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.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

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.

Yes, absolutely! I walked past a school after 3pm today and literally loads of kids were coming out. A lot of key workers have their kids at school even if the other parent (in the same household) is not a key worker. I don't see the logic in that because if the non key worker parent were a single parent, they would not be allowed to have their kids in school.
I cannot see how people think we will be back to the same place next year if we unlock too quickly. Do people who think that think the vaccines don't work?

@ElliFAntspoo yes and no....

how does parental acceptance of the situation make a dyslexic kid or the self harming DS learn or feel better? A little sympathy wouldn't go amiss. Truth with kindness and all that. Otherwise you will just get peoples backs up and cause anger.

How people see it is different, there are those who see bubbles bursting and really sadly losing relatives which is awful, but there are those stats which show all the numbers heading in the right direction.

We don't know that the vaccines will work for all variants, then again we don't know they won't.

some of us are suffering more than others, evidently, you're very lucky if you're not.

I also think there is a decreasing argument for keeping schools closed as people are mixing outside school anyway

That’s what will help keep schools closed. Selfish people.

@Thewiseoneincognito come walk a week in my shoes. No, a day. Then tell me off for my ‘attitude’. FWIW we’ve done all the homeschooling this term but we can’t do it anymore. My relationship with my kids is suffering. My work is suffering. I’m exhausted. They are depressed.

So yes, homeschooling for another 6 weeks can fuck right off.

I cannot see how people think we will be back to the same place next year if we unlock too quickly. Do people who think that think the vaccines don't work?

A huge percentage of the people in ICU aren’t in the vaccinated groups. Plus we still don’t know much about the efficacy against other strains.

@Fucket

March outside parliament

I thinks there’s a a high probability that this could happen in the coming weeks if things don’t change and start opening up...

I would like to see

• vulnerable teachers (and as many teachers as possible who want it) vaccinated before having to go back to teach face to face
• vulnerable parents vaccinated before having to send children back
• children with a vulnerability having the option of vaccination before going back (children can be vaccinated off licence at the discretion of their doctors and we will have increasing amounts of evidence about the outcome of this as the months go by)
• a degree of family choice around how to manage the risks.
• the option of 2 vaccine doses and time to develop immunity for all these people
• plans formuated about booster doses so people aren't exposed to risk through the effects of vaccination wearing off

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

What are we supposed to be doing, letting them run feral? They're only doing what they would have been doing at school, if they're lucky enough to be doing that much. Yeah fuck their education, what 5 year old needs to learn how to read anyway.

I have no advice but I can totally sympathise op. It’s so shit. My two are terrible with home school. Don’t want to do it half the time and they distract each other and I don’t have time to eat or even pee in the day in peace! I hope they can go back on the 8th but we will see.

We are not getting all the work done, the school are aware and don’t seem to mind. They know we struggle (oldest has sen) so we do what we can which some days is not a lot.

@SansaSnark

The other thing is that if schools go back too soon, bubbles will burst, and we'll all be back at square one.

Yes I think people are forgetting this!

My son's school does not have many kids in and they have still had to close most of the year groups at some point because of positive cases.

There is no magic date in the near future when we can send our kids to school and life totally goes back to normal. It's going to be a while.

It's weird for a parenting site how people get jumped on on here for saying they are struggling with home schooling and want their children to go back to school.

Yes we've been told it will be gradual - by March it's going to be almost three months off.

Certainly not too early to be discussing.

@Ahmnotacat

I cannot see how people think we will be back to the same place next year if we unlock too quickly. Do people who think that think the vaccines don't work?

A huge percentage of the people in ICU aren’t in the vaccinated groups. Plus we still don’t know much about the efficacy against other strains.

Who are you counting as ‘vaccinated groups’ and what percentage of each group are in ITU? I haven’t seen many stats as to who is actually there?

Take one day at a time.

Rinse and repeat.

They WILL go back to school.

I honestly don’t think schools will return until after Easter. And it will be a phased re-opening of year groups, and society in general.

Summer will hopefully be a bit more normal & then probably expect more short lockdowns in late autumn. Lockdown as well over some of the winter months heading into 2022.

It’ll be peaks & troughs for another few years until we edge forwards out of pandemic territory. It’s really shit but that’s where we are. It will get better though, eventually & we’ll be so proud of ourselves that we made it!!!!

