Schools closed until February? (part 3)

Summer3

2ndcoming wrote: »

I don't think it does have a 14 day incubation period. I think that goes back to the early days when they didn't know some people were asymptomatic. Think most people start showing symptoms within a few days.

But then why the requirement for 14 day restriction on movement for those arriving in Ireland from other countries?

Talisman

gar32 wrote: »

I live in Germany and school's opened in April here after 1 month of home schooling. Very few Covid 19 cases in schools. Zero dead children and NO MASKS!!!!!

Death rate is the same a Flu. Open up like Sweden did and get on with your lives !!!!

Germany has a state of the art testing programme and also a top tier health service - two crucial components in dealing with the pandemic.

blanch152

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

Thought both of the biggest studies done to date in Korea and India state the opposite?

I mean the age groups of 4-24 have certainly seen a huge increase in cases since the end of August, my point is how can we in utter certainty say where the transmission originated, seems like an easy cop out to say private home or community transmission

Some of the thinking in educational circles is that it was a bad idea to put third-level online because that meants that students congregated in unstructured situations with much closer contact than if they had been in college with structured distance measures in place.

The Korean study showed that children get infected albeit at lower rates, and carry the virus in their noses, like adults. However, the study did not show or demonstrate that transmission happened in classrooms to any great extent.

Icyseanfitz

blanch152 wrote: »

Some of the thinking in educational circles is that it was a bad idea to put third-level online because that meants that students congregated in unstructured situations with much closer contact than if they had been in college with structured distance measures in place.

The Korean study showed that children get infected albeit at lower rates, and carry the virus in their noses, like adults. However, the study did not show or demonstrate that transmission happened in classrooms to any great extent.

i can tell you that is 100% not happening in large post primary schools, and the behaviour and responsibility of students outside of school falls firmly on parents doing their job.

How many students in a korean classroom? because if they can catch the virus, they can surely spread the virus

blanch152

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

i can tell you that is 100% not happening in large post primary schools, and the behaviour and responsibility of students outside of school falls firmly on parents doing their job.

How many students in a korean classroom? because if they can catch the virus, they can surely spread the virus

Well, yes, outside schools is where the problems are.

Icyseanfitz

blanch152 wrote: »

Well, yes, outside schools is where the problems are.

And in my and many others opinion, within school as well, it was madness to return all students as normal in the midst of a global pandemic.

8k71ps

blanch152 wrote: »

Well, yes, outside schools is where the problems are.

I think judging by reports in England and Italy that it's extraordinarily unlikely that our department of education has managed to outdo them considering in those countries schools it appears to be rampant. Personally I would be the first person to congratulate the department, or more particularly the principals that organised the entire thing with the doe in absentia, but I find it extraordinarily unlikely.

Ultimately Schools should have been proven to be safe, ie to begin with a hybrid model and slowly increase physical presence to tolerable infection levels, if they're to actually produce a "scientific" approach to their reopening.

blanch152

8k71ps wrote: »

I think judging by reports in England and Italy that it's extraordinarily unlikely that our department of education has managed to outdo them considering in those countries schools it appears to be rampant. Personally I would be the first person to congratulate the department, or more particularly the principals that organised the entire thing with the doe in absentia, but I find it extraordinarily unlikely.

Ultimately Schools should have been proven to be safe, ie to begin with a hybrid model and slowly increase physical presence to tolerable infection levels, if they're to actually produce a "scientific" approach to their reopening.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/02/covid-cases-among-secondary-school-aged-children-rise-in-england

"“The evidence suggests that transmission in schools is very limited, even in secondary schools,” adding that “it is likely that much of the transmission among groups of young people may be outside school settings, as we really have limited evidence of transmission within schools”."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/no-link-schools-re-opening-coronavirus-infection-rates-global/

"There appears to be no link between schools reopening and rising Covid-19 cases, according to an analysis of data from 191 countries."

"The analysis backs up what scientists increasingly believe - that children, initially thought to be major potential spreaders of coronavirus infection, do not appear to be playing that role. However, at the same time, there is a growing body of work showing the detrimental effects of keeping kids out of school across the globe. "

The evidence doesn't back you up.

khalessi

blanch152 wrote: »

The evidence doesn't back you up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/health/covid-india-children.html

For example, more than 5,300 school-aged children in the study had infected 2,508 contacts but were more likely to spread the virus to other children of a similar age. Because the researchers were not able to get information for all of the contacts, they could not assess the children’s ability to transmit relative to adults. But the finding has relevance in the school debate, as some people have argued that children spread the virus to a negligible degree, if at all.

