National Lockdown to be announced next week?

Maddyone You are obviously proud of your daughter and rightly so , but I don't think working in a school is a piece of cake ,especially at the moment.
Older pupils are going down with the virus, staff also,leading to staff absence. My grandson has had to have 2 tests already and is now in quarantine. He has , of course set work for all his groups. It must be a nightmare for those in charge.Please don't belittle their efforts. It is a different work area, but surely of value.

Hong Kong 'flu was by far the worst virus we saw in 1968. It killed 80,000 people in the UK alone. A higher number than Asian 'flu and so far, worse than the present virus.
Then there was the SARS and MERS to which no deaths were linked.
Asian 'flu saw 33,000 deaths in the UK.

No masks were worn during the time of Hong Kong 'flu. No lockdowns and little news of its presence yet it killed thousands of a population at the time which was far less than we have now ?
Again, I was working nights on a medical ward at the time without a mask and distinctly remember cases of lung problems and helping drain excess fluid from those who were struggling to breathe. No panic, no hysterical news bulletins.

crissy

You wouldn't want schools open if your daughter is a teacher!!! She's been working her socks off all through this madness and is exhausted. She has a 4 year old child and husband is key worker.

Well done to her and to all teachers.

However, if key workers had just refused to work and said that it was far too dangerous society would collapse.

How would you feel if you or a member of your family needed to go to hospital and the hospital was shut because the staff said it was too dangerous to work?

We have teachers and medical staff in the family. The teachers wanted to get back into the classroom and worried about the welfare of their pupils.

As an ex teacher Sparklefizz I know the stresses and challenges of teaching as least as well as, and probably more than most people. I am also married to an exteacher and we have nieces who are teachers now. Undoubtedly the challenges are greater under the Covid19 situation than ever before, and the other challenges are still there, and in many cases they are magnified. And schools have risen to the challenge as I fully expected they would, because the one thing I know about teachers is that they are totally dedicated to their pupils. However, many Gransnetters have argued consistently for the total closure of schools. Gransnetters by definition, are older people, and older people are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus, and therefore it is down to older people to take measures, wherever possible, to limit their exposure to the possibility of catching Covid19. In the main, they can do this, because in the main older people are retired, and those who are still working must consider their situation, and if it is possible for them to continue working, taking all reasonable precautions, then they should do so. But to demand, as I have often seen on Gransnet, that all schools are closed, in other words, to trash the life chances of children in order to protect themselves, is in my opinion, utterly selfish.

An example would be my eight year old grandson. He is not deprived in any sense in the way that I described yesterday. He has two parents, he lives in a beautiful house in a semi rural area. His family own a second home. He has enough to eat, and an endless supply of toys and amusements. There’s a very large garden for him to play in. He attends an excellent independent school. So what’s the problem. Well, he is an only child, therefore for almost four months this Spring, this child never laid eyes on another child. For that matter, apart from the strangers he saw on his daily walks, he never saw another adult. He was effectively confined in a very comfortable prison. He received excellent zoom lessons every day and we FaceTimed him regularly. He didn’t see his grandparents or cousins, even over the garden wall, like our other grandchildren did, because he lives a forty minute drive from us, and travel was not allowed. Unlike Dominic Cummings, his father, as a barrister, felt he absolutely could not break the law. How healthy for our (in all other senses, very privileged) grandson, was this situation? How much worse for the only child who is confined to a high rise flat, with a depressed parent, who has neither the ability nor the inclination to help this child to learn, or exercise? Or even to feed this child regularly?

This is why schools must remain open. It’s for the mental health, and emotional development of all our children, and older people cannot expect to be prioritised over the next generation, who need be raised to be resilient, strong, healthy, and educated, for the sake of everyone.

That was for westendgirl as well.

maddyone My daughter and husband are secondary school teachers and therefore on the front line. They agree with the teachers' union that schools should be closed.

It's for the safety of the teachers, not just for elderly people.

Excellent post, maddyone.

It's for the safety of the teachers, not just for elderly people.
Let's shut the hospitals too, for the safety of all medical staff.

Schools will make necessary risk assessments.

I think maddyone has expressed it well across the generations and the social divide.
When I was a teacher I was dedicated to my pupils and would put their every need first. Many of these pupils are now medics, teachers, in the armed forces. Others may be working in shops, emptying bins, driving lorries, I really couldn't care less what job they are doing. Importantly they are giving back to society and running the country for us who went before. Im sorry, but if any of the teachers I know were to choose the closure of schools rather than in turn giving my grandchildren the best education possible, whatever the cost, I might feel pretty peeved and disappointed in them.

Callistemon

^It's for the safety of the teachers, not just for elderly people.^
Let's shut the hospitals too, for the safety of all medical staff.

Schools will make necessary risk assessments.

Unfortunately, classrooms can't be made bigger and better ventilated.

Suggested part closures are for the benefit of the pupils and their families.

