Schools not re-opening before March

[IL Cattivo]

So how do people feel about this, especially those cooped up at home trying to work with multiple young children climbing the walls and not getting the real benefits of a proper classroom learning experience? Now the 2nd time in 12 months and for most, due to it being in the middle of Winter, it's even tougher than the 1st time.

Covid-19: England's schools will not reopen before March

All teachers being vaccinated 2 weeks before March should now become one of the vaccine priorities IMPO.

 

[Inked]

So how do people feel about this, especially those cooped up at home trying to work with multiple young children climbing the walls and not getting the real benefits of a proper classroom learning experience? Now the 2nd time in 12 months and for most, due to it being in the middle of Winter, it's even tougher than the 1st time.

Covid-19: England's schools will not reopen before March

All teachers being vaccinated 2 weeks before March should now become one of the vaccine priorities IMPO.

Personally I’m happy about it.
I’d rather have my kids (8 & 4) at home at the moment until more vaccinations have taken place.
I agree, teachers need to be a priority group.

 

[Aj33]

Is what it is.

Doubt they will be back before Easter, it was hinted that the 8th was at the earliest.

make do, get on with it.

 

[tapzilla2k]

Best to keep schools closed whilst the vaccination programme progresses. I think we might have to write off the school year tbh. Which means Government will have to pony up the cash to ensure all pupils are able to catch up with what they missed. As for GCSE and A-Levels ? Pump cash into Sixth Forms and FE Colleges so they are able to offer courses to the under 18's whose GCSE and A-Levels have been wrecked by the pandemic, when it's safe for face to face teaching to resume (whenever that will be).

 

[IL Cattivo]

Interesting, I have seen some very controversial POV's being thrown around on this subject, one of which revolves around comments relating to why we are risking and potentially destroying the futures of our younger generations to protect those that have essentially lived most of their lives or chose not to lead healthier lifestyles? Sounds harsh and morally barbaric I know!

I guess what has really got under my skin is the fact that countries like New Zealand, Vietnam, and Australia are pretty much going about their business within their countries normally nowadays, while we're suffering as a result of incompetencies and lack of earlier action. i.e stricter border control movement from the onset etc..

 

[xar]

I am conflicted on this. It is the ultimately right thing to do, but home schooling 2 primary school kids (6 and 10) while having 2 full time working parents at home is fairly brutal, meaning we are often working to 9pm or later just to catch up on activity missed during the day, and that isn't helping our mental state, which isn't helping the kids. We are going to bed late and exhausted, but getting up earlier to try and get a foot up on the day, and the cycle repeats. The kids are missing their friends and just generally getting cabin fever, while we get more and more stressed. So I would like them back just to get some breathing space. But thats accepting it as a personal and self-centered view.

The first lockdown was not too bad, but this one feels a lot tougher with the kids being at home.

 

[Philly112]

I am conflicted on this. It is the ultimately right thing to do, but home schooling 2 primary school kids (6 and 10) while having 2 full time working parents at home is fairly brutal, meaning we are often working to 9pm or later just to catch up on activity missed during the day, and that isn't helping our mental state, which isn't helping the kids. We are going to bed late and exhausted, but getting up earlier to try and get a foot up on the day, and the cycle repeats. The kids are missing their friends and just generally getting cabin fever, while we get more and more stressed. So I would like them back just to get some breathing space. But thats accepting it as a personal and self-centered view.

The first lockdown was not too bad, but this one feels a lot tougher with the kids being at home.

That's not self centred at all. Myself and my wife have it easy, it's people like you who are keeping the country going. You're doing a fantastic job, I can't imagine how stressful it must be.

 

[Inked]

That's not self centred at all. Myself and my wife have it easy, it's people like you who are keeping the country going. You're doing a fantastic job, I can't imagine how stressful it must be.

Agree completely! I’m incredibly thankful for the fact that my kids are a couple of years younger and that while my wife works full time but from home and I only work part time (and nights) so we have it a bit easier than most.

 

[inzaman]

Our son is at an independent school, year 8, and they have been great. He is on Teams calls from 8.30 to 4pm, with breaks, and pretty much can just get along with it himself. I help him on a few projects he has and it’s good fun. I am working from home and sometimes he will sit in the home office with me and that’s nice as we are together, even though we are both working its nice just being together.

