Return to school

Weefinn that is shocking to read. I did read a few days ago there were 4 children affected in New York. I had no idea it had risen to 100

I'm not so sure it was idyllic for children in the 1940s. My mother was nine when she was sent away to be evacuated. She had a horrendous experience. She came from an urban, relatively well educated family and stayed in a rural cottage with no running water, electricity or inside toilet. Apparently, the father was violent and the mother permanently drunk.

She had to go to a village school, where she and her friend from the same town learnt nothing. The oldest children were 14 and some couldn't read. My mother and her friend were given the job of helping children five years older than they were to read and do basic sums. Not surprisingly, they were bullied by the local children for being "know it alls".

After six months, my grandmother decided to take my mother back home, despite the threat of heavy bombing.

Somehow or other, my mother survived not having any schooling for six months and went on to pass her scholarship exam and gain reasonable qualifications. It always amazed me how good her French was, despite learning it during WW2, when the opportunities for foreign travel were limited to say the least!

I realise many parents need to return to work and need the schools to reopen. I suspect parents who can keep their children at home will probably do so. When eventually classes are back together again teachers will probably have to reteach large sections of the curriculum to ensure all pupils have covered certain topics. Difficult times ahead.
Glad I’m able to stay safe at home but feel for my many teacher friends and TAs who are worried sick.

Social distancing WON'T be in place - which is why all communication from Government being received into schools does not state any measures to follow this. Gavin Williamson accepts that schools are not built for social distancing and that small children have no concept of distancing so will not be applying any such rules!

I agree with you all to some extent but my D's reason for not sending 6yr old GS back is slightly different. She said he would be miserable if he couldn't play with his friends and is afraid that he spend all day being told off! Also my other GS is 20 months old and she fears the possibility of him bringing the virus home. She has always called Jack 'the germinator' as he brings home everything going around anyway.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has issued a statement denying reports that children cannot pass infection to others.

There seems no doubt that children can be infected and some will die, although generally their symptoms are mild.

www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/incorrect-media-reporting-about-children-transmission-covid-19

I am a furloughed nursery nurse and can’t wait to get back if I’m honest due to being bored and husband self employed. We have been fortunate in our area with low Covid numbers and hopefully we keep it that way. We are looking at ways to adjust and we feel we can do it. I think if it’s a case of not now when.? I feel for the parents having to choose between childcare and returning to work. I really do and we do need to restart the economy.

Social distancing and young children just don’t go together as it’s completely unnatural behaviour for them.

That’s why there are continual outbreaks of head lice in schools.

Maybe Boris could announce another slogan.

Play Apart
Stay Alert
Control the head lice

That's shocking moleswife. The government has already stated that staff and pupils won't be issued with PPE.

The consequences don't bear thinking about. It seems like the herd immunity policy on steroids!

On BBC Breakfast this morning they visited a primary school in Denmark, they showed infants (age 6) in class and playtime. They were all happy and totally accepting of socially distanced learning and playing.......non of the teachers that I saw had PPE.

If the measures suggested by the government to keep pupils and staff safe are so necessary, then it's too soon to send them back. This is quite apart from the huge practical difficulty of implementing them.

I really feel for this generation of children. I've seen some nervous children on my daily walk and wonder about the effect of this on their future mental health. A child shouldn't have this sort of burden. A friend's GC left school saying we were all going to die - just 6 years old! How much thought did that head/teacher put into getting the message across? Some teachers are going to be too strident about the 2m too - children forget, I'm sure we've all forgotten for a moment. Children need to be able to relax and be children. How do they sit apart at mealtimes, how will hand washing in the toilets be supervised? What about PE, play time, and group work? If they are going back to school there should be no distance restrictions. I don't have much sympathy with teachers who don't want to return either, surely they are key workers, apart from the fact that the country can't afford to pay working people to be off work much longer. My AC has been teaching/minding key workers children as well as giving online lessons and, like many teachers, has really made a contribution in these difficult times but can't wait to get back to normal.

As a teacher I question the decision to send the youngest children back first, I can’t begin to imagine how I can correct handwriting formation from 2m away, or hear a child read from that distance. I think the decision is being guided by the idea that if the youngest children are back in school it helps to sort out childcare a little (although lots of reception children have older siblings so parents still won’t be able to return to work) It’s a difficult situation but I do think the government has got it wrong in this case.

I'm a 65 year old teaching assistant and feeling nervous about returning on 1st June. Although I work in year 4, all staff will go in so that the 60 children can be split into groups of 8 and not mix with any others while at school. It is a logistical nightmare.
I will not be using the staff room at break or lunch. I understand many parents will not be sending their children back until September but the virus won't have disappeared by then.

“Good news son, you get to go back to school!”

“Oh great, so the germs are gone?”

“Ummmm yeah, pretty much... I mean technically there’s more deaths per day than there was when they closed the school... but I’m sure it’s fine.”

“I can’t wait to play with my friends!”

“Well yeah, you might see some of your friends, but you won’t be able to touch them or play with them.”

“Why?”

“Because of the germs.”

“But there aren’t any germs now?!”

“Right....but there might be... so you can’t go close to your friends.”

“Oh well, at least I’ll see them.”

“Well, you might not see them all because you might not all be in the same classroom.”

“Oh, but I’ll be in my classroom though right?”

“Well you might not be because you’ll have to spread out a bit.”

“Spread out to where?”

“To the other classrooms.”

“But won’t the other classes be in their rooms?”

“No the other classes won’t be there.”

“Why?”

“Because of the germs.”

“But why am I the only one going back?”

“Ummm..... because you’re small and you can spread out more?... because you don’t take up so much space?!?.... honestly no one knows mate.”

