nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

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.

Find more posts tagged with

schools

rte news

covid

Quick Links

Comments

iamwhoiam

September is two and a half months away . Lets not get our knickers in a twist just yet . Who know what Covid is doing by September and we could have a good grip on it by then .

Insidious

Deleted User wrote: »

Covid is gone from the community and has been for weeks now. In time we will look back and see this period of lockdown as a huge over-reaction. The Leaving Cert should never have been cancelled. Children are not superspreaders and barely get any symptoms if they get Covid. There is a fear out there which is paralyzing an awful lot of people out there. The longer people were locked up listening to the News the more fearful they got!

Lots of us have been working throughout this entire pandemic, mixing with people, taking precautions but getting on with work and with life! This has to apply to everyone now unless they are vulnerable. I work with a mix of people from all backgrounds and ages, after a few days there is no fear anymore, we sanitise, we keep our 2m space as much as possible but nobody even mentions Covid anyore!

Kids needs an education, but more importantly they need their friends, their socialization and their fun. They will have been denied most of this for 6 months by the time September comes along. School in as normal a way as possible is hopefully on the cards in September.

Maybe you're right and I'm looking at this wrong... I just don't want to end up in another brutal lockdown because we didn't stay the course for that extra couple of months while waiting for a vaccine.. It looks pretty likely we'll have one by years end if the news stories are to be believed..

drunkmonkey

It's gone but listening to those northsiders in ques for Penny's yesterday waiting to get some clothes to head off to benamarina in 2 weeks tells me it won't be long before there's a lockdown again at least this time there going to be recommending county shutdowns. Bye Bye Dublin been nice knowing you.

Jinglejangle69

What is the problem here?

Government have said schools should reopen fully in September like most other countries.

Surely that's a good thing?

[Deleted User]

Insidious wrote: »

I just watched the news from last night… I am so annoyed!
After all the sacrifices… all the deaths.. not seeing family or friends for months in an effort to suppress Covid 19… The Government are just going to send all the children back to school in September.
As far as I can tell it’s to hell with social distancing…
If this is the case why did you not run the state exams.. What’s the difference..
Now education is more important than lives.. I honestly don’t know what to say.
To all the healthcare workers and frontline staff in our hospitals this is shameful if it comes about.. They will drive us back in to the center of a new outbreak just as the Flu season starts..

This may be the start of a new Government. I won’t forget and If they follow through on this… I’ll see them in the next election with the memory of the consequences of their decisions.
They made mistakes at the start with Cheltenham and visiting Nursing homes but they were learning in a difficult situation.
This will be different. This will be a decision with the full knowledge of what happened before.
Apologies.. I needed to have a rant.. Am I wrong? I guess I could be but damn I’m annoyed just now!

Covid is gone from the community and has been for weeks now. In time we will look back and see this period of lockdown as a huge over-reaction. The Leaving Cert should never have been cancelled. Children are not superspreaders and barely get any symptoms if they get Covid. There is a fear out there which is paralyzing an awful lot of people . The longer people were locked up listening to the News the more fearful they got!

Lots of us have been working throughout this entire pandemic, mixing with people, taking precautions but getting on with work and with life! This has to apply to everyone now unless they are vulnerable. I work with a mix of people from all backgrounds and ages, after a few days there is no fear anymore, we sanitise, we keep our 2m space as much as possible but nobody even mentions Covid anyore!

Kids needs an education, but more importantly they need their friends, their socialization and their fun. They will have been denied most of this for 6 months by the time September comes along. School in as normal a way as possible is hopefully on the cards in September.

Chicoso

They have to go back en-masse full-time

You can't give kids half an education, would be pointless

Annabella1

Kids seem to be back in school without much incident to date throughout Europe
We will know more about the state of play by September

talla10

The whole point of lockdown was to flatten the curve of Covid-19 not the eradictation of the virus. We have achieved that so far.

After three months of severe lockdown the numbers contracting it are extremely low. The economy must reopen and allow business to resume whilst enforcing social distancing and ensuring hygienic standards don't slip.

We can't keep children off school for possibly another 3-4 months. Children need an education, structure and with schools reopening it allows working parents to return to work.