Our daughter though is a different kettle of fish, she is in state school year 3. She will have a call in the morning for 30 mins or so and that is almost it for teacher time. She cannot get on with it herself so my wife has to try and give her some time, even though she is also working from home and is busy, I am busy pretty much 8-10 hours a day working so just have no time.
The school have been great though and there is work for her to do if one of us was either not working period or on furlough. We, well my wife, just focuses on spag, maths, and English with everything else not being looked at and we’ve told the school as much. We also pay for four hours a week Teams private tutor time to go over items we cannot explain (how did maths additions become so complicated at year three) and also so my wife can try and get some work done.

When it gets to 4pm/4.30pm when my son finishes we stop school work regardless and let them play. They need this time and we decided this was more important for us all to relax and them to play etc rather than stressing that we are falling behind with school work and being tired and stressed all the time and my wife catches up with some of her work.
So long as our daughter is getting the basics the rest can follow once in class. Last term the school scored some one to one funding which our daughter benefited from so I imagine this will have to happen again once they go back.

At my daughters school we know the teachers quite well as we both help out and do a lot for the school PTA funding, and from talking to them for the most part they just want the kids back as it is also stressful times for them as they have kids in class and kids online, and the kids in class are not necessarily their class etc.

Obviously like probably everyone else, it’s not ideal and it’s another massive mess from the government as the Monday they were going back and then the Tuesday schools closed, you can’t blame the teachers as they are trying their best and in some instances with limited resources and limited IT training. Teaching on Teams, when did that ever happen or who would of thought that a few months ago.
We are just trying to keep the home environment as stress and care free for the children as possible and not over burdening them with work as we are not teachers and teaching methods have changed so much since we were at school, and I am just happy that at the moment we both still have jobs.

 

[iamsludge]

I don’t think teachers should get any priority. The only sensible course of action is order of vulnerability. People who work in shops are likely at more risk than teachers.

Why should my son’s 30 year old healthy teacher get priority over his grandad who had a heart bypass 18 months ago? I’m glad the government agree with me on this.

 

[iamsludge]

Schools need to stay shut until September like last year. I do think the government know this but can’t say so due to the backlash/revolt.

Phase one vaccinations will not be complete until Summer (2 weeks after second dose). Vaccine supply is going to be problematic imho.

 

[Miss Mandy]

I don’t think teachers should get any priority. The only sensible course of action is order of vulnerability. People who work in shops are likely at more risk than teachers.

Why should my son’s 30 year old healthy teacher get priority over his grandad who had a heart bypass 18 months ago? I’m glad the government agree with me on this.

I don't think anyone is saying teachers should get priority over the older age groups, I think people are saying teachers should get priority once the older age groups and those who are extremely clinically vulnerable are all vaccinated.
The risk of transmittion is worse in school than retail because they're with more people for longer often in classroom where social distancing isn't possible. Shops at least have the option to limit how many people enter the store and staff are usually only in contact with others for short periods of time.

As someone who works in a school that last week lost a perfectly healthy 43 year old teacher to covid I can see the benefits of vaccinating school staff as early as possible. Particularly as a 80% of our support staff are CEV or over 60 years old. On the flip side though how much is vaccinating school staff going to help with community transmission? Most transmission in schools is pupil to pupil with those infected pupils then transmitting to their household.

 

[IL Cattivo]

@Miss Mandy - Some great points there, especially in your last paragraph.

The country absolutely cannot experience a 3rd lockdown, for a whole host of many reasons. So at what point does the gov call this? The 8th March is an 'earliest' expectation, but we all know that teens, 20, 30 & 40 year olds are never going to be vaccinated 2/3 weeks before that date, let alone school staff alongside the 50/60 age groups!

If what I saw on the news was correct, around 7/8 million people had so far been vaccinated out of the current UK population of 67.61 million.

If it took the best part of 1 month to get a fraction under 12% of the population done, we sure do have a ways to go before even 3/4 of the population has its first vac jab.

 

[iamsludge]

I still don’t think anyone’s job (outside of a healthcare setting) should give them any kind of priority if I’m honest.

Vulnerability (as best we can judge it) has to be the way.

The REACT-1 report today showed that with health care workers the prevalence of covid disease is 1.48% compared to 1.35% in the wider population.

I don’t think there will be much more risk to school staff compared to the general populace. If the teachers and pupils were not wearing masks, cleaning desks, social distancing and ventilating classrooms etc. I would likely think differently.

 

[Miss Mandy]

I still don’t think anyone’s job (outside of a healthcare setting) should give them any kind of priority if I’m honest.

Vulnerability (as best we can judge it) has to be the way.

The REACT-1 report today showed that with health care workers the prevalence of covid disease is 1.48% compared to 1.35% in the wider population.

