Who said work must open tomorrow? Some companies have been planning to reopen for weeks. The option is from tomorrow, not Tomorrow, but given the other minor examples you have provided, playing on words is the basis of your mantra.

The only thing that has changed is that you can sit in the park. You just worry yourself with that.

Here's a quick factoid about what secondary schools reopening, with social distancing measures, would look like.

At the school where I'm based, we have 360 kids per year. The suggestion is that just year 10s will return in June to get some time with teachers before next year's exams. If this is the case, and the 2 metre social distancing rule has to be observed, the dinner queue would be nearly half a mile long. Obviously, they'd use the three sittings to be able to spread out the dinners, but you're still looking at 3 sittings, each with a 240 metre long queue.

There's a fair bit more to worry about than sitting in the park but, if that is your priority, knock yourself out bud.

I think his words were "you can go to work tomorrow" ??

No forewarning for businesses to prepare, let alone the kids are still at home, no sense really on how people will get to work but, apparently walking or on a bike are now preferred.
Did they really need the extra few days from Thursday to come up with this "plan".

We would have been better placed keeping the "stay home, protect the NHS, save lives" slogan but, saying that those who could travel to work safely and whose employers were prepared (difficult without government advice) should start to go back to work, with the obvious caveat around vulnerable people and for me, the plan MUST be UK wide.
Its quite ridiculous having different advice in Scotland and Wales, to the advice being given in England.

All seems fairly straight forward to me. You will get more detail today from Boris in Parliament and in the daily press briefing.

Boris clearly said go to work in your car, quite clearly said that, but you must have missed that bit as your were checking the brakes on your bike.

Sturgeon has been playing games for weeks. Releasing national information in advance of the UK, engaging with the Scottish public regarding a phased opening, then pulling back. Sadly she's politicising this which isn't good for anyone.

Johnson should have stayed in that fridge.

He's a pillock.

What does the length of a queue matter? Longer queues don't mean more people.

Serve them a pack lunch if its that much of a worry or pre pack the lunches and out them on the tables. Is really that big an issue?

We've got a pandemic which is incurring hardship and you're worried about the length of a queue. That suggests they're getting it right to me if thats all we have to worry about. Or you are just an over thinker/worrier.

Have you been thinking that through since 7 last night?

Getting it right, are you joking?

Give your head a good wobble.

Are you going to elaborate or are you keeping it short this morning?

The queues aren't the issue. Do you really think the queues are the issue here? It's just highlighting how hard it is to 'police' the 2 metre social distancing measures. When our school is fully open there are nearly 2500 kids, and a few hundred staff. How do you social distance that amount of people in a school? How do you stop kids being kids, coughing at each other saying, "you've got Corona now"? How do you move 2500 kids round a school 6-7 times a day without contact? How do you clean every desk and chair down between lessons? Now times this by 30+ schools.

You could serve them packed lunches at their tables. Would those tables be the tables which seat 2 next to each other, or 4 in a 1.5 metre square space? Either way, they're not socially distanced.

It's going to be part of my job to work out how the message is communicated once we start opening all our schools again. I've got a picture of our sites in my head, and the number of kids/staff, and I can only see closures again if infection rates start going up again.

31,855 deaths, don't really need to add anything else.

So are you suggesting no education in schools until a vaccine is developed - which could be several years?

There has to be a trade off - education vs increase in infection rates - you could have shifts starting at say 6AM and finishing at 6PM - the lunch break being the swop over. That way you reduce you numbers by half straight away. You then make better use of the facilities - again you reduce the numbers by half all of a sudden your 2,500 has become 625 - teachers are suppose to inspire our kids - its time they starting showing some initiative.

It really isn't difficult - wherever your end destination is - those are the rules you use!! If you are driving into England then those rules apply?

If you live in Wales, in theory, you wouldn't be allowed to drive, so, coming accross the border to England wouldn't be permitted ??

"You then make better use of the facilities" just sounds like throwing a suggestion into the air and seeing what comes down. You must have an idealistic view of state school facilities. A handful of our site's are new, modern, spacious designs. Most are a mish-mash of Victorian buildings, post war knock-ups, and recent add-ons.

Your 12 hour shift works well as a bullish forum post, but in reality it fails to get out of the starting blocks. Do teachers not have kids, too? Do parents not work alternating shifts? Who looks after the kids who are waiting to go to school in the afternoon, or who are finishing at lunchtime? How many extra bus services will be needed at different times of the day? There would be no set rota of staff and students. It would probably have to be done on a weekly, if not daily basis.

I understand kids need to get their education. My 3 year old should have started school in April, and she's completely out of her routine now, but it was it is.

And before you say it, I'm not being overprotective here. I was an only child, latchkey kid. I had my own house key at 8. I used to regularly be alone in the house for 3 hours waiting for my Mum or Dad to get home first, or in the Summer I'd be running off around golf courses and becks with my mates. I believe kids should be able to look after themselves at a certain age, but that's not the society we live in, I'm afraid. Too much blame/claim culture over the last couple of decades has seen normally rational people lose their minds over the slightest thing. Your 6am-6pm school day sounds like a recipe for a truckload of tabloid outrage.

