Has anyone else received notice that their child’s nursery is opening?

[Ethelfleda]

Received an email from DS’ nursery last week. Exact wording:

“The nursery will be reopening on the 11th of May for children who's parents are Key Workers/ Critical Workers and for those parents who are still working and have not been furloughed”

I haven’t responded and am resigned to wait and see what is announced tomorrow. Both DH and I are WFH but just about managing.
Has anyone else received similar?

The thought of my y9’s in a tent makes me feel ill.

Poking the walls, fiddling with zips, tent poles, trying to stab each other with pegs 🙈

Callmeangelina, the buckets thing was just unreal wasn’t it?😂

but in ten hours time we WILL know!

I wouldn't bank on that, to be honest. I think people are setting great store by getting some details and dates and there just won't be any.

callme of course we will, Boris is already pushed his luck, people have lost the will to live. There will be details and dates, and I believe a published road map. I can't imagine what the outcry if it was not forthcoming.

Let's wait and see. I'm not holding my breath.

And you just want to silence the school debate piggy

This isn't meant to be a thread on the "school debate," though. It was a question about nurseries, and they are NOT necessarily the same thing.

callme It will be the end of Boris' political career if he does not deliver this evening. The public may be content to wait for things to reopen, if they know the expected date, but they haven't got huge reserves of patience or goodwill left, that has been drained away in the last eight weeks.

The test for Boris (or any PM in his shoes) is to open enough to restart the economy in some small way, but not too much or too quickly and see many more cases again. Not a single sector can reopen without the nurseries and schools.

I would not want Boris' job put it that way! It is fraught with risk, but in the end we have to be reasonably comforted that we have been through the worst, for now, and we can't stay locked up indefinitely.

I genuinely can’t cope WFH with my 18month old in the house. I’m simultaneously a shit mum and a shit employee. DH is still working outside of the home. I’ve had to take loads of annual leave to make it doable and so that I don’t end up having a nervous breakdown. I can just about manage until June but that’s it.

I don’t think I’ll cope if nursery doesn’t reopen by June. This situation just isn’t sustainable for working parents with babies and toddlers. It’s totally differemy to school aged children, my DC doesn’t understand that mummy needs to work and they need so much supervision at this age. I’m not surprised there have been accidents and near-misses in the home with small children whilst their parents are trying to work. It’s negligent at best and dangerous at worst.

Regarding specific play needs, this Guardian article is interesting- it talks about a paper written by a group of child psychology professors, one of whom is a friend of mine, in which they urge schools to prioritise play when they return because they believe it is vital for mental health and could be seriously reduced because of social distancing measures.

*different

argument I agree with this point completely, especially for younger children, I hope this is the route they take.

For my dd in the middle of her GCSEs she badly needs to get back into school and catch up with some proper school work. No matter how hard the dc are working, it is nowhere near the same level of actual teaching, she misses the support from her teachers. Many will be months behind - mid GCSEs this is really worrying for most of us.

Oh heavens! Even on a thread that has nothing to do with schools, the same school bashing posters flock to it like moths to a flame! Sorry your thread has been derailed by a couple of them OP.

When reading your opening post and updates, I think your nursery has sent that letter because they closed more fully than to keyworker children etc recently and therefore, they can give a date for when they want to re-open to that level.
They of course wouldn’t know yet when they can open up more fully to other parents.

I can’t see a problem with the tent idea actually. I mean people use them for weddings and they’re considered ‘posh’! I have 2 of the most laid back dc you could imagine. Nothing stresses them out until now. 13 year old dd is still pretty fine. Missing friends but managing ok but I am getting concerned about 15 year old DS. He’s getting more and more withdrawn. He’s fed up, wants to get out. The thought of him being stuck at home for another 4 months is worrying. Just a day a week at school would probably be enough to get him back on track. If schools don’t reopen in June I will have to start taking things into my own hands for the mental health of my dc.

I really hope nurseries and childminders are allowed to reopen soon / June. My 20mo daughter is now very clearly behaving differently. She is shy and stays away from people (obviously) when we go to the park and that is so unlike her. Having no childcare also means I now have to work every day to make up my hours and also so DP can go to work 3 times a week. If this goes on until September I might actually lose my shit. It is miserable to wake up knowing that there is no down time, that every day you have to work for some amount of time. Nevermind the fact that I can barely concentrate with a small person running around the place all day.

I've not been furloughed and do not want to be but my work is suffering and my employers are not particularly sympathetic - they're just trying to keep the business afloat. I get that

Statement from DfE

Spoiler alert:
"Our position remains clear that no date has been set for the reopening of schools to all pupils."

Equally:
One about Childcare

Nurseries, childminders and all other early years settings are playing a vital role in the response to coronavirus, by supporting critical workers and parents of vulnerable children with continued childcare.

Many nurseries - my guess is more than schools, as every school I know of is providing keyworker childcare - are not open even to support critical workers or vulnerable children. Therefore 'reopening' may simply move them to the same position as schools - providing keyworker and vulnerable children with childcare, not open for all.

A little bit like Spain's 'relaxing of the lockdown' has merely moved them to a situation similar to our 'lockdown'.

@cantkeepawayforever

That statement basically says nothing and certainly nothing new.

"to ALL pupils."
But is any (sane) person really expecting that? Hasn't the debate really been about extending numbers gradually to a saturation point that hasn't been determined yet? So, 10 pupils per class? Or 15? Or part-time? Or whatever?
That said, I don't think any details will be given tonight about that either. It's only 10 minutes long, for a start, and there are many other considerations to be decided than school organisation.

I expect Boris will just put up a poster, very similar to the Irish one. I think schools are the 5th (last) stage.

Sorry, OP-your post is about just nurseries, not schools.

@Hercwasonaroll I totally agree with you. I own a nursery and am a planner under normal circumstances- in this instance it's a waste of our time until we have more knowledge of what reopening to all will look like.

It's impossible to distance at nurseries so there's little point in reducing the numbers and taking it turns to go in. They need to be either open or closed.

A couple of our friends have mentioned casually that if schools and nurseries stay shut would we be interested in contributing and/or our own children attending a school set up with teachers etc at home.

We will see an explosion in this kind of arrangement if formal schooling does not happen soon, and this will do nothing to help the economy, as we won't be able to work with this kind of arrangement, but it might at least solve the issue of worrying about the kids emotional, educational and MH needs. People will take things into their own hands before long.

I will happily take the fine and contest it in court, if was ever issued if it meant my children's mh is not shot to pieces at the end of this.

This is state sponsored child abuse if allowed to continue.

This is state sponsored child abuse if allowed to continue.

Oh, don't be so bloody ridiculous.

of course it is, and I will go further and say we will see court cases about the unnecessary suffering to children on a mass scale if this were to continue. Given the risks to children is so very very tiny, it is completely unfair to keep them under house arrest for six months with no access to other children, education etc