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 ?

@Rabblesthecat

Why should childless people give up their social lives and activities just so kids can go to school especially when it’s now proven schools are the biggest vector to transmissions

Because childless people will benefit from a well educated and socialised population unless they live alone on an island

No

@cantkeepawayforever

Al those crying 'schools shouldn't close' - what should schools be doing when they run out of healthy adults to put in front of classes to keep children safe, let alone of teachers of approximately the right subjects / with some qualification?

Do you mean ' schools should not close across the country, but a haphazard pattern of ad-hoc closure is an acceptable level of collateral damage for a largely open economy / social mixing'?

I have primary age DC. I absolutely care about their education.

I also think adults matter. There needs to be some kind of balance in order for other bits of society to remain open IMO. If school closes, or classes are sent home temporarily because of staff illness, that's very different to schools closing in the way they did in past lockdowns.

I don't believe anything should be shutting, unless due to sickness. My mental health is utterly destroyed because of the pandemic and I doubt it's ever coming back.

Because in schools you have to have an adult for every class. Funding has been cut so much that staffing levels are at an all time low so sometimes there just isn't anyone left to take a class.

@Alltheblue

I also feel parents are more concerned about getting their children taken off their hands than educating them. Schools are often a very poor second to one to one even if it's just an hour a day.

Wow. So you didn't benefit from a face to face education with skilled and qualified teachers? I think the time spent in school is precious and irreplaceable

@bizboz

Because in schools you have to have an adult for every class. Funding has been cut so much that staffing levels are at an all time low so sometimes there just isn't anyone left to take a class.

And that's unavoidable and not whole scale schools shutting. And temporary!

I find it bizarre that people come on these threads to try and make parents feel a bit crap because they want their children to be in school.

If it's "getting rid of them" why have schools at all? School is their whole lives at this age their work hobbies and social lives all revolve around it. My children were desperately sad without it being shut in at home.

If you don't see why children go to school other than a vague notion that parents are crappy lazy people that want to get rid of children then why even post.

GOD

As a teacher I bloody hope not. Online teaching was soul destroying.

Some closures are inevitable due to staff illness.

Schools should have been given money for better ventilation and other precautions. Blame Johnson when they close.

Wax, I think that what people perhaps don't appreciate about schools is how fixed the '1 adult to 1 class' ratio has to be, as most schools don't have many, if any beyond the hall rooms in which classes can be combined. A school with 14 classes needs 14 adults to run them (as well as those staff legally required to be with specific children). 25% of the staff getting Covid, no supply and a few parents having to be at home with their own children and the school does run out of healthy DBSDed adults quite easily.

God, I cannot express how much I hope they do not.
My ds has taken over a year to recover from the various lockdowns, if it happened again I'm afraid it would break him.

@AnkleDeep

Some closures are inevitable due to staff illness.

Schools should have been given money for better ventilation and other precautions. Blame Johnson when they close.

Exactly.

@HauntedPencil

I find it bizarre that people come on these threads to try and make parents feel a bit crap because they want their children to be in school.

If it's "getting rid of them" why have schools at all? School is their whole lives at this age their work hobbies and social lives all revolve around it. My children were desperately sad without it being shut in at home.

If you don't see why children go to school other than a vague notion that parents are crappy lazy people that want to get rid of children then why even post.

GOD

It’s so off - and odd.

And yes my dc were impacted too by schools closing because they enjoy being with their friends and learning in a school.

Schools weren't "closed" in any meaningful sense in January. First lockdown we had a max of 12 children in school. Second one we had pretty much half of every class in. We needed all our teachers and support staff in.

Any other school closure would be the same as this - I'm unsure what massive difference people think this would make.

@cantkeepawayforever

Wax, I think that what people perhaps don't appreciate about schools is how fixed the '1 adult to 1 class' ratio has to be, as most schools don't have many, if any beyond the hall rooms in which classes can be combined. A school with 14 classes needs 14 adults to run them (as well as those staff legally required to be with specific children). 25% of the staff getting Covid, no supply and a few parents having to be at home with their own children and the school does run out of healthy DBSDed adults quite easily.

Yes, but it's just temporary until they recover from Covid.

@UndeadSlut

Schools weren't "closed" in any meaningful sense in January. First lockdown we had a max of 12 children in school. Second one we had pretty much half of every class in. We needed all our teachers and support staff in.

Any other school closure would be the same as this - I'm unsure what massive difference people think this would make.

Well a pretty big difference if your child is in the 50% who is not allowed in the building

This must be a wind- up

So a school being temporarily closed is OK?

[I also agree with the above poster that actually such a temporary true closure would be different from anything in either lockdown, when in fact the school was open every day, right through holidays first time round]

No. I'm saying that as both a parent and a teacher. We would be letting the next generation down if we did. They need to be in school.

They need to be in school WITH THEIR NORMAL TEACHERS, and with as little Covid as possible circulating so that there isn't a constant revolving door of absences of staff and pupils..

That requires measures to be taken both in schools and in society that are not being taken at the moment.

Well a pretty big difference if your child is in the 50% who is not allowed in the building

Exactly. I cannot fathom why people keep posting rubbish like this. Schools categorically were closed to large numbers of students. Of course it would make a 'massive difference' to those students 🙄

@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 ?

Is this a joke?

No just no, absolute last resort

@cantkeepawayforever

So a school being temporarily closed is OK?

[I also agree with the above poster that actually such a temporary true closure would be different from anything in either lockdown, when in fact the school was open every day, right through holidays first time round]

Schools were open to a select few children only.

School being shut for 10 days is a pain but better than shut for weeks on end to most pupils like in lockdowns.

@UndeadSlut

Schools weren't "closed" in any meaningful sense in January. First lockdown we had a max of 12 children in school. Second one we had pretty much half of every class in. We needed all our teachers and support staff in.

Any other school closure would be the same as this - I'm unsure what massive difference people think this would make.

Eh? My son was unable to attend school AT ALL between March 2020 and summer holidays 2020 and then again immediately following Xmas holidays last year until Easter 2021. I consider that closed in a 'meaningful' way.