If school's don't return on March 8th what will you do?

[cottonwoolbrain]

I am goign to be completely honest. I can't handle this anymore. I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm in tears every day now and the rest of the time just feel completely and utterly numb as if I'm doing everything on autopilot. Keep shoutinbg at the children - rate its going they'll get Stockholm Syndrome being coooped up with me as I am

DS (8) needs almost constant supervision to get him to do any work at all or even to sit in his chair. HIs school have great distance learning but I'm exhausted trying to get him to do it even with online classes. DD is 15. She's great at doing the work but is understandly stressed and lonely and worried about next years GCSEs and I feel like I'm getting the brunt of it.

I work part time and its the sort of job that requires high concentration levels. I can't just stop to answer questions about everything under the sun (including the flipping sun).

I'm breaking. Half term starts tomorrow. Hopefully a week of not home schooling will help and then I''ll be counting the days until March 8th but I'm so desperately worried they won't go back and I'm not sure what I'll do or how I'll cope.

DP helps as much as he can but most of its falling on me.

Sorry don't knwo what I'm saying except that i dont thknk I can hold out much longer and its messing up my children so badly.

I think I will have a cry and then get over it and carry on I suppose. What else can we do? I’m lucky in the sense that my ds is only 4, so we haven’t got the pressure of exam years etc. But it’s very hard to try and teach a 4 year old and I feel sad that his first year of school has been so messed up. He has also got extremely clingy and won’t leave my side where before he was a very confident child. The sooner they go back from that perspective the better

I’m with you. Of course I only want them to go back when it’s ‘safe’ but I really need the youngest to go back 8th March at least.
I’m working from home long full time hours in a demanding job whilst trying to home school and/or entertain a primary aged child and a teenager, one of whom has SEN.
Every day I feel I’m either failing my job or my kids or both.
Youngest desperately misses her friends (zoom calls no longer cut it) and she needs to go back for her mental and physical well-being if nothing else.

Get out the mop ready for my DD's tears. But seriously, what can any of us do? If they don't open, we carry on.

My daughter is bored, lonely and totally unchallenged by the worksheets she's being set (no zoom/google calls here), and I'm working such long hours due to lack of resource at work.

I'm trying my best to keep DD engaged and happy, but I'm terrified that the constant distractions will mean I'll do something wrong at work in an industry where that could mean a death.

I'll carry on teaching my class via Teams from my spare room, and my own child will continue to watch a lot of daytime Netflix.

Plod along like we are now, I guess. I don’t think I’ll have much choice. I don’t think secondary will be back on the 8th anyway, who knows about the rest.

If you keep shouting at your children, I think you should ring the school after half term, and see if your children can go in as they sound vulnerable.

@Forgothowmuchlhatehomeschoolin

Can you not send him into school as vulnerable - dfe guidance states if a child is not coping with remote learning that makes them vulnerable?

Unfortunately, this is 90% of children, in many schools, if we're totally honest.

And 'guidance' is too vague to be applied as law. Schools are generally doing their best, but almost every parent wants their child in school instead of at home.

So many people now are 'key' workers that vulnerable is often having to only apply to those with a social worker and an EHCP.

Hell here with homeschooling, lockdown 1 was very easy for us, this one isn't, it's demoralising and I now live for weekends. saying that the numbers make me think if they send kids back to school we'll have to consider deregistering. Last year there were outbreaks in schools around here and we were getting emails saying they hadn't been in contact with kids they had been in contact with. Every day we were just waiting, oh and arguing, lots of arguments

I’ll have to form a childcare bubble. Since we aren’t going anywhere or seeing anyone, I don’t see that we pose much risk and we will form the bubble with family who are doing the same.

I guess we’ll continue as before and do the best we can. Unfortunately, teachers are the ones who will be expected to clean up the mess once the kids are all back. There will be massive differences in where the children are and catching them up will no doubt be left up to schools to figure out. All I can say is it had better be worth it and that they had better have a plan as to how they will be handling things moving forward because I’m not bloody doing this again.

We're back today after a three day half term break (Scotland).
My p4 won't be in school before the 15th of March at the very earliest. The older one is at least semi self sufficient though not terribly motivated.

So fucking depressing. Groundhog Day again.

Work is building up, I'm not sleeping due to anxiety, DC behavior deteriorating.

I'll have to start giving my clients notice.

I've muddled through to date but just can't do it much longer.

If it's only a partial full time reopening of primaries (for my 3 youngest DC) and secondaries aren't scheduled to open after Easter, I shall be lobbying my MP for part time rotas for all.

I think also it's probably safer, from a mental health perspective, to assume they are not going back on 8th March. No one has actually said schools are going back fully on 8th March - it was all worded very carefully.

If people think it’s safer for their MH to expect later it’s up to them.

Right now I’ll go with 8th and see what happens. If it’s massively annoying then so be it.

I have my youngest brother with me Monday to Friday as he is in his last year of school and can't be trusted to get up and do it at home (He lives with his dad - my step dad, mum passed 2 years ago and step-dad not in the best emotional state to enforce home schooling).

I work 40+ hours a week from home as well so little brother is sat next to me during school hours.

If they don't go back on 08th March, but I have to go back to the office I genuinely don't know what I will do. My boss is understanding, but I don't think I can work from home until further notice as I am in a team leader position and when we go back to the office I need to be there for my team.

