{"id":228785,"date":"2021-03-03T08:34:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T08:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228785"},"modified":"2021-03-05T07:38:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T07:38:08","slug":"five-year-olds-told-to-wear-face-masks-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228785","title":{"rendered":"Five-year-olds told to wear face masks in the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Divina Ramirez \u2013 Natural News March 1, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Headteachers in at least two primary schools in England have written to parents this week requesting that their children wear face masks in the classroom<\/a> when schools reopen on March 8.<\/p>\n

Parents at Selsdon Primary and Nursery School in South East England have been told that children as young as five years old should wear a face mask at all times except during sports lessons or when eating or drinking.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s executive headteacher, Susan Papas, explained that the use of masks allows students to play safely with others. She added that students will be\u00a0taught the safe way of wearing face masks. The guidance will apply to students from Year One to Year Six,\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em> first reported.<\/p>\n

Papas added that they had introduced similar measures for the children of school staff who had been coming in to work even during lockdown. She said enforcing the measures has been \u201cvery successful\u201d and that children quickly became comfortable with the face masks and were still able to socialize\u00a0with their peers as normal.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, parents at\u00a0Nascot Wood Junior School in Watford, Hertfordshire have been told that their children will need to wear a \u201cwell-fitted\u201d face mask in the classroom. The school said the classrooms do not allow enough room for the children to safely practice social distancing.<\/p>\n

The school said mask-wearing was not mandatory but claimed that\u00a0their \u201cvigilant approach\u201d likely had a role in keeping the number of confirmed\u00a0COVID-19 cases in the school community low.<\/p>\n

The guidance from the\u00a0schools came\u00a0after Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed his lockdown exit strategy on Monday, Feb. 22. Johnson had said that secondary school students should wear face masks\u00a0where it is not possible for students to safely practice social distancing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, official guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) says that primary school students don\u2019t need to wear face masks in the classroom. But Schools Minister Nick Gibb reiterated that wearing face masks is \u201chighly recommended\u201d for secondary school students.\u00a0He also\u00a0asked parents\u00a0to allow their children to take part in\u00a0regular voluntary rapid\u00a0coronavirus tests beginning March 8.<\/p>\n

Parents,\u00a0campaign groups insist masks impede learning<\/h2>\n

Teaching unions backed\u00a0the move to require primary school students to wear masks. But parents and advocacy groups pushed back, insisting that the masks hinder learning.<\/p>\n

Molly Kingsley, co-founder of the advocacy group UsForThem, asked ministers to clarify the advisory on mask-wearing in schools. She said the conflicting advisories show why such measures should be treated cautiously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this really what we want for children?\u201d she asked. UsForThem, a community of parents, has been urging the government to reopen schools immediately but safely<\/a>. They believe children should be in school and, as such, support the vast majority of precautionary hygiene measures proposed by the DfE and adopted by schools.<\/p>\n

Kingsley also asked\u00a0the government to\u00a0reconsider its decision to require\u00a0masks\u00a0for secondary school students. She argued that face masks are an \u201cuntested intervention,\u201d one that scholars and doctors have raised very serious concerns about due to their long-lasting effects on children\u2019s\u00a0learning and communication.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] should have never been rolled out without proper evaluation and it must now be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a DfE spokesman reiterated that face masks should only be worn by staff and adult visitors if social distancing is not possible. For example, staff and visitors should wear face masks when walking\u00a0along corridors and moving around in communal areas where students are also present. And while\u00a0masks\u00a0are strongly encouraged in secondary schools,\u00a0they are not legal requirements. Students must not be \u201cdenied education\u201d for non-compliance. (Related:\u00a0Top 10 hypocritical SCHOOL RULES during Covid<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Go to Pandemic.news<\/a> for more articles with updates on the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Sources include:<\/strong><\/p>\n

DailyMail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

UsForThem.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parents at a primary and nursery school in England have been told that children as young as five years old should wear a face mask at all times except during sports lessons or when eating or drinking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228786,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228785\/revisions\/228786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}