Should schools close again?

[FuckinGoddess]

I’m at the end of my tether.

Worried about Omicron, of course, and the devastating effects it could have on lives.

Worried about children missing out on even more education. Worried about being forced to stay at home again. And worried about people dying.

What do you think will happen? What should happen ?

@Puffalicious Oh do be quiet.

No.

No, if additional measures are needed and I dont think they are, then it should be in the same order as opening up.
We cant have children missing school while adults have christmas parties in pubs and clubs.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59478848

Things are very difficult in schools at the moment.

No, things would have to get a fuckton worse before I’d support schools being shut again.

Not unless it turns out to impact kids too, or hospitalisation spiral out of control.

No.
There’s loads of Covid in schools, they get tested, stay off for 10days if positive and then go back. Nothing has changed.

I actually think they should only stay off if too sick to go to school, regardless of whether they’re positive or not

Nope. Unless the new varient poses an actual risk to the children themselves. And not just the risk of them passing it on to an adult.

I think if that were the case though we'd already start hearing about it. If it did pose a direct risk to children though mine would be educated from home, regardless of schools open or not.

No.

No, schools shouldn’t close. Children are already behind with their learning. In any case, I suspect the number of ‘key workers’ would get even bigger, with the majority attending anyway. I certainly wouldn’t be keeping my children home again.

I cannot bear the thought of schools closing again...it was just so fucking stressful..oh and if they do, they'll still probably do places for key workers kids and most of the class will be in anyway

@Howshouldibehave

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59478848

Things are very difficult in schools at the moment.

2.6% absent. Which means 97.4% in school. Better than none in school.

Educational setting en masse will not close but individual classes, years or school will close if there aren’t enough staff to safely open.

Schools staying open won’t mean education provision as usual though. Myself and my colleagues are exhausted through cover, illness and stress. Our pupils aren’t getting the best of us at present but they are in school.

No

Will have to see what happens if and when omicron gets into schools. There is no real effective contact tracing in schools at present but if close contacts have to isolate for 10 days this will cause chaos for pupils and staff and consequent disruption to families and the community.

I can't see schools closing this term but what happens after that d pends on the data about omicron and how widespread it gets after Xmas mixing.

@PolytheneRam

But it would be a no from me

At least the teachers would get a long Christmas break. They are on their knees apparently. Might help them get up.

I work in the NHS, in case you want examples of ‘on knees’

From this report:
schoolsweek.co.uk/covid-related-absence-jumps-60-in-a-fortnight/

“Overall school attendance fell from 89.5 per cent to 87.5 per cent at secondary level, and from 93.6 per cent to 91.1 per cent at primary.”

Have you seen the rates of staff absence - same article:

“On November 25, 2 per cent of teachers and leaders and 1.9 per cent of teaching assistants and other staff were absent due to Covid-related reasons, up from 1.4 per cent a fortnight before.

Absence with a confirmed case of Covid was the most common reason for staff being off.”

If there are not enough staff you can’t keep a school open.

Adults who can should be told to work from home

This is touted around as an easy, small thing to do. But there’s a massive knock-on effect on businesses such as sandwich shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, shops….not to mention the railways, which the gov has spent billions propping up already…..it’s not a small decision.

No, people will just lie and say they’re a keyworker so closing schools will just mean full schools anyway. That’s what happened in January, so why bother?

@Malteser71

At least the teachers would get a long Christmas break. They are on their knees apparently. Might help them get up.

I work in the NHS, in case you want examples of ‘on knees’

I don’t know why there is the need for the sarcasm.

I would never mock anyone for staying how their mental health is suffering or how they’re work is creating unnecessary stress. The ‘apparently’ makes it seem as if you don’t believe myself or my colleagues could be struggling because we happen to be teachers.

No way! Absolutely not. The impact on many children's lives was devastating.

No I do not. And I don't think they will tbh

@motherrunner

Educational setting en masse will not close but individual classes, years or school will close if there aren’t enough staff to safely open.

Schools staying open won’t mean education provision as usual though. Myself and my colleagues are exhausted through cover, illness and stress. Our pupils aren’t getting the best of us at present but they are in school.

This is already happening in some places.

DS's college course cohort was sent home at short notice a week ago due to staff isolating. It doesn't commence again until next week. We were told they would get some online stuff but that hasn't happened. They already have staff retention issues and the covid stuff is on top.

The college is still open but it's a bit of mess really. It's a vocational course too so only so much they can do from home anyway.

Unless this variant proves to be more deadly than the previous variants then absolutely not. It's mentally unhealthy for children to be kept isolated from their peers.

If there is even a hint of this nonsense, then everybody should really put their efforts into pressurising the government into actually dealing effectively with the issue in schools, rather than just closing them as the easy option. Or the government needs to find a way to deal with this that doesn't involve lockdown, free-for-all, lockdown, free-for-all.

Fuck no. Things would have to get back to AT LEAST March 2020 levels of bad to justify schools closing again.