Schools closed until February? (part 3)

Stateofyou

Have already made the decision for some time now our kids won't be going in if they reopen.

JDD

eviltwin wrote: »

How many parents here will send their children to school if they open on the 11th?

At the moment I'm thinking I will. But that may change as the week progresses.

That said, I have my 3 year old in creche today.

arctictree

Anyone think that the closure of schools is the one lockdown area that does have a direct effect on the personal lives of the politicians and the NPHET team?

Locotastic

eviltwin wrote: »

How many parents here will send their children to school if they open on the 11th?

I will for several reasons, they love being in school and are very disappointed when they can't go, I can't WFH so it suits my childcare arrangements for the younger kids, online learning was non existent for my primary children the first time around, their schools have had no known cases to date and my county has very few cases even now.

It's a balanced decision every parent has to make for their own family.

Benimar

https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1346057496167911424

Boris: schools are safe until you put kids into them:)

Benimar

eviltwin wrote: »

How many parents here will send their children to school if they open on the 11th?

We made the decision this morning. Ours won’t be going back on the 11th regardless.

SusanC10

SusanC10 wrote: »

We won't be sending ours in. 1 Primary, 1 Secondary (non-Exam Year).

We are lucky that I am a SAHM and Husband is WFH since last March so we are in a position to be able to do it. Also, both Kids are independent students and (mostly) willing to work.

I should add that there are currently very high Case Numbers where we live.

Sammy2012

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Loved O'Riordan muttering in the background that it isn't true.

Well I would have to agree with the man!

Doctor Jimbob

When schools first reopened the reasoning/justification was:

a) Children's education is a priority.
b) They're safe as long as numbers remain low .

Obviously point a is still the case and despite my own issues with schools remaining open I think it's a fair point and hard to argue against. I don't think there's any way to reasonably argue that point b is still the case though. Numbers are completely out of control. At this point they need to either push back the reopening, or be up front with people that they're prioritising schools with no caveats.

micks_address

I think the challenge at the moment is that the hse numbers are a farce. How can you make a decision on anything when you are dealing with numbers that are a mixture of last 48 hours mixed with a backlog of 9k. In the absence of clear numbers to make a decision the only thing you can base decisions on is the worst case scenario. If we had true numbers of 1500 cases a day by Thursday maybe schools could open Monday but they could be as high as 7k per day now and who knows by Thursday. Schools online I’d say for at least a week from Monday and see how the numbers go next week. It’s disgrace that we are almost a year into this and the IT system is rolled out as an excuse for not being able to record numbers..ffs excel spreadsheets would do the job

Dubh Geannain

I know a couple of parent that took their kids out early to isolate before visiting elderly relatives over the Christmas period. They might be regretting it now because they are now faced with having to consider keeping the kids out of the school again. I know they will be considering this as they have taken the virus very seriously from the start. So they could be looking at over a month of missed school. Voluntarily I might add.

Ourselves. We're likely to keep the kids out next week at least and possibly the following week as we've no idea where all their classmates have been or who they were in contact with over the Christmas. The school has had no cases yet and I hope that continues. We'll be happy to send them back after the week or two.

The fact is the numbers are beyond the HSE's totting and tracking ability so we really want to see that there's a handle of that side of things again also.

jimmytwotimes 2013

eviltwin wrote: »

How many parents here will send their children to school if they open on the 11th?

We won't be sending them for 2 wks and then we'll reassess.

I'm happy to teach away in person but I'll have to move out as I don't want to risk bringing covid home to my family.

jrosen

Mine will be going back once our community numbers are low.

Stateofyou

Another concern re sending kids back is the government's warning that there may now be no testing and tracing for anyone even with symptoms; it's gotten so bad it's at the point where they may only prioritise testing those in a risk group. Are ye all comfortable sending your kids in knowing absolutely no one is paying attention to testing and especially tracing and testing those who are close contacts?

The FB group that alerts parents of cases, with 130k members, will be essentially dead in the water too.

Bananaleaf

the kelt wrote: »

The problem is this argument doesn’t stack up.

