Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Keeping children off school

She's two days into her antibiotics and steroids. Chest is loosining up and better but not 100%. Her asthma is usually OK but she smokes (rolls eyes) and when she picks something up it has a tendency to go to her chest.

Im naturally cautious and she's scared stiff, but there's an element of her trying to carry on as normal as she's quite ocd about her routine.

If she's really scared and she's not fully well, I'd keep them off. Anxiety about a routine sounds more manageable than being frightened about a real risk to health.
 
My daughter takes 2 buses to school each way, my other daughter 1 bus to college.... thinking of keeping them all off as hubs has no work this week anyway. However I’m probably the most risky as I’m a health care professional and I work in the community, so go in schools and homes every day. I’ve got tickets for 3 gigs in the next 8 weeks, it’s looking like they’ll not go ahead.
 
Can't even get through to the school office this morning. Ancedotally we know of about 5 families from our kids classes also keeping their children off. Suspect there must be more because someone's tieing up the phone lines
 
Arrived at inner London primary school this morning with the two boys: the playground was half empty; I'm now in the kitchen with the ten-year-old helping the six-year-old with his bookbag book.
 
Absolutely loads off here now. Talked to the nursery about the littlest one and it seems a lot of them are already sick (although that's usually the case). Some pretty suspicious cases of week-long fever though.

Our Israeli neighbours with 3 kids at the school just upped and left this morning, dumped their car and house keys through our letter box and flew back to Israel.
 
Absolutely loads off here now. Talked to the nursery about the littlest one and it seems a lot of them are already sick (although that's usually the case). Some pretty suspicious cases of week-long fever though.

Our Israeli neighbours with 3 kids at the school just upped and left this morning, dumped their car and house keys through our letter box and flew back to Israel.
 
Seemed quiet at my school today, and the usual gaggle of parents chatting in the playground seemed to be well-spaced, like people were avoiding standing too close together! I think enough will take their kids out soon that there will just be pressure to close, though I suspect I will still be going in, my job is easier when the kids aren’t there!
 
One of the few good things is that kids don’t seem to get very ill with C19. But they can still pass it on though.
Indeed. To older people, grandparents etc who can't fight it off. What do the Italian authorities have to say about this?
 
Far from keeping him off I forced mine in today who apparently “had corona” without a cough or fever. School nurse tried to argue the toss with me but I’m not being cheated out of one of the last days childcare available for a while!
 
32m ago 13:18

Breaking: Nicola Sturgeon announces schools and nurseries in Scotland will close to pupils at the end of the week.

The first minister said there will be further announcements to support low income students on free school meals as well as students who have exams.

Sturgeon added that people should not assume schools and nurseries will reopen after the Easter break. She cannot promise it will reopen before summer holidays.

She said: “It will not be easy, but together we will get through this.”

37m ago 13:14

Kirsty Williams, the Welsh education minister, said:
“Today, I can announce we are bringing forward the Easter break for schools in Wales. Schools across Wales will close for statutory provision of education at the latest on 20 March 2020.

“I have been clear up to now that the continuity of education and the wellbeing of our learners has been at the heart of my decision making. This will always be the case.

“From next week, schools will have a new purpose. They will help support those most in need, including people involved in the immediate response to the coronavirus outbreak. I am working with my colleagues in the cabinet, with government officials and our partners in local government to develop and finalise these plans.

Johnson has hinted that England will do something too but I dont think they've announced it properly yet.
 
One of our local secondary schools had 580 absentees out of 1500 pupils yesterday. My PRU had 6 kids today out of 28.

There is apparently a strong (many signatures) petition going around asking for the cancellation of exams this May/June. I don't think there's a chance exams will happen. Our schools in Wales stop on Friday and the word is that there is little chance of reopening before September.
 
A friend who teaches gcse to adults at a FE centre told me today they are expecting gcses to be postponed until November (when they'd usually do the re-sits). Not official.
 
Ok. I have questions.

So we’re closing Friday except for...

...vulnerable kids (kids with social workers, kids with ECH plans [what, all of them?]