“The claims that children have no role in the infection process are certainly not correct,” Dr. Lewnard said. “There’s, granted, not an enormous number of kids in the contact tracing data, but those who are in it are certainly transmitting.”

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/29/science.abd7672

There is the Indian study which would disagree with you. Testing and tracing when it comes to schools here have not been carried out properly. Guidelines for sd, close contacts are different for schools. Covid tracking app idenified 30 teachers in one school as close contacts and when HSE found out they were told it was a glitch. It has not happened to any other sector. The 2 metres for longer than 15 minutes masks or no masks, is not counted for schools. If you dont test you dont have numbers for schools, what happens then the children are marked as community transmission.


But it is interesting that the numbers which were slowly increasing over the summer, shot up at a marked rate and continue to do so, since schools reopened. Over 750 schools now with cases.

https://twitter.com/diagionals/status/1317171713780711426

8k71ps

blanch152 wrote: »

"“The evidence suggests that transmission in schools is very limited, even in secondary schools,” adding that “it is likely that much of the transmission among groups of young people may be outside school settings, as we really have limited evidence of transmission within schools”."

"There appears to be no link between schools reopening and rising Covid-19 cases, according to an analysis of data from 191 countries."

"The analysis backs up what scientists increasingly believe - that children, initially thought to be major potential spreaders of coronavirus infection, do not appear to be playing that role. However, at the same time, there is a growing body of work showing the detrimental effects of keeping kids out of school across the globe. "

The evidence doesn't back you up.

Firstly Public Health England’s COVID-19 epidemiology surveillance summary shows that educational settings now account for around 45% percent of all positive cases in the UK, alongside the 2 epidemiology studies in South Korea and India. Infact, antibody tests such as the ones in Spain seem to be indicating that school aged children and especially adults seemed to have gotten it almost as much as adults, despite schools being closed. Overall I can't actually look at whatever study is cited because it doesn't seem to link to it (if you could send or show where it is that would be great), but general problems with most of the ones done so far are that:

0) there is usually no comparison of outbreak rates between regions that closed schools vs those that did not

1) there is no meta-analysis of asymptomatic carrier rates in children

2) there is no meta-analysis of contact tracing studies (what fraction were children vs adults, how often did children vs adults spread the disease).

In addition there I'm aware that in Italy and Northern Ireland they're closing them outright, while in Poland and Greece there are massive protests over the increase in cases, to be the point students are actually taking over the schools in certain places in There is clearly widespread unrest to the response of governments. Clearly at the very least governments are forcing people into schools whether they actually want to or really despite whatever evidence there is of anything. Sure the department of education can't even enforce the relatively lax reactions they themselves want in schools, how could they possibly understand the nature of covid infections in schools.

From the current evidence children tend to have less severe illness and fewer or even no symptoms.Lots of these private households that are purported to be the cause of the infections in their social bubble are actually likely to actually be stemming from the child, since any infection is far more likely to be identified and symptomatic in the adult, which massively skews the source of transmission. We can see this in our own contact tracing as it buckles for example.

blanch152

khalessi wrote: »

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/health/covid-india-children.html

For example, more than 5,300 school-aged children in the study had infected 2,508 contacts but were more likely to spread the virus to other children of a similar age. Because the researchers were not able to get information for all of the contacts, they could not assess the children’s ability to transmit relative to adults. But the finding has relevance in the school debate, as some people have argued that children spread the virus to a negligible degree, if at all.

“The claims that children have no role in the infection process are certainly not correct,” Dr. Lewnard said. “There’s, granted, not an enormous number of kids in the contact tracing data, but those who are in it are certainly transmitting.”

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/29/science.abd7672

There is the Indian study which would disagree with you. Testing and tracing when it comes to schools here have not been carried out properly. Guidelines for sd, close contacts are different for schools. Covid tracking app idenified 30 teachers in one school as close contacts and when HSE found out they were told it was a glitch. It has not happened to any other sector. The 2 metres for longer than 15 minutes masks or no masks, is not counted for schools. If you dont test you dont have numbers for schools, what happens then the children are marked as community transmission.


But it is interesting that the numbers which were slowly increasing over the summer, shot up at a marked rate and continue to do so, since schools reopened. Over 750 schools now with cases.

https://twitter.com/diagionals/status/1317171713780711426

If a school is following the Departmental protocols correctly, there is no way that 30 teachers could be deemed close contacts.

