Reassuring news: Schools opened again in Denmark with success.

This doesn’t mention age but is a good sensible summary of the general position
fullfact.org/health/children-transmitting-coronavirus/

I saw the statement by the RCPCH a couple of days ago, which was basically saying nobody knows. I think anybody who concludes that children can't transmit to adults needs their bumps feeling. One single child, even in a class of 15, could potentially transmit to 14 other children plus a couple of adults, who could all then go home and infect their family. There need to be strict social distancing rules in place in the classroom and I just don't see that happening with 4/5 year olds.

annodomini I understand from teaching contacts that there are plans for Year 10s. They're being risk-assessed at the moment. They probably won't be following a full timetable and maybe not full-time, but they will have face to face contact with teachers - provided a safe environment can be provided.

PS. I agree with you. Years 10 and 12 should be the priority, but they wouldn't satisfy the objective of getting parents back to work.

One thing I forgot to mention about Oz is that the children going back this week are separated from the key worker children who’ve been going to school throughout.

DfE chief scientific adviser admits he hasn’t assessed school reopening guidance

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-chief-scientific-adviser-admits-he-hasnt-assessed-school-reopening-guidance/

I've also just heard that social distancing rules have been relaxed for primary schools, although I'm looking for official confirmation of that.

grow so what exactly is the point of him then ? Bloody hell

grow this is from the official gov guidance

Class or group sizes
We know that, unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff. In deciding to bring more children back to early years and schools, we are taking this into account. Schools should therefore work through the hierarchy of measures set out above

ie social distancing not expected

Thanks for posting that. I knew I'd read it somewhere. I've been reading about it on teacher Facebook groups this evening.

Apparently, teachers themselves weren't aware that the social distancing rules had been relaxed. As you can imagine, they're extremely worried about it, especially as they've been told not to wear masks.

AFAIK no extra hand sanitisers or bowls with running water for hand washing are to be installed.

This is all to keep the anti-lockdown lobby happy and to blame teachers when it doesn't work. Pure politics!