RIP to all those who sadly died but life must go on.

lawred2

Insidious wrote: »

I just watched the news from last night… I am so annoyed!
After all the sacrifices… all the deaths.. not seeing family or friends for months in an effort to suppress Covid 19… The Government are just going to send all the children back to school in September.
As far as I can tell it’s to hell with social distancing…
If this is the case why did you not run the state exams.. What’s the difference..
Now education is more important than lives.. I honestly don’t know what to say.
To all the healthcare workers and frontline staff in our hospitals this is shameful if it comes about.. They will drive us back in to the center of a new outbreak just as the Flu season starts..

This may be the start of a new Government. I won’t forget and If they follow through on this… I’ll see them in the next election with the memory of the consequences of their decisions.
They made mistakes at the start with Cheltenham and visiting Nursing homes but they were learning in a difficult situation.
This will be different. This will be a decision with the full knowledge of what happened before.
Apologies.. I needed to have a rant.. Am I wrong? I guess I could be but damn I’m annoyed just now!

you want everyone to stay in doors for ever?

there is next to no evidence of new cases of C19 in the community here in Ireland... September is 3 months away.

Children need education.

Silentcorner

People's lives have to go on, kids need school for interaction as much as education....

We are never going back to the worst case senario...we have already had that, we had a virus we knew very little about and we had to make huge adjustments, our health system didn't collapse far from it, we now know what to do if there is another outbreak as there invariably will because we now know what we are looking for and how to react.

There are large parts of this country that hasn't seen a case in weeks, they should be let back to normal now if you ask me.

Boggles

Jesus, the only hope is a new government is formed next week and someone is put in charge who doesn't plan for pandemics using personal "feelings".

Insidious

I just watched the news from last night… I am so annoyed!
After all the sacrifices… all the deaths.. not seeing family or friends for months in an effort to suppress Covid 19… The Government are just going to send all the children back to school in September.
As far as I can tell it’s to hell with social distancing…
If this is the case why did you not run the state exams.. What’s the difference..
Now education is more important than lives.. I honestly don’t know what to say.
To all the healthcare workers and frontline staff in our hospitals this is shameful if it comes about.. They will drive us back in to the center of a new outbreak just as the Flu season starts..

This may be the start of a new Government. I won’t forget and If they follow through on this… I’ll see them in the next election with the memory of the consequences of their decisions.
They made mistakes at the start with Cheltenham and visiting Nursing homes but they were learning in a difficult situation.
This will be different. This will be a decision with the full knowledge of what happened before.
Apologies.. I needed to have a rant.. Am I wrong? I guess I could be but damn I’m annoyed just now!

the corpo

I think the Dept are also looking to pit the public against NEPHIT.

"We'd *love* to open the schools of course, but our hands are tied, silly NEPHIT and their silly rules. I know, I know! But it's not *our* fault..."

The minister outlined how impossible an idea it is for the schools to do staggered openings etc, but I know our school has done huge work planning for whatever the Department was going to announce, and while difficult, they could have coped or attempted to cope with most options.

I think it's also pretty terrible that the schools had to blindly plan for all contingencies as they were/are getting such little information from the Department.

History Queen

Benimar wrote: »

Having had time to think about this, I think the document is just a cynical exercise to pass the blame to teachers.

FG are making it clear that schools won’t return to normal unless Social Distancing is removed completely. A partial return to schools won’t play well with parents, so pressure comes on teachers to agree to go against health advice and go back with no SD in place. It’s happening already.

If they say yes then schools open fully and FG look great, if they don’t teachers and unions are going to be deemed to be the reason schools aren’t back.

I’m not a teacher before anyone accuses me of being one, but this is just cynical by FG. Not one ounce of creativity in that document.

I think that is a pretty accurate assessment of the situation. If it is safe enough to return without social distancing fair enough, but if it isn't, they've set teachers and schools up for failure and blame.

