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Child Item

How will schools be able to go back in September?

shoppergal

Just wondering if anyone can give any insight into how schools could safely re-open in September?

Everyone I'm talking to is saying they won't be back until September but in my head I'm wondering how they'll re-open even in September? The virus will still be there with a vaccine still months away at that stage.

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wirelessdude01

Birdy wrote: »

That would be very messy. Teachers wouldn't know the needs of the kids.
It would make more sense to have a quarter of each class in every day with their own teacher.

Glorified child minding if that is the plan they are going with.

lawred2

Birdy wrote: »

That would be very messy. Teachers wouldn't know the needs of the kids.
It would make more sense to have a quarter of each class in every day with their own teacher.

that's probably a better idea

mloc123

Augeo wrote: »

Most couples will be in the same boat.

Most already are already in that boat... unlike teachers, who are on paid time off now for 6 weeks already.

Boggles

Kids are not robots they are kids.

The idea they will follow strict guidelines over a sustained period is naive in the extreme.

Also 2 meters apart is arbitrary guff as is, but then simultaneously allowing them to play in the yard together even in limited groups makes no sense.

SusanC10

mloc123 wrote: »

Most already are already in that boat... unlike teachers, who are on paid time off now for 6 weeks already.

I don't agree and I am not a Teacher.

We have had great communication and engagement from both the secondary school teachers and primary school teacher. They are working.

wirelessdude01

Boggles wrote: »

Kids are not robots they are kids.

The idea they will follow strict guidelines over a sustained period is naive in the extreme.

Also 2 meters apart is arbitrary guff as is, but then simultaneously allowing them to play in the yard together even in limited groups makes no sense.

All about spreading the disease slowly and in a somewhat controlled fashion.

Boggles

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

All about spreading the disease slowly and in a somewhat controlled fashion.

We have no control because we don't have the ability to rapidly test.

With the whole country on lockdown we had to get Germany to help us.

jester77

bdmc5 wrote: »

Worried for teachers and pupils health if this talk of going back mid may is true and we are still experiencing Hundreds of new cases and 30 to 40 people dying daily.

My wife is a primary school and while I’m working full time. We were in the fortunate position pre C19 that we had grandparents minding our toddler but that will be out of the question if my wife goes back to school And with crèches closed I don’t know what we’ll do for childcare. Serious possibility my wife or 1 will either unpaid leave in this scenario. I imagine a lot teachers may Have to take unpaid leave either due to childcare issues or concerns around health and infection

Surely they would do something similar to the other countries where childcare would be opened only for the children of parents who are teachers, nurses, doctors, etc

SusanC10

We have decided not to send our daughter back before the Summer.

We have been fairly self-isolated here. My husband is working from home and I am a stay-at-home Mum. Our son is in Secondary in a non-exam year.

My priority is that we will all be able to see my elderly Mum who we have not seen since mid-Term in February as soon as the rules allow with a clear conscience that all of us have taken as many precautions as possible not to infect her. For me that does not include sending our daughter to school in June as an experiment.

Not everyone will agree with us and we will have to make other decisions nearer to September.

[Deleted User]

Boggles wrote: »

.........
With the whole country on lockdown we had to get Germany to help us.

Testing has now ramped up, no more tests sent to Germany.

[Deleted User]

SusanC10 wrote: »

We have decided not to send our daughter back before the Summer.

We have been fairly self-isolated here. My husband is working from home and I am a stay-at-home Mum. Our son is in Secondary in a non-exam year.

My priority is that we will all be able to see my elderly Mum who we have not seen since mid-Term in February as soon as the rules allow with a clear conscience that all of us have taken as many precautions as possible not to infect her. For me that does not include sending our daughter to school in June as an experiment.

Not everyone will agree with us and we will have to make other decisions nearer to September.

You'll be looking beyond September for that I imagine.

SusanC10

At this stage I would like to just see her in person even at a social distance. We live 3.5 hours drive from her.

[Deleted User]

I'm similar with my Dad, might chance a trip to the gate as you suggest when long spins are permitted. Although as someone based in the East I'm not sure how socially acceptable trips around the country will be.

Boggles

Augeo wrote: »

Testing has now ramped up, no more tests sent to Germany.

Testing capacity has been moved into care homes.

We do not have the capacity to rapidly test in the community, which is a requirement of opening things like schools up.

That is not my opinion, that is what the leader of country stated last night.

