What does Johnson mean by "safe"?

My grandchildren go to an excellent school. Wyedean on the English Welsh border. From today they have register at 9am on Zoom. They will follow a full school day apart from PE when they can choose their own exercise. Usual break times and lunch times.
They each have their bedrooms set up with a school area and a sleeping area. Their mother has also put different mood lighting into each area to emphasize the difference.
She has set up an office in her bedroom and they will all disappear to their own work places for the school day and meet up for break and lunchtimes.
The teachers have put so much effort in over the past year and continue to do so.

nannypiano

If schools close, parents can't work. That is the crux of the matter. The economy takes another giant hit with more furlough given, more firms going bankrupt etc.

The crux of the matter is that schools are responsible for an increase in transmission, which means that more people will die and it will be even longer before the economy is back to any sort of normality.

‘Safe’ is a ridiculous word to use in our circumstances. It means nothing, (because no-one really truly knows the risk factor of certain activities) and shouldn’t be used, in my opinion. Just a reflection of how ridiculous things are becoming.

Spot on wadesNan

Johnson is great at putting out these little soundbites.
Ringfencing the elderly in homes (nope!)
World beating trace and track (nope!)
It's all meaningless unless it's actually true.

Kwest your daughter has an amazing set up and I do hope that all will go well for her. My daughter had to keep her children with her because they’re 5 and 7 so cannot cope independently all day. Same for my DS who had a 4 and 6 year old. All of them are having online lessons from their excellent and ( hopefully) understanding school. Earning a living has to come first.

Agree WadesNan

A few minutes before Johnson said schools were safe, one of the scientific advisors saidthat a spike of infections in young was recorded when children went back to school after half term. And the NHS said they were seeng more young people hospitalised by the new variant.

What 'care' did Johnson ever give his own other children? Why should you believe he cares about ours? I hope his habitual u-turn on this comes very soon, and that nobody is fined for putting their own safety first.

Well said WadesNan

In Danmark children are to be kept at home instead of going back to school until 17th January. Schooling will be online until then.

The same applies in Germany.

I imagine after the 17th this will continue, as the newest strain of Covid 19 is affecting children.

Schools are obviously not safe working environments right now.

Johnson is not closing schools because quite simply he'll lose votes if he does. I can understand the great predicament that closing schools puts parents but if this strain of the virus is infecting children at a greater rate the schools will have to close. Children take it into the home infecting parents who will then take it into the workplace ( not everyone can work from home). The teachers will also be infected and schools may have to close because there will be a shortage of teaching staff. I don't know what the solution is, greater minds than mine will need to sort that one out, but the question is do we put lives or the economy first? Pinning all my hopes on the vaccine?

I agree with you about Andrew Marr. Rudley interrupting the answers. Schools are as safe as they can be, obviously not 100%. A lot of children are safer there than at home though.

My 11 year old GS and his friend both brought the virus home from school. They weren't badly affected but all the parents were.

The man is an idiot! He spoke for 20 minutes on Andrew Marr and never answered a question, he waffled on about schools with no evidence to support his claims and he would not know the truth if it jumped up and bit him. He can't give bad news and he wants to appease everyone, sadly he is not the man for this task and what lies ahead.

kwest

My grandchildren go to an excellent school. Wyedean on the English Welsh border. From today they have register at 9am on Zoom. They will follow a full school day apart from PE when they can choose their own exercise. Usual break times and lunch times.
They each have their bedrooms set up with a school area and a sleeping area. Their mother has also put different mood lighting into each area to emphasize the difference.
She has set up an office in her bedroom and they will all disappear to their own work places for the school day and meet up for break and lunchtimes.
The teachers have put so much effort in over the past year and continue to do so.

I’m glad you have commended the teachers. However your grandchildren are extremely lucky ! Many children are having to do their lessons using their parents mobile ! Or don’t even have access to that, or a separate bedroom etc.

Nicolaed

The man is an idiot! He spoke for 20 minutes on Andrew Marr and never answered a question, he waffled on about schools with no evidence to support his claims and he would not know the truth if it jumped up and bit him. He can't give bad news and he wants to appease everyone, sadly he is not the man for this task and what lies ahead.

