A question for parents and opinionated people

I think that covers everyone on here.

The schools in France are going to reopen in phases from May 11 but in a very non-nanny state approach attendance is going to be on a voluntary basis. Presumably the level of support for home schooling will fall off as teachers will now be occupied with kids in class so keeping one's kids at home is likely to disadvantage them academically. On the other hand, sending them to school runs the risk of them catching/spreading the virus. So, what would you do?

Edit: I don't have kids myself but I do have friends here who are having to make this decision. Some schools are asking parents already to register whether their kids will be attending when they reopen.

 

Bearing in mind the vulnerable adults in the family, I would keep the kids away.

 

If this had all happened when my kids were of school age and I had the choice I would send them back.

 

Answer from a dad of 2..........I haven’t à sodding clue!!!!

 

This is going pretty much as I expected. Out of the first 3 responses we have a yes, a no and a don't know. It's a tough call, particularly when the question stops being theoretical.

 

I wouldn’t unless they published how it would be safe for staff and kids.

 

As a Sixth-Form teacher who works in Leeds I'm hoping they stay shut as long as is necessary to vastly reduce the risk of infection. Our catchment area covers a lot of West Yorkshire. I just didn't feel safe at all during the last weeks before lockdown. I have my boys at home at the moment which is difficult but I'd rather they were safe here right now. There is a lot you can do to set work and assess from a distance which helps although I appreciate the main issue is parents being able to get back to work.

 

Until they know more about the long term affects of infection/recovery and have an accurate assessment of the risks of sequelae (think shingles from Chicken Pox) or other long term lung/organ/immune system damage, and with a higher risk wife, probably keep my child off school (although she is at Uni now, so not my decision any more).

I'm not sure whether it was genuine or not, but an alert was going around on social media on Monday about a large increase in kids presenting with new side effects including Kawasaki disease (heart inflammation) as a result of infection.

 

Same, work in a secondary school with a sixth form and a special school on site, no way did I feel safe. We were all given a box of tissues and that was literally it in terms of anything that changed in regards to keeping people safe. I heard cleaning was supposed to have been stepped up but the computers and keyboards/mice the kids use have never been cleaned since we’ve had them as apparently the cleaners aren’t allowed to touch anything electrical.

 

My son has said he'll only go back to school if social stuff like football happens!

 

I'd home school.

Edit: I took my kids out of school a week before lockdown, as at the time I was vulnerable (recovering from open heart surgery). At the time I knew less about covid-19 than I know now.

 

They have been gearing up for the beginning of June for a while now. There are pallets of gel, tissues and other stuff I couldn't tell what it was lined up. It's not a sure thing and it depends on whether the death rate and admissions drop and stabilise. Targeted at year groups 6, 10 & 12 to begin with, from what I understand. How you juggle that if you have kids in those years and another, I don't know. The senior leadership teams are party to details they are drip feeding to us bit by bit. But I guess even that privileged info will be changing as things evolve.

 

I posted a couple of weeks ago about this. My daughter’s school closed before the official school lockdown due to staff shortages, due to self isolation. Wife and I are key workers, but couldn’t get a place when they re- opened for key workers. We didn’t want her to go then and still don’t want her to go now. We believe it’s too risky, if either of us have to stay off work unpaid we will. I’m sick of hearing people who either don’t have children or who have grown up families, saying they would send their kids to school. They don’t know that for sure. Any assurances that it is safe from this lying, untrustworthy, incompetent lot in Govt means nothing to us. I was talking to a neighbour Yesterday who is a Schoolteacher and although she has to work, she doesn’’t send her child. If We sent our 9 year old to the shop around the corner just a few hundred yards away with no roads to cross, and something bad happened to her, fingers would soon point at us. Look at Scoff’s post about Children contacting Kawasaki Disease and such, how could I send my child to school with stuff like this going off?

 

Very difficult question. It all depends on the kids' ages (exams etc) and the presence in the home of vulnerable individuals (asthmatics, aged grandparents etc).

Sitting on the fence...(spike uncomfortably close to the tradesman's entrance).

 

It was mentioned on BBC news last night and has been reported in the media. Some of the seriously ill children have tested positive for Corona Virus.

 

Really?

 

We are getting 7 out of 70 eligible students, secondary students that is. They are well marshalled to be fair. Problem is, there are 1700 students at the school. That is a lot of social distancing to manage.

 

He could do what I did. Wag the rest.
Did like Maths though.

 

Marshalling young kids including social distancing must be quite challenging and I don’t envy any of you. No- one can be assured that anyone at school Is not vulnerable.

 

Scoff, I have a grandchild who, when younger, had Kawasaki disease - it was simply touch & go for a few weeks & very scary to see how much he was struggling! Fortunately, he recovered & seems free of this dreadful disease - we were told it was very very rare (it took a while to diagnose it by a doctor who happened to have seen it once before).

I wouldn’t wish it on any child/family!

Education is important but we are talking life & death!

I also have a grandchild who has asthma - I myself have type 2 diabetes (crikey, there’s no end to it all)
I’m shielding & would not send either child (or any other) back to school at present - the risk is much too high