Anyone else reconsidering sending kids back?

[locked2020]

In light of scientists saying it's too early to ease lockdown, is anyone else reconsidering sending kids back? I've repaid the home learning discount applied by the school this term to send DC back, so was serious, but am now reconsidering. Anyone else? I'll probably still send but am wavering again now. AAGH, it's v tricky.

I am. I keep changing my mind constantly and don't know what to do for the best. I have said yes but still feel I might change my mind.

Dd wants to go back and her behaviour during home learning time has got worse and worse. She won't let me help ds anymore and we both end up stressed pretty quickly. She's started going under the table wrapping herself in a blanket. That's what made me think it's time to send her back as home schooling isn't working for her anymore but the more I read the more I doubt my decision

But the main thing that has made me doubt my decision is that dds school are mixing bubbles with the key worker children going in and out of bubbles, which I am really shocked about. We weren't told about it in the information when making the decision. It's made me feel like the risk is too much now. Don't know if that's wrong though.

It's so hard. I feel exactly the same.

I'd think twice after seeing the scenes in Dorset yesterday.

Yes. No faith in what the government directives are. Boris just bumbling around making stuffing up as he goes along. Not using my child as an experiment. Staying home now for the foreseeable future. I’ll make my own judgement call.

We won’t have the choice, our (state) school is seemingly making up their own rules so only key worker children for now, they might decide to allow y6 back in 3 weeks time. No chance at all for my y3 to go back before September

I'm a keyworker so mine are in.
I did just hear on the news that they are letting sheilders go out for walks now as the average chance of catching the virus has dropped from 1 in 40 to now 1 in 1000.
I think things are getting better every day and try to remember that just being within 2m of someone isn't going to give them the virus, that person must actually have the virus to pass it on and the number of people with it is dropping al be it slowly.
I know I have said on another thread less than 700 people have had confirmed cases in our town of 200,000 odd. Not all of them still have it, I really think the chance of seeing one of those is low and while we continue to social distance the chance of catching the disease even if I did is really quite low.

Mine haven’t got the option of returning, but I wouldn’t be sending them in anyway. Nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the very poor provision our local schools are offering the children. I feel I can offer them much more at home (which is still far from being ideal), but that will depend entirely on the individual situations. I have no concerns re CV19 and would like to see things return to normal very soon for those that aren’t at high risk.

No, my year 1 is going back tomorrow. The school have been great in sharing their plans with us, I'm comfortable with what they're proposing (as is DC after I showed pictures of the classrooms etc) and we're not high risk or shielding.

I'm also a single parent working a full-time, demanding job from home with a DC who's highly resistant to home schooling. I'm stressed up to here, so that's played a role in my decision too. Obviously if DC is unhappy back at school, or if I feel it's becoming too risky, they'll be back home and I'll just have to suck it up, but a lot of the parents in DC's year group don't have that challenge and seem able to keep their kids at home indefinitely!

Hmm, a family friend has just asked if DP can do full time childcare for her two DC four days a week, throughout June. She is a key worker so has a place in school but won’t send the DC in and has exhausted all other people who will do her a favour now. DP is on furlough but his normal job is not childcare. She won’t send the DC to school as she is worried about the virus, even though she and the DC have no underlying conditions. She has sent the DC to several family, friend and neighbour homes during lock down though.

Not sure what to make of this. Thinking of saying we will do 1 week for her but we can’t do any more than that. Reason being, I am wfh and DP is doing the childcare for our 1 DC, they can go out every day at the moment (as the weather is sunny) for a couple of hours, which gives me quiet time to work at home. If it is rainy and we have 3 DC in the house, it won’t be that quiet.

We will be sending DD back to nursery as soon as DP is back to work so don’t think I’m being unreasonable to expect her to send her DC to school - especially as her DC have been in at least 7 different households during lockdown.

My son is already in three days a week.
There are hardly any children being offered a place at his little infants school. They have eight little classrooms and four Possibly five children per class with strict policies in place. The kids who’ve been in previously ( there are eight of them) are being kept in two classrooms and not mixing with the ones starting next week. One of the rooms is an isolation room in case symptoms develop, they have PPE for that and first aid. The kids Have staggered drop off and pick up times as well as being kept separate for breaks and lunch is in that classroom.

I feel sorry for schools and teachers at this time but my son is actually really enjoying being at school. Him and his friends already there seem to be taking it in their stride.

My y6 is.

I’m a key worker.

They can’t be off school forever, things will have to resume and children educated or we will all suffer the consequences of an economic meltdown, uneducated masses, many many children not attending school and being left in unsafe home environments.

People will die. It’s a global pandemic. We are a hugely overpopulated planet. Precautions will be taken but schooling must resume.

Am I the only person perplexed that the “kids don’t get ill” argument is still the major reason for sending them back for many parents?
No, they don’t. But they can and do spread to people who will. They may not be super spreaders but infecting just 1 other vulnerable person is bad enough.