Was speaking to a friend of mine last night who has a 17 year old daughter with CF going in to 6th year in September. She read the documemt and said she is very fearful of what will happen in September. Her parting words were "if it's a choice between physical health and education it is a no-brainer in our house, physical health has to come first". Under her circumstances I can't blame her. I admit I don't have the answers but I haven't seen the department even attempt to come up with any... my takeaway from the document was "this is really hard, no one wants social distancing as it impacts too much so we're going to close our eyes cross our fingers and hope for the best ".

Benimar

Having had time to think about this, I think the document is just a cynical exercise to pass the blame to teachers.

FG are making it clear that schools won’t return to normal unless Social Distancing is removed completely. A partial return to schools won’t play well with parents, so pressure comes on teachers to agree to go against health advice and go back with no SD in place. It’s happening already.

If they say yes then schools open fully and FG look great, if they don’t teachers and unions are going to be deemed to be the reason schools aren’t back.

I’m not a teacher before anyone accuses me of being one, but this is just cynical by FG. Not one ounce of creativity in that document.

Leftwaffe

The document is a disgrace to be honest. But nothing unusual there.

iamwhoiam

timmy_mallet wrote: »

Many parents would barely send their child to school with a washed face and a clean pair of undercrackers, no chance any of the above would have enough uptake to be useful.

Thankfully not in my area .

ldy4mxonucwsq6

marilynrr wrote: »

I read an article yesterday which said that exposure to some forms of the common cold in the past may offer people immunity to coronavirus or may mean they might only get a milder form of it!

That doesn't mean that i'm saying to send sick kids to school! but the fact that we get exposed to these things a lot and fight them off and retain some immunity means that they tend to be just nuisance illnesses to us rather than life threatening!

Actually, I was only thinking about this the other day.

With the level of strict cleaning, hand sanitising etc our immune systems will be in for quite an awakening once things revert to normal after months and months of not a germ in sight.

I'm bracing myself anyway

JRant

khalessi wrote: »

Have to say disappointing announcement but not unexpected. They have basically said sort it out yourselves, sure it will be grand. They want July provision going ahead without social distancing yet 10 TDS cannot be in the Dail together for longer than 2 hours.

This quote from Shakespeare in Love can be adapted to the plan for reopening

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre school reopening business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?

Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman: How?

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

The Dail rules are a disgrace so I wouldn't be using that as a barometer for how we should proceed.

The restrictions are being lifted at an accelerated pace, social distancing is becoming less and less prevalent, look at the mass gatherings the past few weeks and Penny's today, yet the numbers are still dropping and are now at negligible levels. The Dept need to come out now and just tell teachers and parents that schools will be opening as normal come the new year.

beggars_bush

It's a typical DES document

Let's put it all back on each school board to decide

marilynrr

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

One of the benefits of schools being closed is that not one of us in our house have been sick since February and we regularly run the gauntlet of coughs, colds, vomiting bugs etc etc.

I read an article yesterday which said that exposure to some forms of the common cold in the past may offer people immunity to coronavirus or may mean they might only get a milder form of it!

That doesn't mean that i'm saying to send sick kids to school! but the fact that we get exposed to these things a lot and fight them off and retain some immunity means that they tend to be just nuisance illnesses to us rather than life threatening!

khalessi

Have to say disappointing announcement but not unexpected. They have basically said sort it out yourselves, sure it will be grand. They want July provision going ahead without social distancing yet 10 TDS cannot be in the Dail together for longer than 2 hours.

This quote from Shakespeare in Love can be adapted to the plan for reopening

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre school reopening business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?

Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman: How?

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

timmy_mallet

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Parents will have to take responsibility too . Temp checks before school , teach hand hygiene over and over . Give the kids a pack with hand sanitizer a small towel and toilet paper every day . Thankfully most parents I know and in the area would be happy to do that .

Hopefully all adults, parents , teachers , minders , SNAs etc will pull together and help the children deal with it . The children need us to be united and putting the kids first

Many parents would barely send their child to school with a washed face and a clean pair of undercrackers, no chance any of the above would have enough uptake to be useful.

wirelessdude01

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Those people are a disgrace, how they can do that to their own children when poorly never mind the consequences for everyone else who then catches it.

