Unhappy about primary schools re opening

[Bitterglitter]

Is anyone else unhappy about primary schools being re opened as part of the lockdown easing measures?

I keep thinking about the kids who have underlying health conditions that aren't yet diagnosed.

My DS1 (5) was diagnosed with a benign heart murmur in feb this year. It was only picked up because he has a lot of follow up Paediatric appointments because he was premature. I don't even know if it's an issue as far as covid19 goes. But what about all the kids out there with undiagnosed asthma, diabetes etc?

Primary age kids can't and won't maintain social distance. And they will act as super spreaders too. Doesn't matter how well their parents maintain distance if all these kids are mixing it up in schools.

It just seems crazy when so many parents can continue working from home. Am I being hysterical?

No one knows when, it would likely be safer now than over flu season mind, when things might be locked down again. Unfortunately keeping schools closed until a vaccine or treatment isn't really feasible, but don't panic, wait until an official announcement rather than speculation. People making the decisions will also be aware of the risks, it isn't just Boris saying yeah cool whatever.

I do doubt the June 1st start date though. How on Earth would we all get social distancing measures devised and then put in place for the schools in less than a month?

We've been building Nightingale hospitals in 10 days, not to mention reconfigured the entire NHS in a matter of weeks. I'm sure this would not be impossible.

@Spudsarelife84 completely agree with you. I cannot work from home as a key worker and have been sending my daughter to school although it's not proper work more like a holiday club and she is unhappy because her friends aren't there, her mental health is suffering we need to get back to our routine as soon as possible.

When exactly did Scotland say schools aren’t opening again until August?

I don’t think this has been confirmed. NS said they may not open not that they wouldn’t open.

"You cannot hold primary school places until there's a vaccine"

Our school are saying it's likely parents can make their own decisions regarding this.

But we can't allow all children to suffer educationally just because the minority are ill.
Covid does not make the majority of adults ill and if you don't need him to go to school for childcare reasons, then just don't send him, at 5 he'll catch up easily.

My DS1 has just started GCSEs and his brother has secondary school exams in a few months time and they need to be back at school. They won't catch up so easily. Education at their age is really important and it's actually really selfish for you to just thunk of your young child who you can easily keep at home if need be.

MightyMurphy

Let me Google that for you. Here ya go....

www.google.com/amp/s/www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/education/when-will-schools-scotland-reopen-school-pupils-returning-same-day-inconceivable-says-john-swinney-2503989%3famp

I would hope that, when schools do reopen, parents will be able to opt out of sending their children, at least in the stretch up to summer holidays (if indeed they do open before then)

Presumably, even if they do go back at the beginning of June, the usual end of year plays, sports days etc won't go ahead? They will be distancing within the school environment as much as possible?

@SpudsAreLife84
30% of the population have managed to successfully work ta home compared to the norm of 4%.
Given that key workers have maintained their roles, and make up 22% of the workforce, that's the work force majority already working at thus time and throughout the pandemic, as its 52% of the workforce.
So I'm afraid I disagree with your statement.
The real question should be which industries are safest to reopen and that childcare should remain within the family to provide and if they cannot then for the greater good of society not the economy, some will have to claim benefits instead of working if they have no childcare.

Instead of this continued get the children back to school ASAP.

It matter not whether it's only 1 child who dies as a result of catching the virus after going back to school or one child is orphaned as a result. ANY DEATH THAT COULD BE PREVENTED IS ONE TOO MANY.

the usual end of year plays, sports days etc won't go ahead?

Indeed. It's unfortunate, but just not possible.

@Sux2buthen the only pointless and rubbish comment that should be ignored is yours.

Seems worried parents feel entitled to worry about the world's children, and decide how other parents can work from home!!!!! It is as simple as, keep your children at home and homeschool them.

I’ve said this on other threads and I’ll say it here too because I think we need to get our heads round this.

School might be back. It won’t be normal. It can’t be.
If some people still need to shield, that will almost certainly include staff. Which means that teachers will be missing, support staff might not be there.

In my small rural school, the week before lockdown, out of around 16 staff members normally in, including lunchtime supervisors, school cook, and secretary, we were down 10 staff members.

Some of those will be back - they were off because they or family members had coughs. Around six will not be. They were off due to underlying health reasons. We will be, among others, missing one teacher out of four, and a 1to 1 TA who helps a child with behavioural issues. That’s a lot of staff when we were stretched anyway, before all this started.

We just won’t have the staff to do ‘normal.’ We can have the children in but the idea that it will be operating as though Covid didn’t happen is naive.

That’s before we think about whether we will still have to do some measure of social distancing. If we have to sit the children 2m apart then our school is physically not big enough to put all the children in. So we’ll have to have them in on a rota system. Not sure how much use that will be to working parents, if your child is in mornings only, or every two days rather than each day.p, or alternate weeks.

And if children are still at home, either because they are not on the rota that day, or because they are themselves shielding, there still needs to be support for them which means teachers will need to somehow be in front of a class while simultaneously being available online. Possibly they will have to come out of class for set periods to do online stuff which means we will be down another teacher.

It’s not impossible, at all, but don’t base it on the idea that the kids need to go back to get some normality back. It won’t be normal.

