Juat had an alert from sons school

This is worse. Before we attempted it I didn’t know it it would be or not and I think in hindsight it was right to try it. The first few weeks were fine, definitely not fully safe but it felt ‘safe enough’. Now is the complete opposite. I honestly can’t describe what it’s like seeing the nurse running around in full PPE apron, mask, visor, gloves, plastic overtrousers etc. taking people’s temperature, teachers and students getting removed in the middle of lessons. Imagine being the kid who was sat next to the person who has just been pulled out and sent home. Walking past empty classrooms in darkness not knowing if you will be next. It’s traumatising to some of these kids and the TAs are really struggling as they have to sit amongst them all day in classrooms where the students and teachers don’t wear masks. The TAs tend to be older and some of them are genuinely scared themselves now and having to be really cheery for the kids who are worried.

 

Exactly. We don’t carry unneeded members of staff, schools have been cutting to the bare bones for years. If someone is off now you can guarantee they are critical to the school and we can get by for a short time with one or two off but there becomes a tipping point really quickly.

 

Traumatic indeed JD. Plus you and the fellow teachers have to keep a brave face up for the students. Double edged sword isn't it

 

2 children with EHCP's schools postion? "Only one of you is a key worker, keep them at home" also been quizzing us about mother in law picking my son up despite her being his registered carer.
I'm sure you can sense where my frustrations are coming from!

 

My daughter is definitely benefiting and significantly happier for being back in school.

My wife's a headteacher. In general terms the plans put in place are working well and they would much rather be open. The biggest challenge is juggling the numbers of staff when you either get cases or people needing to self isolate. But this could be resolved in part if there was honest discussion that the risk to children and most staff is very low and let them crack on. If staff are vulnerable they should be supported to shield, and if a child lives with someone vulnerable then it is a personal decision for that family. Sending home whole classes at a time or whole schools because of a handful of cases is not proportionate IMO.

That said if the notion is we need a short proper national lockdown to stop the spread its nonsense to keep schools open, particularly when a week could have been tagged on to half term. This half arsed 4 week lockdown seems pretty pointless to me.

 

Definitely, some schools have handled this really badly just like some have gone above and beyond. I’d like to think that the ones getting it wrong did it ‘from the right place’ and just went OTT in their panic or trying to do the right thing but just misunderstood; the guidance has been so unclear it’s almost criminal. I do accept that some places are just incompetent though.

 

The number of children killed during lockdown dwarfs that. The press just haven't been reporting it. Social workers had no idea where their children were. The number of suicides, both parents and young people, is unfc*King believable.

I'm not diminishing your current experience, but school is a safe haven for so many children.

 

This all makes sense to me. Is your wife not being advised to send home whole classes though in some cases? I’m not privy to the advice we are given but I know that we report every case and then follow the advice to the letter so as we’re sending home we must have been told to do so. Or do you mean that she does have to but you consider it to be wrong? We have quite a few extremely clinically vulnerable staff we have told to work from home so that has exacerbated the staffing problem. I’m proud though of our school for being so inclusive, like with our students, we attract a lot of staff with medical needs as we have such good facilities and our school is non judgemental.

 

I’m not sure where you work Jamdrop, but my experience is quite different. We have drops in teacher numbers, (mainly having to isolate, not all because of Covid positive). We have a number of isolated groups, that isolate for a couple of weeks. But the panic you describe is nowhere to be seen. The students are quite savvy and get that people will be off isolating but much prefer being at school. If a teacher is isolating, they have been zooming their lesson to the large interactive whiteboard with support from other staff members and TA’s.

The issue with a lockdown and online teaching is.... it’s only as good as the home support and I.T. Facilities. Generally a number of students can opt out of doing anything. These are often the ones without the support, which will leave them even further behind their more privileged peers.

There’s also the emotional aspect of not interacting with people your own age...

For me, unless a necessity due to staffing levels. Schools should stay open.

 

It is a real worry. I have to remember that my school is in a good area and that we have really proactive staff who did phone calls to all students and home visits to potentially vulnerable ones regularly. Thinking about my last school, I’d have been worried sick about those kids being home all day, every day. We may have to turn to babysitting services soon rather than schooling to remain open.

 

The panic has only been this week, or last few days really so maybe it will calm down after a much needed weekend. Everything was fine before this week but there have been so many cases and it has been so visible that it’s caused a lot of worry that has then built up and up as people talk to each other. Hopefully it will settle back down again.

 

Many schools were basically a baby sitting service during the first lockdown, for vulnerable children or those of key workers.

I know that's not fair on teachers. I know teachers are slated left right and centre. But let me put forward my appreciation.

 

I downloaded tiktok the other day because someone sent me a link to a video on there (it's a crap app by the way so don't bother) and the main page of it is videos that are relevant to you or like if you watch a video about football then it will have more football videos, watch another one you get even more etc. All the videos are about 30 seconds long I think.
The video I had sent was was a lad about 15/16 saying he had attempted to commit suicide during the last lockdown and hopes there isn't another one. Then the main page thing was literally filled with schoolkids saying that lockdown was messing with their head, that they hated life and wanted to die. I didn't even watch !any of them because you can see from the tags what they're about but I reckon it's no exaggeration to say 100 appeared on that page while I sat scrolling. In the end I just uninstalled it because it was the saddest most depressing thing I've ever seen

Three things really jumped out at me. 1. How harmful lockdown is for kids and how these measures are literally killing them. 2. How they are crying out for help and being ignored. And 3. slightly unrelated but just how dangerous an app like tiktok is for minors

 

I think to be clear, as you rightly point out, the advice is confused, unclear and ever changing. If she phones public health England for advice the options are, press one if you have a confirmed outbreak; we are not giving advice if the outbreak is not yet confirmed.

She is definitely following the guidance, but has just been lucky enough that there hasn't been the positive cases that have met the requirements to send home a year group yet. In fact I think only her school and my daughters are the only two in the city that hasn't happened yet.

The biggest challenge has been the availability of tests for those with symptoms (getting better) and staff numbers due to vulnerability, self isolating from personal contact, or occasional confirmed cases. Clearly this would be less of a challenge if kids weren't confined to bubbles and small groups. Life would be much simpler and easier if this wasn't the case, less stressful for staff and kids, and would enable schools to stay open better.

I fully accept this may lead to greater spread of the virus, but then it comes back to the honest informed conversation about the level of risk to most people in society. Is it proportionate to close - and keep - closing a school to a handful of cases versus the negative impact on those children's wellbeing and education?

 

Phone calls, like the one you describe, originally went to trained professionals who could give genuine advice. The Tories have privatised the service and it now goes to a teenager with a script.

 

And people accuse the Tories of not caring about training and jobs for our young people

 

Laughing

 

I also keep thinking life is going to be hard enough for my kids when they are older and this lost time in their education can never be replaced.
If schools have to be closed then so be it but we have to do so knowing the side effects are devastating for so many.

 

I think a better approach would be testing of students and staff regularly, even without symptoms. A bit like they’re trialing in Liverpool.

I can’t express enough the impact that the normality of a school day with their peers has on some kids. It is needed in most cases and not just the vulnerable.

We need to ask ourselves. If we are to lockdown schools as well, are we ready for the ticking time-bomb of mental and social problems that many of the students will display?