The Anti Dementors, danger-buffooning their way through life!

[Drivingdownthe101]

New thread!

I just posted on the schools thread but I’m going to put it here too because I’m furious.

8yo’s school announced to the kids (via google classroom) today that from now on the years not back at school will have their provision (a PowerPoint deck with White Rose maths link and worksheet, an English exercise and one other lesson per day in geography, science etc) will be stripped back to English and maths only because the school can’t cope with Year 6 and Year 1 (no reception) being back. They’ve decided they need smaller bubbles to be ‘safe’. (We are in London where the PHE/Cambridge estimate puts the R at 0.4 and daily new cases at between 10 and 60.)

They’re also dropping daily comments to the kids who have done the work (was never more than a couple of lines, generally a well done) to be once a week only. We get nothing else from school - no phone calls, no pastoral care.

And they’re closing totally on Wednesdays, so provision for key worker children is also reduced.

8yo was already gutted about his brother going back to nursery. This has made it worse for him, he feels like he doesn’t matter at all. And with both DH and I working full time I can’t begin to express how overjoyed I am at the prospect of having to track down resources for geography, science, history etc so that his education isn’t totally thrown under a bus.

Sorry. Big rant. But I’m so furious. The contrast with nursery (positive, loving, pragmatic) couldn’t be more stark.

Jassy that is appalling. Honestly, the schools doing this shit are going to shoot themselves in the foot long term - there will be absolutely no goodwill left from parents by the end of this.

Please email and protest. They are not being even remotely reasonable and perhaps if they get enough complaints they might reconsider? Might also be worth emailing your MP?

I'm not surprised you are furious Jassy, your poor son. The shutting for keyworker kids is also poor. Our school has stopped provision for the returning years (which I can understand) but not for the other years. Although DS's teacher has been assigned to the keyworker bubble so suspect she won't be doing anymore lessons which will upset him as he misses her.

Two wildlife parks near us were hoping to open this week but the government changed something this week which means it looking like July. Both had good plans to limit numbers, installing one way systems etc. Botanical gardens have been allowed to open but not zoos which again seems to be an example of kids being ignored. That and the parish council taping up the basketball court again has pissed me off.

Yes I’m composing an email now - I keep thinking I’ll wait until I calm down but it hasn’t happened yet!

MP isn’t a bad call either. It feels like this is performative rather than actually based on real risk or real need. Apparently they need to close on Wednesdays for PPA. Which doesn’t quite align with ‘we don’t have time to set your kids any work apart from English.’

Ours is closing weds afternoon for PPA, which is fine by me - two and a half hours is about right. A whole day? I never had that much non contact time when I was teaching! Also key workers children are able to stay in.

That really sucks @JassyRadlett I'd be furious too. Poor excuse for bad provision. And a way to alienate parents if not immediately then over time. It depresses me just how many Trunchbulls this pandemic has unmasked in our schools.

wow can't believe we are nearly at the end of another thread, I haven't been on much so not finished the last one yet!

DD2s school is closed on fridays I can live with that. They are still sending work home for those that have chosen not to go back. And have set up regular PHSE groups for children to discuss concerns. I think we have Miss Honeys at the school.

My dentist just rang to reschedule my appointment next week to October.

I’m so glad they’re opening again. I rarely need any work (electric toothbrushes are wonderful, says my dentist) but I hate the idea of no emergency treatment if I broke a tooth.

On the Waterstones thing: does that mean you’ll be shadowed around the shop, like some clothes shop where they passive-aggressively re-fold the t-shirt you’ve just picked up? More custom for Amazon if so; I want to be able to browse the first pages without someone huffing at me.

Also seeing a lot of "I'm not sure about sending my kids in, I'll see how it goes with the ones that are going in first" from the same people saying they dont want kids to be treated like Guinea pigs. Is that not what they are doing?

Yup. See also: “It takes years of tests to make sure a vaccine is safe. I won’t have an untested vaccine. I’ll just wait for herd immunity (from other people having an untested vaccine).

Ah @BakewellTarts I was always reasonably sure our headteacher isn’t very fond of children! But the other teachers are lovely. I can’t imagine they’re thrilled about this.

What this has brought home to me more than ever is how little value British people (as a whole) place on children. I read a Dara O Briain comment years back that said the different commentary around young people in England (in particular) and Ireland was incredible. I’ve always noticed it as an immigrant here but this has really brought it to the fore.

I would imagine Waterstones would do it by signs saying ‘you are welcome to browse but please place any books you have touched but don’t want to buy in this box’.

@Jassy that's awful

@Shodan another hug from me.