On the Indian study, the study is based on one main fact, that previous studies have been carried out in high-income countries that have little relevance to low-resource countries like India. The corollary would also be expected to be true, hence I would have significant doubts about it as a result. Even the NY Times article you reference states it "offers important insights not just for India, but for other low- and middle-income countries."

blanch152

8k71ps wrote: »

Firstly Public Health England’s COVID-19 epidemiology surveillance summary shows that educational settings now account for around 45% percent of all positive cases in the UK, alongside the 2 epidemiology studies in South Korea and India. Infact, antibody tests such as the ones in Spain seem to be indicating that school aged children and especially adults seemed to have gotten it almost as much as adults, despite schools being closed. Overall I can't actually look at whatever study is cited because it doesn't seem to link to it (if you could send or show where it is that would be great), but general problems with most of the ones done so far are that:

0) there is usually no comparison of outbreak rates between regions that closed schools vs those that did not

1) there is no meta-analysis of asymptomatic carrier rates in children

2) there is no meta-analysis of contact tracing studies (what fraction were children vs adults, how often did children vs adults spread the disease).

In addition there I'm aware that in Italy and Northern Ireland they're closing them outright, while in Poland and Greece there are massive protests over the increase in cases, to be the point students are actually taking over the schools in certain places in There is clearly widespread unrest to the response of governments. Clearly at the very least governments are forcing people into schools whether they actually want to or really despite whatever evidence there is of anything. Sure the department of education can't even enforce the relatively lax reactions they themselves want in schools, how could they possibly understand the nature of covid infections in schools.

From the current evidence children tend to have less severe illness and fewer or even no symptoms.Lots of these private households that are purported to be the cause of the infections in their social bubble are actually likely to actually be stemming from the child, since any infection is far more likely to be identified and symptomatic in the adult, which massively skews the source of transmission. We can see this in our own contact tracing as it buckles for example.

What does the sentence in bold mean?

Teachers are paid to be in school, children require it for their education.

In some countries, infection rates went down when schools re-opened.

8k71ps

blanch152 wrote: »

What does the sentence in bold mean?

Teachers are paid to be in school, children require it for their education.

In some countries, infection rates went down when schools re-opened.

That fact isn't particularly relevant without putting each of the countries other covid policies into account. For instance, it makes perfect sense to even keep them open entirely if there are few infections and you live in a country like Finland and Sweden (not to say their cases are low but their social norms fit a pandemic), but it makes a whole lot sense from a covid prevention perspective if pubs, retail, and the kitchen sink are all also open, which is very different from one country to the next. It seems that in Ireland at least the government has allowed for a laundry list of different sectors to remain open , and while education ought to be the #1 policy if it doesn't come alongside the closing of most else in the community it really just isn't sustainable.

I am referring the drive throughout Europe by the ruling class to force workers back, to work and reopen schools and universities under conditions where everyone actually in the education system well knows the virus is rapidly spreading. I am not in favour of lockdown nor of all schools closing (we do need to work) but there needs to be a creativity in thinking that just doesn't exist in government currently. Even a hybrid model for secondary schools would probably be adequate at this rate.

khalessi

blanch152 wrote: »

If a school is following the Departmental protocols correctly, there is no way that 30 teachers could be deemed close contacts.
"

Why not, it was a secondary school? And why were they told to ignore the covid app as it was a "glitch".

niamh247

blanch152 wrote: »

If a school is following the Departmental protocols correctly, there is no way that 30 teachers could be deemed close contacts.

On the Indian study, the study is based on one main fact, that previous studies have been carried out in high-income countries that have little relevance to low-resource countries like India. The corollary would also be expected to be true, hence I would have significant doubts about it as a result. Even the NY Times article you reference states it "offers important insights not just for India, but for other low- and middle-income countries."

How is income level relevant for these studies? Just like how govt blindly shows all data to support its need to keep the economy running by keeping schools open at any cost?

Are you refuting the fact that 30% of the new cases involve young people under age of 24?

Are you saying there is some magical force that somehow stops transmissions in class rooms? Does it make full sense?

Grandeeod

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

i can tell you that is 100% not happening in large post primary schools, and the behaviour and responsibility of students outside of school falls firmly on parents doing their job.

