Jason Leitch Regrets

[readsalotgirl63]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11879723/Shutting-schools-coronavirus-pandemic-mistake-admits-Scottish-health-chief.html

So now he tells us ! Apologies for the Fail link but don't have a share token for Times, Scotsman, Spectator ....

Wonder if this Damascene moment is linked to the resignation of Ms Sturgeon ?

and those of us who had a problem with keeping schools closed at the time and signed petitions were told we were covidiots who wanted all the teachers to die.

Yes, all this, plus the narrative continued when they eventually returned- for the wee ones this meant no parents in school grounds. Any who attempted it were covidiots who wanted the childrens relatives to die too. P1s and school nursery children not even allowed a parent to the door or a step inside. Parents wearing masks for drop/pick up outside and to wait outside the school gates (A SwinneyBot made up rule which most parents followed without questioning). All such nonsense.

Jason was right up there with the rest of them, it’s too late for him to have regrets now, he needs to dry his eyes and take the consequences of the decisions made back then, just like we’ve all had to, despite us questioning it at the time…though I appreciate he’s not quite the media star that Sturgeon is even though he thought he was back then so it’s harder for him to spin his way out of owning responsibility.

@NowThatsWhatICall22
I'm so glad my LO was settled in nursery before covid kicked in. It was brutal dropping him at the school door on his first day. I'd been in the school because of my older kids but some parents were October P2 before they set foot in the building.
Even his P1 visit was a 45min session in the playground in the rain.

Did he say any more detail than this?
'I wonder if closing the schools is something we’d reconsider. Lockdown is an old-fashioned approach to managing a disease that is going around the world in an aeroplane.’
Because that comment is a far cry from saying that covid wasn't a serious threat to health etc, which is what the "covidiots" (not a term I like) thought. Looks like he's reconsidering the entire lockdown though, so everyone would have been in the same boat - unvaccinated, no idea the impact the illness would have on them etc.
Impact on children comes in many forms, I had children who lost a parent or other family members to covid and that (obviously) had a massive ongoing impact on them.

Almost from the outset BJ accepted covid wasn't going away, and locking down was to slow the spread, hopefully everyone isn't ill at the same time and the hospitals aren't overwhelmed.
I remember buying paracetamol before locking down based on what BJ said.

Yet for about a year Scotland pursued Zero Covid it was never going to happen. As he's pointed out the virus was going round the world in an aeroplane.

Yes it was the pursuit of zero cases which was pointless. After the first crisis when it became clear that the most vulnerable were those aged 70+, they could have taken a different approach for schools and universities - but chose not to.

sturgeon will never ever admit she got it wrong though.

I don't know how it would have turned out if we'd taken a different path. But both of the lockdowns that affected schools were still prior to vaccinations and that would/could have had a dreadful impact on parents of school aged children and all the staff who work in schools.

I have relatives In another European country. They were hit fairly hard by covid too but not as many deaths as Scotland.
Their nurseries reopened in June 2020 and schools reopened in august 2020 and never shut again.
They were slower than us rolling out the vaccine but they kept their schools open. They do have considerably more hospital and ITU beds than we do though.

So I don't think schools open or closed made any great difference really because it became apparent very quickly that those most at risk were the over 70s and clinically vulnerable. Most school children do not have either in their household and if they did then special arrangements could have been made.

My DCs all lost over a year of their childhoods compared to English DCs.

How??

I actually found my under 12s had an easier time than their English cousins of the same age. There were less rules for them in Scotland than England.

How?

No interaction with any other child except siblings for a full 6 months.

Then again, later for months again.

Uni without going to campus for a full year.

No socialising, no trips, no sleepovers, no soft play (closed well over a year), no indoor activities.

No holidays, no birthday parties, no day trips. No fun.

All are left more introverted, cautious, less social than the children they were before.

What I'm not understanding is the claim that Scottish children had a year of significantly different restrictions than their English counterparts.
Personally if your child literally had "no fun" for a year and "lost" a year of their childhood entirely, that sounds like a parenting fail. Obviously we all lost out on experiences - adults too - but the attitude of a year being an entire write-off is not a healthy one, imho.

...which is not to negate it being extremely hard on your children. But your claim was that we had it so much worse in Scotland.

Children as young as 5 were forced to wear masks in Scotland in public places inc school buses.
Secondary kids were masked all day.

