Scottish schools opening

[chocciechocface]

I was ready for schools opening, but this new research has given me pause for thought. I think this came out after Sturgeon's decision. What do you all think?

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/31/georgia-children-covid-outbreak/#click=t.co/Y9gSG9zENz

Quote from the article:

"A new report suggests that children of all ages are susceptible to coronavirus infection and may also spread it to others — a finding likely to intensify an already fraught discussion about the risks of sending children back to school this fall.

The analysis, released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, details an outbreak at a sleep-away camp in Georgia last month in which 260 children and staffers — more than three-quarters of the 344 tested — contracted the virus less than a week after spending time together in close quarters. The children had a median age of 12. The camp had required all 597 campers and staff members to provide documentation that they had tested negative for the virus before coming. Staff were required to wear masks, but children were not."

@chocciechocface that’s all we need ! This is what worries me that people have this attitude. I was talking to a neighbour the other day who couldn’t understand why school dinner hall was more risky and that this should carry on as normal. People just don’t get it.

I would suggest a child wearing a mask says something about wearing it to protect other people, if anyone comments on it.
I would certainly be appreciative of children wearing masks to help their decrepit teacher, ie me!

Have you read the NYT article about Israel on a different thread. It has really worried me. What on earth are we letting ourselves in for...?

www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-schools-reopen.html

There's this section in the article on recommendations:

Public health experts worldwide have coalesced around a set of guidelines for reopening schools.

A major recommendation is to create groups of 10 to 15 students who stay together in classrooms, at recess and lunchtime, with teachers assigned to only one group. Each group has minimal contact with other groups, limiting any spread of infection. And if a case of Covid-19 emerges, one group can be quarantined at home while others can continue at school.

Other key recommendations include staggering schedules or teaching older students online, keeping desks several feet apart, sanitizing classrooms more frequently, providing ventilation and opening windows if possible, and requiring masks for staff and students old enough to wear them properly.

We are in Aberdeen and the more I think about it the more I think we really should t be opening schools until there is sign that this cluster is under control. What are they thinking? I know we have promised schools will go back and everyone is looking forward to it. But surely not just as cases are starting to take off.

These recommendations are all well and good if they are temporary but absolutely useless as any kind of permanent measure, even if there was the resource to implement them. Schools here were going to be going back one day a week for many kids! Totally hopeless.

Can't you apply for homeschooling on the basis of ongoing unresolved health concerns?
We could. I'm waiting to see all the guidelines from our school regarding any steps they are putting in place to mitigate risk.

I agree @Molofololo

Not everyone is looking forward to it either. I think it's got disaster written all over it, and that the Scottish Government caved to a bunch of loud parents who have an oddly aggressive agenda to get kids in schools no matter what.

I had genuinely not realised the hatred for UsFor Them until this thread.

I want my child back in school as he’s depressed, lonely, and has been uneducated for months. No agenda, no flat earthing, big fan of vaccinations.

I want them back FT but given the blended learning plans were made they should have started with those for a few months

Why couldn't your son do any of the work at home, Wouldbegood? I totally accept no one is as well educated as if in a classroom, but you say he is uneducated for months now?
UfT have won so are now annoyed about (in no particular order) masks, lines around teachers' desks, packed lunches, t&t, staggered start next week, exam results and uniform. Might have left a few out.

They were told they could do the suggested worksheets if they chose. No feedback. He’s twelve and won’t listen to me. I’m a single parent and need to be his mother, not his teacher. He’s an only child so no company of peers. It’s a pretty miserable existence for a twelve year old boy locked down with only his old mother. I felt I needed to speak up for him and his right to be in school. Balancing the risks it seems the right decision to me. I appreciate others disagree. But I don’t really get the vitriol to a group trying to do the best for their children. The aim of the group in its inception was back to school, no social distancing etc, and it’s stuck to that. I personally don’t mind a part time week to start as I’m at home anyway and can work here, but it’s not so easy for everyone.

@SengaStrawberry

I want them back FT but given the blended learning plans were made they should have started with those for a few months

Exactly. Test the waters then inch forward. Not open the doors as if nothing ever happened.

We've just seen in Aberdeen what happens when you try to rewind to February. But yeah, let's do it with kids and send them all home to their families every day.

But Would who the fuck are they to risk my kids health with their demand for FT school and no social distancing?

As I say, I hadn’t realised the vitriol.

I can’t see why children can’t return full time but effort is made to allow more flexible rules on temporary home school for people with families at higher risk from covid.

Isn’t the mistake really opening pubs, allowing travel and not prioritising schools in the first place? It feels like due to the summer holidays we’ve prioritised the wrong freedoms - unavoidable due to those holidays but a shame none the less.

The aim of the group was fine.

I am sure the majority of people who joined just want their children back at school. Sadly, that aim is now lost in the rage and ranting.

I feel sorry for anyone who attempts reason as the response makes AIBU look like group hug and it ends up getting deleted after the mass pile on. It is their agenda or you are a bad parent, unprofessional teacher or a simple buffoon misled by fake science. No wonder the parents who just wanted school open don't post. But it's the unpleasant and downright bonkers stuff that's there for the world to read and judge the group by.

The aim on the face of it was fine but they were not up for any compromise at all and there were a lot of anti vax loopers

Hence why I joined but left very quickly

I think things would have been very different if the SG had said plan was back full time with contingency for part time rather than the other way round.

But people just can’t manage work without school being back. They can’t survive with no income.

@WouldBeGood

As I say, I hadn’t realised the vitriol.

They can certainly dish it out though. Would I think what your ds got (S1?) is below standard and very different to what I provided for the same age group - feedback on every piece submitted to me, for a start. You should/could have brought it up with he school. But the bottom line is you simply don't know that a 100% return to school without SD is "best" for our children. Your dc or mine could get sick or even die. Your dc's teachers could get sick, be off longterm, or even die. My dc's could lose a teacher or lose a mother. You don't know, yet you thought your opinions were worth more than the views of scientists and doctors. And that is why people don't like UFT.

It feels to me like we put our children into lockdown 5 months ago with the objective of getting schools back to a safer position. And now we are almost back to square one, albeit with better testing capability. Have you seen the graph in the evening express showing the number of cases in Aberdeen. It is quite an uptick in cases suddenly.

But people just can’t manage work without school being back. They can’t survive with no income.

So unplanned days and weeks off are better?

@Rainuntilseptember you clearly think your views are correct!

I think it’s really rude to dismiss my views like that. You have no idea how I cane to them.

Children don’t die of Covid except in very rare circumstances either.

But people just can’t manage work without school being back. They can’t survive with no income
Then if this is about facilitating parents going back to work then why wasn't the campaign about more WFH, about extending hubs to include DCs of parents who couldn't WFH or didn't want to. I would have had no problem with that because it would have enabled small bubbles for those DCs and teachers who needed to shield could have provided online learning for those of us who can WFH. It would have been the perfect way to open up gradually and it would have been backed by science. It would also have empowered all parents not just those whose agenda fitted the government's.