Are you sending your children back to school in January?

[RosieLemonade]

I assumed people would be pleased the schools are remaining open (probably because that’s how I feel) but the two people I’ve spoken to about it this morning are disgusted. Both are SAHM so don’t need their children in.

Absolutely yes. Children are 11 months and 5 years. They will go in every second the primaries and early years are open. Not the tiniest shred of doubt.

God I bloody hope so

Hopefully.
-their school had one case last term.

• it's a Primary that can keep classes seperately easily
• they are happier in school

-we aren't in London

Answer could be different if any of the above factors were different. SAHM for full disclosure.

Has there been an announcement?

Yes, absolutely. DS7 needs the structure and routine of school.

I do feel for the teachers/TA's, though.

Nursery here for a 2 year old... probably not. I suspect they'll be shut anyway, but we're in an area with very high cases and it feels a bit foolhardy to send him back in at the moment.

It will be hell trying to work and parent, hopefully it'll only be a couple of weeks to get cases down again?

I don't need to send mine but they need to be there. I am thankful primary schools are open. And I feel for secondary school pupils and parents where it seems part / late opening and more disruption from positive cases is inevitable for a while.

Absolutely. We've been in tier 3 forever. There hasn't been a single.case at my daughter's school. But also home schooling didn't work. They set a maths and literacy worksheet a day which then fizzled out towards summer and that was it. That wasn't education and I've noticed the regression as a result.

Also I work nights. No way I can do that AND somehow supervise and get her to do school work.

@AKissAndASmile yes there has. Primaries year 11 and 13 are back as planned. 7-10 will be remote learning for a week

Absolutely we want him to go back. He is in year 10 can't mess about.

If they are open, yes.

Yes mine will be going when school opens back up to their year groups.

Absolutely! My daughter is in year 9 and doesn’t go back into school until the second week of Jan but will be online learning for the first week.

Yes I will!

@AKissAndASmile

Has there been an announcement?

Not since the end of term where they said primary would open as normal and secondary would be year 11 and 13 for the first week followed by the rest the week after. Meeting today with DFE and Johnson.

100% yes.

This is a mild illness for children.

Vulnerable people need to continue to shield until they have the vaccine.

Children need to be at school and school needs to be as normal as possible.

Yes. Secondary will be online at first, which is fine, but if I have to go back to the first lockdown situation where I’m trying to work and homeschool a primary aged child it will be awful. My work say all the right things but were in practice incredibly demanding and my ‘poor performance’ over that time is still regularly being raised. I’d rather risk covid (low risk household) than further jeopardise my job.

Am waiting to see what the schools say. Am assuming the teachers are having Christmas off (at least, am hoping they are) so am not expecting to hear for a while.

I really don't want to go back to home schooling. I work. It's not easy. I have 1 at primary (so needs help) plus 1 with anxiety issues plus 1 more. We don't have 4 laptops and have shit broadband. A return to home schooling would be awful.

The new strain is spreading very rapidly though, so may be no choice until more people have been vaccinated.

Absolutely. I need to work outside of the home anyway, but DS learns a lot better at school where he can socialise. He's an only child and school is the only place he sees other children at the moment. We have low cases still in our area also. He's primary age so I'm hoping they will open as normal.

@moremoormore 'Vulnerable people need to continue to shield until they have the vaccine'
And what if the teacher is vulnerable? Or the child? Or immediate family member? How does that work?

I’d rather they had a break. The second lockdown had very little effect on the cases of numbers and I think everyone needs to be more separate to really have a larger impact on case numbers.

My DC would be sad but I would feel happier knowing we’re all likely to be safer. I’ve read the new strain can affect children much more too.

Yes because DH & I both work in schools so our DC will need to go in regardless.

Luckily we’re all low risk and can just avoid seeing others who are more vulnerable.

If schools are open, then yes, since i haven't seen anywhere that we can keep them off without being fined.

I'm a keyworker, so they could go in if schools close, but i suspect we would keep them home like we did in the first lockdown.

I think they’ll be closed and I think they probably should be, but if they’re open mine will go in. I don’t need the childcare and I could teach them at home but they really need the social contact with their peers (lower primary aged).

Hell yes. He's severely autistic and "back to school on Tuesday" is in there with the constant stream of consciousness, verbal tics and general growling and grunting. He desperately needs it.