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.

Well I for one want to go back to work (in a school) and my children want to go back to school so it can't come soon enough for us.

I really hope they do this for England. By then rates should be much lower and we have much less chance of things rebounding again.

@2X4B523P

Also hoping England take the cautious approach and hold off till after the Easter holiday. Variants aside we are making good progress and would be a shame to spoil that.

Absolutely agree. The last we want is to be locked down again at the start of summer; what a disaster that would be for all🙄

Just looked at the relatively low rates in NI - utterly disgusting decision. My heart goes out to you.

They said 8th March earliest return in England so they need to stick to it!

Hoping for the 8th March here in England if not then definitely straight back to full time after the Easter holidays!

I heard that today!!! Blimey that would be a massive arrrggghhhh here in England,

That would be awful I'd be bloody fed up too... really hope it's not the shape of things to come 🙀🙀

If all the children go back to school in the was it was in December, we will be back in the same mess again within weeks.

Something needs to change to make this work 🤦‍♀️

@Themanofmydreams

They said 8th March earliest return in England so they need to stick to it!

earliest possible return. Yes. So it could be any time after that.

Sounds like NI are being very sensible and I hope we follow suit here. No point in fucking this up at this stage (and I say that as someone who is almost at breaking point with work and homeschool).

I don't know a single person in NI who has had it, our school has had no cases. It's like being in the Truman Show.

Really feel for you op

Hope they don’t do the same here

@PatriciaValiant

If all the children go back to school in the was it was in December, we will be back in the same mess again within weeks.

Something needs to change to make this work 🤦‍♀️

Surely the thing that is changing is mass vaccination? The risk is reducing daily, isn't it?

Primary children must go back 8th March. I get that secondary is tricker, and think after Easter might be more sensible for them (plus they can get on with their own homeschooling at that age) maybe years 11 and 13 back on 8th too.

Working full time and facilitating 3 hours of year 1 and year 3 work each day is destroying me. I wish parents could actually strike against it.

Awful. Surely most elderly and vulnerable will have had 1st jab by 8 March? If they do this in England I'll be protesting in downing st what a joke

@WeAreFromThePlanetDuplo

I don't know a single person in NI who has had it, our school has had no cases. It's like being in the Truman Show.

I know quite a few who have had it. I’m in east down.

@Themanofmydreams

They said 8th March earliest return in England so they need to stick to it!

They said nobody will go back before the 8th, and yes, they will stick to that.

That doesn’t mean everyone, or even anyone will definitely return on the 8th, though.

@MarshaBradyo

Really feel for you op

Hope they don’t do the same here

Thanks. I've suddenly gone over the edge about the whole thing. DD is an only child and it's just so miserable, watching her world get smaller and smaller.

Why are the earliest responses in favour of this measure which is damaging children daily? Do they not have children or care about the young in society at all?

I'm in NI and work in a Special School, we never closed and 5 or 6 members of staff have had it since Christmas.

@ssd

They need to repeat a year. So awful for everyone.

Mine don’t!

That's awful, poor kids.

I understand why there some kind of circuit breaker in England after half term and people mixing, but I still don't agree with it. March is too late already!

Aren't primary in NI starting back in March though?

But some primary school children will return to classes on 8 March under the plans and there will be another review of measures on 18 March

From the BBC:

Students doing qualifications like GCSEs, AS, A-levels (in Years 12 to 14) and other vocational qualifications will return to face-to-face teaching from 22 March.

To ensure that two large cohorts are not back before Easter, the executive said pre-school nursery years children will have remote learning during the week of 22 March, before the Easter break.

Mrs Foster said the intention was to get all pupils back to school as soon as is achievable, after Easter, with the option of a separate phased return for primary 4 to primary 7 pupils and the remaining non-qualification years of post-primary.

P1 - 3 are going back on 8 March.

I really hope they don’t do the same in England, My children need to go back.

@canary1

Why are the earliest responses in favour of this measure which is damaging children daily? Do they not have children or care about the young in society at all?

I found the thread surprising mostly other threads have been keen to go back

I agree with pp repeating year is last thing needed here

Aren't primary in NI starting back in March though?

Preschool -P3 will return on the 8th of March and finish in the 22nd of March to go back to remote learning.

Years 12,13 and 14 will return to school on the 22nd of March.