...kids of key workers, except the definition of key worker is not yet agreed. May include supermarket and post office workers, delivery drivers, refuse collectors, haulage and public transport workers etc. Does that include the whole age range? What age does the key worker childcare obligation stop?

That’s potentially a LOT of kids. Who’s planning lessons, teaching, supervising, the break times of those kids. And the behaviour management? How are those teachers chosen? Will those teachers also have to do the online teaching?

There’s talk of offering the same kids full time care during the Easter holidays too.

We’re planning teaching via the internet, but Boris appears to have just cancelled all this summer’s GCSEs and A levels. Do yr 11 and 13 just finish the year now??? For real???

We’re setting work for all students to do at home. How do we make sure year 10 and year 12 actually get it done, when the consensus seems to be that there’s no chance of getting meaningful engagement with a lot of students in years 7-9. What magically changes in year 10?

I know it’s not fair to expect a neat package of plans, but this feels very sketchy.
 
I'm guessing it will only be younger kids coming in, and only staff with no children/underlying conditions supervising them.
 
I'm guessing it will only be younger kids coming in, and only staff with no children/underlying conditions supervising them.
Yeah. That’s likely to be me, which is why I’m not enjoying imaging the carnage. I’m usually a sixth form specialist. Would really want to invest a lot of time in my remote teaching of those kids. Be fucked off if they lose out because I’m on crowd management for the foreseeable.
 
Oh. It appears I should have been self isolating already because I have a chronic neurological condition. And apparently also because I’m fat. Which is weirdly hilarious.
 
As a glorified 'support worker' I feel very conflicted about continuing to come into work... given I'm old enough to be one of the kids grandparents, should I be putting my health at risk to support the delivery of a glorified creche service? :hmm:
 
As a glorified 'support worker' I feel very conflicted about continuing to come into work... given I'm old enough to be one of the kids grandparents, should I be putting my health at risk to support the delivery of a glorified creche service? :hmm:
Yeah.

it’s not my proudest moment: I have to remind myself how lucky I am to have a decently-paid, secure job in the first place, and that those in need of the schools staying open are in real need.

And that we all need to pull together anyway. And I’m not likely to die from this, and others will.

I’m just really bloody glad it looks like I’ll be able to pass the buck and do the easier, more chilled work on my sofa, rather than the alternative.
 
I'm not even convinced of the logic of it... surely it is better to keep kids socially isolated within the family group or a closed network of parents, rather than transporting them into school to sit with another bunch of kids - 1 or 2 you can guarantee will be symptommatic each day... based on this weeks performance.
 
Fuck knows what they’re doing, no idea if my school will be open, was kind of planning all the things I could get done while the kids aren’t there, if some are then my list just got a lot smaller.
 
I've just seen an email sent out to Headteachers (I think with the intention that they'd share it with their staff) from Williamson...

...he adds no more detail than we've already seen :(
 
It seems that common sense is prevailing here. I had a couple words with important folk and everyone is being asked to volunteer a couple days initially... If numbers are low then this will go down.. Probably a nice balance between self isolating and going bonkers.

(It also allows the cat 2 days of peace and quiet without me cluttering up the place..)
 
Last edited:
Everyone in my school just stressed to fuck as there is still no real clarity on this and we’re supposed to start doing it on Monday. Vague letter gone out to parents asking if they think it applies and to let us know, but that we don’t know criteria or not. Crap for parents too I guess. Can see pushy middle class parents turning up at the gates to argue the toss because their job as an HR person at an internet marketing firm is essential and adds value to the world.

The head was saying that there is some list out there with categories, and apparently it includes journalists as key workers. WTAF, is this a media/political bubble thing, a bribe to keep the press on side or just Johnson /other ministers that are married/knobbing journalists wanting to keep their own lives easy? FFS.
 
My main concern is what do year 11 and 13 kids do now for the next few months? Every other year group will hopefully be getting school work assigned to them by their teachers to do at home, but those two years were basically just revising and preparing for exams that will no longer take place. I hope there's going to be some sort of coherent strategy.
 
Back
Top Bottom