God that’s long. TLDR: Gabby it is more complex than “OMG IF KIDS GO TO SCHOOL WE ALL DIE”
My son is about to turn 16, he has exams this school year - I’m very worried about his education and mental health and he along with every child in this country did not have their educational needs met this year.
My children are lucky in that I was home during lockdown, I am decently educated and I was willing to educate them. But I am not a teacher and do not have the skills of wherewithal to do a good job of providing them with a well rounded education.
Many children had key worker and NHS parents who didn’t have time to home educate, or they had parents who didn’t feel up to the task, who didn’t want to or didn’t care. They have missed out desperately.
Many of my friends are teachers and all of my friends who teach have had covid since September. All of them!
One of them is extremely ill.
Many teachers want to return to work and teach the children who are seriously missing out and who will have their education deeply impacted. They will become the “Covid kids” and employers will sneer at their exam results as not real or worthy because of the way they were decided. They will face life long employment impact because of this.
Lots of teachers feel thrown to the wolves, many don’t at all. It is very complicated and has many sides to the argument Gabby. But I suppose you don’t know any teachers or anyone with kids.
I am clinically extremely vulnerable, I had a letter from the government in March asking me not to leave the house and only open a window. I was unable to work as I am frontline NHS, my husband had to live away from home as he too is frontline NHS and was terrified of killing me.
Yep I’m scared that my son is back at school and that I have the very real prospect of dying if he brings it home with him.
BUT the school is very sensible, they have regular testing, tight bubbles, small working groups, staggered opening and home timw and my son is being educated. His mental health is no longer in the gutter as it was during the spring lockdown.
Having children back in school is complex and is supported by us as a society making sacrifices. Children can go back to school if selfish people don’t go to shopping centres just to visit a supermarket which they could visit at home - or even shop in the town they live in, which is in a lower tier.
Children can go to school if people don’t make unnecessary trips on public transport.
This is more complicated than you can understand Gabby. Of course we are all free in this country to debate what we like but it is not as simplistic as “OMG CHILDREN GO SCHOOOOOL, WE ALL DIE” and until you can debate with nuance, compassion and understanding of others then I politely suggest you shut your mouth and read something other than social media.
And my lawyer is in day 21 of your advent calendar. HE GON SUE YO ASS.