I am so stressed out by it all and even though my little brother is classed as vulnerable, they couldn't offer him a place at his school to attend (dad is a key worker) and it would mean him attending a different school and getting worked up and possibly not ending up following the curriculum.

I feel like i'm failing him as it's 20 years since I left school and I can't offer the support he needs at this crucial time and I can't fully concentrate on my job because I have to make sure he is up, feed him, make sure he is engaged etc.. Oh, and i'm 5 months pregnant so i'm a hormonal mess as it is!

It's bloody hard work and i'm sorry if i've rambled, it just feels so good to get it all out!!

I am torn though as I don’t want schools to go back and bubbles to burst over and over like the autumn term when it was constant, unpredictable two week isolation periods for both my children. That was even worse as we couldn’t even go out for walks. So I don’t want schools back too early - but I desperately want to be able to work. Part time rotas for all children would be wonderful so long as they made sure siblings in different year groups were in on the same days as each other! I can’t see how it could work alongside kw/vulnerable places anyway. I am worried about the effect on children losing another entire term - if not in terms of learning then in terms of friendships and social/emotional development.

If people think it’s safer for their MH to expect later it’s up to them.

Well obviously. I wasn't talking about anyone else, just me. But thanks for being patronising, I enjoyed it.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

If people think it’s safer for their MH to expect later it’s up to them.

Well obviously. I wasn't talking about anyone else, just me. But thanks for being patronising, I enjoyed it.

You didn’t put anything about who you were referring to and I’ve seen it too many times.

I’ll just carry on, what else can one do? It won’t help crumbling to bits even if it’s what we all want to do.

I think I'll cry if secondary schools don't open but will cry if they do and staff aren't vaccinated. I am support staff and have been redeployed to work with KW and V children (there are no teachers with the children at all). Numbers of pupils is increasing all the time and we had our first positive case amongst them last week so now have a whole load of KW&V children in one year group off isolating anyway, plus the staff who were supervising them.

I know that after half term we will get more people asking for a place for their child because they are "struggling with their online work at home". From what I've seen that translates to "is not willing to put any effort in whatsoever". So I go into work, spend all day getting stressed trying to get the kids to do some work, with no sanctions in place whatsoever, or normal behaviour process in place, while my own children the same age are left to do their work alone at home.

It can't go on like this.....I feel for parents at home, but honestly, sending secondary age children in because they do not engage with online learning just passes the problem onto the poor anxious (and often low-paid) support staff in school. My school also doesn't seem to ask for evidence of key worker status like some secondaries do, and from what some of the pupils are saying, it doesn't seem like their parents are keyworkers......

I don't know. We've done ok so far but mainly because dh has been able to do most of the home schooling and house work etc. But it's getting to all of us now. DC is just battling against anything that we or the school ask him to do. Everything takes hours and hours. It's frustrating for everyone. He needs someone next to him all the time or nothing gets done. And then the virtual playdates afterwards are starting to annoy me as well. I'm expecting DC to go back to school after Easter so just need to grin and bear until then.

It's very hard, OP, I can relate although don't have the part time job so can imagine that would be even more stressful but do have a 2 year old who is a delight/nightmare depending on which way the wind is blowing at that particular moment. I feel exactly the same way as you about 8th March. I will cope because I have to and we are a resilient species however, it will probably be in no way enjoyable and I will feel guilty every day for every raised voice, frustration and irritation that I express to my children. My game plan is to take things much slower if we are not back on 8th March. Our mantra will be 'do what we can' not what we are suppose to be doing. I will ask my other child (6years old) to do what he can and see if he can do a bit more than the day before (he likes being best at everything) but if he can't, then we'll have a play and come back to it later. I refuse to ruin my relationship with my children because of covid. What is eating me up is that when i go out, every man and is wife is out and about like nothing is happening. Meanwhile mine and scores of other kids are stuck at home everyday staring at a screen in an effort to save lives and the NHS. It makes me so mad, I'm half minded to turn up at school after half term and insist a proper education is provided face to face and as per the norm seeing as plenty of other inconsiderate twats are milling around as though all is well. Sorry OP, rant over!

Cry a lot.

Then stop engaging with the lessons. I will still do my best to keep up with maths, reading, phonics and writing but won't submit any of DDs work. If the teachers phone me then I will tell them that she refuses to do the work. I know of a couple of children that have been given places because they aren't doing work at home so the best that can happen is that DD gets a place, worst is that she has to wait (but she will still have been learning at home).

Judge away MN, I have zero shame in doing that. She needs to be in school (as do all the other children).

With the death rate not coming down much I have convinced myself that it will be an after Easter return. If they go back sooner then brilliant but if not then I am mentally prepared.

The 8th was never set in stone and it's still too early to know what's happening re all these fucking mutations etc.
The 8th was the earliest they hoped to start getting some kids back.

This is why I get so passed off with the press forcing the government to say something too far in advance.

It's the same with the holidays. They jeep asking and asking and forcing a response. Get a limited response of all going well we hope to do blah and then people just assume and cling onto it. Then feel deflated if it can't happen.

My coping mechanism is to expect nothing with Covid, other than it to fuck up your hopes and plans. If God says maybe 8th March start hoping for a very big MAYBE on 8th April. You might not feel so fucking deflated and even get a nice surprise.

Meanwhile fingers crossed we start getting some normality back soon.

You will grit your teeth and get on with.....same as everyone else....cos they not going back until after Easter 🐣