My local town is a relatively small local town. Yet every school day well over 1000 kids are bussed or drove into this town. They aren’t socially distant on their journeys and I doubt they’re masked.

They all congregate in the same place in this town every day. Every day they’re down town at lunch time, they’re in the shops, they’re in the takeaways, they’re circulating in that town every day and once again in the eve they’re all congregating in the same areas again.

You can multiply that by 100,s throughout the country and indeed my local town is far from the biggest in the county, other towns have way more doing exactly the same thing.

If the schools aren’t open and kids are at home they’re not doing this.

This idea that kids are safer in schools etc cos they’re masked socially distant etc completely ignores everything else that goes into a school day for hundreds of thousands of kids in this country. This idea that they will just spend time in shopping centres etc if not in schools is so false and Dublin/ big city centric but then again that’s hardly surprising I suppose.

It doesn't stack up in your experience. And that is fine. By the sounds of things, you may be in a part of the country where transmission is low at the moment anyway.

I said this before a couple of times on this thread and another, but if the schools close then EVERYTHING has to close. It is not false to say that if schools are closed and shopping centres are open that people will go to them. It is fact.

You obviously think this doesn't happen because you and yours don't do it and that is admirable. But it happens.

I am not joking you when I tell you that during the last lockdown I was having to record my classes for one 6th year because their part-time job in the local supermarket deemed them an essential worker

I don't think schools are the safest place in the world, absolutely not. I would, at this stage, prefer to be remote teaching for a bit. But if the wider community could keep itself in check, the schools would be fine.

Dubh Geannain

jrosen wrote: »

Mine will be going back once our community numbers are low.

You can't trust the community numbers currently though.

JDD

micks_address wrote: »

I think the challenge at the moment is that the hse numbers are a farce. How can you make a decision on anything when you are dealing with numbers that are a mixture of last 48 hours mixed with a backlog of 9k. In the absence of clear numbers to make a decision the only thing you can base decisions on is the worst case scenario. If we had true numbers of 1500 cases a day by Thursday maybe schools could open Monday but they could be as high as 7k per day now and who knows by Thursday. Schools online I’d say for at least a week from Monday and see how the numbers go next week. It’s disgrace that we are almost a year into this and the IT system is rolled out as an excuse for not being able to record numbers..ffs excel spreadsheets would do the job

I expect that the HSE and the government are basing policy on the swab data, rather than the daily confirmed totals. I could be wrong on this, but daily swab data is very close to the actual number of confirmed cases in a day. It just takes a few days to work out the actual number of confirmed cases for a 24 hour period. Swab data is a good indicator.

I really want to send the kids back into school. The older one loves school, but could work fairly independently and happily at home. The younger one would be happy to stay at home, but she's the one that really needs the formal teaching. She'd be below average at reading and handwriting. I don't know if it's dyslexia or something else or just laziness, but she's has come on in leaps and bounds since being back to school in September. She went backwards from March to June.

We may decide to keep them out for an extra week. We are an area of Dublin where the rates aren't the worst, but they're still fairly high. The school confirmed their first case just after Christmas Day, so while that particular infection probably hasn't spread, infections are getting in there. And there's a higher likelihood now than there was before Christmas.

piplip87

Benimar wrote: »

We made the decision this morning. Ours won’t be going back on the 11th regardless.

Likewise ours are going back the 21st. My OH gets an infusion every 6 weeks due to an illness. The illness does not make her more vulnerable to COVID but not getting the infusion makes her liable to get an attack. She is due to get the infusion on 17th so cant risk one of the kids getting it.

We have done this all through the last round of level 5 and both schools have been excellent sending home the work etc.

Melanchthon

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Madigan on the radio now spouting her rubbish that schools will be open next Monday and that that won't be changing.

Also saying that teachers and SNAs have priority for the vaccine. 11th place on the list isn't priority no matter what way you dice it up.

Which station / show would like to listen to it once it goes online

Sammy2012

Melanchthon wrote: »

Which station / show would like to listen to it once it goes online

Rte 1. Claire Byrne show.