How many students in a korean classroom? because if they can catch the virus, they can surely spread the virus

In the previous version of this thread, I was a proponent of reopening schools, but not with the feck em all back together approach. My child started first year at the end of August. From that very first morning we all gathered in the hall, protocols were being broken. Everyone all distanced for the little talk, but as soon as the students were lead away, BANG, all on top of each other. Her PP school are doing hourly classes with short mask breaks outdoors. On a wet day the mask breaks are in the corridor.:eek: These breaks are being stopped after the midterm and the school say that they were extra precautions and not in the guidance. Loads of teachers in just visors that we now know aren't worth a damn without a mask too. Very little SD in place. Kids hitting each other with masks at break time. Hand sanitizer being slapped on the back of kids heads. Filthy toilets. As for the school bus, a joke, despite it being able to handle SD. I've seen the footage for all I have described. Yeah some kids will be arseholes, but mine isn't along with many others.

I'm all for my child getting an education. I don't want her stuck at home, but a combination of daft practices, dopey kids due to dopey parents and a Dept that is literally winging it, will not end well. The virus is out of control in the community. Schools are part of the community.

Icyseanfitz

Grandeeod wrote: »

In the previous version of this thread, I was a proponent of reopening schools, but not with the feck em all back together approach. My child started first year at the end of August. From that very first morning we all gathered in the hall, protocols were being broken. Everyone all distanced for the little talk, but as soon as the students were lead away, BANG, all on top of each other. Her PP school are doing hourly classes with short mask breaks outdoors. On a wet day the mask breaks are in the corridor.:eek: These breaks are being stopped after the midterm and the school say that they were extra precautions and not in the guidance. Loads of teachers in just visors that we now know aren't worth a damn without a mask too. Very little SD in place. Kids hitting each other with masks at break time. Hand sanitizer being slapped on the back of kids heads. Filthy toilets. As for the school bus, a joke, despite it being able to handle SD. I've seen the footage for all I have described. Yeah some kids will be arseholes, but mine isn't along with many others.

I'm all for my child getting an education. I don't want her stuck at home, but a combination of daft practices, dopey kids due to dopey parents and a Dept that is literally winging it, will not end well. The virus is out of control in the community. Schools are part of the community.

this seems to be the part most cant understand, schools are not apart from the community or home, they are all interconnected

niamh247

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

this seems to be the part most cant understand, schools are not apart from the community or home, they are all interconnected

Yup. People think there is a fairytale magical goddess in every school who keeps virus at the school gate. They say, with a sage like expression and confidence "schools are safe places"

Smacruairi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Dublins numbers are starting to fall at level 3

Remember this one.

Icyseanfitz

Smacruairi wrote: »

Remember this one.

Not in anyway connected to schools though :rolleyes:

Scoondal

The nphet say kids are safer in school than outside school.
These are the experts, or so we are told by the people in the media that know the real facts.
So stop undermining the ministry for information.

byhookorbycrook

Scoondal wrote: »

The nphet say kids are safer in school than outside school.
These are the experts, or so we are told by the people in the media that know the real facts.
So stop undermining the ministry for information.

Studies are often from counties where the PTR is tiny , compared with here and the social distancing of 2 m is in place . So the data isn’t relevant here . If parents were to see the reality of Irish schools, there would be a lot of school withdrawal .

jrosen

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Studies are often from counties where the PTR is tiny , compared with here and the social distancing of 2 m is in place . So the data isn’t relevant here . If parents were to see the reality of Irish schools, there would be a lot of school withdrawal .

No there wouldnt.

Parents know the numbers in their kids classes, they know what is going on with their schools and every day thousands of kids still go to school.

Parents assess the risk like with anything else. I have no doubt you would see numbers fall in schools where there is an outbreak and especially if those numbers continued to grow. But in other schools where numbers are 0 or really low parents will continue to send their kids.

khalessi

jrosen wrote: »

No there wouldnt.

Parents know the numbers in their kids classes, they know what is going on with their schools and every day thousands of kids still go to school.

Parents assess the risk like with anything else. I have no doubt you would see numbers fall in schools where there is an outbreak and especially if those numbers continued to grow. But in other schools where numbers are 0 or really low parents will continue to send their kids.

There are over 750 schools with cases and parents are becoming more aware of what is going on and more worried about the governments attitude to schools

8k71ps

jrosen wrote: »

No there wouldnt.

Parents know the numbers in their kids classes, they know what is going on with their schools and every day thousands of kids still go to school.

Parents assess the risk like with anything else. I have no doubt you would see numbers fall in schools where there is an outbreak and especially if those numbers continued to grow. But in other schools where numbers are 0 or really low parents will continue to send their kids.

