No school for us til 9th April at the earliest. Royally fucked off now.

[WeAreFromThePlanetDuplo]

Announcement just made for NI that most kids won't be going back to school until after the Easter holidays, and there's no guarantee of that. So fed up.

@DalryPlace

8th of March has always been 'at the earliest' with a two week warning as notice. Never 'schools will be open from the 8th'. Those saying 'they had better be open on the 8th', this has never been promised.

Yes and they've been leaking like a holey bucket ever since.

To be fair, there has been a LOT of press speculation, but little that has been identifiable as leaks.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers I agree ... read the post I am done it is heartbreaking lockdown has to end his

I really hope this is not the case in
England.

now

cantkeepawayforever yep I suggesting we reopen schools first and leave everything else as is. Children have sucked it up for long enough and deserve an education first.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

It's been explained many times. If we didn't have so many covid cases in hospitals then we would have normal services ! We cannot have normal services while those staff members have been redeployed to ICU and covid wards to treat covid patients ! Hospitals are over capacity, hospitals have increased capacity. They are using theatres as temporary ICU beds because they have the equipment to ventilate patients, while you have a covid patient on ventiliation in a theatre you then cannot use that theatre to operate.

When we drive down community transmission and there are not over 1000 covid patients being admitted to hospital every single day we can get all those staff back to their usual job roles.

My friend works in cancer diagnostics but is currently redeployed to ICU which has more than doubled the amount of beds which therefore requires a lot more staff, therefore while shes in the ICU she can't be doing her usual role.
Of course the patients that come through the door struggling to breathe will be prioritised above all else in a situation where they can't handle it all.

I think as adults we can also facilitate a social connection via phone or zoom etc, for children their spontaneous social connections at school have gone and they are wholly reliant on adults to facilitate it for them.

‘I think it feels like we should be teachers. Because there’s no instant help available like there would be in a classroom. And we don’t know the answers. Which upsets the child as they can’t do the work that Is set.’

THIS ^ posted by Lemons1571

Those who say it’s not hard and just let them stay at home until after Easter are the selfish ignorant ones who have no clue what our children are facing struggling. THEY ARE LONELY, WORRIED AND STRESSED OVER THEIR EDUCATION and they have suffered enough left alone all the parents. Many children don’t even have the means to help them work - a proper workspace, adequate computer for example.

Everyone has different experiences/needs that they think should be prioritised.

How do you deal with this??? You go with what suits and is best for the majority is what you do!!!!!!

@MrPickles73

cantkeepawayforever yep I suggesting we reopen schools first and leave everything else as is. Children have sucked it up for long enough and deserve an education first.

Likely to be this anyway - schools first then gradual

@MrPickles73

cantkeepawayforever yep I suggesting we reopen schools first and leave everything else as is. Children have sucked it up for long enough and deserve an education first.

Absolutely, But they deserve a consistent education - not one where there is a grand opening and then a much less well publicised gradual shutdown for continued self-isolations.

As a teacher, with a child and a DH in education, I lived all of the Autumn term with my mobile on my desk, waiting for the 'self isolation triggered' message, balancing in-school education with home education for all the children isolating due to cases in their families or through other contacts. I want children back in school consistently and with the major risks mitigated, not the Covid hokey-cokey.

And some kids hate zoom and online socialising, my DS refuses to do it.

gallbladderpain our local hospital is now no more busy than as usual for this time of year. A consultant who works there told me and said he can't see the govt can spin out the lockdown for much longer. But if there's any concern is like to see schools open first and everything else can come later.

I'm sure I'm not alone but mine are not coming along in leaps and bounds in the slightest. We're still living with worksheets, no live learning, and they are now refusing to engage at all. I can't blame them. The school are no support, they seem to assume parents are all able to support learning all day long whilst working full-time. They desperately need to go back to school for all sorts of reasons. They are not only not engaging with school work, but not interested in engaging with anything just now.

We are also looking at a mid-April start and I really don't know how we are going to cope until then. We are living in a world of tears and tantrums, and only some of those are mine.

Everyone seems to be bezzy mates with an ICU doctor/nurse recently 😂

Could have written your post myself!

@MrPickles73

gallbladderpain our local hospital is now no more busy than as usual for this time of year. A consultant who works there told me and said he can't see the govt can spin out the lockdown for much longer. But if there's any concern is like to see schools open first and everything else can come later.

This is the case in some areas because not all areas are affected the same, therefore in those areas should we open schools ? Yes we probably should but in a way that isn't going to then put those hospitals under pressure. The tier system wasn't a popular one either though and i'm sure now it wouldn't be seen in any better light if children's education was based on the postcode they were living in.

I agree schools should be the first to open, absolutely nothing else at this stage should come above the schools opening and I would imagine that they will get priority this time around and there will be some form of opening of them from 8th March.

I'll be gutted if mine don't have some school time before Easter. And I won't pretend not to be as we are having such a lark with our cool free imaginations at home

Everyone seems to be bezzy mates with an ICU doctor/nurse recently

I noticed that too 🤔

It's hard justify keeping schools closed for much longer. Now that the majority of the old and vulnerable have been vaccinated it's time to get on with life. We can't expect our children to go on like this.....

If restrictions stay in place for much longer people won't adhere to them, especially after they have had the vaccine. I have a sense that once the pubs open again they will be filled with the elderly whilst the rest of us hold back and wait for our vaccines!

@Fembot123

Everyone seems to be bezzy mates with an ICU doctor/nurse recently 😂

I don't know any ICU doctor/nurses only one nurse who has been redeployed to ICU and given many have been redeployed I would imagine lots of people will know someone. I have a family member who is a paediatric nurse and has not been redeployed to ICU.

This has been put out by the DfE today.

teaching.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/09/schools-have-risen-to-the-challenge-and-so-have-parents/

I wonder how many agree.

Loads of children of doctors at my DC’s school. Many of them didn’t take up their key worker places as they were concerned about the high case rates and the pressure on the local hospitals. Over the last couple of weeks before half term, they all started to send their children back as case rates have dramatically dropped in our area and the number of people in hospital have significantly decreased - by about 60%. I am following their lead and will do the same for my youngest son after half term.

Lockdowns do lose effectiveness so they say - we've been in full since 20th December. I can't see it being as strict much longer.