Tpcl20

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Madigan on the radio now spouting her rubbish that schools will be open next Monday and that that won't be changing.

Also saying that teachers and SNAs have priority for the vaccine. 11th place on the list isn't priority no matter what way you dice it up.

https://www.buzz.ie/news/josepha-madigan-claire-byrne-radio-410076

It's very hard to find that clip but there is evidence of it everywhere.

The schools haven’t been shut, the holidays have been extended, says Josepha Madigan on @RTERadio1 I mean, what’s wrong with our political system that someone thinks it’s ok to say that rather than just say it as it is? — John Greene (@johnjgreene) January 4, 2021

https://twitter.com/josephamadigan/status/1346057569798942720?s=20

Doesn't look good when you're bitching on twitter with journalists.

JP100

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

I know a couple of parent that took their kids out early to isolate before visiting elderly relatives over the Christmas period. They might be regretting it now because they are now faced with having to consider keeping the kids out of the school again. I know they will be considering this as they have taken the virus very seriously from the start. So they could be looking at over a month of missed school. Voluntarily I might add.

Ourselves. We're likely to keep the kids out next week at least and possibly the following week as we've no idea where all their classmates have been or who they were in contact with over the Christmas. The school has had no cases yet and I hope that continues. We'll be happy to send them back after the week or two.

The fact is the numbers are beyond the HSE's totting and tracking ability so we really want to see that there's a handle of that side of things again also.

Those parents were wise to take their kids out early. In the days leading up to the Christmas holidays in schools very little in the way of education goes on anyways and it's more of a holding exercise.

Overall, while education is important and what schools are too a form of childcare that's important too but not at the expense of lives.

E36Ross

Wouldn't surprise me if they tried some blended crap, Leave schools open for kids of ESSENTIAL workers only so it doesn't impact workers/economy and then stream/online classes for those at home.

They'll be delighted with themselves for thinking up that one!



We'll just ignore the multitude of planning and organising that it'll take for it to work.

Mrsmum

Mine will be going back. They are in exam classes and if teaching is going ahead only in school, I feel I would be going them a disservice keeping them at home. We do not have elderly or sick relatives to consider in the family though.

mirrorwall14

E36Ross wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me if they tried some blended crap, Leave schools open for kids of ESSENTIAL workers only so it doesn't impact workers/economy and then stream/online classes for those at home.

They'll be delighted with themselves for thinking up that one!

We'll just ignore the multitude of planning and organising that it'll take for it to work.

If they try to do that late in the week it will be a **** show. And if it isn’t a **** show it will only be because once again the schools have taken the ridiculous and patched it together to make it work

Rosita

[quote="seamus;115798532"

So long as NPHET don't change their advice, I don't see the Government doing so either. At a push he might open dialogue with the unions and commit to reopening on the 18th, but aside from a few noisy sectors, there is no appetite for closing schools for another 6 weeks, not from NPHET or the general public.[/quote]

Who are the noisy sectors with an appetite for closing schools? I haven't noticed that at all.

micks_address

There might be an argument to bring back leaving cert years and home school everyone else

Mrsmum

micks_address wrote: »

There might be an argument to bring back leaving cert years and home school everyone else

That works for me.

Rosita

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

When schools first reopened the reasoning/justification was:

a) Children's education is a priority.
b) They're safe as long as numbers remain low .

Obviously point a is still the case and despite my own issues with schools remaining open I think it's a fair point and hard to argue against. I don't think there's any way to reasonably argue that point b is still the case though. Numbers are completely out of control. At this point they need to either push back the reopening, or be up front with people that they're prioritising schools with no caveats.

It has been said that schools are safe and that they should be the last things to close. Presumably they remain the safest of places and we are a very long way from satisfying the latter criterion so schools closures should not even be up for discussion.

Tpcl20

https://twitter.com/AmandaFBelfast/status/1346072498610311168?s=20

In the north they want special schools open and school for key workers kids but the rest closed for 2 - 4 weeks.