If you don't need school for childcare...

[HorsesDoovers]

If you don't need school for childcare will you send your child back on 1st June? I have a Year 6 DS and I am so undecided. I handed in my notice at the beginning of all this so I am now at home and can home educate him if I choose to. I don't want him to miss out but I also don't want to take unnecessary risks.
I know that he will be sat at a desk, socially distanced, for most of the day as this is what his school has done for Key worker children. The school has said they will send more details tomorrow but that they are well set up to follow the guidelines as this is what they are doing already.
It sounds a bit miserable really and I'm not sure how much he would benefit from it.
I also don't want him to miss out on any transition to Yr 7, but we've (understandably) had no info on this so I don't even know how its going to work, if if happens at all.
Just looking for opinions really.

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I would if school was open for my DCs years (y3 and 8), DP and I can both work from home and part time.

They are both very much missing friends, school and social stuff, especially the Y3.

Also I'm pretty certain at least 3/4 of us had the virus in mid March - 3 of us had every symptom going and I was properly ill, breathing/ chest still not right.

I've seen the proposals from school re opening and they look sensible. I've also looked at the risks of them getting the virus and us becoming seriously ill, I think there's more risk of them being hit by a car on the walk to school tbh.

I guess it's for parents to weight up the risks v benefits for their individual circumstances.

Dd is in year 2 so not one of the target groups. Looking at her schools.guidleines though, if she was, then no i wouldn't be sending her.

Sitting in class at a single desk on her own. Having lunch at that desk. Being supervised by an adult, not necessarily a teacher. Only learning the same as the kids at home. No toys, balls, play things at break times etc.
It all sounds horrible really, necessary perhaps, but horrible. Not school and mingling and playing and socialising that people think it'll be.

I've got a year 10 and a year 8 so school is only potentially open for one of them.
I'm torn. On the one hand he 'needs' to be with other teens (hes always been shy, never had many friends and recently changed schools and then dropped back a year so was only just getting to know people). But it depends what there will be in terms of teaching. His new school is 2 bus rides away and I dont see the point of sending him on public transport if they will be doing the same as he has been at home anyway.
Until the school confirm what will be happening I can't really make a decision.

I'm constantly surprised about how resilient my kids are.

In US - and we won't go back until August.

However, my daughter has an art day camp on 6/1-6/5. The teacher has worked it out so there is a 9:1 ratio of teacher: student (totally ok here). A lot of time will be spent outdoors - creating, lunches, games. Hand-washing is must, hand sanitizer will be everywhere, and masks will be worn the majority of the time. I thought my daughter would balk at all this, but no, she's raring to go.

I realize just how much I project my own fears on to my kids Loathe the masks, for example.

It'll be weirder for her in June than August. BUT more kinks might be worked out by then, so I feel this is a way to kind of get an idea of what to expect.

And many students have been withdrawn by fearful and/or furloughed/laid off parents, so I imagine this is what made the numbers work...

Well, from what I’ve seen coming through from my SLT and my dcs SLT so far, it will be VERY like the pictures posted by @IHateCoronovirus.

The set-up for vulnerable / key worker children has been unrecognisable as normal school and they are really starting to show the effects of being stuck in that environment for weeks on end now.

Absolutely no way I am sending my dcs back in June if I can possibly avoid it. And not because I’m afraid of the virus.

I have said I will send my child in unless the school will educate her remotely. I will be working from home but I can't educate her as well.

It doesn't apply to personally because we are in Wales.

But if I had the option yes I would, DS is already behind his peers in class, he also needs to socialise with other children and with his ADHD and suspected autism he requires his routine back.

The pros of him going far outweigh the cons of him not going. We are both fit and healthy with no underlying health conditions, I'm early 30's of healthy weight and fairly active.

So I think saying there will be no online provision will have a big impact on numbers.

Yes, I am. I'd rather ease them back into the oddity of school at the minute so they can get used to it with their familiar teacher /ta before September.
Our school is also a tiny village one and DH is a nurse and we've had the virus already which are also factors that helped us make the decision to send them in.

Mine have been going anyway as DH and I both still working. So yes mine will be going (reception and year 1).

If I had the choice I would probably still send them in. Unless we had been able to fully isolate and social distance over the full lockdown period, I don't see the extra risk that school adds (on top of going out to work, out to the shops etc).