Ellianne If you cared about them that much, you wouldn't be forcing them into unsafe environments. Most classrooms are unsafe, which is why most schools in the country have been affected in some way by infections.

Callistemon

^It's for the safety of the teachers, not just for elderly people.^
Let's shut the hospitals too, for the safety of all medical staff.

Schools will make necessary risk assessments.

GP surgeries have been partially shut and treating the majority of patients remotely, either by phone or video. The staff onsite have been wearing PPE and there are few patients in the building. Schools can't do that.

growstuff

Ellianne If you cared about them that much, you wouldn't be forcing them into unsafe environments. Most classrooms are unsafe, which is why most schools in the country have been affected in some way by infections.

So the naval base where my son trains recruits is unsafe too and has cases. Do you suggest we partly close them too and have online assault course training and virtual 3 day field exercises?
Of course risk assessments have been made, and f course changes have been implemented, but these people aren't saying we should close all military camps to protect themselves and their families from the virus. Like schools, it just shouldn't happen, or we will inevitably need protecting from something far greater in the long term.

Maddy one if you re-read my earlier post you will see that there was no mention of the closing of schools.
I was just pointing out that in my opinion it was not a piece of cake as you had said.My point was to say that the efforts of those in this field should applauded as they were for medical staff, and not talked down.
I am sure that all staff are doing their very best for their pupils, trying to keep their buildings open with staff absent through illness or quarantine. ( a local school had to close before half term as so many pupils and staff had the virus.)It is not easy.

My daughter works in a school, 1 on 1 with challenging children, she wants to carry on, it gives her and her two children many benefits.

I work in schools I want to carry on but I am very bored with those who on the whole are safely at home telling us how it should be.

Galaxy

I work in schools I want to carry on but I am very bored with those who on the whole are safely at home telling us how it should be.

But that is the point Galaxy. I, and many GNs, are not safely at home telling others how it should be. We are out there working alongside it with childcare etc. If schools were to close it would be far worse and less safe for our whole extended family.

Of course there will be cases of the virus in children and staff working in schools! It’s not ideal, but I don’t think anyone’s situation during this crisis is ideal. There were many cases of medics becoming infected during the last lockdown, and several hundred of them died, but no one is suggesting that hospitals and GP surgeries should close!

My daughter and her husband do not expect to not work during this crisis. They are doctors, they work in their surgeries, they look after their patients in care homes, and work in the Covid Hub. They wear full PPE when necessary, which necessitates particular protocols for it’s removal, which must be done between every patient. GP surgeries are not closed, but they are operating differently. Why would any one of us want to go into the surgery if we could be diagnosed and given a prescription over the phone? But patients do go into the surgeries, and doctors are there, in PPE, to examine them and prescribe the appropriate next step of treatment. Anyone who claims GP surgeries are closed is wrong!

Doctors, nurses, other medics, teachers and teaching assistants, shop assistants, delivery drivers, bin men, postmen/women, police, armed forces, and many others do not have the luxury of saying they don’t want to go to work.
It appears that the armed forces are going to be drafted in to assist with Covid19 testing. Can they say they don’t want to go, they may catch the virus? Teachers are not different than any of these other key workers. They are all potentially in contact with the virus.

Thank you to all posters who have agreed with me and who understand that schools must stay open, and for saying how many teachers want to continue, in difficult circumstances, to be there for their pupils.

It takes a lot of courage to change course, and I have great admiration for Boris Johnson in following the advice of experts.

Prime minister does job -- Yay, Whoop, Admiration unbounded!

It appears that the armed forces are going to be drafted in to assist with Covid19 testing. Can they say they don’t want to go, they may catch the virus? Teachers are not different than any of these other key workers. They areallpotentially in contact with thevirus.
Certainly not maddyone. It's what they signed up for. Just like they could tread on a mine any day and a teacher could get knifed by a pupil. The virus is just another challenge in their daily lives.
Actually, the teachers themselves who are in school, including my daughter, mainly want to be there, even if things aren't perfect.

X post maddyone

Ellianne

^It appears that the armed forces are going to be drafted in to assist with Covid19 testing. Can they say they don’t want to go, they may catch the virus? Teachers are not different than any of these other key workers. They areallpotentially in contact with thevirus.^
Certainly not maddyone. It's what they signed up for. Just like they could tread on a mine any day and a teacher could get knifed by a pupil. The virus is just another challenge in their daily lives.
Actually, the teachers themselves who are in school, including my daughter, mainly want to be there, even if things aren't perfect.

But surely the issue is about mitigation - all groups whose work brings them into contact with the public and potentially the virus have a right to expect that there has been proper risk assessment and they are protected as mush as is reasonably possible. It’s not ‘what you signed up for’ but that your working conditions are as covid secure as possible whether you’re a teacher, shop worker or soldier. I don’t think every worker is being looked after as much as they should be in some settings.