How long have schools been closed where you are ?

[habibihabibi]

KSA
School closed March 2020
Still closed 😯
Everything else is open, pools , parks, malls, indoor playareas, sports activies.

India. Schools closed in March and are gradually reopening in some states.

Ireland - Closed the 24th March and reopened August 28th.

Right now the schools are closed. Children were meant to return on the 4th January after Christmas holidays but this didn't happen. As of now schools will remain closed for February too. There is talk of a gradual phased return to school with priority going to children with special needs.

Sorry the 14th March

France - schools closed March-May 2020. Have been open ever since but all children over 6 in masks (which I personally hate) and no after school clubs or indoor PE at the moment.
Elsewhere, shops open but no restaurants, cafes or bars and no indoor leisure places or gyms. Also a 6pm curfew (that nobody takes much notice of).

Was said on news last night that children in Philippines have not been legally allowed out of their homes since March 2020. Under 16s.

Dubai here, schools closed from end of March last year and reopened in September. A few schools delayed starting in January for 2 weeks but all back now. No after school activities, no indoor PE, no water coolers or lockers. Makes their school bags heavy (secondary) but they are glad to be in. Masks for everyone over 6, socially distanced. Option for distance/hybrid learning. Just about everything open, no live music in bars & restaurants. No. of people at tables just reduced to 6 (was 10). Huge uptake in the vaccine.

australia
In our state (not eastcoast) we had a extra week tacked on to last aprils 2 weeks easter break and closed for 2 days (as part of our 3 day lockdown) back in Nov due to a local outbreak.
so our kids only missed out on 7 days of actual schooling in 2020. we have been very lucky and corona had been handled very very well at our state level.

Romania - schools closed the beginning of March, opened in September on a rota (half days for all). Closed again in middle of October, meant to be reopening after February holiday. Teachers are in priority 2 for the vaccine, but there's not many available currently after an early surge, and most won't be done until April. Kids won't be vaccinated obviously, so masks, possibly a rota and distancing will continue, probably for the rest of the year.

@habibihabibi

It is frustrating ... the ministry has declared the schools can open to small groups from Nov but ours ( reputable previously ) has only just announced a once monthly day in school for my children's year groups. It is a shambles as staff travelled during the xmas break and got stuck in the U.K when the new strain prohibited travel into Saudi from affected countries. Why people even think about non essential trips during a pandemic I have no idea.

I don't want to be drawn on this but you have no idea why people felt the need to travel, and if it was allowed by both governments they were well within their rights. It's nothing to do with your question really either.

West coast of US in a State with one of the lowest rates of Covid but schools closed / distance learning since march 2020. And looking very bleak for re opening before September right now as the Unions are playing power games and teachers apparently don't want to return to the classroom even with very good safety protocols in place and even after they've had the vaccine, which they'll likely get in a coupe of weeks. Private schools, daycare , pods with tutors are, however, open so it's becoming education for the rich right now. Feeling pretty hopeless about it all and also wondering if we'll even get back into the UK anytime soon if we decide we need to leave.

California and closes since March here too. I am also hearing rumors of teacher unions refusing to go back even if the teachers are vaccinated and that is making me angry!

France - school as usual. No cases in my school since October. My 16 year old dd had Covid in December. They closed her class for a week and that seemed to do the trick. No absences in her class since then. Outside clubs at school still going on. Apart from masks, which we have got quickly accustomed to, life feels normal enough.

Closed on 4th March. Online live lessons from 9th March until summer break. Back in school for about three weeks in September then closed again and back online.
Opening on Monday 1st Feb blended. Families have the choice whether to send kids in or continue online.
Italy. (Puglia)

West coast USA. Closed since February last year and not bern open at all since then. No date in sight for reopening yet.

This thread is fascinating.

Those places that have been online learning...how well did it dies it work? Is broadband , tech etc an issue?

US- closed since March 2020. The DL has been ‘ok’ compared to what you hear from the U.K. 100% live classroom and lessons. All children given brand new iPads and free wifi (if not afforded by household). Free hot meals to collect from school along side food parcels for all regardless of income.
Despite all this is has been emotionally draining and horrendous for the children and parents. It’s super sad to see how badly affected children are by this. Anyone able to afford private schools have moved as they are allowed to stay open with mitigation in place.
As someone else mentioned it’s a stand off with teacher unions and tbh I don’t think public schools will open until the autumn 😞

New Zealand - ours were closed for 7 weeks from March but that included 2 weeks Easter holidays so 5 weeks. In Auckland (where I am) closed again in August for 2 weeks when there was a small outbreak. Online learning was done pretty well by the schools.

Apart from that, been open the whole time as no community cases of covid here

@Thewinterofdiscontent

This thread is fascinating.

Those places that have been online learning...how well did it dies it work? Is broadband , tech etc an issue?

My US state gives devices to all middle/high school students anyway - laptops, iPads, whatever the school chose. Because the schemes have been running for so long, and new devices are provided every 4 years, most of them had leftover laptops/iPads they could give to younger students.

Some schools used the money from the CARES Act to buy more tech eg in August our schools gave all teachers an iPad to go with their MacBooks, they put Apple TVs in all classrooms, and made sure there were screens throughout.

Before they started online learning last March they got in touch with all students to check they had wifi - if not they were provided with a wifi subscription or a hotspot.

Initially, the school was closed for every third day, which gave teachers time to prep school work, gave students time to decompress, and generally helped when everyone was massively stressed. That went on till summer holidays started in June.

Since Sept our teachers have been expected to teach both in-person and online students at the same time. It wasn't easy at first but they are managing. Having the required tech obviously helped, but even so they've been amazing. Some of them teach from home because of health concerns, but most come into school.

My kids will be taking their exams like PSATs, APs, etc as normal this year. Last year they took an abbreviated version.

Initially, the school was closed for every third day, which gave teachers time to prep school work, gave students time to decompress, and generally helped when everyone was massively stressed. That went on till summer holidays started in June.

Just reread and realised this is confusing. Schools were closed, and all learning was online at this point, but they only did classes 2 days out of 3.

East coast USA. Closed since March 2020. No sign of opening up

@GADDay

In Australia (everywhere, except Victoria) the children were at home from 23rd March to 21st May - so 8 weeks (but there was a 2 week school holiday in that time, so only online school for 6 weeks).

Other than some of the larger school events having been cancelled, it's BAU.

Don't think it was even as long as that in WA. Pretty sure my nephews were Easter hols + 2 weeks.

West Coast, Canada. We were shut from March until end of May. Then they went back for a couple of weeks before the summer. They've been back normally since September, although my kids school had an outbreak so was shut two weeks before Christmas break. They're back again now.

I'm in Ontario Canada, all universities are online for this whole academic year. Schools were closed from March till September 2020.

They opened on a reduced basis in September. Some kids opted for online school only (around 40%)

High schools go in half time in 2 alternating groups and the rest of the time is online.

However, they've all been completely closed (no provision for key worker children) since Christmas but opening again tomorrow.

Midwest, US. DS's school has been closed since March 2020, but he goes back on Feb 8 The other one has been back in person since September, with a three week stretch of home learning from Thanksgiving - New Year.

Abu Dhabi. Schools closed in March. Opened in September but week on week off for our school. Closed again in January and in theory open again on Sunday but no one believes it (and no announcement on testing for the age groups that would require it).

We're better than some, years 7-10 never went back at all so our neighbours' children have been in online school since March.

@Thewinterofdiscontent I don't think anyone's posted from a country where there might be a lack of access to the internet!