Back to school? Post Reply

[ronangel]

What is our esteemed  leader thinking? Keep people at two metre distance, no use of playgrounds ect.Send children back to school what a clever idea even just say they can’t catch the dreaded lurgy maybe they can carry it even on their clothes to take home to mummy and all the family.one family has it child takes to school (they do not understand two metres ) let alone wash hands and not touch each other. So one has it coming to school end of day all have it. mummy  wearing her ppe suit   picks child up when gets home takes to special isolation room( with air lock) and removes all child’s clothes steam cleans child and fresh clothes  puts old ones in washing machine removes her protective suit and makes dinner. Still little problem if child is a unharmed carrier….Maybe back to school is not such a good idea after all….

[Luvnyrick]

totally agree what the hell is he thinking of does he actually think little children can understand social distancing.boris Johnson hasn't a clue !!

[SW11er]

I also think it is a slightly risky strategy but there is always a bigger picture.

They need to balance getting people back to work and the economy running and one of the big obstacles is child care.

On the other hand they have to avoid a second spike.

Also who knows when a vaccine will be ready and if we are relying on immunity.

Perhaps a small spread amongst youngster/ younger families (so long as they are still keeping the elderly and and at risk isolated) is a risk worth taking?

As they say if there is another spike - they will revisit.

It’s possibility one calculated measure to get slowly back to normal?

[Luvnyrick]

Wat about the people that are in there 70s are they all classed  as old and can't work I'm in my 70s and still fit and working what am I supposed to do give up and stay in lockdown till it all blows over not all of us have underlying problems.in my opinion Boris Johnson hasn't a bloody clue how can he allow packed transport but not allow parents to visit children only one parent at a time also allow nannies to go back to work isn't that mixing with people it's all rubbish rules !!!

[SW11er]

Luvnyrick- I think the difficulty is the government has to come up with a general plan that works for the population on the whole and can’t cater for every individual case and relies on individuals to apply common sense. To me, as a general rule ensuring those that are deemed more at risk are self isolating and trying to get the country back running via those deemed less at risk is not a bad one.

I am not sure anyone is stopping you working? I guess everyone does their own risk assessment.

[JoClaphamMum]

I agree with SW11er. This is new territory and I do think the government is trying to do the best it can (and I did not vote for Boris Johnson - not a fan).
Unfortunately decisions will not please everyone because we all have different views on what the next steps should be.
I will be one of the parents sending my children back to school. Not to resolve issues around childcare. After so many weeks I got used to work whilst having my children running around. This is simply because I believe it to be the best decision for my children considering the known risks and how much my children are missing school. We are all going to have to take balanced decisions from now on. Who knows when this vaccine is going to come around.

[ronangel]

Also who knows when a vaccine will be ready and if we are relying on immunity.

 

 It takes minimum of 18 months to 2 years to test any vaccine safely. The drug has to be tested on many woman who are pregnant or then get pregnant. The baby then must go full term. Checked after 3 months for problems. This was not done for Thalidomide causing deformities in children. There are also many other long term genetic tests which must also be carried out. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide  

[Noddy1]

As the person above says- the vaccine is likely a long way away- and as a result the virus will be with us for the foreseeable future. So we have to think about how to get children back to school in a safe way rather than denying them an education over that period. I for one will be very happy to send my child back with appropriate safety measures, but of course it is the right thing that they don’t force people to do so.

[bebop]

I think going back is the right thing. More damage to kids mental and physical health to remain. If you assume can’t have vaccine for at least a year..you have to start somewhere. Washing hands every hour and signs up to say don’t touch face or each other rather than keeping 2 meters and them missing out on all the normal parts of school would be my preference. With home schooling option for those classed as vulnerable or with someone in their home vulnerable. We are going to have to,live with this...and with it’s risks. Terrible but Economic and social implications in the future will be even worse.

[Asmac]

The risk in London is now thankfully very very low. With an R of 0.4 that is estimated to be only 24 new infections across the whole of the capital per day and will hopefully be even lower by June 1st.

The children will be kept in bubbles so are only at risk from from the 14 other children and couple of teachers they will come into contact with.

Much evidence from scientific studies elsewhere in the world has shown transmission between children is very unusual. All the young children studied in several studies who were tested positive had contracted it from their own household (they can tell this from the tiny mutations in the virus).

Additionally in the counties where schools have remained open and in those a that have now allowed children back, there have been no major explosions of the disease Linked to the school. Indeed I’m unaware of any outbreak in any school in this country that has remained open for key worker children - the very children most likely to be exposed to the virus.

The gradual reopening of school seems a far more managed risk to me than the numerous people I see meeting up with other families and allowing their children to play with numerous other children on the common every day.

There are so many young children in our community suffering - many in one bedroom flats with no garden. Many children on free school meals are going hungry. Many children do not have the digital means to study at home. Not to mention the horrors for the poor souls subject to domestic or sexual abuse at home.

The two biggest risks I can see are how parents and siblings behave at the school gates (here is something we can really help with) and how the teaching staff travel to and from work safely. My sister has loaned her bike to one of her children’s teachers and we’ve offered up our spare room for a teacher to come and live with us till the end of term. There must be other ways we can help make this work between us.

As others have said - a vaccine is a long way off and we must start to get children back to school in as safe a way as possible - this cannot go in indefinitely. It is far more damaging for our young people.

[Janet14]

Completely agree Asmac. Unfortunately I think the Government and media have done such a good job of instilling fear into us to get us to take it seriously that they now need to reverse that somewhat to get people back into work and school. Yes it’s extremely serious but we now need to look at the stats and risk assess and the risks are now incredibly low compared to other risks. We are at far greater risk driving on the roads and that doesn’t stop us doing it plus we need to get regular treatment for diseases that are actually killing far more people such as cancer back at the forefront!

[CautiousCat]

Personally, I’m keeping my children home on June 1st to see what the school does. I don’t want them to become overwhelmed by these new procedures and put them off school. I know that our teachers will make the environment as friendly and comfortable as possible, but they have had no more warning than us about the reopening and have a massive task on their hands. It’s a big ask on their staff too, and I resent the tone that’s been adopted in the media. Our teachers have families and underlying health conditions too.

[betsyboop]

The last R rate announced by the Government was 0.7 last week, and it is not even a reliable number as testing (and tracing) is still not widely available, won't be for a while and depending on how it's modelled different results are obtained, plus as there is no long term data available it cannot be used to compare against previous R rates
People still travel up and down the country everyday so looking at the R rate in London is useful but not sufficient.

[wasateacher]

A couple of comments.  I note that few of the comments consider the teachers and other school staff - all of whom may live with families of their own and would, therefore, be putting them at risk.  Many teachers live at quite a distance from their schools and will have to travel, possibly on public transport.  

It is also the case that at the current time the effect of the virus on young children is not understood and children could be showing no signs, whilst being a carrier.

I cannot see how in most schools distancing can be observed.  Even in primary schools where children may spend most of the day in the same classroom, they will still probably need to get to their classroom by way of a narrow corridor - although some school building will allow that to be avoided.  They will need to be using the toilets.

How much of the discussion around opening schools is about financial impacts, rather than lives.

[Janet14]

Unfortunately financial impact often leads directly to lives too and if we don’t restart society as best we can many more lives will be lost as a result of that than the virus itself. I think the important thing is parents and staff have the choice and everyone can make their own risk assessment.