What is described as vulnerable - older people with an underlying condition - well most people over 70 will have an underlying condition i.e. heart condition, Copid, diabetes etc. its just a result of ageing.

9% of 31k so c3,000 - 22% of 65m are aged between 40-59 so that's 14.3m so the chances of death in that group is 0.02%. In 2018 there were 54,307 deaths in this age group (33,486 male and 20,821 female) so if we divide that by 12 to give one month 4,525 - so your chances of dying normally is higher than dying of Covid in this age group?

Answer the first question - are you saying no education until a vaccine?

Everything is barrier kids want inspiration, teachers that find solutions not dead ends. If you think work patterns are not going change because of this you are delusional - how many are currently working from home? If it meant getting their kids to school they would find a way.

Most buses are empty outside of rush hour - perhaps we need to encourage our kids to walk or cycle to work - splitting the shifts should reduce the burden - isn't that after all what the Government is suggesting when everyone returns to work?

There will be very few secondary schools that have Victorian buildings so come on be realistic.

Teachers haven't suddenly magicked kids - and they don't all have them - so work a rota that enables the best use of the resource - what would you do if you had to make it work?

Q1, Vulnerable = whoever had the mail from the government in would guess. If you have an problem with that classification I guess you should take it up with them.
And to class all of them as "Just ageing" is ridiculous.
But if it backs up your argument then you keep on Message.

So yes, 3000 people have died with/of Covid19, however that is on top of any normal death rate.
Just because "x" amount of people die of one thing you dont dismiss something else that's killing people.
And remember, this is whilst we have been in lockdown for 6/7 weeks, how would it have been without it?
I think Bojo keeps referring to his circa 500k as a reasonable worst case scenario whilst celebrating 31,000 deaths and rising as a good effort.
Does that theory not stand anymore? Has something changed with the virus that means we wont get to 500k deaths of were not careful?

Maybe, just maybe, if the government had acted differently earlier and hadnt ignored the warnings then the spikes wouldn't have been as high and the blows would have been easier to get to. Bit due to the exponential rise we are where we are and all that comes with it, and wanting release from lockdown just so people can "get on with things" isnt the answer.
We all want to get on with things.
Just remember to "stay alert", I'm sure you'll know what that means. Another lovely quick and snappy soundbite to stay on message.

Yeah King Street cat
"Get on with it"
stop
"putting up Barriers"

"Get schooling done"
"Get back to work"

Stop expressing any concern or knowledge based opinions, just "Get it done".

I'm surprised you havent canvassed Sal for his opinion as some sort of consultant yet.

No.

As a MAT, we have primaries and secondaries, the majority of which are in post-industrial (coal & steel) areas. Some of the buildings are ancient. There is talk of Reception and Year 6 returning in June.

Forget about going back in the 19/20 year for a start. It's going to need longer than 2 or 3 weeks to get schools prepped for any sort of numbers. Most schools have only got double figure kids at the moment. I'd use the school holidays as a window to get the kids back. Presumably, parents will have some sort of childcare already in place for the school holidays (all may pose a threat to others in some way or another). That gives 6 weeks later down the line to get Reception kids prepped for primary, Year 6 prepped for secondary, Years 10 and 12 prepped for GCSE/A Level, come September, for the 20/21 year. I don't see the point of getting kids back for 6-7 weeks, then having them off again for the 6 week holidays. Start later, and use it as a slow rolling start to September. If Boris has got it right, like his apologists are saying, we should be flying by September.

I would agree about this year but surely the same issues will still exist in September - the fabric of the school wont be any different, the make up/numbers of kids & teachers will be the same so what is going to change to allow it to happen?

I completely agree re. the government's handling of this - it has been very poor.

Are you saying that our bodies don't deteriorate with age - that is just a ridiculous notion? If you look at those that got the letter a big chunk fell into the categories that I outlined.

There will always be a trade off - relax the lockdown and infections will increase but you cannot lock the country down forever - Germany has seen infections grow.

Perhaps if we all took a bit more ownership of our own behaviour and stayed alert it is our best chance of not contracting the virus. If we don't within 6 feet of anyone outside of our household for an extended period then our chances of infection will be significantly reduced - just a thought?

The same issues will still exist, but you want the kids back into education, so I've given you a way of getting them back.

The only change I see, which may give us a better chance, is that people will be more accustomed to social distancing by then. If the staggered release is showing signs of success, then it might just work. I'm thinking of it in terms of the start of a marathon. You don't just release everyone at once. It would be carnage.

The slogan worked on one person. I'd written it off a total disaster.

You do seem to be ignoring the fact that teachers themselves dont feel comfortable teaching kids, who may or may not be carrying the virus and that's before we get to the logistics of getting the kids to school, parents working but, with no childcare (either official or through family members).

Assuming that there can be a restart and on the basis that class sizes have to shrink to make allowance for social distancing, maybe the "start up" could be kids going in every other week, which, although a reduction in teaching, this could be supplemented with some home tutoring and "on line" lessons.

It doesn't help that, after such a long period of Tory rule, class sizes have grown and most classes are "bulging" with pupils.

Within the private education system, I'm sure that the start up will be simpler and quicker to get going but, perhaps we shouldn't go there