I would happily send my DDs to their school, which is taking a sensible but positive return to school for the year groups allowed back (they are allowed to ay together for example, but just in their class, which is max 15. They are spread out as much as possible inside, but will spend a lot of time outside. It does help that the school building is just a few years old and all classrooms have sinks, access to the outside, and meet the size requirement normally for 32 pupils to use them. (The school itself is over 100years old)

Some of the other schools with Draconian 'no getting within 2m of anyone at anytime' approaches, writing stuff on social media how it isn't safe etc I wouldn't.

I'm still trying to decide. My reception year DD is due in on Tuesday. School have sent email with 1,000 do's and dont's.
Also have a year 10. Thought she might go back mid June. She was meant to have a back to school chat with her head of year next week but it's been cancelled for some reason. So unsure what's going on!

I keep wavering. We are in the SW so currently have an r rate near to one. The next region over has said they won’t reopen schools as they are only juts having their peak now. Similar to 1981m my dc would really benefit from going back, behaviour is awful, acting like a toddler, constantly fighting with toddler sibling. Nightmare at home And schooling had been pretty non existent. But added complication is we live with a grandparent! I just don’t know what to do. I want someone to make the decision for me.

@TazSyd goodness me, what a cheeky fucker! You have one nursery aged child and she wants you to take on two additional school aged children for two weeks?! Would he be expected to home school them, too?

In answer to the op- we aren’t sending our year 1 back so it doesn’t really apply to us. I have friends whose children are going back due to wfh issues etc, and they haven’t reconsidered as they thought carefully about the decision in the first place.

My school reopens for year one on 22nd June Monday-Thursday and my dd will be going back. School is closed on a Friday so it be deep cleaned.

My two are not going back (Yr 4 and Yr 6). Mil died very recently in a care home with Covid 19, so it's all very raw at the moment for us.

The government absolutely threw care homes under a bus by allowing C19 positive patients to be discharged from hospitals to homes.
So if I can't trust the government with the lives of my in laws, why should I trust them with my children!

@BrutusMcDogface

She wants us to take them for a month - 4 days a week. She said homeschooling doesn’t matter as they’ve been to so many places for childcare over the last 9 weeks that she has no idea where they are up to. The teachers will fix the school work in September apparently. I’m feeling pretty sorry for teachers, in our circle alone, there have been a varying amount of homeschooling done. From zilch to very structured 4 hours of learning per day and everything in between.

We know the CF because DP is friends with her ex. DP had agreed to the full bloody 4 weeks but I’ve said no, we’ll do Mon to Thurs this week (from tomorrow) as she’s left it too late to find an alternative. She can find someone else, or send them to school from Monday 8th.

DD (year12) can go back in July for a couple of weeks. Will definitely go, no question. It isn't good for a 17 year old to have no-one except family to talk to for 6 months.

@dinosapple I'm sorry for your loss.

Thank you @locked2020.

It's all a bit raw. MIL didn't go down as a C19 death, as they listed it as a secondary cause. Then BIL caught it - but couldn't get tested. All the care staff have had it, PPE was hard to get hold of, staff numbers have been very low and hers is not the only death there. Our region has had one of the lower death tolls, but it appears the real figures are much higher than it appears.

Thanks everyone. My reason for sending back is concern about being out of a school setting for six months and the social aspect of this. He can read basic sentences and can write so I'm not bothered about that aspect. I keep thinking that he'll only be exposed to eight people, but then think about who those have been exposed to. I live in london so numbers have gone down a lot, but parents who can't wfh will be on tubes etc. I don't know how many households the parents will be mixing with (he is 4 so doubt kids in different households meeting up at that age will social distance, even if parents do).

I don't trust the government's decisions and their own scientists are saying it's risky. It seems like too much is happening too quickly. However, if I keep him off, then any kids he does meet up with will have been exposed to school etc anyway!

His age group can't be tested either. Track and trace isn't up and running properly - and only for people who you could be able to contact and advise anyway, rather than the person sat next to you on the tube etc. What to do?! I don't want him to not see any friends for another three months. I'm on mat leave til the end of the summer (or more, given the economy), so have freedom in my choice. Someone give me a crystal ball please! I had made my decision last week, but thought govt would delay starting if was too risky. I also didn't expect the six household thing.

Thanks also for the witty responses about my poorly worded post - appreciate the giggles!

@dinos sorry, crossed there. The way carehomes have been treated is shocking.

I don't want my kids going back with social distancing in place - it just seems a bit pointless - they are preferring independent study to taught classes, they feel they are learning more - the only advantage of school would be the socialising.

I don’t have the option of sending mine as they’re secondary but I 100% would if they were open. The risks are beyond minuscule ( appreciate for those more vulnerable it’s a harder decision)