I live in a tier 4 town and teach primary in the same town. Dd goes to 6th form college in the next town which is also tier 4. Both towns had very low level of infections in the first wave but were in the first lot of towns to be put into tier 4 just before Christmas because our infection rate is rising so dramatically.
I won't be signing.
For the last few weeks of term, dd's college had split students into 2 groups and they alternated which students were in college and which students accessed those lessons at home via live links. I would really like them to carry that on next term and to be much stricter about students wearing masks in college.
During the first lockdown, those children at my school (key workers' children and vulnerable children) really benefited fron the smaller classes and lack of pressure. But it had an adverse affect for many of those at home.
The longer the lockdown went on, the harder parents found it to motivate their children to complete the home learning tasks that we were giving them. I have a couple of SEN children in my class who struggle to retain skills and concepts that are constantly reteaching and re-enforcing at school. They fell back massively during lockdown.
Other children really enjoyed the extra family time but massively missed their friends. Some of the only children in my class found this particularly difficult.
I really don't want primary schools to close again. But they are a transmission risk so to keep them open, the government needs to be much stricter about what else can stay open. The definition of essential shops really needs tightening up eg my local Poundland is open, presumably because it sells some food but it's hardly essential.