Exactly what my partner said. Never answered a question.

Interesting twitter thread here. The author has a blue tick, which means that she is absolutely bona fide

Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura
@Rrrrnessa

Hello @ the entire United Kingdom, I missed my early years of education due to war and genocide. I had to be stuck inside and wasn’t able to play. I caught up! When schools did open, I absolutely kicked ass at school and so did most of my classmates. Your kids will be fine.

It's worth reading the whole thread, and noting some of the comments

twitter.com/Rrrrnessa/status/1345678611592994816

Schools should close to all pupils apart from children of key workers. It's possible to maintain 'covid safe' (sorry) conditions with a few children, not with a class of 25+. Financial support should be given to parents who have to lose working time to look after and effectively homeschool their young children. Those flaming laptops which were promised at the start of all this should now appear. Television should be involved in delivering home learning programmes.

And schools should be getting financial support to install effective ventilation systems (because, even with a vaccine, this virus is not going away soon)

Nobody should be saying 'we can't afford this', because we can. If we were at war we would suddenly magic up £billions to keep the war machine going with no questions asked. Well, IMO we're at war now, with a lethal virus, and the same should apply.

Hear hear re the laptops/iPads. Where are they ?

Johnson is not closing schools because quite simply he'll lose votes if he does.

Whose votes is he going to lose, Totaldogsbody?

Can I have a moan? It is a shame that schools have to close but the evidence suggests that children are spreading the virus. Then you have the people who think there is not a virus out there and they will not get it or spread it and will carry on regardless attending their social events, gatherings, family get togethers etc etc. I see many people in my area meeting up going into houses. I do not go out as I am shielding again, but I have a friend who works in the care sector and has to take her residents shopping. She said the amount of people out in supermarkets and shops not wearing masks is unbelievable. Families too. I have close family members who have contracted this awful virus, my OH's son and wife and my DIL's brother and wife. They are younger but even so it is getting closer. My aunts husband has died from it. I just wish people would accept responsibility for their actions and please do as they are asked. BJ is not a strong leader and I do not have any faith in him but I would not want his job. It is time he took a strong stand and if it means that schools are shut for a few weeks to save lives isnt it worth it? Sad and difficult times that we are in.

Education is vitally important - STAYING ALIVE is more important still!
Boris has been doing everything, just TOO LATE from the very beginning of this pandemic.
If I were not retired and still teaching, I would be inclined to 'pull a sicky' and tell my headteacher that I was 'self-isolating' at the moment.

I think he means as safe as can possibly be in a pandemic.

He wants/needs to keep the school's open, as it is the poorer and more disadvantaged children that will suffer. Well educated parents can educate and will educate their children at home, but many children will just be left to roam the streets.

The only way everyone can be safe would be a total complete lockdown and that would have to include supermarket's. Supermarket's are not safe, but we insist they stay open as we all want food, supermarket's could possibly be safe or safer but we don't all follow the rules, and many parents just let their children run around the supermarket's and ignore them other than to occasionally scream at them.
No one wants a full lockdown but really what is the answer. If Boris closes everywhere he's wrong if he doesn't he's wrong, we all want to or need to work or many will lose their homes. If the economy doesn't continue we won't have the funds to pay people, there simply isn't a simple answer, after all its a pandemic and sadly the different political parties and unions just will not work together for the great of the people which is sad.

Also it would need to be a full global lockdown with no travel between countries to stop the virus but how could that possibly happen and also would we want to live like that. I think all we or any one can do is our very best, and possibly try and help each other.

Everyone criticises the handling of the pandemic but no one offer a real alter

She said the amount of people out in supermarkets and shops not wearing masks is unbelievable.

Where are you, Flakesdayout?

I'm in the NE, near to Durham city, and in my area mask wearing is practically universal in my local shops and in the big supermarkets. While there are concentrations of high infections in more urban areas the infection rate in the postcode areas around me are relatively low. Even allowing for a lower population the rates look encouraging.

Everyone criticises the handling of the pandemic but no one offer a real alter

I don't think you're looking very hard for alternatives. There are plenty of suggestions, which actually 'follow the science' instead of pretending to.