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?

Ireland has announced their phased relaxation and schools don’t feature until September

@Greenpop21
Because schools in Ireland break up for summer in may/June and go back end of August

This shows the underlying health conditions of children with covid who were admitted to hospital, up to 30 April. It’s actual numbers, not percentages or anything.

3 children have needed ICU for covid, less than 100 admitted to hospital. Around 5,000 children die each year, all causes.

Fewer teenagers are dying than normal at the moment, because they’re not dying of covid and they’re also not dying from driving stupidly, drinking, getting in fights ...

On the other hand, taken as a whole, primary age children are more at risk from abusive home situations and from the effects of poverty than they are from covid.

I think so many people have worked themselves into such a state and lost so much perspective that the only thing to do is crack on with a gradual reopening, including of schools, so that people see the sky isn't falling. I can't really see all those people who swear they'll stay in until 2025 keeping it up when everybody else has gradually gone back out again and failed to DIE IN SCREAMING AGONY.

Totally agree with this.

On the other hand, taken as a whole, primary age children are more at risk from abusive home situations and from the effects of poverty than they are from covid

I agree. There are thousands of children whose lives are at risk due to lockdown. Far more than would be at risk going back to school

I see, thank you @Greysparkles. But I do note that even come the new school year, their return is phased.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

Spot on. Suicides following businesses collapses and self employed being unable to claim support is a major risk. They are lives too. Children's futures being wrecked (especially those already 14+) is again a serious consideration, low exam achievement may be taken into consideration in the short time but in 20 years they may find themselves passed over for jobs due to poor grades (happens to me, a B was good in the 80's!)

To me it doesn’t seem worth sending them back in stubs and drabs for one term.

Then don't send yours.

There are children in every school for whom it's their only safe place. The only place they get hot meals. Their only real chance of climbing out of the poverty they were born into. And a far greater number of children who will never catch back up from this months-long disruption in their education. The research on previous school closures does not indicate that everyone will simply "catch up".

You have the right to keep yours home. You do not have the right to have everyone kept home until you personally feel it's safe.

I liked the news report that came from China where children had been given the task of making their own one meter hats to help maintain distancing in schools.

metro.co.uk/2020/04/28/children-given-3ft-wide-hats-help-keep-distance-go-back-school-china-12619392/

I think people are in danger of overthinking the risk assessments involved in being back at school (what if a child moves another childs chair, shares a pencil etc). As long as regular handwashing is maintained during the day - and avoiding putting things in their mouth - the risk of passing something on would be minimal surely.

We forget that schools closed 23rd March, the peak of the infection came 3 weeks later (around 8th April according to news report) so for the majority of families the children being at school made not a jot of difference. I do think there will be an increase of illnesses when they go back to school purely based on the fact everyone has been holed up in their own homes for weeks without getting exposure to any germs but because many common illnesses share the same symptoms as Covid19 it will panic parents unneccessarily.

You have the right to keep yours home. You do not have the right to have everyone kept home until you personally feel it's safe

Spot on. Exactly this.

I think England and Wales will be slightly different to the others - Scotland/Ireland/Spain/Italy all end in June so it makes sense to leave until September.

This is the Welsh First Minister on Andrew Marr

www.itv.com/news/wales/2020-05-03/schools-in-wales-are-unlikely-to-reopen-until-beginning-of-june/

It wont be everyone straight away but I do think it makes sense to start the process in June.

I think as well it is very different to when schools shut. The infection rate was between 2 and 3 - in London where I am its now 0.5 to 0.6 so it must be less.

So yes I think by June the risk to children is more due to staying at home than being at school.

So then you have the risk to teachers and working with them - how will that be handled. Is there transmission? This is why I think Primary Schools will be first

The DfE were pushing this Parentkind survey on their Facebook page this week:
r1.dotmailer-surveys.com/1114x93a-984mj1a3?fbclid=IwAR0oHdMOZ27yc7lSPgRStYAi0fbGJxG1FuHPDV-D30WFAqYobLLoBIG_ux4

I can only imagine that they really want to gauge parental opinion asap (closing date tomorrow) and wouldn't be surprised if it informed policy. Tell them what you think!

Just my opinion, which I am entitled too as I am teaching staff.
My own DC are year 11 and first year at uni and they’re situations aren’t great either but we need to do what we need to do. No point reopening only to lockdown again.

@Quartz2208 those countries are weeks ahead of us. They locked down earlier.

In our staff meeting our head asked staff if they would want PPE when we go back and nobody said they would want to teach wearing PPE.

To me it doesn’t seem worth sending them back in stubs and drabs for one term

Well for mine, I do. They are very young, and if they don’t go back until September then 5 months is a significant proportion of their lives. Even if they just want back for a week to see their friends and teachers I think it will be beneficial to them.
If you don’t think it will be beneficial for your children, then don’t send them. But why should everyone have the option taken away from them because you ‘don’t think it’s worth it’?

No point reopening only to lockdown again.

But waiting until September doesn't mean there won't be another lock down. There's just as much chance of further lock down then, perhaps more so due to the increased strain on the NHS from other winter illnesses.

@LittleBearPad there's a flu vaccine, there isn't a Covid 19 vaccine, that's why it's different, and also why the NHS doesn't collapse every year, have staff working without adequate protection and suffering from PTSD. In some countries schools did close during the 1918 flu pandemic, and anyway we're living in a different time now - people including children come into contact with way more people and are more mobile generally which is how Covid has spread so fast across countries.

I'm not saying we wouldn't send our DC back to school but they can't just reopen - I think the "we need to get back to normal" talk on some threads is nuts given the situation, if anyone who says that would be totally fine for hospitals to be overwhelmed and end up saying goodbye to their loved ones (who maybe seemed to be at the peak of fitness with no known underlying conditions) on a screen, then yay for them.

Sometimes I wonder how the media has so much power to influence us but then I see things like this and realise it's just so so easy for them. One headline, one little article about a rumour, and you have multiple threads on here of people worrying.

It’s not about my children. They’re older. It’s about working with key stage 1 children who won’t stay 2m away! Also we have several teachers shielding. Who will teach the children ?

@Howaboutanewname

Your family, in the big scheme of things, is insignificant.

You quoted me and commented as if you making the argument against what I said. Actually we’re saying the same thing. This is my exact point to the OP, that her own family’s situation is important to her, but not in the grand scheme of things. I will of course, have a differing view because of our situation, but because that makes us more important but because the decisions made will negatively affect some people regardless. In the situation of the schools returning and the OP not wanting to send her child, then she has the option to home educate.

Of course the issues about social distancing and staffing are a concern. No one has said they’re not. You explicitly said To me it doesn’t seem worth sending them back in stubs and drabs for one term and that’s the point I was addressing. For a lot of children, there is a point.
The issues of social distancing/shielding/staffing levels are separate to that point.

The gov changed the law last week so people do not have to send their kids to school on a regular basis. There was an amendment to the law I'm assuming to allow parents to keep children at home if they feel it is necessary.

No point reopening only to lockdown again.

But as far as schools are concerned, we get a 'free' lockdown at the end of July for six weeks anyway.

We are taking in vulnerable children already. FSM children are getting lunches delivered. Social workers and teachers are checking up on other children. These things are already in place.

I hope they do a phased return from June. Personally I have a child in reception and starting and settling into school was a huge deal and they need to get some sort of closure from their current class/teacher (my child loves their teacher). It will be quite distressing for them to have spent this time getting used to school and the structure of the day only to find if they go back in September that they have a completely new class room, with a new teacher and new set of class rules and a different structure to the day now that they are in the next year group - it will be too much for them to process.