Children will be in unventilated rooms with 140+ people

[Regulus]

If they go back as normal on March 8th. I'm not sure if people realise how many other children senior school kids meet on a weekly basis. Very large school, GCSE options and streamed ability groups means that a child is sat in classrooms with 140 different people over a week (I've just been through the teams lists for classes and counted 142 different names in the class groupings) and these children have siblings and parents. And the poor teacher has to sit in these rooms as well.
Sending primary with 30 in a class is very different to sending back secondary.

@Bluntness100

Education is critical and approx two thirds of kids have been in throughout. So it’s not a big leap to send the other third.

2/3 of secondary pupils have definitely not been in. There are very few secondary pupils in school.

The vulnerable have not been vaccinated yet. So many of them are still waiting.

The Government also has a duty of care to implement safety measures to protect it's employees and the wider community.

Most secondary schools have kept the kids in class bubbles especially key stage three so majority of the time they are with the same 25-30 kids in the same room. They're very strict about movement and bubbles. Plus they'll be lateral testing .

DC's school have re-organised so that KS3 are taught within their class groups, and KS4 are taught English, maths and science within class groups. At KS4 that's still a lot of contacts though not as many as 142 in DD's case.

Oh - no actually it's not contacts because only someone who sits within 2m of you is considered a contact. The person who had Covid who sat 2 rows away from you for 3 hours? Considered perfectly fine. That's the thing that I wonder if people realise.

Most secondary schools

You have evidence of this?? Because that really is not the case at all.

I'm confused because the last threads about schools were saying attendance was pretty much as per usual since the world & their dog was a key worker. So it shouldn't make to much difference on 8/3.

Try beer to go back now. I can’t believe anyone would think otherwise..

Jesus... THEY NEED. Not try beer 😂

This can't continue for ever.

Young people have sacrificed enough to protect the medically vulnerable. They are vulnerable too, especially now. They need this.

Why should they be shut away any longer when so many have been vaccinated.

There was no 2m distancing last time.
Kids wouldn't wear masks, or would hang them under their chins so they could talk.
Kids were still sharing pens and grabbing each other.
Kids kept crossing bubbles(each bubble was 300 anyway)
Kids left tissues and masks lying around.
If going back to work meant going back like pre ld, then fine. This is just going to be shit and create more stress all round.

Looks like a lot of students will be coming back with no lateral flow test as they are optional and anyway the schools don't have the capacity or staff to test thousands all at once.

@user85963842

Today is going to be fun on mumsnet. A low boring drone of mass hysteria that children are being given back their right to education.

Yep although better than the reverse

Yours might, mine won’t. He’ll be in a class of 29 as they don’t put them into sets. You can’t generalise one child/ school to all children/ schools.

I thought the general agreement on MN was that we didn't use the word hysteria.

No, the general rule on Mumsnet is that we identify twats by their use of the words "hysteria", "calm down, love" and "dementors".

*Young people have sacrificed enough to protect the medically vulnerable. They are vulnerable too, especially now. They need this.

Why should they be shut away any longer when so many have been vaccinated.*

Yes, we rarely focus on the vulnerabilities and suffering of children and teenagers. They're not represented by Unions as teachers are.

I agree that schools really need to be open again but I’m surprised that it looks like ALL schools will open on 8th March. What happened to the phased, sensible approach? I thought we were ‘cautiously’ coming out of lockdown? If this is the approach with schools what next?

Oh we do realise!

Errr no OP, that isn’t right for many secondary schools kids.
In my area most schools have sectioned kids off into forms only all day- so the same 30 kids all day (non GCSE)
So it’s not all secondary school kids- only GCSE years

The world has to start to return to normal at some point! Now the vaccine program has really started It's time we started to learn to live with the virus, as we do with many other viruses

@Violetlavenders

*Young people have sacrificed enough to protect the medically vulnerable. They are vulnerable too, especially now. They need this.

Why should they be shut away any longer when so many have been vaccinated.*

Yes, we rarely focus on the vulnerabilities and suffering of children and teenagers. They're not represented by Unions as teachers are.

This is true to an extent.

However I do know of a healthy teen who was hospitalised due to Covid. And another who passed it on to her dad, who was hospitalised. And another who passed it on to her mother and extended family. and the grandfather died from the virus.

Where has the cautious approach with this gone?!

And my post should have included ALL schools opening on 8th March to ALL pupils!

I think it should have been a phased return.

Classrooms with open windows and 10 mins between each class with open windows is the same as the autumn.
The one thing I don't think is particularly safe is the big assemblies. I know a year group is one bubble, but this is the only time they are all together in one room at the same time and is totally unnecessary. They could easily sit in their tutor groups and watch it live streamed (or prerecorded even).
I wish DC's school would stop the year group assemblies.

It does roo but we are talking about 10 million people here. Most of whom are in the 'not vaccinated' camp.

10 million people isn't cautious whatever way you cut it.

Meanwhile, university students.... radio silence...

Bring it on. My DD's year have a set amount of classrooms they can use, which are separate from the main school. They barely ever see other years as all are on different timetables. Windows and doors are open, assemblies are live streamed.
She's 16 and would struggle wearing a mask all day- I think it's ridiculous to suggest that.