Hello to All,

I am interested in your opinion about Covid19 and start of the School year. The measures that are imposed are necessary and correct, and students and juvenile may follow them, but what about younger children? Do we think they can understand? I am a little concerned about starting new school year, because how will we impose distance between youngsters but are all packed in one room. Will they follow the measures is the question, and if some hot spot occurs its potentially dangerous for all in presence and it will be much harder to keep all areas clean and disinfected with all in.  As father of two kids I’m thinking how will it be getting them back to school. As i see so far big part of general population is not following the measures until its forced mandatory. So taking in consideration that kids can not follow the measures what can we do.? online learning?

Online can also be very hard because families with two and more kids can not follow the lessons on one pc, and numerous different reasons, and letting them lap-top’s for tuition will be pretty expensive and without any close interaction will be inefficient.

In order to be affordable and more efficient im thinking on two parts.

1. Starting lessons on separate new tv channel for all minor generations, educational programs by the books and which can be repeated later in different time of the day based on children’s activity. Without putting any one in unplanned expenses and easy to follow without lateral problems.

2. And the other part is to let them in school in smaller groups, if there are 20 kids in the class, they can be divided in five groups of four children’s which will visit school one day in the week, so the teacher can keep them updated and assured that they are following the tv lessons. These way children can be isolated and will have better follow up on their contacts, and if some hot spot occur we will have easier trace up.

What do you guys think is it worth to be considered? 

Despite the shifting sands of evidence and guidance the return to school will not involve adult style social distancing for very young children. School's have been busy establishing other controls such as setting "bubble" groups, staggering start, break and finish times so your track and trace issues are already addressed.

On-line learning is not a solution. Ignoring the domestic issues of equipment and connection people do not learn well solely on-line as interaction with a peer group sparks the discussions which facilitate transferrable learning. Plonked in front of a screen generates a zombie that can answer the test but has no capacity for lateral problem solving thinking. Even the Open University recognises these limitations with distance learning hence their manadatory campus sessions.

TV programming for schools is expensive so who would pay for this? Should it come out of the alreday limited schools budget (believe this is why original programming was eventually dropped) or having banned the ads from terrestrial TV would you like the Colonel, the Clown and others to be sponsoring future obesity or demand for the latest toy, app, trading cards...?

As to 20 kids in a class that is a teachers dream, reality is often closer to 30+. Would your employer let you work the one day in five that your children are at school? Could you afford to live on 20% of your salary?

How do you think your sanity would hold up in consecutive weeks of "Ground Hog Day" Monday to Friday?

A lot of the benefit to small children of going to school is the development of social skills that are nothing to do with the syllabus of what they are supposed to learn.  So remote learning is in no way a good plan for small children.

Sadly the Open University got rid of mandatory summer schools some time ag,o faced with a combination of cost pressure and student demand for alternatives.  But I agree they were very beneficial when they existed.

See the Scottish Governemnet is now considering making face coverings mandatory in the communal areas and walkways of schools.

Let's have more opportunities to touch transmit through putting on and taking off.

One factor in this whole saga that does not yet appear to have been included is what happens at the school entrance. Mums/Dads with children waiting for the school to admit the children. This is particularly the situation with primary schools. When I think back to the occasions when I took the grandchildren to school and the largish gathering in the somewhat limited space available I wonder how social distancing could possibly be achieved. And in my case this was just a relatively small village school but with numerous families where the children were coming from a distance by car, often with children from more than one family being brought in a single vehicle. This is a gathering of children and parents which strikes me as a wonderful (?) opportunity for cross-infection. Once inside the school the staff could ensure certain rules were followed - but outside?

There is no point whatsoever in telling small children not to touch their eyes and to keep apart from each other.

I haven't heard that anyone was proposing those things.

I don't have children so some might say I can't have an opinion but I have had 5 months in isolation reading virtually every word written about Covid since it reared its ugly head back in Jan / Feb.  I don't think children are the problem, they tend not to catch it and if they do they don't get seriously ill.  Its the adults they come into contact with that are the issue.  I would be more worried about teachers and parents maintaining social distancing and wearing masks when they need to.  Staggering start and finish times will help to keep people apart and track and trace on the adults (not the children - that would be next to impossible) should help to keep on top of things.  In fact I have very few worries about schools my main concern is pubs, put alcohol into the mix and social distancing goes out the window.  The real question is can we have schools and pubs open at the same time.  Children need school - adults don't need pubs.

I don't think we can use "employment" as a reason to "need" a premises to stay open. If that were the case then many nefarious businesses of the past should never have been closed. I say this because it is one of the most common counterpoints to veganism (but what about the farmers?). If a business is dangerous to the planet, public health or morality then it should be closed unless there is no other reasonable options.

Pubs are a major risk to public health at the moment, there is a reasonable alternative (drink at home, if you must). The knock on effect of closing pubs is less A&E calls, therefore less burden on the healthcare system. There are increased pronblems (increased domestic violence being a large one) and a reletively small economic knock on effect. Therefore pubs should not have be opened until the risk was worth the benefit.

Schools on the other hand are also a risk, but teaching children at home is not a long term reasonable alternative. The damage it could do long term to the economy and the development of the children is not worth the small increase of risk of sending children to school. Especially when you consider that children do not seem to be spreading the virus as much as the adult population (despite having a similar level of virus in their system when infected), do not have severe symptoms as frequently as adults, and keeping the children at home has a major knock on effect in the economy as parents also have to work shorter days or from home.

OOPs it looks like I've subverted a discussion about schools to a discussion about pubs.  But seriously folks do we need pubs?  Surely there are other alternative employment options now that Brexit means that many (if not most) Eastern European workers are likely to return home.  Tough times call for tough discussions, look at how many local outbreaks have centred around pubs and look at how few people using pubs have provided information that can be used by Track and Trace.  I think alcohol fuels all sorts of issues in society and now is the time to take a cold hard look at our pub based culture and think about whether this is what we really want.  That doesn't mean stopping all alcohol sales just those in locations where people drink too much and lose the self control needed to maintain social distancing etc and of course you can't wear a face mask and take long draughts on a pint can you.  Sorry if this is controversial but I'm facing a life behind closed doors until the disease I have eventually kills me and I would like to feel safe to leave my house at some point, it seems to me that pubs being open is one of the key reasons why I don't feel safe to go out!!

Your first idea has already been 'sort of' rolled out. The BBC ran a series of lessons via the iPlayer App and online during the main period of lockdown, using celebs to teach the theory. It also covered Primary through to Secondary education. It is likely to be built upon further from friends in the know. 

I'll refrain from wider comment on school kids and COVID...i've found out the hard way that being a Biomedical Scientist (Infectious Diseases of all things) and an OSH professional isn't actually of great benefit to some individuals/organisations in all of this...reasoned judgement with scientific backing isn't what some employers or even peers/colleagues want to hear! As a parent myself - i'd be sending my kid in.