I thought I should keep a diary during the Coronavirus - Covid-19 pandemic. So we can all have a record to look back on.
It has been a week since my last post. I may as well keep an online diary as this is such a strange experience which will go down in history. Since last Wednesday an announcement was made from the UK government that all schools would be closed from Friday (March 20, 2020). All schools! Exams cancelled, nobody knows when they will re-open, we were all expecting this to happen but it is still a massive deal. Teachers waited to see what would happen as the announcement came that schools would only open to the children of key workers and vulnerable children.
Key workers being the ones who are keeping things going at the moment: NHS staff, emergency services, supermarket workers, delivery drivers, teachers, carers etc.
Supermarket shelves are still bare, people are still panic buying. People have been told to avoid going out unless necessary. Despite all of this advice people were still flocking to beaches and parks at the weekend.
Yesterday was out first day of home schooling. The high school have set plenty of work to be completed online, so the girls have been working on the computer each day. Fin's schedule is a bit different, he is 8, I have been reading, doing Mathletics and today we have done spellings.
Last night we waited for the news, at 8.30pm Boris Johnson announced that the government were having to put in stricter measures as people had not been following the guidelines. From today everybody must stay at home for 3 weeks. You may only leave the house for essential shopping (once a week), to care for a vulnerable person, to get fresh air once a day at at a 2 metre distance from each other (only with members of your household) and to go to work only if you are a key worker. Police have been given permission to act if people are not complying. People in the high risk category are to self isolate for 12 weeks. Technically the UK are on a lock-down but not as strict as some of the other countries.
Myself and my husband are both classed as key workers as we work in a school. We had a staff meeting on Friday and were told all staff were to come in as usual for the next two weeks. Since then things have changed. Lee has been going in this week. There were 25 children in on Monday and only 10 children today. The teachers are on a rota. The children are spread out throughout the school and spent most of yesterday on the field. I am unlikely to be needed as there are such a small amount of children in school. If I were to go in our children were going to stay here indoors.
Boredom has not kicked in yet (give it time) we are only on day two. I have plenty of things to do indoors. I am looking upon this as an enforced rest. The weather is good, the sky is blue. The streets are quieter although there are still a lot of cars going by, the buses are empty.
We've all been keeping in contact via social media it's great to be able to do this. I am trying to only watch the news once a day or if there is an update from the Prime Minister.
Home school is over for the day and we've managed to not eat loads. I got away with soup and a sandwich for lunch.
Hoping everyone is keeping well?