I am on the verge of tears reading about it being illegal to have someone in your house. Although I can't quite get it clear if it's just for overnight stops? And the related thread 😲😡

I am on my own with 2 young dcs. I have been through plenty of shit in my life so far, and can generally cope having no DH or parents, and in laws with various issues with limit what we can do. Basically kids have me and I have them. But we also all have my very close friend, who is an absolute godsend. 1st person I go to when things go right or wrong. We message every day. They are the person that keeps my sanity. And no one gives a better hug. We have seen one another a few weeks ago, and are planning to do so again as we all benefited hugely from it. They don't stay over. But they do stay for a good while (we have risk assessed - both of us are barely leaving the house. The occasional shopping trip. They wfh). I am seriously fucked off if I am not able to see them.

who happily called kids "little disease factories"

Well to be fair, they pretty much are.

Looks at big sister in reception who gave me whopping cough, chicken pox and german measles before I was 6 months old.

Jassy Have you used Twinkl yet? They have some good resources without having to do too much delving.

Ours has changed to setting a weekly project which I'm hoping works better for us. At least both DCs have the same task and they can tailor it more to their interests. The work set was inconsistent between their teachers anyway. One clearly more tech savvy than the other. I've not sent anything back because it would have been too embarassing to share my DC's garblings and wouldn't have reflected the pain that went into it from either party!

I've been called "alarmist" for pointing out that the negative consequences of months of isolation from the support of the school system will contribute to future suicides for some young people.
But hey only Covid deaths matter. Even the hypothetical ones.

The fact that it is illegal to have your partner/family member (who lives in another house) inside your home is such an outrageous infraction on human rights that no one should take it seriously.

The chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt, said personal responsibility was "key" as members of the public "enjoy these new freedoms", according to the BBC.

I don’t call a law that says I can’t spend the night in my daughter’s home “a new freedom”. Does anyone actually believe that doublethink?

I stopped taking the rules seriously once I realised they were purely designed for rich, middle class nuclear families

… who live close enough to their friends-and-relations to be able to meet up without the lack of toilets or overnight stays being an issue, although apparently Chris Witty now says it’s OK to use someone else’s loo as long as it’s thoroughly decontaminated afterwards. Not great if you're over three hours' drive away.

The NPCC guidelines are here.

I had a lovely browse in Waterstones on the 16th March while preparing for tge potential of DS having a lockdown birthday (unusually precient for me). It was a wonderful oasis of calm in all the uncertainty as lockdown was brewing.

The assistant and I chatted about the possibility of hiding in there for lockdown...apparently they do have to search carefully at the end of each day to make sure no one's having a crafty lockin

I have had the most wonderful day today. Took the children to my parents house to sit in the garden. We haven't been since this all started.

Mum sobbed when she saw 7 month old dd and my ds couldn't contain his excitement and didn't stop chatting for hours.

I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders and the dementors can fuck right off today.

@Pinkflipflop85 oh.. that's lovely 😊

@Pinkflipflop85 family is the most important it sounds like you had a wonderful day and just what all of you needed.

@BogRollBOGOF - I can’t understand why people working with children aren’t more concerned about them. I stupidly posted on the safeguarding thread, but it’s ok I wish I hadn’t as I’m criss every time I see it minimised.

I’m not sure when education became an optional extra. Until a few months ago we had regular updates in attendance, fines and graphs showing pupils were doomed if they missed a few sessions, now suddenly a link to bbc bite size and a bit of online maths is plenty. I keep on expecting to wake up and find this is a bad dream

Wales
I hope people remember this when we do get back to normal and LEAs think they have a dating hells chance of fining parents For taking children out of school for a term time holiday

In fact , if I was a parent who’d paid the fine, I’d be asking ( demanding ) my money back, as it was a load of old cobblers

My mum was a teacher so I’ve always taken attendance seriously. I’m not sure why anymore.

She’s also from the days where you taught 40 infants alone. She says that was easy compared to teaching your own if that’s any comfort to anyone!

Do I respond to the Dementing on the class WhatsApp about what if the school environment is soooooo traumatic for children with a link to the first day back thread, or do I just ignore it? I've no intention of defending my decision or getting embroiled in debate, but some parents are teetering on the cusp about sending them back and perhaps that would be something I could do for their kids...? I don't know.

I’m finding challenging online tends to make things spiral and can cause people to dig in. Face to face you can communicate and empathise far more effectively. Even if you disagree it’s respectful. I sometimes think social media can actually stifle debate rather than exposing us to different opinions. Personally I’d ignore.

Yeah you're probably right. I'm trying to remind myself that it's no skin off my nose what the other parents choose. I confirmed mine was going back but no more just to make sure Dementors were not the only voices.