Kids back to school

Totally from a different angle a teacher friend is currently trying to find a suitable bag to carry all her equipment with her as she will be doing the moving about. She needs something big enough for A4 files and lots of pockets for pens and lunches etc. She's been told a baby changing bag is probably the best thing.

I have seen how this lock down has affected my 8 year old grandson. We will carry on as we did before and hope he will have some sort of normality in his life.

I would certainly wipe down their hands before they get into the car, and yes, changing out of school uniform once they get home seems sensible too.

Actually, I am suprised they don't always do so. My mother never let us wear our school things at home.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Greenfinch, I understand how you feel. Our nineteen year old and fifteen year old grandsons live with us. The nineteen year old is waiting to find out when he can go back to university. The fifteen year old goes back to school next week. He will be doing GCSEs this academic year. We are both in our mid seventies and I have MS. They need to be given every chance possible in life. We have to take every precaution possible and keep our fingers crossed!

Jillybird you are right, it will be quite difficult for teachers and TAs to fully socially distance with very young children. I used to teach young children, I taught Nursery class, Reception class, and both Year 1 and Year 2 at various times during my teaching career. We were advised to never touch the children, nothing to do with Coronavirus or infection control, and everything to do with safeguarding, and protecting ourselves from unfounded accusations. It was difficult, but not impossible. If I was still teaching, and perhaps teaching the Nursery class, that’s the pre school year in a school, so 3-4 year olds, I would wear a face mask, and possibly a visor. If a child fell over I would put gloves on (we already did this when dealing with blood) and sit the child on a chair and wash the would. I would soothe the child with words, not cuddles. I would dress the wound if necessary and suggest a quiet activity until the child felt better. It is possible to take care of other people’s children without cuddling them. But pretty well impossible to socially distance at two metres from them.
You may be reassured that there has not been a single teacher world wide who has contracted Covid19 from a pupil and died as a result of it, as far as I understand it.

Trisher, your friend needs a little plastic crate on wheels with a long handle; we all had them when I was teaching as you could put exercise books in as well, and lift straight into the boot of the car for a jolly evening's marking.
I use mine now for art classes; always so much stuff to carry.

trisher

Totally from a different angle a teacher friend is currently trying to find a suitable bag to carry all her equipment with her as she will be doing the moving about. She needs something big enough for A4 files and lots of pockets for pens and lunches etc. She's been told a baby changing bag is probably the best thing.

I'm a music peri teacher and I would recommend a small suitcase on wheels. You can fit loads in it and you won't hurt your back carrying a full bag. It will also be easy to wipe clean in this current climate.

As for routines. As a visiting teacher I must teach in bubbles and then sanitise between bubbles. There's also lots of rules and regs re teaching music to follow too! I also will be looking after GCh a couple of days a week while my DD teaches. They have been part of my bubble since lockdown restrictions were eased. I will not be asking them to change or shower ( 2 and 7 yrs) once I get them to their house. They've been really good at hand washing so that's the main thing for them. I also will not be taking them to the park to play which we used to do before lockdown. I will be keeping my distance at the school gate but this shouldn't be a problem as I don't know anyone and the classes will be having staggered exit times. I am a little anxious about it and will if necessary wear a mask and wash or sanitise hands and keep my distance as best I can. I'm not really sure what else I can do.

maddyone I need to check that out but I don't think it's true that no teacher has ever contracted Covid-19 from a pupil. There were a couple even here in the UK before the summer holidays started - and that was with tiny classes and only a fraction of the pupils back in school.

My understanding is that secondary pupils, who will not be able to socially distance, and will be in bubbles of several hundred, are as capable of transmitting infection as adults.

It was shameful of Jennie Harries to say what she did because it's a distortion of the truth and ignores PHE's own report, which stressed the need for efficient testing and tracing and stated that its findings were based on very limited evidence.

Don't feel hand sanitiser before getting in the car is needed unless you have sanitised the whole inside beforehand. Definitely on entering your home. Leaving bags etc on floor but showering and changing clothes a bit much. Cleaning hands, no facial contact are to me essential points.

I love my grandchildren dearly but I am not doing child care at the moment. I think it is too risky.

You can get them to wash their hands and change their clothes, but how are you going to stop them breathing on you? They will come into contact with kids and staff at school, and all those people will have been in contact with other people...and so it can be transmitted to your grandchild who transmits it to you. If you are over 50, your immune system is declining, and the older you are, the more it declines.

