Our children have the right to an education.

[NameChange738676756]

So many posts about whether schools will be safe when they reopen but I’m not seeing this point made. Lots of discussion around the childcare that schools provide and the importance on children socially.

My 11 year old has lost all interest and I can’t get him to do anything significant. We’ve had one zoom social with his teacher and classmates. So pretty much zero learning going on.

We know children are less susceptible and there is some discussion around whether they’re transmitting less. The children of key workers (i.e. the ones more likely to catch and spread it) have been at school the whole time and as far as I know there haven’t been massive outbreaks in schools.

So I think I just want to loudly shout: our children have the right to an education.

I think some people need to get a grip (or a life!) The UK population is an estimated 66.4 million (England is around 56million)

• you can work out the percentage of 30K.

Figures taen from the national statistics website

Plus, many children have been pretty much in isolation within their healthily family unit. They haven't suddenly turned toxic. They are less "dangerous" to teachers than the KW children.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26

COVID is not a dangerous disease for people under 45. A scant 146 women under the age of 45 have died of the disease.

We now have a new virus in the environment. Your chances of dying are now infinitesimally larger than they were about 12 weeks ago. Everyone not in a shielding or clinically vulnerable group needs to adjust their world view accordingly, learn to live with it and go out to work.

Young people have done enough now, especially children.

Schools were still open when the virus was at its most prevelant (we hit the peak 2.3 weeks after school closures - so within the 7 - 21 day incubation period) so if schools are really as dangerous as people are making them out to be surely huge numbers of children would have been spreading the illness and the childrens families and school staff all over the country would have been seriously ill (not just self isolating beause they had a cough which could have been attributed to any number of illnesses).

We already have a teacher shortage; our school has been struggling to feel slots. This won't help.

There has never been a teacher shortage during recessions.

My nephew had Coronavirus (admittedly he wasn’t tested but the hospital were about as sure as they could have been that that’s what he has). He had a terrible couple of days of a ridiculous temperature and febrile convulsions. Very scary.

Not one single other person in his household demonstrated any symptoms whatsoever. It’s so random.

Every supermarket I've been in has a security guard, the check-out person is behind a screen and only deals with one person at a time, who then leaves the building. Soo like teaching

But not the shelf stackers who have to mingle in the isles with the swathes of people that pass down them all day every day, or the pickers who are completing peoples online shops in amoungst everyone else, touching the things 100s of others have touched before them. And those plastic screens do naff all, you can still cough all over the cashier when putting your stuff on the canveyor belt (not that i'd do this just to be clear) because they don't wrap around the staff member at that side, they just prevent you from being able to pack your shopping effectively.

My kids are still getting an education.

The school are sending work home, & they are doing it (with structure and guidance from me).

Sorry your 11yo isn't engaged OP. Have you talked to your child's teachers?

Well I feel sad that 52% of people think I am unreasonable to think children have a right to an education.

I don't think you are unreasonable to think your child has a right to education. The reason you are unreasonable is because of your attitude that your child's education is the responsibility solely of others and that its ok for your child to be lazy.

My 11 year old has lost all interest and I can’t get him to do anything significant.

This is a parenting issue.

Its long been shown that parents who take an active role in helping their children with their education rather than expecting schools to do it all, have much better life chances.

Our children have the right to an education

A right to an education is about access to education, not about how motivated your child is.

That is an entirely different question which involves more being done to enable and facilitate better access and teaching via online means.

Your child also has a right to be safe.

And that also raises other questions about schools (and why more isn't being done to get the most vulnerable children who do have a right to a place at school before they reopen to actually attend).

But your child not being motivated isn't something you can take to court and complain that he can't be arsed because he doesn't like it!

You are going to come across that at some point with one subject or another. Perhaps you should try and learn to deal with it now before it becomes more of an issue when they are a teenager.

You complaining that people don't agree with your whinging doesn't help your cause.

I think one of the reasons the government wants some children to gradually return to school in 3 weeks so that there will be data to examine on transmission rates before September.

My children have a right to live and to have a mother to see them grow up.
I’m not risking them bringing home a virus that could kill me, mine are primary aged though so right now it’s not going to have a huge impact if they miss school for a while.

Nothingcanhurt

There are lots of things that can be done to protect teachers. My school is making one form stay in the room whilst specialist teachers dial in and teach. All other subjects done by form. Since only a few years will be in, use any indoor sports, theatres canteens to teach them further apart. Put a screen in front of teachers desk.

Just out of interest, how many teachers have died as a result of catching it from a student. We know that the figures show certain jobs and industries, age and ethnicities. We have the stats. Are there stats on teachers catching COVID from when the peak was really here? The answer is NO.

Yes my DS has the right to have an education. However I don't want him to get sick or die. And I don't want to get sick or die.

(and yes we are both clinically vulnerable).

Neither would either of us would to accidently make someone else ill or die either!

