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?

There's a risk in everything. We can't stay locked up forever. After the atrocious terrorist attacks I admit I felt frightened to go to London. But realised I couldn't lock me and my kids away in my safe little bubble forever and had to take a risk to allow our lives to flourish. We had an awesome time. OK so the risk stats are different. But the same principle applies. You cant stay locked up forever in your bubble. There's risks all over. Viruses we don't even yet know of kicking about. Time to get the kids back and get on with life.

Have to get back to some sort of normality at some point. The virus is probably going to linger for months, if not years, on and off. You do of course have the option to home school if you wish, but I suspect the majority of parents will take the sensible option and send their DCs back to school.

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=theconversation.com/5-reasons-its-safe-for-kids-to-go-back-to-school-137064&ved=2ahUKEwi_8MfDqZfpAhWVr3EKHYIsAtgQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw07onTJT-xarnAnAn90i77B

Australia has different states and kids are going back. They've concluded it's low risk.

PPs have mentioned other deaths and why people are only worried about Covid. It's because you can't catch e.g. car accidents. Just like all the flannel about how pubs stayed open in the blitz - you couldn't catch blitz either.

The bit that is the problem is that we don’t know how much children carry the virus and spread it.

I would like to think that someone has been doing a study on key worker children at school and testing to see if they are catching the virus and if other children are catching it from them (so having the virus before their parents). There has been no mention of any studies like this though.

Also, at the first press conference, Sir Patrick Vallance said that schools would need to be closed for 13-16 weeks (this was before they were actually going to close them).

This news article this week seems to debunk the myth that children are super spreaders - in fact, it’s totally the opposite.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-no-child-known-to-have-passed-covid-19-to-adults-global-study-finds-11981111

It doesn’t mean that they can’t catch it, nor that adults in a childcare setting are safe, but it does add some momentum to the suggestion that primary schools could and should reopen in a controlled and safe manner.

I also think there has been some irresponsible press reporting around the severe immune response being seen in some children. There may well be a link - the increase in cases seems a bit weird to be anything more than a coincidence - BUT of the two mothers I saw interviewed about it, neither of their children had tested positive for COVID19 (although the news articles implied they were linked).

Sending low risk children back to school for six weeks before the summer holidays gives the scientists a window to prove (or otherwise) that the infection rate isn’t hugely affected by children going back to school. Six weeks back, six weeks to assess the impact. If there is little or no change then schools can reopen in September.

I hope in that interim period though that parents can chose to not send their children if they see fit. They are not guinea pigs and for those children with underlying health conditions there will be concerns. However, if the science says it’s ok for my kids to be at school then they will be going back. We have to drive to school - there is statistically more chance of them being involved in a serious traffic accident than being severely affected by COVID19.

So, a “schools are open but if you have concerns then you can keep your children off” stance coming before the holidays followed by a “schools are open and compulsory (or you home educate)” stance from September is, I feel, quite likely if things move the way I expect.

A few more weeks' takes us to the school holidays

I don’t know where you are but there are 10 school weeks left where I am until the summer holidays.

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.

This is overly simplistic @SoloMummy. I often worked from home pre-Covid when my children were at school. The amount of work I could do then versus now differs massively. The 30% of people wfh, if they have any type of caring responsibilities particularly for young children, are no way as efficient as they were pre-Covid or if children could go back to school.

Life dies have to return to some type of normal soon. Staying away from school (when it’s not a conscious choice to homeschool) has other negative implications for children, particularly for less privileged children.

*does

They won’t be at school much even if they do reopen after Whitsun holiday. It’s a 7 week term I think and if only part time, I think there’s no point getting excited because they’ll soon be home again for summer.

There is no evidence at all that children are superspreaders. They are with flu, but not with this.

I am interested to know why people think September is a magic bullet to send everyone back? There won't be a vaccine so why is that the magic month?

I am hoping that kids will be back after the May holiday. To get them back to their friends and routine and education

@SoloMummy I'm a farmer. We do most of our paperwork and less essential jobs during term time. Over the summer I don't necessarily need schools, just some form of childcare.

Its also just a bit about a break. I'm homeschooling mon fri and fitting work around that therefore not having a break at all. It's like working harvest all year round. No evenings/days off is unsustainable.

