How will schools be able to go back in September?

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Good news and indicates that the school closures were probably a panic knee jerk response at the time.

Hopefully means kids can go back to normal soon.

Yes because thankfully children's attendance at school requires no adult interaction or intervention at all.
It's still astounding that so many people miss the wider implications of schools operating. 550,000 children in primary school alone. These children all need to be taught by...adults. Some of these children require the very close help of an SNA who is...an adult. All these 550,000 children are brought to school and collected from school by...adults.
If you look at the layout of most schools, even arriving at and leaving the school will be extremely challlenging to manage while maintaining social distancing among the adults never mind when in the school itself.

SCHOOLS REOPEN CALL

FIANNA Fail leader Micheal Martin said schools must reopen in September or we face “damaging” the children of Ireland.

The Cork TD said the two most important things to kick start the economy after the coronavirus crisis is housing and education.

Martin spoke on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM on the hard work ahead for Ireland's recovery from the outbreak.

He said education must be prioritised so that the young people of Ireland’s lifetime prospects aren’t damaged.

He said: “Education has been the hallmark of our party and my own life has been about education opportunities.

“I'm passionate about it. I think we need to protect education.

“We need to make sure children get access to education again. The fact that children are out of schools for so long in terms of development.

“The child develops very quickly from the earliest age.”

On schools, he added: “They have to reopen, that's the challenge. Our ambition is schools must reopen.

“How do we make it happen? Consistent public health advice.

I presume there is no chance of the Primary Schools returning in June for a month? In U.K. they are opening I believe.

Just as long as they reopen them safely and take similar precautions to what is been taken around Europe.

munsterlegend wrote: »

I presume there is no chance of the Primary Schools returning in June for a month? In U.K. they are opening I believe.

Would you be following the uks lead on anything though?

Lillyfae wrote: »

The information is dynamic, so it's not really fair to expect that something that was decided last week be immediately rolled back to align with things that have been found out today. The evidence we have since the beginning of this is limited to the last 6 months or so. I would say it would be a tough decision to go back on now given the pressure that's on Leaving Cert students. Additionally, they're not really children.

I see your point. I think they use models and projections for future advice? Cancelling the LC flys in the face of the government's roadmap which they had public health advice on, and was published before the LC was cancelled.

munsterlegend wrote: »

I presume there is no chance of the Primary Schools returning in June for a month? In U.K. they are opening I believe.

Have you seen the reopening guidelines they issued to schools? Biggest load of nonsense I've ever seen, it basically fobs off any problem to the school. Their unions have instructed staff not to plan for reopening until the government answer some basic questions from the unions.

Is there talk of reopening schools again before the Summer ??
I thought this issue had been settled.

Personally, I would prefer if they had a proper plan in place and went with the new Academic Year instead.

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

Have you seen the reopening guidelines they issued to schools? Biggest load of nonsense I've ever seen, it basically fobs off any problem to the school. Their unions have instructed staff not to plan for reopening until the government answer some basic questions from the unions.

No I have not. Are they for public viewing ?

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

Have you seen the reopening guidelines they issued to schools? Biggest load of nonsense I've ever seen, it basically fobs off any problem to the school. Their unions have instructed staff not to plan for reopening until the government answer some basic questions from the unions.

Have you a link BK? This is what I was worried about, the problem dumped on the school with little support from Dept of Ed

kandr10 wrote: »

What’s interesting is that on 26th April the guardian reported this https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/children-unlikely-to-transmit-coronavirus-says-study-cited-in-pms-push-to-reopen-schools

And then on the 30th April they reported this
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/coronavirus-scientists-caution-against-reopening-schools

The second article directly contradicts the first. I believe the second article was based on the study linked to above by Khaleesi.

What I read from this is that you can find a study to support either argument. There just doesn’t seem to be enough information to make a call one way or the other. I certainly wouldn’t call it a knee jerk reaction to have closed schools as another poster did. I think it was precautionary. As far as reopening, I think most people would rather it was sooner rather than later. I’d only be happy to send my own child back if there was clear reassurances that it was safe. Since these studies can be contradicted by other studies, they’re not offering me much in terms of reassurance.

One study is on viral load and is to detect the danger to children, the other is on the infectivity of children. The German study that Khalessi has quoted is also not peer reviewed. In my opinion, the Australian study released today has more relevance to school reopening because it tracked the contacts of actually infected children.

I wasnt referring to a German study but the study release by Johns Hopkins University with Chinese researchers published on April 27th in The Lancet

khalessi wrote: »

If they would put forward a proper plan for reopening that is then discussed by teachers on the ground and feedback allowed be given great!

The plan would have to include social distancing so splitting classes into smaller sizes, that would require usage of other buildings in the area as extra classrooms, a budget for daily deep cleaning or twice daily if half days suggested, ppe, disinfectant supplies for all rooms, entrances and exits, extra teachers, plans for coming and going to school to maintain distancing, regular handwashing during the day.

In China for example here are some of what they are doing; the children are required to bring 10 masks to school a week and change them at lunch time. They disinfect thenselves regularly throughout the day. There are only a few children to each classroom. They social distance moving along corridors. The classrooms are cleaned regularly during the day and at the end of the day.

That’s the problem really. I know in our school the budget barely covers basic cleaning never mind sanitising. There’s times I’d be hard pressed to get the cleaners to empty my bin and sweep the floor never mind wiping a desk down.

I wouldn’t mind the small groups. I guess it would essentially mean a day a week at school for most kids to give everyone a turn.

Social distancing kids would be hard no doubt and they’d need tonnes of reminders about sharing stuff etc but doable with the right guidelines. Only thing is the guidelines just wouldn’t be able to provide a one size fits all. All schools are so different in terms of resources, facilities, structure etc.
I would be hoping that these specific guidelines are issued, either at dept level or by the boards individually before sept. The sort of things you mentioned are what would make me feel safe sending my child in. (I’m about to go on mat leave so it won’t really affect my teaching in the short term).