One of the benefits of schools being closed is that not one of us in our house have been sick since February and we regularly run the gauntlet of coughs, colds, vomiting bugs etc etc.

I don't know what could be done to stop those type of people, first it could be tricky to prove but a strict health procedure for all schools will need to be drawn up before anyone goes back. With actual consequences, be that mandatory isolation periods or fines for breaching rules, I don't know just some sort of deterrent.

Who will impose these fines? I know full well that the type of parent who would do this won't pay the fine anyway. Also they won't answer the phone when the school number comes up.

I had a child puke all over the place one day,said they had been sick before they came in but that mammy had given them a tablet and told them that they would be fine at school. Didn't answer repeated phone calls from the school. Granny had to be rang then. Granny dumped mammy in it when she came to collect the poor child. Said straight out that mammy wasn't working that day. Found out through a different parent later in the week that the mammy in question had been sat at the hairdresser and looked at her phone and put it away. The parent that said it to me was in the chair beside her!!!!!!

jrosen

I was in communication with my sons year head today. I certainly got the impression we are looking at blended learning come September. So much so I contacted my employer to give notice for September that if schools return on a blended basis I will be reducing my hours.

I do think schools need to be strict with sick kids however as a working parent who zero family support I know the pressures working parents face. Its going to be worse imo as right now, companies are playing ball, the expectations of staff are lower due to covid.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

Many parents are responsible but every school has the few that will dope a child up with Calpol and send them in, then avoid school phone calls for the entire day. I don't know what can be done to stop those people.

Those people are a disgrace, how they can do that to their own children when poorly never mind the consequences for everyone else who then catches it.

One of the benefits of schools being closed is that not one of us in our house have been sick since February and we regularly run the gauntlet of coughs, colds, vomiting bugs etc etc.

I don't know what could be done to stop those type of people, first it could be tricky to prove but a strict health procedure for all schools will need to be drawn up before anyone goes back. With actual consequences, be that mandatory isolation periods or fines for breaching rules, I don't know just some sort of deterrent.

iamwhoiam

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

Many parents are responsible but every school has the few that will dope a child up with Calpol and send them in, then avoid school phone calls for the entire day. I don't know what can be done to stop those people.

Probably nothing . I dont mean to be negative but you will never change that kind of person . Hopefully the majority can be responsible and carry the irresponsible

BonsaiKitten

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Parents will have to take responsibility too . Temp checks before school , teach hand hygiene over and over . Give the kids a pack with hand sanitizer a small towel and toilet paper every day . Thankfully most parents I know and in the area would be happy to do that .

Hopefully all adults, parents , teachers , minders , SNAs etc will pull together and help the children deal with it . The children need us to be united and putting the kids first

Many parents are responsible but every school has the few that will dope a child up with Calpol and send them in, then avoid school phone calls for the entire day. I don't know what can be done to stop those people.

mirrorwall14

pc7 wrote: »

My child is only in junior infants so it’s not so much the work I’m talking about, it’s that they had only settled in and were out with no contact. I think one email a week is piss poor being honest when they are out on full pay. Zoom teaching probably wouldn’t work For that age, but an assembly or a little message would have been nice. When I asked about a video message the teacher sent a photo And my child was made up, kept asking to see it. Thankfully they get the same teacher again next year. I think kids have been bottom of this list during on this in the eyes of the government.

It’s funny because I’m the exact opposite, the amount of stuff we are getting from the junior infants teacher is insane. I can’t get near most of it. Weekly email of plan, daily emails with the days work, videos/links/padlet/YouTube to keep track of via class dojo. She must be wrecked. I’m wrecked lol

delly

pc7 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that Delly that really sucks, they’ve had months now to come up with plans. Hope your little one is ok.

Cheers! Ironically the last 3 months have probably been the clearest we've been healthwise in the last few years, I know others who are saying the same in support groups.

Yeah, there's a few months to go until the return, so just hope that something considered will be put in place. The announcement today reminds me of the taxi law when it comes to child seats, in the fact that they are exempt. Essentially saying that it's not practically possible to put in place, therefore we'll just let the regulations say it's okay. It doesn't stop the risk for the child though.