Schools - why are they doing this?

[Scrooge89]

Why are the media preparing us for school closures? They simply can’t do this to us…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59673271

Not to my children. My youngest struggled so much at home and was one of the 25% who couldn’t go to school (although I saw how much some people fudged the key worker card I may have to do it).

@CovidCath skivers???
What about viral load?
So its ok to be exposed to pitentially huge amounts of virus that could overwhelm our immune system? So we are not important? Can all the parents on here treating school staff as expendable enforce kids to follow rules/ hygiene/ etc?
A militant parent determined to keep their child in with a questionable key worker status, soon took them out in September for a holiday term time! But education is just not relevant when compared to a last minute holiday is it?
I do not know of one retired teacher prepared to go back for a million quid, so maybe you all could all do your bit? Maybe weekends so your kids can catch up?

CallmeHensricksGingleBells
Where do I start? The people who say there is a case in their house (child1) and can’t go to work, then day 10, child two has to isolate, then another ten days on and they’ve got it……..all sounds a bit blooming convenient to me.
We’ve had a few instances like this reported in social circles/family where peoples businesses are struggling with people taking sick pay,

I'm in Scotland and the kids have been wearing masks in class since they went back in august.

Angelswithflirtyfaces
Holidays?? We haven’t taken one since pre Covid. We’ve had several booked pre Covid cancelled and have not rebooked. In fact, neither of my kids have valid Passat this point in time! No, I don’t think teachers are expendable- I just think this is a bad cold for most and in my current Covid experience (as a person with asthma and using inhalers daily!!)…….

Angelswithflirtyfaces
Passport not Passat

This time I will really need the school to allow teachers to actually teach my children using zooms/teams rather than expect me to work and teach my children. I was so stressed last time trying to do it all and I couldn't help feeling cross with the teachers but it wasn't their fault it was the SLT who told us that the unions said that teachers didn't have to be made to feel uncomfortable. Thing is the rest of us in other industries had to massively change everything and do meetings etc that made us feel uncomfortable. I had to keep telling myself it wasn't the teachers fault. I felt like my primary age child had been forgotten. She HATED worksheets and I know I won't be able to get her to do one again. I think we'll just have to do our own thing if the school won't actually teach them via zooms/teams.

School staff and our children have been hung out to dry when it comes to covid. No mitigations apart from handwashing and an open window if you're lucky.

Some kids are vulnerable, some live with vulnerable family members, some school staff are vulnerable and some school staff have vulnerable family members. And long covid can strike whether vulnerable or not.

If you want schools to stay open, bang the drum for mitigations to help that happen safely.

A HEPA filter in every classroom, masks in secondary and encouraged in primary, parents actually being notified of cases in school, better test and trace, and isolation of household contacts would make a massive difference to levels of covid in schools.

I want schools open, but not at any cost. I want my child to be safe in school and not be repeatedly exposed to a novel virus with potentially serious consequences.

I think we'll just have to do our own thing if the school won't actually teach them via zooms/teams

neu.org.uk/coronavirus-livestreaming-lessons

It's not about staff feeling comfortable.

@CovidCath

CallmeHensricksGingleBells Where do I start? The people who say there is a case in their house (child1) and can’t go to work, then day 10, child two has to isolate, then another ten days on and they’ve got it……..all sounds a bit blooming convenient to me. We’ve had a few instances like this reported in social circles/family where peoples businesses are struggling with people taking sick pay,

But that's not the guidance at the moment. Only positive person isolates. If double jabbed or under 18 no isolating but lft every day. Unless they have symptoms then pcr test. So many kids negative lft test one day, then symptoms & then positive not forgetting all the people who are infected by them in the meantime.

@echt
Looking at that list my DC won't stand a chance of getting some interactive learning, the SLT will be all over that like a rash. And yet other state primary schools did it so brilliantly and staff and pupils got so much out of it. Its so short term, I just wish it was statutory for all children to have live learning.

wellstopdoingitthen
It’s not about the rules! It’s about people claiming their child has it so can’t go to work, then miraculously, next child gets it at end of isolation, then they do another few days on. Etc etc. Its absolutely nothing rules related but if your kid age 10/11/12 has it, you can’t just leave them and go to work? Surely??

Our primary is very small, less than 100 pupils. The teaching for key worker kids, at least half the school, was very poor. The kids were left to follow the online work without guidance most of the time as the reception teachers were in place and told the kids they didn’t know how to help them. My friend would come back from her nhs job check the online learning and compare our to what has been done on line and discover 90% (on a good day) hadn’t been done at school. She was at her wits end, she said it’s child care not school. Then we were trying to teach at home and work , also a nightmare.
I’m not sure the kids or ourselves can cope with it again.
I’m so sorry for teachers and the stress they will be under, but I think schools must stay open unless a teacher is out ill or caring for sick dependents, and then they should return as soon as they are well enough, including 10 days quarantine of course.

also teachers with covid but are in the one third with no symptoms could certainly teach classes of children in many cases if most of the children have had covid anyway

The “classroom as leper colony” model. Very ingenious and historical.

unless a teacher is out ill or caring for sick dependents, and then they should return as soon as they are well enough, including 10 days quarantine of course.

That's exactly what's happening now.

Leper colony

@CovidCath

wellstopdoingitthen It’s not about the rules! It’s about people claiming their child has it so can’t go to work, then miraculously, next child gets it at end of isolation, then they do another few days on. Etc etc. Its absolutely nothing rules related but if your kid age 10/11/12 has it, you can’t just leave them and go to work? Surely??

I left my 12 yo who was positive to go to work. As a teacher.

This is a reason why teachers hate streaming lessons. We are recorded, screen shot, edited and uploaded to social media for national abuse.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59264238

Oops missed the past tense. Never mind.

@motherrunner I get that it isn't easy, but heck nobody had an easy time of this, my husband is a journalist and he was out there, from day 1, working unbelievable hours, visiting places that no one else wanted to go, working late at night, driving hundreds of miles to reach a story and then back again very late at night because there were no hotels to stay in, not being able to have a shit anywhere because everywhere was shut, and holding an awful, incompetent government to account by filming in care homes and hospitals. And whilst he was out night and day I was working and homeschooling three children using twinkle worksheets. I just don't know what our primary school teachers were doing TBH. but the SLT team kept saying that they didn't want the staff to feel uncomfortable.

GratS

Excellent post.

Wife of ITU consultant here. Front line with inadequate PPE. Very uncomfortable. Soldiered on.

@CovidCath

wellstopdoingitthen It’s not about the rules! It’s about people claiming their child has it so can’t go to work, then miraculously, next child gets it at end of isolation, then they do another few days on. Etc etc. Its absolutely nothing rules related but if your kid age 10/11/12 has it, you can’t just leave them and go to work? Surely??

I wouldn't be leaving a 10yo for the first time for 9 hours straight whilst they are ill. That's shit parenting.

Were doing it because too many staff are ill to safely supervise (let alone teach) the kids.

I work in a school

CarrieBlue
I commend you for being one of the sensible few who has brought up a child capable of being left to his/her own devices age 12! It’s not a common thing these days but really should be. You can both join my Armageddon team 😉 . I hope you’re hanging in there xx

I just wish it was statutory for all children to have live learning.

And what about the large numbers of children who won't be able to access it? The households with poor wifi, the ones where the kids have to take turns on the laptop, the ones where they can't get on the laptop till the evening because their parent is using it for work?