Close the schools!

I think it's a complicated situation. But am glad the tone has changed, a few months ago the hostility towards teachers on here was awful. Sone people seemed to have a real grudge against those in education it was unpleasant to watch.

These days it is not unusual for both parents to work and women are positively encouraged to do so now. Let's face it they don't get their pensions until later on in life now.

Yes, OP, I know exactly what you mean from a health point of view but, if people are expected to work, who is going to home school the children or watch over them?

Online lessons may well be given but I should imagine plenty of parents have to supervise.

There is no right or wrong answer. It must be so hard for parents of school-age children and for the children themselves.

But Nannan2 school is a safe place for key workers children . My DD and partner are police officers, how would you feel if a crime couldn’t be dealt with as numbers of officers were too low due to ‘ one being at home for child Care ‘ ???Or likewise for Drs , nurses, the people in the shops you buy your food at. I’m sorry you are sick of hearing how important education is , as a recently retired teacher I value it much more highly.

@Happysexagenarian

Let me guess
You’re

Retired
No children living at home

If this new variant is less harmful than the original, why are there suddenly more deaths again, when the numbers were dropping
I also think schools should be closed, for as long as it takes
There should have been a total lockdown in the beginning I believe
I'm sure children can catch up, especially the older ones,
I would rather have my children at home and safe than risk being ill with this virus, and passing it on to others

Well, unpopular as I will be, I have to say if things go on the way they are there will be no economy, thus no jobs, no future for the young so YES things MUST get back to normal soon ....there have been and probably will be, many mutations of this disease as there have been with flu, bird flu, etc etc and I am afraid we just have to learn to be sensible and to live with it. Mass hysteria does not help anyone

I agree about schools but they will still run the streets together. I watch some of them coming home from school past my house all hugging and sometimes snogging each other. They just can't seem to understand how dangerous this is for their older family members.

blondenana, it isn’t anymore harmful ,but does spread more and so the number of deaths rises at a commensurate rate with the number of infections. And your children would be safe as the one ,single, wonderful thing about this virus is that it seems to leave children relatively unscathed. There was a total lockdown in the beginning., but the virus just waits until we read emerge. I wish people would think before they urge it ‘ for as long as it takes’ If the economy is decimated, rampant unemployment etc, where will the taxes come from that pay for our NHS, our Welfare State ( such as it is ) etc ????

Bbbface

Most of you are grandmothers yes?

I’m a single parent of two children.

Trust me - the impact of closing schools on mental health and education would be much worse than not closing them.

I disagre. My daughter is a single parent. And YES, my grandson is suffering. A lot. His development is delayed due to no nursery.

Of course keeping schools open for mental health and education. That is QED. But the choice is actually between good mental health for some and serious illness or possibly death for others.

Both my daughter, I and the other grandparents all agree, better this than the alternative for our beloved boy. He won't go to nursery until either the virus is massively reduced or there is an effective vaccine.

I agree, Happysexagenarian. If we had locked down COMPLETELY in March, we could have avoided some of this spike.

Not for nothing are countries who have been actively tracking, tracing and enforcing quarantine having lower numbers. That COULD be us. But our government are more interested in lining the pockets of their mates than giving the vital tracking / PPE work to companies that can actively and efficiently do the work. And thanks to the same government defunding the NHS, we don't have the ability or the space to enforce and monitor quarantine for the infected.

Sparklefizz... I think the country is verging on bankruptcy already.... not long now..

As a parent in Scotland where the decision has been taken to close all early years and school settings (except childminders) I am devastated. Do I neglect my 3year old or lose my job? It’s a horrendous position to put working parents into just because they dithered for way too long over closing pubs

It is not up to teachers to close schools. My daughter is a teacher in a secondary school, and mum to 3. If school closes she still has to go in to teach key workers and vulnerable children. However her own children have to be taken care of by other staff in their primary school. She also has to give lessons on line and do marking. So don't let people call all teachers lazy.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

1. I do not think the country would go bankrupt if we had a total lockdown. Many would work from home; and we would make the work adjustments that we did last time. A lot of businesses are saying just get on and lockdown - at least we know where we are and can plan. It is the on-off situation that is wreaking havoc - they buy in stock thinking they can sell it, and then they are locked down. They plan for activities in the real world, then they find these stopped - they could have put in online alternatives if they had known.

2. I do not think that closing schools is the end of the world - some very effective online teaching has been happening. All these children are in the same boat - there will be a cohort who will be behind in their education; but they are all in it together - when it comes to competing for jobs, the playing field will be level. Yes - I know that some disadvantaged children will miss out, but - to my amazement - the government has stumped up cash to help these children keep up and special measures could be started for them. The problem is it takes time for these measures to be planned and activated; but the senior teachers do not know what they are planning for, because there is no clarity.

3. Either we want to stop this pandemic in its tracks or we don't. All this tickling round the edges, last minute decisions and hivering and havering means that people make sacrifices to no purpose because the measures are half cock and the virus just marches on. And the measures lack clarity - if there was one clear message then people could just bite the bullet and get on with it.

4. The longer the government dithers about the longer the pandemic will continue and more people die.

Oh my goodness, "the days of bashing each other with our bags, sharing snacks, hugging and snogging," let alone wearing each others clothes and borrowing each others pens (while chewing on the ends!) Youths, teenagers!

I was all for the schools to open in September, however I am now undecided.

It is difficult if not impossible to homeschool children whilst working from home.

Luckygirl I’m only disputing something in your second paragraph. A large primary school where I am a governor, with a lot of FSM children, applied for 97 computers for families who at most only had a phone to share between 2-3 children. They were offered 14, which eventually turned out to be 3.

FSM-free school meals. Sorry.

Not everyone CAN work from home. Not every home has a computer and internet access, or a parent who is capable of home schooling.

I do feel desperately sorry for teaching staff though, they have been just left to get on with it, and think, at the very least, they should be vaccinated urgently.

I’m hardly suggesting teachers should be sacrificial lambs... there have been zero cases in either the school or nursery we use, not one, yet they have to shut. School aged kids yes, but nursery aged? Impossible and unsafe.

I am currently in Tier 2 until Boxing day and I am pleased to have the resrictions. I agree the schools should be closed and masks should be mandatory for all ages. I watch the children coming home from our local secondary school with no masks and no social distancing. The rare time I have been shopping children have been running around with no regard for others whether vulnerable or not. I have now had my text and email to say I should now Shield until 16th January, so as I have been told I will do just that and stay at home. I also think all our airports should be closed. We must do something drastic to stop this damn virus.

I mostly agree with you, Flakesdayout, although in relation to the airports, we are more a danger TO others rather than from them.

The UK is not bankrupt. A country which issues its own sovereign currency can never be bankrupt.

Lockdowns don’t seem to work, though. We are in a worse state than before. Economy, NHS etc struggling. I wonder if opposite strategy might be better. Vaccinate all the youngish people first, get them back into full work, education. Olders stay at home til they can vaccinate us. Economy kickstarted, young people educated. Just a thought!