Keep schools closed

Please do not open schools again until after summer! I am a teacher working in school at the moment to look after key workers children and even with only 30 children it is impossible to social distance - we have been trying so hard but the young children are forgetting and not managing to do it. The thought of even more children back in is terrifying. If you don’t work in a school you have no idea what it’s like, there are not that many weeks left until the holidays. Why ruin all the hard work we’ve put in? This is a KILLER virus, please remember that! The children will be scared to come back and so are all of the staff, we have zero protection!

Why the contribution is important

I am a teacher and I have first hand experience of how difficult it is in the hubs at the moment and how easily this will spread in schools where it is impossible to social distance.

by Scotteacher on May 07, 2020 at 09:24PM

Current Rating

Average rating: 3.4
Based on: 20 votes

Comments

  • Posted by Mosley May 07, 2020 at 21:57

    Surely a more measured approach is to look at the schools that are still operational, what’s working well, where can improvements be made and how do we can use the knowledge to its fullest to enable our children back into education whilst keeping them and staff safe. Children are being disadvantaged and a great number are being put at risk on a daily basis due to lockdown measures. Child Protection I’d the responsibility of all agency’s health, education, social work and the police. As a children and families social worker for 22 years I feel we are all essential workers in ensuring the safety and well-being of out children and young adults.

  • Posted by Mosley May 07, 2020 at 22:05

    Children should not be filled with fear, this fear is comes from adults, young children will not achieve positive outcomes if in a state of fear and alarm, language such as killer virus is unhelpful, statistically they are at very low risk. Living in fear is known to lower your immune system so please please don’t spread fear, I know it’s anxious and uncertain times but we must try and moderate our own feeling/views around impressionable young people.

  • Posted by CYates May 08, 2020 at 07:06

    I have an idea for how schools could reopen in a safer way.
    In Primaries, half the class sizes and stagger break times so that some children are working in class whilst others are outside. As you need to be within 2m of someone for 10 minutes, either breaks could be shortened (but more of them) or children could be put in small groups in playground zones, therefore minimising, if not avoiding contact.
    In Secondaries, pupils could be taught for half the week, with teachers who would have taught the ‘other half’ of the school helping to reduce class sizes. So, when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years are in, the teachers who teach the 4th, 5th and 6th years take half of the children, as they wouldn’t have classes. And then the reverse of the process when older pupils were in school. Again, breaks could be staggered.
    Staggering breaks would also allow staff to social distance as only half would be on breaks, meaning staff rooms and corridors would be less busy.

  • Posted by Josh May 08, 2020 at 07:23

    Of course social distancing with 2m is unworkable in schools, especially primary schools, and it would be horrible to start children back at school with the expectation that 5, 6, 7 year olds learn to interact with each other in such an unnatural way.

    Even if they were taught to apply it, every classroom would need to be the size of a gym hall just to have enough space to make it work, or for children to only go to school for 2-hr shifts in tiny class groups. Clearly neither of these is workable, at least not for any length of time.

    Social distancing as applied in the broader community should not be part of the schools reopening, and thus the schools only reopen when there is confidence around the initial findings about how low the transmission (R0) is between children.

  • Posted by mcmillana May 08, 2020 at 07:49

    Teachers have a point. It seems too early in the virus trajectory given our lack of clarity/risk of a large ‘second wave’ to open the schools to any greater extent they are already

  • Posted by amdcc May 08, 2020 at 08:17

    Opening secondary schools should be the priority. S3-6 young people have most to lose (in an immediate sense) from lack of direct teacher input and will also grasp social distancing more readily. This should be combined with an easing of some restrictions eg ‘family bubbles’ to widen childcare options for younger children. Having witnessed a reduction of cleaning standards in schools over the austerity years, I believe that effective school cleaning, i.e a big improvement in pre-Covid standards, must be a key part of any school re-opening programme.

  • Posted by Nhsmumof2 May 08, 2020 at 08:19

    I have had to use the school hubs now and again as both my partner and I are keyworkers. I believe it’s important things are kept as they are until summer this reduces risk of spread to existing hub children and workers as well as their key-working families.

  • Posted by truescot May 08, 2020 at 08:21

    I disagree.

    Instead, accept that the TINY additional risk to children and the almost entirely young adult population that is their parents is far outweighed by the long-term benefits of a good education (which is not what they are getting just now).

    Removing grandparents/vulnerable teachers from the equation would be a far better move than removing children from the classroom.

    Don't let this crisis ruin the education of the next generation.

  • Posted by StAndrews May 08, 2020 at 08:32

    I’m a teacher. I’m also married to a partner with chronic heart disease. I’m currently working from home, supplying work for pupils and monitoring their progress . My pupils are vulnerable themselves as I work in a special school. The safest place for them is at home and the safest place for me is also at home. Please can special consideration be given to special schools. Reopening needs to be paced differently to meet different circumstances. Not all staff are equally fit to be exposed to the virus and some children are doing well at home. My point is that a one size fits all reopening of schools isn’t the way forward.

  • Posted by Lockdownmum2020 May 08, 2020 at 10:18

    I agree that reopening schools before we have control over the virus is unacceptable. Whilst evidence indicates that children are least likely to become very unwell even one child dying because they went to school will be too many. Children are also carriers of all kinds of illnesses to parents, grandparents and school staff. It is simply not possible to keep young children physically distanced and though they can be encouraged to follow good hygiene practices it's really not in their nature. We have tried to encourage our 6yr old not to touch their face so much but it's just impossible it is what kids do.

    Could one solution be to look at the option of real time teaching via VC? Some schools are doing this but the majority are sending work home to complete instead. Even where teachers have their own children this could be managed by teachers delivering VC on a rota rather than every day or for a small part of the day instead of 9-3.
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