The government is about to tell us that schools are safe

Colleges too where older teenagers are just as likely to pass covid round as adults.
The college my D works at is in an area where covid rates are rising.
If they try to open as they did before with no extra measures we will probably have another lockdown.

When schools do open we need them to stay open but is this too soon?

If they intend reopening schools I think they should vaccinate all school staff. My DiL in USA was vaccinated in a three day mass vaccination of school staff in her district. If they don't there will be a rise in cases due to the adults mixing.

Teachers should have been vaccinated along with the healthcare workers because schools are an absolute priority. Parents (with no teaching qualifications) are at the end of their tether trying to home-school their children in different age groups. I'm sure some of them are finding it impossibly difficult, especially as they are trying to work themselves.

Wrong if they do, wrong if they don’t.
I’m really challenged supporting home schooling for a teenage boy with SEND where staff have been off either isolating or with Covid. Heaven help the parents who have been home schooling and working too.
If they go back-even with precautions in place, and the rates rise it will be the wrong decision.
Until they go back, many parts of the economy are on hold or have collapsed, so schools staying closed is wrong too.

Chestnut

*Teachers should have been vaccinated along with the healthcare workers* because schools are an absolute priority. Parents (with no teaching qualifications) are at the end of their tether trying to home-school their children in different age groups. I'm sure some of them are finding it impossibly difficult, especially as they are trying to work themselves.

So is the main purpose of a school as a childcare provider?

Even if teachers are vaccinated, a secondary school will still have hundreds of teenagers in a "bubble" who can act as vectors of transmission.

Mollygo

Wrong if they do, wrong if they don’t.
I’m really challenged supporting home schooling for a teenage boy with SEND where staff have been off either isolating or with Covid. Heaven help the parents who have been home schooling and working too.
If they go back-even with precautions in place, and the rates rise it will be the wrong decision.
Until they go back, many parts of the economy are on hold or have collapsed, so schools staying closed is wrong too.

If the children go back and infections rise, the schools will be disrupted anyway and parents/carers will have to take time off work at short notice.

The only sensible thing to do is be a little patient and mitigate the risks in school, with government providing finance for better ventilation, rental of extra space and more space if necessary. Secondary pupils must wear masks at all times. Headteachers now have the additional pressure of having to organise testing - after having spent their Christmas holiday arranging the last aborted attempt.

GagoJo I agree! It worries me greatly that schools may be going back at the start of March. Infection rates and hospitalisations are going down, but still high compared to the first peak, we cannot risk them rising again.
There is no way that students can keep 2m apart in schools, just not enough room in classrooms when you have a group of 30 students in a class. I was a teacher for nearly 40 years and the corridors in the schools where I worked were so crowded between each lesson as the school was just not built to accomodate such high numbers of people, like many schools it was an old building that has just been added to over the years.
My old school has each year group as a "bubble" & has allocated an area of the school to each bubble, including separate entrances, toilets etc. The bubbles don't mix in school but they do on the journey to and from school and families have children in more than 1 bubble. A bubble is probably 200 to 250 children so if 1 child in a bubble is infected there is lot of potential to transmit the infection to many other families in said bubble.
My old school has made massive efforts in making home schooling as good as it can be with Zoom lessons and recorded lessons. There are published timetables each week as to what the students do each day. This is not the same as being in school, but I do take my hat off to what my ex-colleagues have been doing during this time. Although having taught teenagers I know how hard it is to get some of them motivated so I do feel for parents.
Lack of technology has been an issue for some students, this town had a big effort to get people to donate their old laptops for use by families whose children could not access the on-line learning, I was happy to donate mine.
This is an impossible situation regarding schools, I do not know what the answer is, maybe wearing masks all the time would help as someone suggested, wouldn't do any harm. I think secondaries pose more of a risk than primaries as you can have more self contained bubbles in primary where each class has just one teacher and TA. Maybe a phased re-opening?
I think we have to be cautious for just a little while longer, we have come so far it would be a shame for infection rates to rise again.

Catch 22 here.
If any teacher is an at Risk group they will get a vaccination.
But hopefully all shop workers, Bus Drivers, etc all face to face workers will come into this category .
So we all need to wait and see what the Government advisers recommend, remembering all key workers children have been going in everyday.