“Oh well, at least I’ll see my teacher... but wait...Mum how will my teacher be in all the classrooms at once?”

“Well, you might not have your teacher.”

“Who will I have?”

“I don’t know...”

“Oh.... if I’m going back to school can we go and get my new school shoes? Remember you said I would have to get new shoes because my feet have grown?!”

“Right... yeah... it’s not safe to open the shops so we can’t get shoes.”

“But it is safe for me to go to school?”

“Yep, maybe... unless there’s a spike in the virus, then we might have to stay home again.”

“How will they know if there’s a spike in the virus though Mum?”

“Hospital admissions... and number of deaths.”

“But what if I’ve already got it by then, from going to school?”

“Well you probably won’t die because you’re young.”

“Do children not die then?”

“Most of them don’t.”

“But grownups do?”

“Some, yes.”

“So what about my teacher?”

“........?”

“Mum is it ok if I don’t go back to school? It doesn’t sound like it’s the right time yet”

“Yes mate that’s fine, you’re right, let’s stay home”

I was speaking to my DD this morning who lives in Australia. They have had very few deaths, it was below 100 last week but didn’t ask how many now.

She has 3 children, 2 at college, 1 at school. All back next week. I asked her about social distancing, she has no little ones obviously, but over there children between 3 and 19 don’t have to observe it apparently as they aren’t deemed any sort of risk.

She felt that over here the young ones are going back first as they need ‘teaching’, as opposed to older ones who can do online work without much supervision.

Hairdressers have never closed in Canberra, where she lives, they have been classed as ‘essential’.

I know their situation was nothing like ours, but interesting how other places are doing things.

No one thinks that young children can distance (wish we didn't have to keep hearing that as tho new news). The question is whether or not they transmit the virus without showing any symptoms. Certainly I remember hearing in April that closing schools had made less difference than was hoped to the rising infection rate.
I understand that the early years are when children learn the fastest.

I work in a primary school and my role is in interventions. This means I take groups of pupils of all/any ages who, for whatever reason, (SEN, ESB etc) are unable to comply in class so I can try to get their reading skills to the best levels they are going to attain. Some of these lessons are 1:1 as the child needs that attention. We go to a tiny room where social distancing will be both physically impossible and, for these children, utterly detrimental to their needs.

The school has over 700 pupils in total and social distancing will be impossible to achieve, let alone maintain, no matter what provisions are put in place.

Children may or may not suffer from Covid-19 but if, as is suggested, they are mostly asymptomatic super-spreaders, the staff certainly will. We will not have PPE - before closure (which wasn't closure as my school was the hub in my area so lots of key worker children still go/went in), we had limited soap and no hand sanitiser. I imagine, if all businesses now snatch up supplies, this situation will worsen so we will have no protection at all.

Teachers, TAs, playground staff, cooks and dinner staff are all being used as guinea pigs. It's nothing to do with education - children are sponges and will catch up if they are off until September - this is about those vociferous parents needing/wanting their offspring looked after so they can stop doing so, and Boris caving in. I've had the virus. It was scary stuff. I do not know if I have immunity, or if it will mutate in close quarters (it wants to thrive!) making any immunity null and void. It's taken weeks for me to feel anything like 'normal' and I rely on an inhaler now whereas I only used a preventer once a day before I caught it.

I love my job but am petrified of going back in before it's under better control. We need antibody tests first and foremost - if, as is now being suggested, the majority of people have already had the virus over the past few months, then only those who have antibodies (including children) should be allowed back in. Otherwise, we're sitting ducks.

Exactly Grannynannywanny love your slogan made me laugh.

I think Boris is just testing the water with the youngsters to see how it goes? To see how the schools/ teachers can adapt and still all keep safe? Believing they are low risk. If I had young children I certainly wouldn't be sending them back. At the moment schools are only catering for key workers children, but full class will be a different matter almost impossible with social distancing unless classes are split.

Nannygoose here here. Exactly. Stay safe.

GG if we’re doing comparisons with Denmark - here’s some more. New cases yesterday 78 ( 3403), deaths per million 91(482) active cases 1484 (81266) testing per million 57709 (30566). UK in brackets. I expect the BBC also explained that Danish schools tend to be on the same site for all ages and so the young ones going back have been spread out across the whole school classrooms as older ones haven’t gone back. But hey let’s use Denmark as an exemplar

Great post Nannygoose!

My youngest granddaughter could be going back into Reception, but not her 2 older sisters in Yr 2 and Yr 5. That would cause ructions as middle one is desperate to get back to school!

But school’s Trust Chairperson has sent out a letter saying that social distancing will be observed so a max of 15 children in any room at a time, start and finish times will be staggered to avoid gaggles of people at the school gates, and playtimes and lunchtimes will also be staggered. The work done in school will be the same as is being sent out to do at home, so the letter advises parents to keep their child/ren at home if at all possible.

If a parent is able to stay at home and continue home schooling I would say from an education point of view their children will be at an advantage.

In school so much of the day will be eaten into by frequent supervised handwashing, washing of equipment that’s been used by another child, staggered lunch breaks to keep pupils apart etc. The poor teachers won’t have much time for any meaningful teaching.

Yes I know many will say but they will gain from being at school with their peers.

I’m not convinced they will in this situation. They can’t interact in any physical way with them and will be reminded all day long to move apart/wash hands/don’t touch.

And what about the child who frequently rebels against the teacher and refuses to cooperate and does their own thing?

suziewoozie I have a Danish GC who is at school in Denmark, I respectfully suggest that I am slightly more knowledgeable about the Danish system than some.