Likelihood of schools closing again before summer...

[confuseddotcomma]

I know noone knows what will happen. But I feel this is increasingly more likely every day... Fingers crossed we can hold out until the summer holidays!

U4T don't speak up for children, they speak up for themselves and pretend it's about kids.

Extremely unlikely.

@CallmeHendricks yes of course I helped my daughter, but I was getting hone after 2000 (nhs). DH also working long hours (dr but not clinical role). We muddled along but it was very difficult, same for a lot of people of course.

Maybe one who gives a crap about children? Teacher's unions represent teachers. Someone has to speak up for children.

Parents could vote for parties that will invest in education and would have at least stumped up for the increased cleaning costs that schools have faced. Instead they vote for the party who thinks that £50 per pupil over 2 years will cover education loss due to the pandemic. The US and Netherlands are forking out £1600 and £2500.

@TotorosCatBus yep and yet people still vote for them. Although labour have a lot of responsibility due to the Corbin disaster.

[quote PomRuns]@TotorosCatBus yep and yet people still vote for them. Although labour have a lot of responsibility due to the Corbin disaster.[/quote]
Yeah, that terrible Corbyn who had a fully costed manifesto which would have greatly helped the very poorest in society. Johnson in comparison is well worth voting for.

A lot of long standing labour voters could not identify with Corbyn.

[quote PomRuns]@TotorosCatBus yep and yet people still vote for them. Although labour have a lot of responsibility due to the Corbin disaster.[/quote]
I know he was unelectable but Corbyn's broadband pledge would have made online learning easier for the poorest kids. Not so crazy a policy in retrospect.

Agree @TotorosCatBus

I know he was unelectable but Corbyn's broadband pledge would have made online learning easier for the poorest kids. Not so crazy a policy in retrospect.

For some of them yes. The laying of fibre optic cable underground and connections would have barely even started by the beginning of the pandemic though.

Sorry, I should clarify after that comment that the previous 10 years of austerity from the coalition and the conservatives meant that children and families were in the worst possible position for the start of the pandemic to begin with and that included the digital divide in this country.

Schools won’t close again. Bubbles maybe but there won’t ever be national closures again. There’d be so much backlash if they tried it again. No-one would support it.

@ChloeDecker

I know he was unelectable but Corbyn's broadband pledge would have made online learning easier for the poorest kids. Not so crazy a policy in retrospect.

For some of them yes. The laying of fibre optic cable underground and connections would have barely even started by the beginning of the pandemic though.

Many schools didn't do online learning in 2020 because of instructions from DFE but most did in 2021. More children being able to access online learning because of infrastructure like broadband is something that would level up areas of the country that need it.

In Winter 2019 I thought the Corbyn idea was weird and that broadband installation should be a commercial decision by organizations like Open Reach but Iack of broadband has not been an issue for me. During Lockdown 1.0 my area got super fast broadband so I upgraded our connection which is admittedly a privilege that I take for granted.

To answer the OP's question there won't be closures as the hospitals are coping and that's the only metric that Johnson cares about.

OP you obviously have some issues with your child's school. Instead of coming on here and winding all the teachers up, deal with your child's school. If they dont listen go to the local authority. You must get answers as to why your child came home crying every day, that is the most important thing.

The OP's comments are very goady. Early Years and nurseries were open as usual last lockdown and they have to take care of children at close range.

While schools may be safer than hospitals, they are poorly ventilated and over crowded places where you can't social distance.

The first is considered Covid safe as everyone is walking in the same direction.

The second has a staff member facing the opposite way but it's the reality in schools. (You can see the masks so it's a pandemic photo)

Many schools have windows that don't open and there's been no government money to pay for cleaning and ventilation improvements.

Forgot to attach the second pic

I remember those photos from before Christmas.
The usual U4T types swarmed on to say that it wasn't like that in their child's school.
We never quite ascertained how they would know that, what with schools being closed to parents and all.

@PomRuns

A lot of long standing labour voters could not identify with Corbyn.

And yet the membership grew massively under Corbyn’s leadership and has now dropped through the floor. But that’s history now, we still don’t have an electable leader for the Labour Party and we have a much smaller membership and we’ll have Johnson and his corrupt government for a whole lot longer, sadly.

@GiveMeNovocain I have 4 children at school not one has complained about wearing masks. In fact 2 walk 25 minutes to my school to get a lift home. One often still has his mask on

I think they should bring back masks for high school. It just seems a weird choice to remove them.

Masks are still worn in Scottish secondary schools

@dementedpixie

Masks are still worn in Scottish secondary schools

Scotland and the guidance there have always been better on masks in classrooms-even last year. Infection rates have been lower on average too. Causation/correlation I wonder? And teachers in Scotland are being paid £400 each to assess, mark and do the admin for the grades for exam year classes. Nowhere else is. Definitely a scandal that the other 3 countries are treated so differently.

Schools must not close again. I had the jab on the understanding it was a way back to normality.
We know how much children need to be in education. Priority.

I haven’t even heard any suggestion that they would. I can’t imagine it!