CinemaGuy45

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yes agreed. As they have played a long game and schools were first to close I am fairly sure they will be amongst last back and therefore September. They would be a breeding ground for Covid. No social distancing can happen in schools with young children so it would be using our children and their families as an experiment.

Nonsense the lockdown was about slowing spread not stopping it.
People will need to go back to work and children will need to be back in school.

Teachers are on full pay at the moment they need to just get on with it.

This lockdown has come at an enormous cost we can not wait forever.

Ray Donovan

CinemaGuy45 wrote: »

Nonsense the lockdown was about slowing spread not stopping it.
People will need to go back to work and children will need to be back in school.

Teachers are on full pay at the moment they need to just get on with it.

This lockdown has come at an enormous cost we can not wait forever.

Ya they are on full pay. Because they are working remotely.

CinemaGuy45

Ray Donovan wrote: »

Ya they are on full pay. Because they are working remotely.

SOME are however that is beside the point when the experts recommend a return to school teachers and children just need to get on with things.

jrosen

Maybe it would be best to close the schools now, (end of april?)allow the teachers and staff and departments to work out and plan how they can come back in September.
Teachers can spend the remainder of the 2020 school year planning out their lessons, working though kinks in the systems, working with distant learning and also classroom.

Allow the teachers to work behind the scenes so come September we can have some sort of return to school where everyone knows what is expected, what the expectations are.
We also need to know what teachers cant and wont return to the classroom. Realistically there could be a decent % of teachers who wont be able to return for health reasons.

Right now we are getting a thrown together attempt ay distance learning. There are some schools doing well and others not, some kids engaged some not.

BanditLuke

Don't get me wrong i'd love to see it happen if it was safe (have two kids here myself) but at present i can't for the life of me see how it would work. For a start our average class sizes here are huge compared to properly functioning education systems like Denmark whilst there is a large percentage of classes that take place in portacabins not proper classrooms and these are not fit for purpose.

Then you have the pie in the sky idea of kids social distancing which just isn't going to happen as you'll know if you've ever observed kids in a school environment. The schools would literally have to hire extra cleaners to conduct deep cleans after hours and also constantly wiping down handles, tables, doors, toilet facilities etc..throughout the day.

SusanC10

jrosen wrote: »

Maybe it would be best to close the schools now, (end of april?)allow the teachers and staff and departments to work out and plan how they can come back in September.
Teachers can spend the remainder of the 2020 school year planning out their lessons, working though kinks in the systems, working with distant learning and also classroom.

Allow the teachers to work behind the scenes so come September we can have some sort of return to school where everyone knows what is expected, what the expectations are.
We also need to know what teachers cant and wont return to the classroom. Realistically there could be a decent % of teachers who wont be able to return for health reasons.

Right now we are getting a thrown together attempt ay distance learning. There are some schools doing well and others not, some kids engaged some not.

This.

SusanC10

Augeo wrote: »

I'm similar with my Dad, might chance a trip to the gate as you suggest when long spins are permitted. Although as someone based in the East I'm not sure how socially acceptable trips around the country will be.

We actually own the house next to my Mum. It was my Grandparents'. So, technically a "holiday home".
I really want to be able for all of us to drive there, stay there a few nights, see Mum even at a social distance and come back home again.
Am hoping for enough easing of restrictions to achieve this at some point over the Summer. Accept that this may be wishful thinking.

JDD

I'm not in the least dissing the teachers that are off at the moment. Our primary school has set up distance learning through an app, where homework is uploaded each morning and submitted to the teacher for review. I got my five year old to submit some homework when we got some quiet time around 6pm yesterday, and her junior infants teacher uploaded comments at 10pm last night. And I know her teacher has very young kids herself.

It's not a case of opening the schools because we are paying teachers so they should be forced to work. It's not a case that opening schools is some sort of Machiavellian experiment on school kids and teachers to see how many might become infected. It's a case that we have to return to some sort of normality, even if that is only with schools being open two days a week, because a vaccine may well be two years away. We have to learn to live alongside the virus, in the knowledge that opening schools WILL increase the level of infection in the community, and in the full understanding that they may well close again if the level of infections gets too high.

I completely understand anyone who might want to keep their children out of school until September - that is completely their prerogative and different families will have different risk appetites for this infection.

SusanC10

JDD wrote: »

I completely understand anyone who might want to keep their children out of school until September - that is completely their prerogative and different families will have different risk appetites for this infection.

