Schools in England should go back at Easter

[GinAndTonicOnIt]

I'm terrified that full return will result in increased transmissions. This will increase the chance of more mutations. Which increases the chance of a mutant that is resistant to the current vaccines.

Or just back with full wards, and yet another lockdown.

I loathe lockdown. I would give anything to wake up tomorrow and life be back to normal. But it's for this reason I think we should wait that extra bit longer. Get those rates right down and vaccines out, then have a return to school that won't result in another lockdown.....!

AIBU for thinking this? Am I wrong?

Sorry, that should be if a full return isn't announced!

spencer

I don't think people are saying that no teaching is going on. It's the difference in learning for children compared to being in school.

Sorry for being tetchy. There have been people on the thread saying kids have only had ONE term of teaching.
Just feels like a real kick in the teeth when you are doing your best to give your pupils a decent education (admittedly online not in person).

The choice is go back to school in March with the risk of covid or go back in April with the risk of covid with lower community infection rates and millions more people vaccinated.

Delaying won't make the problem go away but it would significantly reduce it.

@Thisisconfusing

Sorry *@FrankieTross* you agree with me !

That should have been to @MargosKaftan

😅

@WhenSheWasBad
No need to apologise - you must be shattered!

Also @MargosKaftan

Cases in the community are very low you say?? Really . Perhaps it would be better to say they are an awful lot lower than the scarily high numbers of a couple of months ago . But there is still a fair amount of virus circulating and plenty more unvaccinated people to rip through .

There are still way more people in hospital than at the Peak in April . Yes we have the vaccine which is utterly brilliant but your comments are not based on any scientific fact. We are thankfully heading in the right direction - but for the sake of a few weeks for some ( and I do stress a phased return might be ok) why send everyone back . I can’t stand all these threads that say “enough” . We have all had enough whether it’s from homeschooling , having SEN kids, having a vulnerability or just being exhausted because you have spent the past year being scared working in a supermarket or getting PTSD from working in intensive care, or missing out on vital cancer treatment or being worried about our kids MH or education . So don’t blow it now Boris.

let's reopen schools 2 weeks after March 8th and send them all through the Easter holidays. Bring the holidays forward.

No, thank you. I want my kids to have their holidays-it’s important for them to switch off at regular interviews from learning and have down time. At Easter, after half a term of learning, they will need a break.

Just feels like a real kick in the teeth when you are doing your best to give your pupils a decent education (admittedly online not in person).

Agreed. My students (secondary) had better teaching last term than before Christmas, when we were trying to teach some in school and some isolating at home using methods/technology that were optimised for neither group.

There’s a huge difference between schools and age groups, something the “Big Bang” approach completely misses.

@MargosKaftan

Covid won't be gone at Easter. It won't.

The choice is go back to school in March with the risk of covid or go back in April with the risk of covid.

There is no "covid free" option, unless we strictly lockdown (the UK hasn't done this at any point), for months and give up on teaching this year and part of next year.

So given the numbers are very low in the community and by 8th March all the most vulnerable will have been vaccinated and the very top groups will have had the 3 weeks needed for protection to work - we might as well get on with it.

Delaying won't make the problem go away.

This exactly. We seem to have lost all perspective of risk and can't just keep moving the goalposts. The whole point of kids sacrifices was to protect the NHS and the most vulnerable to the virus. The most vulnerable have now been vaccinated or will be imminently, pressure on the NHS is falling. Kids have sacrificed enough, it's time to make education a priority.

[quote SpencerGregson]@WhenSheWasBad
No need to apologise - you must be shattered! [/quote]
Thanks spencer I have to admit half term couldn’t have come soon enough.

I’ve got some energy back now - I’ll need it to listen to Johnson’s announcement tomorrow.

At the beginning of September when schools went back after the summer, there were around a few thousand cases per day. This rose rapidly by the end of September. This time we're going back with 12,000 cases. 12,000 per day! This is a very high number so you can't say the number of cases in the community are low. The difference is that the severity of covid and the number of deaths should be lower due to the vaccine.

However what the risk is, is that mutations will occur which they will as cases are still high.

We seem to have lost all perspective of risk and can't just keep moving the goalposts

Why do people keep saying the goalposts are moving? The objective had always been “protect the NHS / stop the NHS being overwhelmed”
That’s still the objective. Yes lots of people have received their first vaccine but not enough to stop another peak of Covid. If we get another peak of Covid lots of those patients will end up in hospital beds (although probably far fewer deaths thankfully).

Give it a few more weeks, lower Covid numbers - more vaccinated people. We are less likely to have a surge.

@WhenSheWasBad

. I know how you feel re the announcement. I usually give up alcohol for Lent. This year, I have given up until tomorrow and am reserving the right not to continue subject to the announcement.

Let's hope the next half term goes better for all, however it pans out.

@MargosKaftan

Covid won't be gone at Easter. It won't.

The choice is go back to school in March with the risk of covid or go back in April with the risk of covid.

There is no "covid free" option, unless we strictly lockdown (the UK hasn't done this at any point), for months and give up on teaching this year and part of next year.

So given the numbers are very low in the community and by 8th March all the most vulnerable will have been vaccinated and the very top groups will have had the 3 weeks needed for protection to work - we might as well get on with it.

Delaying won't make the problem go away.

No-one is saying that covid will be gone by Easter. But, after Easter the over 50's should have had their first vaccine. There's a lot of teachers and parents of school children in the 50+ age group.

Opening schools up fully now is no different to last Autumn, except that hospitals are fuller, and we have the more contagious Kent variant. So a pretty stupid idea.

It doesn't really matter how many over 70's are vaccinated as they're extremely unlikely to be either teachers or parents of school aged children.