I don’t think there will be much more risk to school staff compared to the general populace. If the teachers and pupils were not wearing masks, cleaning desks, social distancing and ventilating classrooms etc. I would likely think differently.

There is a much higher risk for school staff than most other places because some of those things you list aren't actually manageable.
Social distancing is pretty much impossible and everyone is in the classroom for an hour at a time right beside each other. Ventilation is poor and opening windows isn't always possible particularly when it's been as cold as it has. Cleaning desks is only a box ticking exercise as there isn't enough time to do it properly.

Hopefully by the time schools go back many of the staff will have already had their vaccines due to their age and their pre-existing conditions, but if not I do think vaccinating school staff is something that needs to be considered. Not only for their safety, but also because if case numbers in staff escalate we end up with the problem of not having enough staff to cover classes and schools have to close.

 

[Steven]

Notice the thread title does not mention the year

 

[JimmyMac]

Covid: Scottish schools to start phased return this month

The country's youngest primary and nursery pupils are likely return to the classroom from 22 February.

www.bbc.co.uk

phased return in scotland starting with younger primary from 22nd feb

more recently we have seen our government do similar slightly behind so sounds like week commencing 1st march could be the beginning of something happening at schools in England

 

[1crb1]

Covid: Scottish schools to start phased return this month

The country's youngest primary and nursery pupils are likely return to the classroom from 22 February.

www.bbc.co.uk

phased return in scotland starting with younger primary from 22nd feb

more recently we have seen our government do similar slightly behind so sounds like week commencing 1st march could be the beginning of something happening at schools in England

Fingers crossed.

This is an interesting new study from Iceland on transmission in children.
The study isolated SARS-CoV-2 samples from every positive case, sequenced genome of virus, and tracked the mutation patterns (to see who passed to who).
The study goes on to say they found no incidence of a child infecting a parent.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2006100?articleTools=true

 

[inzaman]

Covid: Scottish schools to start phased return this month

The country's youngest primary and nursery pupils are likely return to the classroom from 22 February.

www.bbc.co.uk

phased return in scotland starting with younger primary from 22nd feb

more recently we have seen our government do similar slightly behind so sounds like week commencing 1st march could be the beginning of something happening at schools in England

Hopefully, that would be great if that is the case.

 

[rustybin]

Fingers crossed.

This is an interesting new study from Iceland on transmission in children.
The study isolated SARS-CoV-2 samples from every positive case, sequenced genome of virus, and tracked the mutation patterns (to see who passed to who).
The study goes on to say they found no incidence of a child infecting a parent.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa2006100?articleTools=true

That's an old study I believe. Wasn't that doing the rounds at the start of the outbreak?

There's surely no question now that children can infect each other and their parents?

 

[1crb1]

That's an old study I believe. Wasn't that doing the rounds at the start of the outbreak?

There's surely no question now that children can infect each other and their parents?

Yes your correct, it was from the summer. This is the only study to be conducted in this way so would be the best way to see how transmission occurs. I think child to adult (in varying amounts due to child’s age) is possible but a vast amount less than adult to adult transmission.

 

[JimmyMac]

Covid: Scottish schools to start phased return this month

The country's youngest primary and nursery pupils are likely return to the classroom from 22 February.

www.bbc.co.uk

phased return in scotland starting with younger primary from 22nd feb

more recently we have seen our government do similar slightly behind so sounds like week commencing 1st march could be the beginning of something happening at schools in England

close, March 8th is the target.....

 

[iamsludge]

Smaller humans, with smaller lungs, will likely expel less particles, unless they start singing and shouting...

I can see primary schools starting to re-open first.

Children may transmit coronavirus at the same rate as adults: what we now know about schools and COVID-19

The risk associated with schools is tied to the level of community transmission. The more community transmission there is, the more transmission there will be in schools.

theconversation.com

 

[rustybin]

High school leaders urged teachers to book vaccine slots 'as social workers'

Teaching staff at the King David High School in Crumpsall were encouraged to vaccine slots at the Etihad's mass vaccination centre

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Storm a'brewing here. Anecdotally, and first hand - lots of teachers managed to get their jab over the last few days - lots were turned away.

If Boris is expecting schools to fully re-open to all children any time soon he needs to address this.

 

[IL Cattivo]

I'm still somewhat confused as to the timings of all this.. If he announces today that all schools will re-open on the 8th March, well that's not enough time for the vulnerable teachers to have had the vaccine and get the full 2/3 weeks effects of it before the Children start flooding through the door?

or have I missed something here?