Why is there a need for an informal Facebook page tracking cases in schools with over 100k followers if the parents have all the information they need

Mrsmum

khalessi wrote: »

There are over 750 schools with cases and parents are becoming more aware of what is going on and more worried about the governments attitude to schools

I think parents are perfectly aware. Look at it this way, teachers are definitely aware and they are all sending their kids to school. Likewise sna's children. It's a balancing act, there are pros and cons but as long as schools are open the vast majority of parents,including teachers will send their children to school.

wirelessdude01

I'm aware of two schools who have been made aware of multiple cases in their schools between Friday evening and this evening. They have yet to be contacted by the HSE and have also failed to talk to anyone from them. They have both made the decision to close tomorrow as a precaution until they get advice from the HSE.

I'm also aware of another school who have multiple(over 10 in one class alone) cases. The HSE ruled there are no close contacts and no transmission in the school environment. School disagrees with that opinion and as such has asked parents to keep their children at home for the week. Online learning to take place.

Fair play to the school involved for being courageous in making the decisions that they have done. Takes some balls to go against the trend.

Icyseanfitz

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

I'm aware of two schools who have been made aware of multiple cases in their schools between Friday evening and this evening. They have yet to be contacted by the HSE and have also failed to talk to anyone from them. They have both made the decision to close tomorrow as a precaution until they get advice from the HSE.

I'm also aware of another school who have multiple(over 10 in one class alone) cases. The HSE ruled there are no close contacts and no transmission in the school environment. School disagrees with that opinion and as such has asked parents to keep their children at home for the week. Online learning to take place.

Fair play to the school involved for being courageous in making the decisions that they have done. Takes some balls to go against the trend.

this spits completely in the face of the "no school transmission" spin happening currently, how are they doing such a good job keeping it under wraps its like people dont want to know that schools could be dangerous

TTLF

In my opinion: I'm not so sure we can fully understand or gage the situation in schools properly, whether they are safe or not safe, up to standard or not by both the schools side or the governments.

I know in this form, a lot of people are either Parents, Teachers or neither. (As far as I know, I'm the only actual secondary level student in this form) and it seems that there's a lot of back and forth with the "Schools are clearly safe from X study" and "No they're not safe, this study shows different"

But while everyone's entitled to their own opinions, making recommendations or criticisms on the state of the schools with the virus, I don't think it's going to help the grand scheme of things.

I've learnt a lot over the last 2 months about the government, our schooling system, the unions and NPHET through some of the discussions on this forum and on other forums or news websites. This had led me to make my own sensible decision that, there's really not much we can do, nor can we assume because one study showed this, and another showed this, they're neither right or wrong.

It's pretty naïve to assume that, since one country had a good reopening of schools, it means they spread low transmissions. But it's also naïve to assume that since another country had a bad effect in schools opening, that schools cause transmission.

Take the UK for example, they created a recent figure on what parts of their society are causing the most transmission, it stated in the illustrated pie-chart, that "education" accounted for 36% of transmission (the highest total.) But we need to remember a few factors here about the schools in the UK schools who had a "bad" opening up compared to a "good" one, with the Irish. It is seen that, like us, they started schools roughly the same week, and most pupils were thrown into their schools again with little protection, actually, even less more so than the Irish. From a friend who lives in the UK, it is not compulsory to wear a mask in schools, at all. Now, I'm not sure if this is EVERY school or just his, but that can make a big difference to transmission rates. It's obvious masks do help in Lessing the spread of the Virus, which is why our Government has made it compulsory for Secondary Level Schools to wear masks (albeit after poking and prodding) which gives the Irish an advantage in helping stop community transmission within the school environment.

Now, let's compare this to a school which has had a good opening to schools. I saw earlier in this forum, someone was talking about how the schools in Germany had lower transmission rates and that Covid doesn't spread highly within the schools premises. I would agree with her statement, however NOT from an Irish perspective. I put some time and research into this odd division of Irish schools having higher numbers, versus Germany's schools with low to non-existent transmission rates, and I think I came to understand my conclusion. Germany has better compliance from both the Government and public than Ireland does. I have seen this myself when I was in Germany. I found this article which shows how particular Germany is towards their safety from DW news, a popular German article.