@WhenSheWasBad "Just feels like a real kick in the teeth when you are doing your best to give your pupils a decent education (admittedly online not in person)."

I'm genuinely sorry for this, because I don't think it's our teachers fault but yes I'd say the only decent education our children have had this past 12 months was Sept-dec. I'm sure the teachers have tried but as our primary school has a no live teaching policy, there are some families too busy working to be the go between between school and the kids (we're both keyworkers) and also some kids really not interested in the work being set. My eldest is quite bright and generally in class is on the stretch work so feels like it's mostly revision and we don't know. Without a teacher to explain what might be new or even to look at his face we're at a loss. It's not the teachers fault, his fault or our fault. Really I think it lies with the SLT team who have been asked by a significant number of families to at least try SOME interactive learning, doesn't have to be a few times a day - maybe even once a week would be more. Because a one size fits all approach of uploading videos and worksheets can't suit all kids can it? And I think there are an awful lot of parents out there feeling pressure to make it look like the kids are learning and feeding them the answers just to have something to send in.

I just don't understand how schools can be off for months at a time without teachers speaking to about how they're doing with the learning. Or even the parents. Quite a few of us have struggled and the teachers just say 'oh, I'll call back' and never do. Or we've appealed for keyworkers places where it isn't working and been declined. I feel really, really sorry for the teachers at our school.

I just don't understand how schools can be off for months at a time without teachers speaking to about how they're doing with the learning. Or even the parents. Quite a few of us have struggled and the teachers just say 'oh, I'll call back' and never do
See... that simply isn't good enough. Wouldn't be in normal times and isn't now.

So given the numbers are very low in the community

The average UK rate per hundred thousand was over 100 in the last week, in England it was over 130. That’s not low.
(Back in September you had to isolate for two weeks if returning from a country where the rate was greater than 20 per 100000.)

@MrsHamlet I know. It's been such a lottery with the schools and very disappointed. I think they're really good under normal circumstances but starting to wonder. The Times disagrees, just shows you how bs those lists are.

I wonder if the more businesslike schools have struggled with home learning, it requires sensitivity and creativity of the SLT as well as having to wrangle with 300 sets of parents who might not be as pliable or available as their potentially bullied teachers (we have day jobs for a start). Schools that are already invested in wellbeing and taking care of their school community and see parents as not only human beings but helpful people is definitely a useful skill in this situation.

What I learn from these threads though is that our school isn't the norm, so that's a good thing.

I agree. I want my 2x ds's back at school ASAP. I feel that in the last month, they are really fed up. I am too.

But I don't want them going back too soon. I fear it will just cause longer covid restrictions.

gerber sorry your schools provision has been rubbish. It’s really not ok.

Here’s what’s going to happen;

Schools open up.
Cases rise.
We are under strict lockdown rules over Easter to try to bring them down a bit.
Back to school after Easter - cases rise - government crosses fingers that warmer weather helps.
We plough on until summer holidays and are in a shittier place than last year.

Oh and Sept to Dec was shit as far as education was concerned. It will continue to be shit for the year.

My opinion? Make the most of schools going back between these awful lockdowns. See your friends and family. Adults are humans as well as kids...we ALL need socialising; we ALL need to be out and about and not stuck inside a building.
The rest of the year is fucked either way.

[quote Gerberageri]@WhenSheWasBad "Just feels like a real kick in the teeth when you are doing your best to give your pupils a decent education (admittedly online not in person)."

I'm genuinely sorry for this, because I don't think it's our teachers fault but yes I'd say the only decent education our children have had this past 12 months was Sept-dec. I'm sure the teachers have tried but as our primary school has a no live teaching policy, there are some families too busy working to be the go between between school and the kids (we're both keyworkers) and also some kids really not interested in the work being set. My eldest is quite bright and generally in class is on the stretch work so feels like it's mostly revision and we don't know. Without a teacher to explain what might be new or even to look at his face we're at a loss. It's not the teachers fault, his fault or our fault. Really I think it lies with the SLT team who have been asked by a significant number of families to at least try SOME interactive learning, doesn't have to be a few times a day - maybe even once a week would be more. Because a one size fits all approach of uploading videos and worksheets can't suit all kids can it? And I think there are an awful lot of parents out there feeling pressure to make it look like the kids are learning and feeding them the answers just to have something to send in.

I just don't understand how schools can be off for months at a time without teachers speaking to about how they're doing with the learning. Or even the parents. Quite a few of us have struggled and the teachers just say 'oh, I'll call back' and never do. Or we've appealed for keyworkers places where it isn't working and been declined. I feel really, really sorry for the teachers at our school.[/quote]
We've had a very similar experience so you're not alone.

I feel like every time I post about this I have to caveat with 'I know many schools are doing better', but there are so many that seem to ignore the fact that there are still many schools who are not doing their bit at all. Nobody will talk about this. But yes, for those of us who have been utterly failed by (previously very good) schools, our frame of reference for the urgency and need to get kids back into classrooms (and thre level of acceptable risk to school and wider community) is different.

It sounds like teachers and TAs will be doing the first lot of covid tests on returning pupils.

I can't believe these particular staff won't be vaccinated. They will be up close to some covid cases. It's insane.

but there are so many that seem to ignore the fact that there are still many schools who are not doing their bit at all. Nobody will talk about this.

I totally agree. Coming from the same position.

but there are so many that seem to ignore the fact that there are still many schools who are not doing their bit at all. Nobody will talk about this

I’m really hoping those schools are in the minority. I’m assuming you’ve contacted the school and Ofsted? Sorry you are being let down.
Also sorry I got tetchy at the suggestion teachers weren’t educating kids over lockdown. Lots are really trying their best.