@ChancesWhatChances

Btw the very lovely headteacher at DC’s school told me I am not a teacher, I am not expected to teach my children. If they refuse to sit at the table and do school work then don’t stress about it. Encourage reading, encourage plenty of time outside and encourage sumdog but that’s the extent they expect if DC refuses to do work. It’s not worth letting your mh go to tatters

This

Tbh on a personal level I'd breathe a huge sigh of relief - i really don't want mine back til dh has been vaccinated. Appreciate others have different concerns obviously. I really wish we could have some flexibility though; my dc are all coping with sfh pretty well, so for us as a family schools returning would just increase risks without much benefit. That balance varies massively between families and it's yet another failure that that's not been recognised by the govt.

What some people want at both ends of the spectrum is completely unrealistic. I believe schools will be the first thing to re-start and really I don’t think we can expect much more. If the infection rate is too high then it’s too high. I do think it would be helpful to have some idea of a suitable infection rate/ hospital occupancy when things could restart. The problem at the moment is that we have no idea what we’re working to, so it feels like there is no progress!

@cocowhite

If it goes on past then just stop with all the school work. That's my plan, just take all the pressure off as it's not worth the affect on our mental health. Work will always come first as it keeps a roof over our heads.

Just do a priority list maybe of what has to come first and then do them in that order. If there's not enough hours for all of it just cut the list short to what is sustainable.

That's what I was thinking, I've given it my best. I'll enforce Lexia (an English online program) and reading and let the rest fall away for half a term. Hopefully some places can open with distancing so maybe some educational trips.

@OpenShop

I honestly don’t think schools will return until after Easter. And it will be a phased re-opening of year groups, and society in general.

Summer will hopefully be a bit more normal & then probably expect more short lockdowns in late autumn. Lockdown as well over some of the winter months heading into 2022.

It’ll be peaks & troughs for another few years until we edge forwards out of pandemic territory. It’s really shit but that’s where we are. It will get better though, eventually & we’ll be so proud of ourselves that we made it!!!!

Lol we won't know how to be proud anymore because well all be drugged up to the eye balls on anti depressants and booze. Or dead.

I’m entitled to a keyworker place but didn’t take it up. Spoke to the school today and I’m taking up the place after half term. It’s just not sustainable.

I’m not sure. I am hoping a rest from home schooling over half term will give me a bit of a chance to recharge, but I’ve got very little left in the tank at the moment. I’m wfh full time, home schooling 2dc and I’m a LP. There are days that struggle to get up but I’m trying my hardest. School have been sympathetic and I’m very grateful for that. We do the maths and English and what else of the rest we can. I’m exhausted, not lazy or whining.

I cannot see how people think we will be back to the same place next year if we unlock too quickly. Do people who think that think the vaccines don't work?

I'm not sure who posted this originally - the prob is that if rates remain high - even in people who are unlikely to be seriously ill - it allows the virus more opportunity to mutate and therefore become resistant to the vaccines. And in that case, yes, potentially things could get much worse again. Don't forget this virus is v similar to the first SARS which killed at much higher rates and including younger people. Viruses usually mutate to be milder but it's not a given.
My own view is that I'd really really like to avoid the need for any future lockdown/ school 'closures' etc by getting it properly under control now. Like we should've done last year...

Carry on as I have been all this time. I'm a KW but not entitled to a KW place (as our school it's only for children who would be unsupervised at home), and dh can't work from home. We will do as we have been doing. Dc does online learning 9-12 (Y3), I vaguely keep an eye and solve IT issues while working, then we vaguely see each other so she can grab lunch, and then it's Netflix 12-5 while I work. While distracting for me and I get less done, my employer understands it's necessary and most people are in my same position. The ones who aren't have really intense clinical roles at the moment, so are equally overwhelmed. I have never expected schools would go back until after Easter, so I don't have any expectations. It's actually going fine. First lockdown was much worse as we had absolutely no work set and I was spending 4 hours a day trying to lesson plan and homeschool when I should have been working. At least with online provision, I can mostly just get on with work.

@IloveFebruary

*@Thewiseoneincognito come walk a week in my shoes. No, a day. Then tell me off for my ‘attitude’. FWIW we’ve done all the homeschooling this term but we can’t do it anymore. My relationship with my kids is suffering. My work is suffering. I’m exhausted. They are depressed.

So yes, homeschooling for another 6 weeks can fuck right off.*

Totally with you! 😢😱