England dropped masks for a period in summer 21 Scotland didn't.

People weren't allowed visitors from March 20 to May 21 excluding about 6 weeks in summer and Christmas day.

When booking a holiday for 2021 I made sure we were not in Scotland as England was much more relaxed.

But we did.

Most primary children in England were back in school June/July - especially those who were moving on to secondary. Our P7s left school in March and never went back.

In the second lockdown, schools in England opened the first week of March 2021, ours did not open until after the Easter holidays in mid-April.

My eldest was a first year Uni student 2021-22, his learning was entirely online and he was in the university twice during the whole session. This was not happening in English unis where "paying customers" demand more.

Those of us who live in greater Glasgow were not allowed to have other people in our house for far longer than other parts of Scotland and in England. Of course this led to social isolation for kids.

Don't be trying to rewrite history saying that Scotland was exactly the same as England in their approach to kids as it wasn't.

I do feel some people do try to rewrite what happened or don’t believe the experience we (personally) had.

on MN in particular I’ve been told I was exaggerating that DDs school pretty much shut up shop from March to May and only got in touch with us nearing June to tell us to watch BBC bitesize and joe fking wicks

DD was in P1 and I kick myself now for not having deferred her so all she missed was nursery (January born) but clearly we had no clue what was ahead

@BlueThursday you've just reminded me of nurseries being instructed to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

That played a part in me deciding to set LO to school in 2021, he'd missed chunks of nursery and what he did have was outside so I felt he need more than messing around in a mud kitchen. So put him into school.

Interesting thank you @Sugarfree23 just shows no age was immune from the effects

Going back to school in July, when term ends in June, wouldn't have worked. We were back in (with no social distancing) mid August; England was September.
I know secondary schools reopened in March after lockdown 2 as I was teaching in one. First those sitting practicals, then classes on a rota.
I've no skin in saying things were identical in England, they weren't. I'm responding to the post "My DCs all lost over a year of their childhoods compared to English DCs" which implies a difference of an extreme nature.

My dc in England didn't go back to school until Sept 20 they were years 4 and 7 at the time. Some English schools did return very part for some schools in some year groups but mine certainly didn't.

One of the worst and most pointless things I remember and which I'm sure was a lot harsher than England was that we weren't technically allowed to leave our city (since it was the same as our council area) for MONTHS. Even when we were allowed to get haircuts etc again we still weren't allowed to leave the city to go for a walk in the countryside. Of course we did - I wasn't letting my then 5/6 year old get completely stuck within the city bounds.

Someone mentioned upthread how hard it would have been for kids at the Biff and Chip stage - this was us! Luckily DD ended up learning to read really well (this was largely a result of her being utterly bored while I was working) but even so the homeschooling at that age was a total nightmare. She's 8 now and I can see how much easier it would be just three years on. Our school admittedly had excellent online provision but it needed SO much parental involvement. I was running on fumes that entire time as my job was still continuing with no let up, just at home. I'm still miserable that she missed out on so many things at school - a year in my life isn't such a big deal as it's kinda the same year in year out, but at that age there are so many special things that only happen once.

I know secondary schools reopened in March after lockdown 2 as I was teaching in one.

Lovely. The secondary school you were teaching in had some kids in. The secondary school my S4 and S6 children at the time were attending did not. Like I said, no consistency.

Really? None? Because they were open for students who had practical courses to finish, perhaps yours didn't.
The problem again is everyone talks about what happened to them ("my dc had no online lessons!" Etc) as if it is the same for everyone. I will stop replying now but the hyperbole of a poster saying her (Scottish) dc lost a year of their childhood compared to (presumably all) English children needed to be challenged.

and no, it wasn't actually "lovely" for me to be back in a crowded workplace before vaccinations.

I had a S6 child who was doing Advanced Highers in Biology and Chemistry. He was not in.

I had a S4 child who was doing Nat 5 drama. She was not in.

I think the only people who were in were people doing Higher Art.

Please stop it with the stating as fact what happened, based on your particular experience in your particular school or particular local authority. Our school/local authority was rubbish. No online, very little work set, poor communication, no parents evening (last week was the first parents' evening for my S6 since Nov 2019 when she was in S3), no "checking in" with kids to make sure they were OK. Other people's experiences were different.