Petition link to close schools

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petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300403

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How many work places , 6 times a day, are you crammed into small corridors about 30cm from hundreds of people, touching shared equipment pens and books without any form of hand sanitation as to wash 1500 peoples hands even once a day is time consuming.

I am in Japan--the schools have been closed for a week. It's hell but the evidence shows that it will reduce deaths a lot by greatly slowing the spread of the virus.

Afterschool childcare facilities have remained open and have started all-day programs, but these facilities are much smaller than schools. And of course, some kids are not going to the childcare centers at all because they have a parent who does not work, WFH or has been told by their company to WFH for this period--if you are in these groups you are told to keep the kids at home.

So instead of having all children spending their days in a few large groups, you have a rather smaller group of children divided up into a much larger number of smallish groups. Is it a perfect system in terms of disease prevention? Hardly. But at the macro level, it reduces the number of vectors per child a LOT, meaning that the virus spreads more slowly, buying us time and spreading out the rush on the hospitals.

Of course kids do go outside, hang out and go to parks, play on the streets. But again, far few vectors per child.

This will be your reality in the UK before long, so unfortunately you will all have to get used to it.

It does suck though. I am trying to work from home with two kids knocking around and am literally crossing off the days till school (hopefully) starts.

I wish people would leave this to the government and health experts and advisors to decide.
I have zero confidence in what Tracy from number 52 thinks we should do considering the fact she reads the Daily Mail and has no knowledge of virology. This stuff is for people who know what they’re talking about to decide. Not someone in a panic with absolutely zero knowledge of the etiology of this virus.

Bugger that, kids don't get it as bad as us oldies. Keep schools open, close the workplaces. Hazmat suits and massive pay rises for teachers and hospital staff.

It's not about stopping children getting sick. It's about slowing down the spread of the virus.

I'm not sure about blanket school closures just yet. There seems to be low levels of infection and risk to kids and young people although I understand that they can be spreaders.

What will happen if DC are at home and bored - parents take them out to shopping centres, cinemas, soft play, cafes and restaurants meaning they are more likely to be in contact with a wider number of the population than they would be at school. I don't see how this makes the situation any better in fact it seems like a greater risk.

Easter holidays are in about 4 weeks time, maybe they could extend or bring this forward. Still what are the chances that many people will still go ahead with their travel plans despite the risks. Personally I would prefer if there was advice to avoid unnecessary travel from now until after Easter rather than closing schools.

The most sensible advice would be for the over 70’s to stay at home, plus anyone else from a high risk group.

The most sensible advice would be for the over 70’s to stay at home, plus anyone else from a high risk group

Exactly!

Janemarpling, I agree. Switching lessons is a bit like being on the tube at rush hour (something else I wouldn't fancy). Just yesterday, I had to pick up well chewed chewing gum, three used tissues and two spit balls. I handed out and collected the same set of pens to six different classes of thirty students, along with six sets of thirty books. I stood 2 feet from six different front rows, and leant in closer than that to help almost 100 different students over the course of the day. I used multiple door handles that had been touched by over a thousand different children that day and five different computer keyboards and mice that have never been cleaned.
Not only would I catch anything going pretty bloody quickly, I could easily pass it on to dozens, maybe hundreds of students over the course of a week before I developed symptoms myself.
Want to see some real super spreading? Keep schools open.

This must be the most irresponsible opening post ever.

Didn’t it cost the UK economy a billion pounds to have the extra Bank Holiday for the Diamond Jubilee?

Exactly Nellodee it is well known that NQTs get lots of sickness in the first two years.

Ugh the spitballs. 🤮

Loads of kids hate showering too never mind hand washing.

But loads of us in high risk groups are also part of the workforce, how long should we be signed off for? And there is no point in me staying at home if both my kids are off to school everyday.

What will happen if DC are at home and bored - parents take them out to shopping centres, cinemas, soft play, cafes and restaurants meaning they are more likely to be in contact with a wider number of the population than they would be at school

If the schools close, they'll close cinemas, soft play etc otherwise the school closures won't be as effective. This is what has happened in other countries. You are right, there is little point closing schools unless you stop big gatherings too, close cinemas etc. The idea is that you do it all together.

The evidence is that if you close schools, and prevent large gatherings, and impose travel restrictions THEN you have a chance of slowing it. You need to do it all at once.

I personally do think the schools should close. But I am concerned about those on free school meals who only get a meal at school. Also those children where home life is so bad, school is their respite. What about the children who’s mental health is at crisis point and are getting the help from school because they are on a 18 month waiting list for CAMHS?

There should be an option to take your child out with no repercussions at this point. I’ve just looked at the petition and over 100k have signed. Surely if they took their children out that’s less children spreading the virus?

@Langbannedforsafeguardingkids I really cannot see that happening, we would effectively be in lockdown and that is something that I think many in society here would struggle with.