I don't think so. I have a Y1 child and a Y3 child. The Y1 child would react very badly to being sent back while his sister got to stay at home - ironically it'd be fine the other way round, she'd be delighted to go back and get away from her annoying little brother.

DS is actually doing really well at home - he's happy and is learning lots, whereas he was getting bullied at school and his self-esteem had gone through the floor. I've even been wondering about home-schooling permanently for the sake of his mental health, but it'd mean giving up my career for the foreseeable future, and DH is against the idea.

Besides all that, the BMA have advised against it, as has the teachers union, so it just doesn't seem like a very good idea.

My eldest 2 are yr 3 & 5 and I will send them as soon as able to. Both of them need the structure and routine, and both want to back. I'm really worried about my 4 year old who is in the nursery class and is starting reception in Sept. He has autism and was supposed to be gradually going into the reception class during the day to get familiar with it and the teachers before he starts. It is going to be absolute hell in September if he doesn't go in before then. But he has no concept of social distancing of any sort, is still in nappies and needs a 1 to 1 support so not sure how that's going to work!

In Scotland so it's not an issue for us, but we won't be sending her until we can be sure they are taking the right precautions.

Mine is y2 so I don’t know when she will be back but the first opportunity to go she will. Her mental health is now suffering - she’s an only child and she hasn’t seen anyone except me and her dad for 8 weeks. She needs that interaction, she needs a break from us and to do ‘her’ things, even if they are a bit different.
I live abroad and in my host country our rate of infection is very very low - for a population of 1.2 million we had only two new cases yesterday. There is rigorous testing. I’m not worried about her catching the virus tbh.

We have been told that no online work will be set for Year 6 once school reopens for them. Fair enough, teachers won't have time to do both.

That's crap. DD's class teacher is at school covering class for key workers. She still manages to set online work.

I’m undecided.

So far we’ve had no information about how it might work from the school.
I’ve emailed and asked if there’s any details they can give me, and whether the online provision will continue, but no reply yet.

If there’s no online provision then I’ll be leaning far more towards sending him in.

No, at home small DC are fairly insulated from the madness and happy (while I go quietly gaga!) and whilst I'm not overly worried about them catching covid I'm definitely concerned about social distancing in school being unfair on small, tactile, children.

Sone other countries don't start even start kids at school until 5 or 6 and I have no concerns with missing education. I do feel they would benefit from the social aspects but again - is going to a weird social distancing setup really helpful?

Every situation is different, I can well imagine some kids would be better at school regardless, and I'm aware that for some kids no school environment will ever be weirder and less desirable than what they have at home.

I am able to WFH. 1 of 3 of my children are in the initial year to go back (reception) but I wont be sending any of them as the youngest is in the shielding group and I myself am in the vulnerable category.

My work are aware of situation and at present I am OK to continue as I am. It's fucking hard work to WFH and home educate (DP works out of the house / main bread winner / observes social distancing and strict hygiene) but I cannot chance the kids going back to school at present. It feels too unknown and experimental.

Not sure what is going to have changed by September though?

Nope

@EffYouSeeKay
Oh really? That's very sad then, is that even for Yr R? God it's so hard, part of me thinks they will have to get used to it, another part of me thinks I don't want him to

I will send my Y6 DS back. Like pp he has SEN (ASD) and transition was already a major concern. He has got completely out of the way of being at school and I do t think it would be good for him to just go straight into a massive new school! (And what is confirmed to be happening on 1 September that's going to change?) And if secondaries open for Y10 my 15yo will be back like a shot! I don't mind about Y1, although it certainly wouldn't hurt mine to get back into the swing of it a bit. But I'll still be homeschooling my Y4, so 🤷‍♀️

We said we would send Yr1 DS in as we think the sooner we start to do more normal things the better and that there's very little risk for him.

DS is fine at home and we have childcare when I come off furlough, but I still think school would be best. However, I'm a school governor and we've been told this weekend that there's not enough staff for the Yr1s to go back.

I think I will, but school haven’t sent out their plans yet so I’m reserving judgement. Me and DH are both furloughed and could be called back in any time so we would suddenly need the childcare (no work from home available). But DS is really struggling without seeing friends (various other reasons too), and the risk to children his age is low, we are a low risk family too. I’m keeping an open mind over the next few weeks but I think we will probably end up sending him in. I think I’d rather he settled while we are still off work rather than being thrown straight in with 48 hours notice when we get called back in.