I think any parent who is concerned needs to de reg and home school. Demanding they stay closed in case a child has an undiagnosed health condition is highly risk averse and needs to be balanced against the needs of the wider society.

ANY DEATH THAT COULD BE PREVENTED IS ONE TOO MANY.

But why are you only worried about Covid deaths? What about those suffering and dying in poverty, domestic violence, job loss, homelessness, postponement of operations? Why aren’t these deaths one too many for you?

I think it's important to remember that we still know very little about the virus and its long term impact on children. There is also the syndrome in children that causes organs (including the heart) to become inflamed. There were 20 children in ITU in the UK with this 4 days ago. I haven't heard anything about it since.

You are being a bit premature here as nobody knows when, and how. Save the panicking for when you actually have the facts ,and even then it's probably not justified.

You aren't alone OP

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/fearful-britons-oppose-lifting-lockdown-schools-pubs-restaurants-opinium-poll

When exactly did Scotland say schools aren’t opening again until August?

John Swinney, the education secretary, said it was "unlikely". However, you have to take into account that our end of term for summer is around 24th June. The general feeling is that it may not be worth it for 3 weeks. That's where the "August" thing comes from - start of the new school year.

Byebye. Thanks for that. Clearly things have moved in since that was written though. If you care to google you will see.

I don’t think social distancing measures will work in a school if I’m honest. Did anyone see that report from Denmark where schools are going back? They sit them 2m apart in the classroom but have totally failed to keep them apart at playtimes, so they don’t bother with that now. Still maintain it in the classroom. Can’t help but think, why bother?

We were talking through this for my school the other day. (I am a TA in a year 1 class). Say we are doing maths, and one child needs blocks to help them count. We’ve sterilised all the blocks, so we give some out to child A, who at some point drops one. Child B helpfully picks it up and hands it back. Do we send both children to wash hands? That’s no good, we’ve only got one toilet. Do we now have to leave the class to go and wipe over the hand basin?
Or Child A stands up, doesn’t tuck his chair in, child B moves it out of the way. Child A hangs his coat up, Child B knocks it off when hanging his coat up, and promptly picks it up and hangs it back up.
How much of any of this is a problem?

The person who said they built the nightingale hospitals in two weeks, so we can sort out social distancing measures - what we’re talking about is the behaviour of children. When your normal working uses sentences like “Please don’t lick his face, he doesn’t like it” then how quickly a building can be built is irrelevant.

I’m leaning towards what my sisters nursery have done. Said “we will be open but we cannot social distance. Therefore nursery is as normal, with the risks that currently presents. Make your own choice.”

Does anyone know how you would find out how many children are killed in, for example, car accidents each year? So far two children have died of COVID in the UK. That is really sad, but I feel like more than 2 children have probably been killed by cars in the past year - and that doesn’t stop me putting my child in the car every day.

I also don’t understand why people think schools need more than a month to plan reopening. We planned closing at 2 days notice!! And the majority of schools had some sort of home learning set up within a week. I have no idea what you would spend more than a month discussing/setting up in order for children to return. And I’m a teacher by the way.

I personally feel that schools need to get back. Yes, it increases the risk of children and teachers catching CV. However, supermarket staff, prison officers etc are all exposed to this risk every day already. People go on about how people care more about the economy than lives but don’t seem to realise the two are linked. Poverty kills too. If businesses close as people have no childcare, unemployment goes up and that’s linked to poor health outcomes and higher death rates. If high unemployment, less tax is paid, and what do you think funds the NHS (other than captain Tom of course)? Or pays all those furlough wages? It’s not as simple as money vs lives.

To close a school take a LOT less planning (you basically shut the doors!) than to reopen one. I would have thought that was obvious.

They sit them 2m apart in the classroom but have totally failed to keep them apart at playtimes

I also saw that report and had similar thoughts. I don't understand why if they're allowed together at playtime they have to stay apart in the classroom, it made no sense.

As far as your DS is concerned OP, check with their consultant. Our DS has congenital heart disease and, at the moment, has not been shielded. Because his heart condition is managed and he doesn't use medication he's at no more risk than the average child. The 'new' aspect of this virus, which seems to be attacking a small number of people is an issue and it's one we're monitoring.

As far as undiagnosed underlying conditions? Well, to be honest, these can occur at any age and adults are probably at more risk. Robert Webb, the comedian, was on TV earlier this week promoting his book but also talking about the fact that he has a congenital heart defect that was only noticed at a recent check up. He's in his forties. As it's congenital it means he was born with it obviously. But his heart condition was so serious he was told his heart would probably fail within 6 months if he didn't have the valve dealt with. Now his wasn't helped by his drinking habits, but he was walking around with this condition for forty plus years. He's not the only one unfortunately.

So the only thing you can do is keep a close eye on your children. That's what we will be doing with DS. We'll keep checking with the GP and consultant but he can't spend his life in lockdown. In reality, with his heart condition, he could over do it on sports day and we could lose him. But he joins in, the teachers know not to push him, his friends are aware that they need to get help if he is unwell and he knows his limits. He has to grow up, leave home and manage this every day of his life - the pandemic has brought another layer of worry but we'll just do our best and have sleepless nights until they find a cure or vaccine. It's all we can do.