I am hoping that if they do reopen schools ahead of the Summer that they don't make attendance compulsory though I am prepared to defend our own position if necessary.

mirrorwall14

Parent and second level teacher here. I’m not sure I would want to send my junior infant child into the pictures coming in from Denmark. When my brother visited before this lock down and had to stay outside the window and not hug him or come close he was devastated and bawled his eyes out. His behaviour dropped a lot for the next few days as it really upset him. I think the proposed set up of seeing some of his class one/some days a week and maybe even a different teacher would just be a disaster for him and totally unfair. His teacher is playing a blinder as it is with kids at home but videos up every morning on dojo, loads of links and plenty of work but lots of advice that it’s fine if it doesn’t get done

The reality here is almost all of it doesn’t get done because I have two kids with me and I’m teaching my second level kids from home. But i make time for him to watch the daily Roll call video and the fuaim ones every day because he enjoys them. We’re hit or miss apart from that but he’s getting tons of outside time and free drawing and I throw worksheets for pencil control at him when I can.

Honestly my biggest concern is a half hearted half baked plan and a ‘let the schools figure out how to do it themselves’ attitude. Which wouldn’t be unexpected as that’s pretty much the current set up. If they try and bring in the LC using all of us to teach them by splitting them, then all my other year groups suffer because I can’t get stuff up online/get corrections done. There’s an awful lot to be weighed up on what the ‘best’ procedure is

[Deleted User]

Boggles wrote: »

Testing capacity has been moved into care homes.

We do not have the capacity to rapidly test in the community, which is a requirement of opening things like schools up.

That is not my opinion, that is what the leader of country stated last night.

He also said he's hoping it will be further ramped up by May 05th.
Opening schools won't happen in the initial easing, IMO.

[Deleted User]

I think schools should just remain closed until September. High risk vs low reward bringing them back now.
Social distancing is never going to work in schools anyways.
What we really need is to ensure the elders cocoon themselves.

Boggles

Augeo wrote: »

He also said he's hoping it will be further ramped up by May 05th.
Opening schools won't happen in the initial easing, IMO.

Like I said we have heard words like "hope" and "aspire" for the past 5-6 weeks.

They are no where near the required level of testing or method of testing to open up any sustained gathering safely.

Like he said last night, the more they open things up, the more the virus will spread, the more services will be stretched.

So looking at where we are now (complete lockdown) and trying to apply to 4 weeks away is impossible.

It will take 2-4 weeks to realize if any openings have gone "bad" as is.

Opening up the likes of schools without the data or ability to test would be wreckless in the extreme.

Get the systems setup, then talk about opening.

False hope or off the cuff opinions leads to complacency, which leads to deaths.

jrosen

There will be no data really for 2-3 weeks on how other countries have gotten on with their relaxing of restrictions. We are well placed to see what others are doing, see whats working and whats not.

Ray Donovan

Deleted User wrote: »

I think schools should just remain closed until September. High risk vs low reward bringing them back now.
Social distancing is never going to work in schools anyways.
What we really need is to ensure the elders cocoon themselves.

Let's logically examine the best case scenario here:

Primary Schools reopen at the earliest Monday May 18th. That leaves 6 weeks until Summer holidays.

So realistically your child will be in school 6 days (at most) between then and the end of June. As you said the risk v reward is way too loaded on the risk side to make this in anyway the right thing to do. It will be also be of practically no benefit to your child's education.

The reasons for doing it are optics - "Oh we're opening the primary schools, we're getting back to normal, well done to us" - The Government.

The Department will issue no concrete guidance and it will be up to individual schools to implement policies on Social Distancing as they see fit. It will be a nightmare for some schools.

If I was a principal of a primary school the policy I would implement would be non-compliance and continue to remote learning untill the end of June.

lawred2

jrosen wrote: »

Maybe it would be best to close the schools now, (end of april?)allow the teachers and staff and departments to work out and plan how they can come back in September.
Teachers can spend the remainder of the 2020 school year planning out their lessons, working though kinks in the systems, working with distant learning and also classroom.

Allow the teachers to work behind the scenes so come September we can have some sort of return to school where everyone knows what is expected, what the expectations are.
We also need to know what teachers cant and wont return to the classroom. Realistically there could be a decent % of teachers who wont be able to return for health reasons.

Right now we are getting a thrown together attempt ay distance learning. There are some schools doing well and others not, some kids engaged some not.

Maybe.

But the reality is that a lot of teachers would simply see it as the start of their holidays.