The virus is transmitted not only on surfaces or by coughing and sneezing, but also by droplets of saliva when speaking. The more forceful the speech - such as shouting or singing - the more saliva is passed. How many kids don't shout and sing? And it seems that the virus may be airborne and thus passed by breathing. When you look after kids, you get physically close to them. Of course you do. They are your grandchildren.

My fear is that we'll see an increase in the virus amongst grandparents when the schools go back. I just hope that the infection rate in the general public is low enough to keep the numbers down. Fingers crossed.

I taught for 40 years and would often struggle in with a cold or a bit of a sore throat as would many of the staff as we didn’t want the school to get in supply teachers. Not sure what will happen when teachers are feeling a bit off colour now. Supply teachers will be in big demand.

My Scout Leader son has been, at last given permission to re-open meetings. They must be held outside and numbers limited. He’s happy with that.
He has also been instructed that, if a child falls down and needs attention he is supposed to don full protection - gown, mask, rubber gloves and visor, even if it’s just a scraped knee.

I suggested that, instead, he tells them that they are working for their first-aid badge. “Wash your hands thoroughly Open the first-aid box. Clean and wipe the injury. Affix a plaster. Wash hands again. Well done! You have earned your badge!”

As for the problem of caring for your GC, if it’s essential then you must just take what precautions you can, and get on with it.
A Gran’s gotta do what a Gran’s gotta do!

@Greenfinch and @KnittyNannie, I sympathise, we have been kinship carers (with Special Guardianship Order) for our now 13-year-old granddaughter since she was a baby. We are also both in our 70s, and have always thought it might be reasonable to hope that one of us, at least, would be likely to survive to see her through childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. Now we are wondering if either of us will manage that, with the big worry of Covid being brought home to us from school, or public transport, which she needs to use to get too and from school. Our granddaughter wants and needs to return to school, and of course we want her back at school too, she can't miss out on so much of her education, and she should be spending time with children of her own age; but all we can do is keep all our fingers and toes crossed that we all manage to get through this period unscathed. I used to think that we were the fortunate generation, unlike our parents and grandparents we have not had to live through a war. Now it seems as if we have a deadly threat of our own to face - we didn't 'get away with it' after all!

growstuff please do let me know about that, I know you do a lot of research. I actually saw this on television the other day, but maybe it was wrong. I can’t remember the channel, so no help there, but it was a news programme and discussing children going back to school. However, as I understand it, it was said that no teacher had died as a result of catching Coronavirus from a school child, not that no teacher had contracted Coronavirus from a pupil. I thought I said died in my post, perhaps I didn’t.
Anyway, if you find out anything else, please let me know, as I’m interested as an ex teacher.

Yes, I did say died, but it doesn’t matter, I’ll be very interested in anything anyone else can find out.

You’re right growstuff about secondary pupils. There will be too many of them in a class to socially distance, and they are just as capable of transmitting the disease as others. Strangely, at first it was thought they wouldn’t transmit so readily but that young children were super spreaders. Now the scientists have turned the whole thing on its head, and said it’s the other way round. The good thing is that more than 99% of them will suffer only mild symptoms, the worry is more about their teachers, TAs, and other staff working in schools.

The schools will be well-organised, and will give all necessary information. Just follow the 'instructions' and all will be fine.

Thanks to everyone for your viewpoints. I intend to be as cautious as I can. I'm going to spray car interior with anti bac spray and transport kids to school. On return, I'll get them to use hand sanitizer getting into car. On arriving at mine, hand washing and change into play clothes. Hoping for the best! It's a risk but one we have to take. Life is a gamble! I have them overnight one night a week . We will keep to separate loos and towels etc. Saying all this but they are our grandkids and we love them and WE WILL have fun too!

Thanks for the ideas, one of the problems is the school has lots of steps so she isn't sure about something on wheels.

Aepgirl

The schools will be well-organised, and will give all necessary information. Just follow the 'instructions' and all will be fine.

So optimistic

No one has any idea and they are making it up as they go along!

I hope the powers that be are learning from how other countries who have already opened their schools are doing.

Wash hands, change out of clothes - straight into washing machine, shoes sprayed. Have hand sanitiser in car and wipes but they walk to and from school anyway. They wash hands as soon as they get in classroom and often throughout day.

Aepgirl

The schools will be well-organised, and will give all necessary information. Just follow the 'instructions' and all will be fine.

You can't actually be serious!!!!