People seem to be under the delusion that if they close schools everything else (less important than schools like soft play) will be open. Highly unlikely. People will have to rediscover nature as entertainment (ideally more than 2m away from anyone else), not necessarily a bad thing.

I get the denial, it's one of the stages of grief. I'm feeling grief over this. I am fairly certain at least one of the vulnerable people I know will eventually get this very seriously (I know a few) if not die, one close family member is highly likely to die from it if they catch it. I think DH and I will get it eventually and be very ill and I'm worried that we'll get it together and not be able to look after our kids. It seems highly likely in 2 years time coronavirus will eventually be another nasty disease that we have public health campaigns over and large levels of vaccination and some people get and it's horrible (it's not the same kind of disease as meningitis but in terms of how it will be seen - a bit like that), but this bit - when it's running rampant (unless we do something) in a population entirely without immunity is going to be bad.

I honestly think life as we know it is over for a while, and I get that a lot of people are in denial because at the moment it's surreal - but you only have to look at Italy and China to see what could happen if we don't pretty quickly move past denial and take practical measures which are proven in an outbreak scenario. And China DID take very draconian authoritarian measures and they have had an effect, and it's still been pretty awful there.

I just hope our government will allow the experts to lead. That's what I want, the fear that they are not listening to experts (BSE springs to mind) is making it much worse for me. And I wish I lived in Germany or Singapore.

It's a choice between lockdown and less people dying and just letting it run rampant and things (most notably the NHS) breaking down - so an effective lockdown anyway. Lockdown or breakdown. Those are the realistic choices here.

Italy took measures too late I think. Now they have no hospital beds. They have breakdown and a death rate of something like 6%. Singapore has locked down and seemingly actually slowed transmission.

I know which scenario I'd prefer. Lockdown not breakdown.

I know which scenario I'd prefer. Lockdown not breakdown.

Absolutely Lang.

I've got one doing GCSEs and one doing A levels. I can see the future s of a whole generation being fucked up by this. I don't want schools to shut as they miss out on teaching time, but if it means that they will actually be able to sit their exams in a couple of months it might be the best solution.

The schools have remained open in Singapore.

@Kokeshi123 unrelated question to the thread - but how are things in Japan now? I’m supposed to come in 4weeks! I will be coming unless the advice changes to its unsafe to go/airline cancels flight - have already spent thousands of pounds on hotels, rail pass etc so not about to let that go down the drain

I fear that everything will be shut though - what is your experience?

I get that in 4 weeks situation may well have changed!

Currently all the museums and things like that are closed

Are shops and restaurants open?

What’s your thoughts on whether things will reopen on the 15th as it currently says?

Singapore has locked down and seemingly actually slowed transmission

Singapore has NOT shut its schools

Schools remained open in Singapore because they put in effective containment. Stage one is containment, they have stayed in stage one, we have moved onto stage 2 which is about delaying spread. It’s stage 2 where you start need to start look at things like closing schools. We failed to contain the virus because we didn’t take the same level of containment measures that they did. If we’re not decisive now we might also fail to slow the spread very much and totally overwhelm the NHS.

fortune.com/2020/02/28/singapore-coronavirus-contained-response/

kids don't get it as bad as us oldies. Keep schools open, close the workplaces.

Schools are workplaces.

Whilst children may not be getting it as severely what about the staff? There are suggestions that children may be carrying it and therefore able to be spreading it around too. Many of those teaching are in the vulnerable lists too - teachers are not all young, healthy people with no health conditions.

We are making lots of contingency plans of why we can do if our school has to close, how to get work and messages more effectively to pupils, how the teachers can work from home, etc. We've been using the advise of a teacher we know who works in China but schools been closed all month and she and her family are in the uk unable to return. She's been telling us how they've all coped and what they've done, and things they'd put in place if they'd have time to plan. Whilst lots of secondaries and some upper primaries have inline learning platforms etc in place already not all staff use them effectively, and lots of infants have nothing in place. Noes the time to plan - hopefully it won't be used but contingency plans are good to have my way such as if there was a fire or flood that closed schools etc.

Unfortunately it is something we need to consider as it's been mentioned in the governments potential plans.

Therefore parents also need to make contingency plans too to see what they can be doing. Remember schools closings Ross a who,e region isn't the same as isolation, so - like inItaly, China, etc - parents need to be talking to family and friends to spread childcare to minimise their time off work. Getting together with 5 or 6 other families could mean parents only needing to miss one or two days a fortnight from work for example. I know this isn't a\easy for,everyone to sort, but it is important to start broaching those conversations.

Singapore has locked down

I can’t comment on the specifics of schools but from what I witnessed recently I would not describe the Singapore precautions and measures as applied to the general population and visitors as anything close to a lock down.