Guilt free railing

[WouldBeGood]

The place to vent, moan, rail, cheer: whatever you’re feeling about Covid, and the rules, and life and the universe.

I’ve started this as I’m feeling scared and fed up with increasing restrictions despite vaccines. I feel that what should be a more positive time is instead bringing more and more doom.

I want the simple pleasures of life back, as well as all the big stuff.

I hope, at the very least, we get a date for P4+ returning to school. We can't do this much longer.
Glad the snow is gone and we can get out a bit more.

I'm not convinved @NotAnActualSheep. Primary school seems to be less contentious and less of a risk - I'm not sure that we won't see primary back but secondary still on limited blended learning for a while longer

I suspect my 6th year DS will not be back in school until the days of his 2 assessments.

So much for buying that new S6 blazer!

I'm hoping P1-3 are definitely going back next week as there hasn't been very much work done in my online classroom recently. There were dark mutterings from JF and JL about a slowing down in the vaccine programme due to "supply issues" and a "stalling in the downward figures" so that doesn't bode well.

I do think NS will put P4-7 back fairly soon afterwards as there's an election looming.

Can only think that next year a lot of people will get a bargain on the uniform exchange.

EIS want ‘blended learning’ for P1-3 so that pupils can socially distance in the classroom. Government seem pretty firm that this isn’t appropriate or possible for small children.

Tbh I find the EIS’s (public) approach in this quite puzzling. Most parents would support the availability of masks and ventilation they’re calling for, but the news always trots out the general secretary to talk with great authority on either things which aren’t going to happen or be widely supported (making P1s socially distance in class), things which parents are just not ever going to get behind (long-term blended learning), or things which are really not up to them to decide (what case levels and R numbers ‘need’ to be for the county as a whole). And I know it’s partly the media’s responsibility for going straight for the “schools open? EIS says NO!” angle, but you know, maybe notice how well that’s going down before lapping up the publicity?

So praying for good news tomorrow

Yep S6 blazer and £20 for braiding to be added as Depute Head Girl so next to useless in uniform swap. New addition to uniform of hoodies so they could be less frozen with the windows open. No practical subjects so could be a long time before she sets foot in school.

Where I teach no uniform for pupils in for practicals dress for warmth and comfort.

I think blended learning could be even worse than totally online learning. How would schools decide which children would come in at one time - it would be a nightmare for families with some children in at a different time to others.
I can teach face to face or online - I can't do both at the same time, so how would that work. There seems to be a surplus of supply teachers who can't get any work atm but that definitely isn't the case where I am.

That's a thin market lidl!

The thought of trying to make young primary kids social distance makes me absolutely despair to be honest. They're learning so much about social interaction at that age, habits that will be with them for life, and the unions want them to learn that you must stay 2m apart from other humans? No. Nope. Nah

@WouldBeGood I'm glad I so far resisted getting a pet. Not sure I can handle more dependents! I get plenty of early mornings thanks to the toddler.

I was under the impression that blended learning is a pita for teachers also, but at this point I'm willing to take my day a week. I know we're lucky that ours is P2 and so probably going back. Plenty of friends are looking at having one at school and one at home.

All I can do is laugh at the idea of trying to get P1-3 to socially distance. It would last 5 min tops before they totally forget. Even with half numbers there is still 7 kids per adult.

Unless we change our society and become more like say Singapore or China where kids get drilled from a young age it just won't happen.

I would take anything at this point. An hour in the playground or football pitch would do.

@Dyinghouseplant I had to chuckle - exactly the same here. Any offer, any offer at all!

A society where kids don't hug and/or wrestle with their pals in the playground isn't really one I'd want.

@StatisticallyChallenged totally agree

@StatisticallyChallenged

I'm not convinved *@NotAnActualSheep*. Primary school seems to be less contentious and less of a risk - I'm not sure that we won't see primary back but secondary still on limited blended learning for a while longer

Bleargh. Just trample on my hopes then... That's fine

I agree that SD for primary children is neither possible nor desirable! I thought that was kind of accepted, that under 12s have never (apart from the initial lockdown) had to socially distance from their peers in Scotland. It would be crazy for them to backtrack on that now. It's obviously had no impact on transmission which has been going up and down regardless of how many people primary school children are licking.

I really don’t understand why ever more draconian rules are being talked of and implemented now, given the vaccine

When you listen to the scientific advisers they seem adamant that we won't be going back to normal even with the vaccines. And I don't think it's a scare tactic.

I hope we will get more freedoms but given the lack of control of borders and the prevalence of disease here we could easily end up with a variant that the vaccines don't work against. Just far too much horrible uncertainty. Sometimes I just want to bury my head in the sand and pretend none of this is real!

I just don’t think we should remain locked up for things that may very well not happen.it’s disproportionate then.

And many scientists don’t think that.

Well the variants have already happened. The SA one is bad news and it's been detected all over uk. We will have to wait till autumn for AZ to update their vaccine so we really don't want that variant to spread.

Think some of the other vaccines do better against SA variant, but Pfizer supply is limited at the moment and the others are not coming until April.

I'm hoping they are under promising so they can over deliver, but that doesn't seem to be a big feature of any previous SG messaging.

Good news though as numbers of new cases reported today is right down - I know it's a Sunday so cases are generally lower, but fingers crossed it's firm movement in the right direction.