Up to O level standard (or whatever the equivalent is these days!) should be manageable by parents

Really? I left school 30 years ago. I can help my son with the subjects I did at school and have a bit of memory of, but not things like physics and computer science that I never did.

I find a society that furloughs stock exchange workers but insists that teachers go back to work more than a little concerning.

schoolsweek.co.uk/ons-figures-reveal-65-covid-related-deaths-in-education/

Apologies if this has been posted already.

Children will have a worse education from dead teachers, eh?

Totally agree op

I completely agree. DD4 will be going back to school Nursery as soon as they reopen. The risk of the virus to young children is negligible but the risk to their mental health and well-being is not. This virus isn’t going to magically disappear in September or even next January, do parents propose keeping their children at home until then? There is no shame in admitting that you are not cut out for homeschooling, I do lots of craft activities with my DD and luckily she is very good at playing with her toys, however I’m lucky if I can get her attention for five minutes to teach her anything. She also has mild SEN and her behaviour can be very challenging at times. She really needs the social interaction and stimulation she gets at school.

When we think about the social needs filled by schools, we do have to be aware that they won't just be able to go back to the same socialising they did before. They will have to remember at all times that coming close to a friend, shoving up against someone as a laugh, or even being slightly careless about a cough or shouting (expelling droplets) is dangerous and not allowed.

Have you seen those pictures of an infants school in France. Playtime means sitting in a square to keep you isolated from your friends. What do you think the psychological effect of that might be?

What about kids who are scared of being bullied? Do you really think there won't be a Yr 11 there who thinks it's a great laugh to sneak up a little too close? What toll will that mental strain take on them?

If your child thinks they can just go back to school and everything will be as it was, then they need to think again. There will have to be constant vigilance. And in the (quite likely) case of another spike, schools will have to be closed again. If the virus mutates (as it shows signs of doing with these new Kawasi symptoms attacking children), things will have to rethought.

"Take time of in lieu" some posters say WHEN??? When would you accept was a good time for any teacher to do that? Which bit of the next term or so?

Are the majority of teachers on the rota for looking after the children of key workers during the school holidays not being offered time off in lieu or extra payment, despite government guidelines?

Nice theory, but when I used to teach Year 1 (in a fairly middle class suburb of London) there was a sizeable minority of parents who struggled to grasp the maths and literacy/phonics content of the curriculum.
I cannot teach my children phonics because I am not a native English speaker and simply cannot pronounce phonemes like "th". And not too fluent to read stories in English without pauses. They usually have a home tutor to help with English, but it was obviously not an option during the recent weeks.
I am not an uneducated idiot though, as you imply.

I dispute the fact that it is a parenting issue, My son has demand avoidance issues and the more you ask him to do somthing the more he digs his heels in, you have to make it think it is his idea.
Every child is differnt and some will be loving independent study and others will need pushing and motivating. I think it is very sanctimonious to say it is a parenting issue

I agree with OP. Not just for the education that our kids need reinstated, but to help limit the economic damage we are fermenting.

Children and young people are suffering the most. Lack of education limits life opportunities and later earning potential. Lack of real social interaction hampers their emotional development.

And this group, the youngest, the least at physical risk, will be the one who bears the financial cost of payback going forward, in order to protect the currently oldest group (who are the wealthiest), and the medically vulnerable.

I would rather see a situation where those more at risk from Covid19 due to either age or with existing conditions, are supported in making plans for a medium to long term physical distancing from society to keep them safe so that more social and economic activities can restart.

The alternative, an extended inactivity for all of us, does too much damage. I am very concerned about the impact on our population of an economic depression, which is where we are heading.
We are witnessing the largest contraction of the economy ever recorded.
People cannot work and schemes will be wound down, and bills and mortgages will not be able to be paid.
Crops are already rotting in the fields in various countries because they cannot be picked. Herds are being slaughtered as waste rather than food.
Food shortages may start to follow, just as inflation and cost of living and food picks up because of the trillions of dollars and sterling money printing.

The deaths and misery that come with a depression and stagflation are not to be underestimated.

Are the majority of teachers on the rota for looking after the children of key workers during the school holidays not being offered time off in lieu or extra payment, despite government guidelines?

Our teachers are on rota for when they are in the school. However if they are at home they are still writing lesson plans, then having the additional new job of writing it down in a way that parents and children can understand, making sure that resources they use or refer to are things that the majority have access to (especially considering a lack of printer), they still have to write reports, communicate with parents and children (who are sending them emails all hours of the day, asking questions) and think about the pastoral side of the job.

So its actually more work than if they were still in the classroom.

DS (4) probably won't be going back to nursery, in his head he's already left and is 'a big boy that goes to big school'. No point stressing him out for the sake of a few months as he hates drop off anyway and I imagine the drop off will be different somehow.

His baby brother gets more interesting every week and I'm hoping we'll get a social bubble to see his (under 65) grandparents soon. He occassionally mentions his nursery friends but its nothing compared to the tears for missing grandma (I wouldn't let him see my parents if he was at nursery).