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.

The trick is to not believe a single thing the government says will happen, will happen. Keeps me sane.

So I'll just continue struggling with my mental health and loneliness, the kids will continue to be ok, their work will continue to be of acceptable standard... Things will just go on.

Mine’s the opposite really - I’m not sure I’m going back before I’m vaccinated (teacher) as my mental health won’t stand another term like the autumn term. I’d like to go back but not if it might cost me my health or life.

Xh and I are working full time in our business and the dc are with us every day. At 7 & almost 9 it is near impossible to carry out effective home schooling, but if they need to stay off we don't have much choice!

I would have to extend my unpaid leave, scuppering my career yet further.

I also think there is a decreasing argument for keeping schools closed as people are mixing outside school anyway, plus more and more finding their way into the key-worker provision.

@peak2021

Every one of you please remember to vote out this incompetent government regardless of whether or not this happens.

Agree. It's a bag of shit.

Hugs OP, I feel your pain. Morale went through the floor in this house when we found out they weren't going back after half term. Mentally we will all take a battering if they don't go back in March. Our school are being very sympathetic and understanding but ultimately there's nothing they can do to help my kids right now. We are still doing the best we can with home learning, trying to do English and/or maths each day, between my work and uni work and DH work. Trying not to get pissed off that they are fed up and can't be bothered to work, trying not to get impatient when they are taking FOREVER to write one sentence when I know I have a million other things to do, trying not to pour my cup of tea over my laptop when TEAMS is down AGAIN and takes up an hour to get the bloody thing working. They miss their friends so much, they cry for them. House is a tip constantly cos they're home all the time.

It's exhausting. We are coping but I don't know for how much longer.

@foxysocks

We will use our key worker place as, I would imagine, will many others who have been just about managing so far.

All the teachers I know want schools to reopen; they understand it’s a disaster for all children but especially those who are the most disadvantaged. Every week schools stay closed creates more of a chasm and creates more problems which will take huge amounts of time and money to resolve.

Numbers of cases and deaths are dropping, those most at risk of hospitalisation have been or will be vaccinated. They are also - in general - the ones most able to shield for a few more weeks till the next vax / immunity to kick in. Children don’t have that luxury; they need to be learning and in school again now. The government know this. Schools - primaries and all exam years - will be back from the 8th March.

Just how fast are you expecting cases to drop?? |They've dropped by more than 3/4 in a month, remember the case numbers in the first wave were vastly undercounted as far, far fewer tests were being processed. Cases, hospitalisations and deaths are down around 25% on last week. Which is actually a much bigger drop than I would have expected to see

Aibu to think there should be a little recognition for the keyworkers/vulnerable children who are in school every day ? Our headteacher keeps praising the homeschooling kids and they have been given a special treat in their learning packs for reaching half term! Nothing for our kids though !! It's hard for us and our kids too, my dd misses her friends desperately and the whole proper class and learning.

Realistically there are only a couple of weeks of term left at that point so it’s not going to make an enormous difference. If they’re not back after Easter I will not be happy though. Infection rates are dropping hugely. It really all depends on infection rates, I think average is around 200 at the moment so depends what it is on 8th March, and whether it looks justified for schools to remain closed.

@Fucket

March outside parliament

... which is against the law. Not civil law, criminal law.

@Katie1784

I will feel grateful that the government are finally listening to the scientists rather than doing what they think people want to hear.

Sanctimony at its finest.

I’ll be extremely relieved if they keep schools closed.

Relieved that they prioritised lives over public opinion.

I feel for those struggling I really do, but the reality is that schools feed the infection numbers.

I never believed in 8 March for a second. In my head it's always been after Easter break. So I will just carry on, but if schools aren't back after Easter because of some new mutation or whatever, I will probably lose my goddamn mind.

@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.

Are you pals with any of your son's sxhool friends?

We've set up ds with a pal. They have a 20 minute lesson from their school teacher then ring each other over our Facebook accounts and do the work together while chatting about it on video call.

My husband is a natural optimist, he thinks schools won’t be back till after Easter (this was a surprise to me).

Probably best to assume after Easter, then If it’s earlier it’s a pleasant surprise. Wish the weather was better, that would help raise spirits a bit.

I am a keyworker and have kept my children at home. They'll be sent back to school if this madness continues any longer than 8th March.

@CatrinVennastin fellow mum of a dyslexic dc (non statemented) here ...i feel your pain. we've been told to ease off and just make sure he does something every day after family meltdown last week.

I've realised I'm holding out for March 8th and will take a hit if it doesn't happen.

BUT does anyone think maybe the weird backing off about UK summer holidays means they are going to prioritise school returns?

or is that my lockdown brain being illogical?

I’m expecting at least some to go back on 8th March tbh, I think the announcement as actually had to be made next week as they said 2 weeks notice

I’m finding it super hard. But also all our local primaries (despite being key workers only) are hot bed of covid! One with every bubble burst (except one year).

So actually I’m not feeling too confident about March

We get through the week by having Wednesday as a no school work day. On a good day they play, do craft, boardgames etc and on a bad it's punch ups! I have 3 primary school children and a toddler and have a chronic health problem so have to go to bed a couple of times a day. DS6 worked extra hard at the beginning of the week so could start half term yesterday; it wasn't worth the battle of continuing with DS8. Of course, now DD11 thinks life is unfair that she still has to work...

A child I teach has just lost a close family member to Covid. The family member wasn't someone who would be vaccinated by 8th March.

However shit it is for your children, it's probably not as shit this week as it has been for her.

I know counting your blessing isn't always helpful, but if you can keep everyone alive and safe until Easter then they will catch up.

Personally, I'd like everyone back in on a rota ASAP- but the more people who send keyworker/vulnerable children in, the less possible that becomes.

If you are really struggling, ask your school about a place, but be aware a lot of them are at/reaching capacity.

What will I do if they don't go back? Sub-contract my work to them, so I can stay in bed. I'll call it "work experience"!

A lot of people do not understand that this is a long haul thing that is going on here. You may get them back 2 or 3 days a week, or maybe for a few weeks, but don't expect to not be in the same boat in October, and a replay trough next autumn and winter.

We can either look at what is actually happening around us, or we can watch our TVs and believe hear what we want to hear from the men behind the podiums, and hide under our duvets and pretend for another week that it'll all be over soon.

A staged lockdown release will be announced in 10 days, which will show a gradual phased opening up of society in four monthly stages between Easter and September. It will fail, and the failure will be blamed on the profligacy of the public to be reasonable in the summer, and be used as the reason why they need a firebreak lockdown in October, followed by another in November so they don't have a repeat of Christmas last year.

Then you'll have a repeat of last Christmas, and hard lockdowns next winter, and you'll be on here complaining and hammering away at your keyboards again saying I can't believe we wasted another year.

They told you at the beginning that this was the new normal. What part of that was not understandable? There will be rolling lockdowns and control measures for a long time to come. You can change your life and ditch the stress and plan ahead for the future, or you can hold onto your old life and fret about plans that no longer work and try to grasp at an old life that isn't coming back.

I really feel sorry for all the kids who's parents are piling stress onto them and demanding academic performance.

@cottonwoolbrain
I don't agree. The vaccine will reduce transmission significantly and limit the severity of the illness to reduce the death rates.

Will we be totally free of all restrictions? No. But it will not be a repeat of last Christmas.

Elli I’m glad all you get is a forum to type on rather than decision making.