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Original poster

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

479 replies

cottonwoolbrain · 11/02/2021 15:06

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.

OP posts:
MargosKaftan · 11/02/2021 19:01

OP - you need to do 2 things. Firstly, contact your MP and tell them how hard you are finding this and that your children are not being educated. (If they are Tory, be clear you hold the government responsible for the lack of education)

Then contact your headteacher. Say how you are at breaking point. They might be able to give you one or 2 days in school after half term. That would be enough to keep your head above water and give your dcs the interaction with other children they need.

Its shit.

Stovetopespresso · 11/02/2021 19:01

@DonnaDonna01 totally hear you re the year 10s mines been working his bum off and for what? where are they going exactly? getting seriously worried about this now....

wanderings · 11/02/2021 19:05

March outside Parliament. And as it is illegal to do so, that’s all the more reason to do it! Protest should not be silenced.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
wanderings · 11/02/2021 19:06

And when writing to MPs, don’t forget to quote Mr Gibb saying “not one child will have their future harmed as a result of the pandemic”.

AlternativePerspective · 11/02/2021 19:07

So, when schools were open people were clammering for them to be closed. Then they were closed. And now people are critical of that and want them to be open.

And no. Teachers being vaccinated is not going to make any difference, and I don’t understand why anyone actually thinks that it is.

Schools haven’t been closed because teachers have been catching the virus, schools have been closed because children have been catching it, and although they have not been unduly ill, have been taking it home to vulnerable family members. Vaccinating teachers isn’t going to make any difference to that. Children will still take the virus home. Classes will still need to be self isolated when a child tests positive.

Any teachers who are vulnerable will be vaccinated as per the categories, that isn’t going to change.

Fiona2020 · 11/02/2021 19:08

Two of my best friends are teachers and they have been told there’s absolutely NO way it will be happening. I’m sorry :(

snowballer · 11/02/2021 19:09

twitter.com/thetimes/status/1359938094376640519?s=21

"Downing Street appeared to cast doubt on the prime minister’s hope of reopening schools on March 8 after suggesting that there could be a delay in releasing the government’s road map out of lockdown"

Oh. Fantastic. 🤦‍♀️

Bilson · 11/02/2021 19:09

@PinkFondantFancy

Protest. If there's a March, I'll be joining.
So will I.

I only have one child at school (Lower 6), and that is crap enough. I'd be sectioned if I had younger ones.

I can't begin to say how angry and upset I am about the schools closing. I can cope with losing my job and having had no income for a year thanks to sodding lockdown. But I absolutely draw the line at my children losing their education as well (I'm including universities when I say 'schools').

NotAllMeBeer · 11/02/2021 19:10

I think it is absolutely disgusting that working parents and their kids have been hung out to dry by this completely incompetent government.

The effects have been devastating on so many parents and children.

frazzledquaver · 11/02/2021 19:12

@AlternativePerspective

So, when schools were open people were clammering for them to be closed. Then they were closed. And now people are critical of that and want them to be open.

And no. Teachers being vaccinated is not going to make any difference, and I don’t understand why anyone actually thinks that it is.

Schools haven’t been closed because teachers have been catching the virus, schools have been closed because children have been catching it, and although they have not been unduly ill, have been taking it home to vulnerable family members. Vaccinating teachers isn’t going to make any difference to that. Children will still take the virus home. Classes will still need to be self isolated when a child tests positive.

Any teachers who are vulnerable will be vaccinated as per the categories, that isn’t going to change.

This. If we want schools to be open and stay open, we need to do everything within our power to try to bring the rate of the virus down. We need to lobby for measures that will reduce transmission in schools.
Welikebeingcosy · 11/02/2021 19:12

Mix up the dynamic and find things they do want to learn about and spend the time trying to engage in topics you both enjoy- you never know where it might lead. The national curriculum can be caught up with in school time. This is coming from someone who barely attended in GCSE years and was able to catch up on revision over three weeks to get high grades in the subjects I was passionate about.

Mamabear12 · 11/02/2021 19:12

I will be upset, but nothing I can do really, but do the best I can do. Today, we didn’t do all the work given and we won’t tomorrow. Normally we do, but I figure it’s just before break so no big deal. I’m fed up with it all! But I figure as long as we get outside, get exercise and stay healthy. That’s the most important.