PPs have mentioned other deaths and why people are only worried about Covid. It's because you can't catch e.g. car accidents. Just like all the flannel about how pubs stayed open in the blitz - you couldn't catch blitz either.

Yes but you can catch flu, which can be really dangerous. You used to be able to catch polio and diphtheria and measles (still can in absence of mmr) - again all really dangerous. The schools didn’t shut. There will be mental health issues caused by lockdown and the inevitable recession. These will cause deaths too.

Don’t tell me I’m not thinking of my kids! You mean I’m not thinking of YOUR kids? That’s your job

All children deserve an education. We work as a whole society. All our children need the same opportunities to move forwards. How will that work with shielding families, multi-generational households and high risk children, their families and school staff? Your family, in the big scheme of things, is insignificant.

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

What about diagnosed conditions? Asthma alone exists in several children in all classrooms around the country. All children technically ‘at risk’. All children who can expect to live long productive lives, same as their non-asthmatic peers. Do we deny them an in-school education, possibly for years so their risks are reduced? Is that reasonable? What about asthmatic school staff?

I am not suggesting that any society can just shut down and wait till a vaccine appears but I do think we need to think carefully about ensuring all children get the education they deserve as we move forwards. No one asked to be asthmatic, or diabetic or have kidney problems, or childhood cancer at the age of 5. No lifestyle choices involved. The majority will live to old age. Are we happy to have a two-tier society of ‘healthy’ and ‘not healthy’ in the future?

I would have thought the best thing would be for schools to reopen more as childcare, to enable more parents to return to work. So to extend it from just key workers, to others who need childcare too. Those who can continue to keep their children at home should.

Work can still be set on line by the teachers who remain at home, and the staff in school can support the children in school do this same work, just as the parents at home who can, support their own children.

I think everyone is going to need to start remembering that life is inherently risky and they are going to have to live with it, just like they did before COVID19.

Yep.

Teachers are not a sanctified class - everyone will faces 'risk' at work (there are many ways to die). Stay home for a year if you want, I don't care, but certainly there are some brave souls that are willing to return the classroom?

Banjaxxed for me it’s because September is 4 months away so more time for everything to be clearer, better treatment and management of the disease too.

I haven’t left the classroom. Still teaching keyworker children.

So dont send them in then- homeschool yourself and deregister them.
I dont know why this is such an apparently controversial statement?- its FACT.
You can home school your kids if you so choose- there is a solution to this problem here isnt there?

“....... but certainly there are some brave souls that are willing to return the classroom?”

That’s quite a chilling statement about our immediate/medium term future, isn’t it. The thought that people now need to be “brave” to do hitherto perfectly regular jobs. Made me shudder reading it.

So dont send them in then- homeschool yourself and deregister them.
I dont know why this is such an apparently controversial statement?- its FACT.
You can home school your kids if you so choose- there is a solution to this problem here isnt there?

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Correct. If you don't want to send your kids back, don't. Simple.

I know AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter, I’m wondering if people haven’t previously known that homeschooling is an option?
School is not compulsory.

I would have thought the best thing would be for schools to reopen more as childcare, to enable more parents to return to work.

That could potentially mean the vast majority of children return to school.

Those who can continue to keep their children at home should.

What about those who could keep them at home, but want their children to return. As lack of social interaction and schooling are having a negative impact on their child?

not sure how they can consider opening schools at this point - we had over 6000 new cases yesterday! Countries that are reopening schools have that figure way down into the 100s - allowing track and trace to be a viable option. Until Johnson sorts ppe and stops the virus spreading to healthcare workers and their families, we’re going to keep getting a high number of new cases each day

Almost none of the posts on these threads give any thought to the effect on the wider infection rate that reopening schools will have. When children bring the virus home, infection won't stop at the children's families. Lots of parents will work outside the home and will then pass on the virus to their work colleagues who will pass it on to their families who will pass it to their colleagues. Reopening schools also reopens lots of transmission routes for the virus. Lots of people are putting up a straw man argument suggesting the only alternative to schools reopening now is to not reopen at all until we have a vaccine. But waiting a bit longer would give the government time to put a proper testing regime in place, which would enable it to spot individual outbreaks and close individual schools on a case by case basis if there are signs of an outbreak at the school. Can't see anything like that happening by 1 June (which in any event appears to be nothing more than a date conjured up by the Telegraph for a clickbait headline).