we closed fully on two occasions. We implemented zones. I was moving to class after class to teach. As teachers we had one 20 minute break a day as we were now required to do a morning, break, lunch and after school duty - all unpaid. All work for marking had to be on Teams. We had masks in corridors as per dfe guidance. I had my magic 2m box at the front of the class. We opened windows (in the classrooms that have windows).

What more could we have done? We worked our fucking arses off all last term - we were exhausted. Students were sick, staff were sick but apparently it’s because we didn’t have as good practices as your children’s school???

@TryingNotToPanicOverCovid

The issue is the gov told schools not to wear masks in the classroom.

Presumably they have their reasons for that.

Do you really believe masks are the magic solution?

We also test much more than them

This is a problem why?

Whatever measures France took, and continue to take, have helped covid not spread as much over there. The wearing of masks in classrooms appears to have helped. I don't know about their health care capacity, that may be another factor.

Talking to schools is vital, even if they disagree. If you only talk to a few (as the government did pre Sept return) you do get a very skewed view. The government had a hard job to satisfy all schools and all settings, hence the wooly guidance. However funding, rotas and expectations re masks could have all been included and benefited everyone.

Yes I can read

For instance what does it actually say about a return to school? Nothing

It doesn't have to. The context is the funding and the listening to schools.

TrustTheGeneGenie
Because the common thread running through a lot of the ridiculous threads have been evidently privileged parents deciding the whole education system should be designed around their privilege, but rather than acknowledge this, they pretended to care about disadvantaged students.

The people who have the money available to have enough devices for several children 9-3, and parents to work from home all day are likely to overlap with the people who can afford a nanny.

Meanwhile the vast majority of teachers and parents want a solution that accounts for very different family circumstances, and want schools to be open with appropriate measures in place.

Do you really believe masks are the magic solution?

I think they are part of a solution.

@EmmanuelleMakro

All my teacher friends are looking forward to schools reopening. Given that the most vulnerable are now vaccinated and hospitals will have spare capacity, I feel that schools need to open ASAP! Same here - in RL teacher colleagues do not spout the nonsense the OP and her pals constantly bleat.

Noblegiraffe wants schools open as soon as possible too.

Safely.

But teachers and students were still wearing them? And like a teacher mentioned upthread she didn't care about what the govt said, she wore her mask, visor, gloves and drew a line infront of her desk which would allow social distancing from the students. She was allowed to do so and shall continue doing so. Would adopting that approach not helping mitigate the risks?

Help*