Frequentflier · 11/02/2021 19:16

There are posters on this thread who are quite clearly and understandably at the end of their tether, and I fail to see how kicking them when they are down, with your own patented brand of "tough love", helps in any way.

HazeyJaneII · 11/02/2021 19:16

I am hoping not to send mine back until after Easter, at least.

RuledbyASD · 11/02/2021 19:17

@Learningtobehappier

Both my children can have a vulnerable child place. I've kept them off so far, but now I'll be sending them in after half term.
Have you arranged it with the school? You can't just send them in without prior arrangement, even if you're entitled to a place
HazeyJaneII · 11/02/2021 19:18

...but I really feel for anyone who is struggling, or whose children are.

MarshaBradyo · 11/02/2021 19:19

@HazeyJaneII

I am hoping not to send mine back until after Easter, at least.
A shame we can’t choose. I wonder how full the classes would be if we could.
DonnaDonna01 · 11/02/2021 19:20

@Fiona2020 really is there specific reason why your friends that are teachers have been told this and other teachers not ? My best friend is the head of a primary school and my husbands brother is the deputy head of a secondary and neither have any idea at all; they’ve been told the party line that we need to wait and see.

Bilson · 11/02/2021 19:20

This government has made many, many mistakes (and I say this as a lifelong Conservative voter - until Brexit - so no political axe to grind).

The worst of them all is shutting the schools, thereby shafting working parents (mostly mothers) and ruining the educational prospects of an uncountable number of children.

I need the Arts and e to re-open, as it happens, as I will have no income at all until large events can re-start. Even more than this, though, I want my children to go back to school and university, and live the lives they should be living.

Sobeyondthehills · 11/02/2021 19:22

@dreamingbohemian

Its once again the fact that the government are not listening, they should have put teachers right up there in the vaccine programme.

But they can start by putting them up there now, start listening to headteachers, teachers and unions about what can be done. I am not a teacher, but surely things like half a class in one day and then the next for primary schools could be done. I am not sure what can happen with senior schools as I know its more complicated, but I am sure headteachers and teachers up and down the country probably have ideas and why can't they ask them.

Who is going to know better than those who are dealing with it day in and day out. I get people want to get the rate down, but now many of us are wondering what the fuck the point is, I was up for the first lockdown, back in last year I was very much give the government a chance to sort shit out, they don't seem to have a plan. However a year in and people's livilhoods are gone, mental health is going down the pan and lets face it, the mental health system for adults was struggling to cope in the first place and the mental health system for kids was non exsistant.

I am now sat here wondering what the fuck are the government doing a year on, they are still bumbling chatting shit about a road map, when the reality is, they are going to put a pin in a peice of paper and go this is what we are doing next and if I really want to go into a full on rant, I could mention we wouldn't need to do half this shit if the NHS wasn't underfunded year in year out for god knows how long

MNnicknameforCVthreads · 11/02/2021 19:22

@Fiona2020

Two of my best friends are teachers and they have been told there’s absolutely NO way it will be happening. I’m sorry :(
Told by who?

These sort of posts always perplex me. Surely no one knows for sure?

Bilson · 11/02/2021 19:22

If people don't want to send their children back until after Easter, they can just crack on. Schools should be open for all children now.

poppycat10 · 11/02/2021 19:22

So, when schools were open people were clammering for them to be closed. Then they were closed. And now people are critical of that and want them to be open

Different people though. I am definitely in the keep open camp.

HazeyJaneII · 11/02/2021 19:26

Sorry @MarshaBradyo, I don't understand...
A shame we can’t choose. I wonder how full the classes would be if we could.
I just mean I'm not desperate to get them back, if schools were staying closed to the majority of children or we were given the option (without the risk of fines) then I'd keep them home. Ds will be home until after Easter anyway (and then it will be dependent on what's happening with cases etc)

Watchingbehindmyhands · 11/02/2021 19:28

Two of my best friends are teachers and they have been told there’s absolutely NO way it will be happening. I’m sorry

Teachers, including head teachers, get the information at the same time as the rest of us. There has been no 'heads up' or advance of information in anyway. Therefore your friends don't know that there is no way it is happening.

Although I am inclined to agree.