Vince135792003 wrote: » I am a primary teacher. I think most will cope and catch up. However, there would be children in my class who would be very weak academically and would not be supported by their parents at home. I'd worry greatly about them moving on a year. An already big gap between them and their peers could have really widened in 6 months, if they haven't been doing any of the basics (literacy and numeracy) in that time. I would love it if schools were given the option to offer a minority of children the chance to repeat a year, subject to their parents agreement.
youandme13 wrote: » I know parents have to work etc, but creches are worse places for spreading of viruses etc. How can you have 12 two year old with 2 adults and expect them to social distance? Schools would be easier to control this as they are older and would understand.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » Maybe, maybe not. If they go ahead a o open schools, we will all have to accept there will be a spike in transmission and more people will die. Maybe people will be happy with that scenario by then. But let's be honest about it; without a vaccine, letting people out in 3/4/5/6 month will be exactly the same as letting them out right now. And maybe they will need to increase transmission rate because at the current rate of transom, it will take years, not months for every to get it. So the only way this thing can end within a year is if we get a vaccine, mass produce it and roll it out to the entire country or, just let everyone out assuming they will get it and accept that lots of people will die. Or else we just hubker down and it could take a few years for everyone to get it. I'm not advocating for either approach. I'm just saying they're the options and they take closer to a year than a couple of months.
The chan chan man wrote: » On one hand, they can’t open in sept if there is no mass produced vaccine, which there wont be. To open the schools then would mean all of this has been pointless. On the other hand, my view is we cant keep this up long term without this resulting in civil unrest/mental health issues/widespread unemployment etc. i know 4 people now who have had it (all under 60) and it hasnt even been that bad for them! The people dying had no more than 5-7 years left anyway at best! I know others over 80 who couldnt care less - they know something’s gonna get them sooner or later! As such, i would question if we should just move on with life and whatever happens happens... I’m not even sure if I agree with myself...but its a question the world needs to ask itself at some stage. And even if we do, again, this has all been in vain.
Pete_Cavan wrote: » When you say lots of people will die, how many do you mean? The death rate is not constant, it will decrease over time. If the health care system gets overrun with extreme numbers of cases in a short period, deaths go through the roof. This is not the case if the health system is coping with a steady number of cases within capacity constraints. You can talk about letting people die but that is already happening and happened every day before Covid-19. The rate of spread is also not constant over time, as more people get infected, the more who recover and develop antibodies, the less people who will get it later. It's all about slowing the rate of spread so the health system copes. There is also another side to the equation: what are the other consequences of slowing the spread? There are numerous other problems building in the background which combined will have severe consequences too.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » If 40,000 people a week get it in Ireland, how long would it take for everyone get it with a population of 5m? How long for herd Immunity at about 2/3?. Work it out. In either case were talking at least a year and I've no idea if the health service could deal with the acute cases out of those 40,000 a week getting it.
Alex86Eire wrote: » As mentioned already, social distancing cannot be done in schools the way they are currently set up. I come into contact with 200+ students per day. What happens in September if one of our students is showing symptoms? Do all 800 staff and students have to self isolate? We'd have a number of kids who are immunocompromised so I worry about them. The Junior Cycle exams aren't being held along with the Leaving Cert due to social distancing. The idea that schools will open only 2-ish weeks later with 6 full year groups just isn't conceivable to me. Here's hoping though.
Vince135792003 wrote: » I am a primary teacher. I think most will cope and catch up. However, there would be children in my class who would be very weak academically and would not be supported by their parents at home. I'd worry greatly about them moving on a year. An already big gap between them and their peers could have really widened in 6 months, if they haven't been doing any of the basics (literacy and numeracy) in that time. I would love it if schools were given the option to offer a minority of children the chance to repeat a year, subject to their parents agreement. Not that, that would be a perfect solution either but it's the vulnerable and weak children who will be impacted most by this. I also think, where possible, a primary teacher should continue on with the class they had. Time will be of the essence and the "getting to know you stage" in September when you have a new class is not really the best use of time in my mind. We need to hit the ground running and children need teachers who already know where each child is at academically, emotionally and socially.
Ray Donovan wrote: » Have you been in an Irish primary school lately?? Highest class sizes in Europe! How do you expect social distancing to work with 35 students crammed into a classroom?