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-germany-unveils-airing-plan-for-schools/a-55286311

This gives an indication to me, how critique and precise the Germans are. Irish schools would never have this made out for them on air ventilation alone, they would sum it up in one sentence, "Keep them open and the door open, shure you'll be grand." Also, If people didn't know about Germany's government system, Germany is split up into 16 Bundesliga (or states) which have their own smaller government, education and holidays. Which means, unlike Ireland, They have 16 states managing schools inside their own districts, unlike in Ireland which has 1 government body overseeing the 1000+ schools in the country, and Hey, even Germany aren't perfect at this either. They reopened schools quite early in April-May after they thought they had a grasp on the Virus, however, this wasn't the case, as there were multiple outbreaks in Berlin schools come August after they reopened the new school year.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/over-40-berlin-schools-report-covid-19-cases-a-fortnight-after-reopening-1.4336773

Also, currently Germany, unlike every other (or most) European country's actually has the virus under control with their low incidence rate because of their very compliant public body.

So, what does this all mean? you may be asking yourself. Well, as I stated above, we just can't really fully understand the nature of Irish schools and if they spread the Virus or not. It's clear that schools have gotten cases, clusters here or there, or only 1. Hell, even my own school has had a case. But we shouldn't be bickering over if they're safe or not, we simply do not know. I've been in class now for about 2 months and I haven't gotten the virus (god forbid), however I do know of people around me that have had to be tested, or had to isolate because their older brothers or sisters were being tested. Even my own sister was tested for her chest infection because they thought it was Covid, (thankfully she's not in my household and didn't effect my education.) It makes me think, "with going to class, being with up to 90+ students daily and even more during break times and going out of the school during break for lunches, is it really safe for all students to be doing this?" and after time my decision was- "No, it most certainly isn't." I haven't gotten a case, but it could take one person in my year to get the whole of 6th year shut down, I mean I was already a close case with someone's brother who had tested positive, who's to say it won't happen again?

As I am looking from a "less mature" student's perspective, I think it's actually scary going into school everyday with this virus, especially currently with the normal enough flu season and such, making people develop coughs, chest infections and more. I'm very happy to wear the masks and clean my desk during the lesson as it makes me feel safer, but as I learn and study for my Leaving Certificate in 2021, I have a fearful thought in the back of my mind, a doubt of "We're not going to make it to December with how things are going" and I think I'm correct in the context. Each and every school in Ireland is completely and utterly different, different buildings, groups per year, boys/girls or mixed, different localities, different counties. This makes it super hard to pinpoint any real evidence with how schools are actually doing in the Pandemic with regards to spreading it. I could go on and on, but you hopefully get my point by now- We just don't know.

I fear for my own health in this situation, Since I am a vunerable student compared to the majority, I know that if I catch this virus, I could get bad consequences from its effects, which is terrifying, no student should have to be in fear to go to school sometimes. We have over 1200 cases today, and it's quite clear that community transmission has caused the spike in cases as we already know, but it's awfully scary knowing that, with 1K+ daily cases a day, I'm submitting myself into an environment that isn't being monitored by the HSE closely and quite frankly, can be lazy in it's admission to student/teacher protection when rules are not strictly enforced. There's nothing I can even do about it either, Online Learning doesn't exist, there's no option for a "Blended" approach, it's a mess for some of us, but we manage anyway.

With Norma Foley's ideas of keeping schools open for the wellbeing of students mental health and social lives seems important to her, I think a students person health wellbeing is better off than mental in times of crisis. I don't think schools should be open as they are currently with 1k+ daily cases, but I don't think a full closure is ideal either. I think a blended approach could work well for many, as it gives kids social interaction at least twice a week, while letting them be at home safer, which makes them less susceptible to the virus on a daily basis.

Nobody wants this to happen, especially me, being shafted with a new "altered" Leaving Cert, possible lockdowns, doom and gloom on my own mental health, crazy assumptions on how schools should operate here, it's a full mess. But I am willing to endure it. As we know, Level 3 is "not working," and the government is going to reveal more restrictions tomorrow which will be on a nation-wide scale, but deep down I feel schools won't be altered in that regard, but I'm hoping they will consider something, even if only for Secondary schools. I am of the personal belief that the 2 week closure is a good idea, because you only miss a week of learning. That could even be changed, I don't mind doing a week of Online learning if needs be to help get this virus under control.

I'm scared of what might lie ahead if nothing is changed on the schools front. This was just my own opinion piece and I thank you for reading.

Dickie10

email today from school saying to be ready for online classes this week . must be expecting schools finish up early for midterm on wednesday