Nine Unions have come together and issued a joint statement outlining their plans for a phased return for all schools and colleges. NINE - all in agreement!!! Surely, this is the time for the government to listen to the advice of the professionals and just do what they say.

JOINT STETMENT BY NINE TRADE UNIONS REPRESENTING ALL SCHOOL STAFF

We are committed to bringing all children and young people back into the classroom as soon as possible. However, it is counterproductive if there is a danger of causing another surge in the virus, and the potential for a further period of lockdown. Wider opening must be safe and sustainable.
We therefore urge the Prime Minister to commit to 8 March only if the scientific evidence is absolutely clear that this is safe, and at that point go no further than a phased return of children and young people with sufficient time to assess the impact before moving to the next phase.
We are increasingly concerned that the government is minded to order a full return of all pupils on Monday 8 March in England.
This would seem a reckless course of action. It could trigger another spike in Covid infections, prolong the disruption of education, and risk throwing away the hard-won progress made in suppressing the virus over the course of the latest lockdown.
The science around the role that schools play in the overall rate of transmission is uncertain. Scientists have expressed different views on this point. What we do know is that the full reopening of schools will bring nearly 10 million pupils and staff into circulation in England – close to one fifth of the population. This is not a small easing of lockdown restrictions. It is a massive step.
These factors necessitate a cautious approach with wider school and college opening phased over a period of time. This is the approach being taken in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It allows public health experts to assess the impact of the first phase before moving to the next.
None of this is intended to stand in the way of the full reopening of schools and colleges. On the contrary. It is intended as a prudent way forward to ensure that once they are fully open, they stay open.
Ends

In Wales only infants are returning initially, the plan is to monitor closely and take a staged approach to other age groups, primary age children will be next, but only if all goes well in the first couple of weeks with infants and there isn’t a surge.

Why can’t they wait until after Easter by which time the r rate will hopefully be lower than it has been since the start of the pandemic? I can just see lockdown number 4 looming. Chris Whitty needs to be more assertive. Does this government never learn from it’s mistakes. And teachers must be vaccinated.

It seems to me that at least 50% of pupils are in school anyway. I don’t know if that’s across the country, but it’s certainly the case where we live.
So I’m not sure it will make an enormous amount of difference if they are all back, I think the children who remain at home are being seriously disadvantaged, and the teachers are struggling to teach a class of children, while trying to teach their online pupils.

'The government is about to tell us that schools are safe' - again!

I think a cautious return of primary aged children is reasonable (although I think teachers should be vaccinated as a priority) but it's still too early for secondary schools.

Next, the government will be telling us that shopping is safe, followed by eating out, pubs, entertainment, holidays etc. Will we be stupid enough to believe them?

But I agree that vaccinating teachers should be a priority

What do the government know really?

It's not just teachers. It is all school staff. Pupils are just as close to teaching assistants as teachers, if not closer, in primaries.

True, and nursery staff are very hands in

Hands on

As has been pointed out Nursery School Staff are far more hands on than Primary or Secondary Schools but these have remained open for all children not just key workers children.

Two of my GC have not missed a day of nursery since last June.

It is unfeasible for schools to remain closed to children whose parents are not key workers. We are becoming dangerously close to having a swathe of children with mental health and anxiety issues due to their isolation, along with a lack of in school education.

The phased return is a good idea in many respects, and I agree that starting with the little children might be the way forward.
I would also like to see explored the possibility of relating the return to different areas in England, rather like the tier system. I'm guessing that might be unpalatable and seen as unfair. But a region like Devon say is sitting here twiddling its thumbs with so few cases it seems rather silly to hold those young children back. And ironically if these kids did go back they would be the ones with plenty of open space to ensure fresh ventilation. A bit of a postcode lottery like.

In Scotland primaries one, two and three are returning next week. In secondary schools only the pupils who have a practical element to their course will be in school and that will be seniors only who have exams. All teachers are being offered tests twice weekly.

It is interesting that the radio reported this mornng that "left wing Unions" were opposing the opening. For very good reasons. It should be possible to stagger the starting dates. In secondary schools it would be good to get the exam years in just so that they get encouragement and guidance on the work they will be submitting. Then they could be sent home and other groups admitted. it is usual for those years to have study time and be out of school at exam time anyway.
Primary schools could start with Year 6 and early years and gradually build up.
All I can see from opening completely is schools having to shut or send children home when infections develop.