ILoveYourVibes wrote: » We couldn't live with polio we couldn't live with measles etc. We can't live with this. It would collapse our society before we evolved to have immunity.
iguana wrote: » Except we did live with polio and we did live with measles. Ireland didn't even introduce the MMR until 1985. Before that kids like me got the measles, mumps and rubella. The vast majority of us felt horrible for a week or so with measles and maybe a bit uncomfortable with mumps and rubella. And the rest of the world continued as normal. Unfortunately some people were not so lucky and it's good that we now have a way to keep those illnesses suppressed to protect the vulnerable. But we did live with them, life went on, society continued. An illness that makes the vast, vast majority of people mildly sick for a few weeks, at worst, will not collapse society. As a society, we can and will live with it, if we have to. We will protect our vulnerable as much as we can. Scientists will work rapidly towards a vaccine and we are so, so lucky to live in a time where that is possible. But in the meantime, we are going to have to live with this for a while.
youandme13 wrote: » Yes I am aware thanks,, my sons primary school has over 1000 students alone! What I was saying is older children understand more about whats happening and the importance of hand washing etc compared to younger children.
wirelessdude01 wrote: » Majority of kids don't wash their hands properly and as for social distancing in schools 😂🀔 Can you imaging kids who haven't seen each other in months staying 2m apart? Not a hope in hell.
average_runner wrote: » Exactly only be 1.8m in the world has it and 200,000 died. Very small number
Pete_Cavan wrote: » Again, the situation changes over time. More hospital capacity and improved treatment will keep more people alive. Cacooning and new procedures to protect nursing homes should flatten the number of severe cases which take up a lot of resources. If the high risk people are protected to the greatest extent possible, then the remainder of the population will put less strain on the health service.
uli84 wrote: » September? How people are supposed to work if the schools are closed?
Murple wrote: » I hope they don't rush to open schools too soon. Hopes or expectations of maintaining social distancing rules are pointless and only those with little experience of young children could think otherwise. Even visualising what school would be like if you had to spend the day enforcing 2 metre distance between children (apart from the fact that to have 2 metres between everyone in a classroom would mean only 4-6 children at a time). I think that would be very upsetting for children- sitting 2 metres from their classmates, no playing together, teacher can't come near your desk to help you, child can't go near the teacher either, collection and drop off a nightmare... Even seeing children out and about with their family at the moment and you can see how they just won't get it. Think about how people are advised to clean their shopping when they get in. What would happen with school equipment? Saying that children will have to stay at home with any symptoms- it just won't happen. We had a vomiting bug sweep through the school in December. We had 75% of some classes absent and yet we still had children sent in only to be sent home at 9:15 as they were obviously unwell. We had parents phoned by 9:30 in some cases and the children weren't collected until the afternoon. On one day we had 6 teachers absent and no subs were available. Even that issue- a sub teacher in one school one day and another the next and another school later in the week. At the moment if we have no sub, we split a class. How could we do that? The suggestion of having children attend one day a week, presumably on a rota, would be very difficult to organise if attempting to ensure that any children in one family in the same school attend on the same day. You could also have a situation where a family has children in several schools and each child attending on a different day. How does that help with getting people back to work? If crèches aren't open, there's no after school either. It's not as simple as people make out. I would also feel that if schools reopen in a format that is drastically different to the norm, that it could be a far more unsettling experience for children than continuing remote learning. I don't know the solution but I think as we just had the highest number yet testing positive, we are risking undoing everything achieved over the last few weeks. It will have to happen at some time but recent articles talking about reopening schools in a few weeks are I hope premature.
LilyShame wrote: » Yes teachers are educators.. And even the juniors spend 4.5 hours in a learning environment with their peers, every day 5 days a week in school. This is supported by breakfast clubs and afterschool clubs, taking some children up to 9 hours out a day. Private childcare providers might be up for supporting some basic curriculum over the summer months. Particularly as some afterschools are small. I know two in my area that want to get back to work and would facilitate it. Not sure how the fees would work...would probably need more state aid! I see some 6 year olds wash hands very effectively, but yes agree social distancing 6 year olds is not easy!We all need to think more creatively about this problem.. There has to be a way forward to educate young kids without assuming everyone has WiFi and own laptops. Again, very concerned that we would all just assume... Schools close til September... Let's see how the nordics get on in next few weeks.
ml100 wrote: » They are going to have to come up with something, no way the county can continue indefinitely to pay teachers who are not working, most kids from 1st or 2nd class on could use a tablet to access some online work, cheaper to buy tablets for the kids that don't have them than do nothing for the next year!
jrosen wrote: » Something will have to be done. We have had no contact from our primary schools since shut down. No guidance and no support to parents. There was one page uploaded to the school site initially with english and math works to be done in workbooks for the 2 weeks, maybe 40 mins work per day. Plus a project. Then another page uploaded with suggested websites to use. There is no way this is acceptable long term without real impact to the kids that attend this school.
ILoveYourVibes wrote: » As a 'species' from a clinic cold perspective yes. As a functioning society ...no. Fatalities have been low due to lockdowns and the fact that countries tried to save their healthservice. If we try to 'live with it'. That would not be the case. And its not the flu ...mild is not the word. I have heard many figures banded about as to how many are asymptomatic some say 10 % some say 50% some say 70%. Its not predictable who is going to die. Its not older people. Its everyone. So no...i don't think we will get to a point when people will simply say lets take our chances. I think certainly Boris Jonson getting it has prevented that.
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