We have been talking about this today, as I’m pregnant (due in July), DS is in Y6 and DSD is in Y1. We really don’t think they should go back until September.
The difficulty, however, is in dealing with our exes. Tbh, DS is here every single weekday morning except one Monday a fortnight. And I would just explain to the school why he’s staying off. I think my ex would be fine with it (not least because DS has pretty bad asthma), so long as he still gets the same contact with him (he was totally insistent about that right from the start).
DH’s ex is likely to be a totally different kettle of fish. She has plenty of form for being irresponsible about lockdown, and we know for a fact that she’s been having people round to the house (her boyfriend, who works in a care home, and her mother as a minimum). She’ll almost certainly want to send DSD to school to give her a break (she doesn’t work, so it’s not a childcare issue). And Y1 are riddled with viruses at the best of times, plus terrible at both hygiene (DH caught DSD licking the shower cubicle yesterday 😆) and unable to socially distance. And the school is in the worst affected area of England, which also isn’t great (and makes DH doing school runs undesirable too).
We have had to talk about what we’ll do if the schools are reopened and DSD is being sent to school. We can’t really see any options other than him not seeing his DC in person until after the baby is born (which would be terrible for him and the DSC and not something I’d want to impose) or the DSC staying with us all the time (with no school) for the next few months (which their mother wouldn’t agree to). It’s all a bit rock and hard place.
In any case, the announcement was that the school might-but-might-not start going back. I’m hoping for a not going back situation to save having to deal with any of this stuff.