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 have 3 live lessons today, one tutor on line quiz and a meeting to plan next SOW. I will then mark all the work sent yesterday from about 100 students and then I will have a pee. Then make a few pastoral check up calls and then I might see my own kids. About to start my day as usual with 8am planning meeting. Have a lovely day telling me how rubbish I am and how I deserve to die and should just be prepared to put up with any risk. While you carry on WFH.
Give me PPE, give me a contact tracing app and ensure me no student will deliberately cough on me if I tell them off and I'd go back tomorrow. I am knackered.

"as far as I know there haven’t been massive outbreaks in schools."

I'm afraid you're missing the point of keeping schools shut op. It's not about whether there will be massive outbreaks "in schools". It's about minimising interaction to reduce the spread of the virus - a virus that is passed from person to person.

No-one actually wants schools and other places closed off like this, but it's a safety measure. Yes children have a right to education - of course they do. I'm a former teacher! Do they have a right to be in school right now when we should still be trying to reduce the spread of the virus? I don't think so and neither do most of the other posters on this thread too it seems.

I think as times goes on, schools need to put in place lessons. The government would do better to focus on that, than sending random schoolchildren back. In Italy where we are now we have a good, two mornings a week system going of video lessons using Meet. This keeps the contact. They also send and mark work each week. This keeps the structure and a little of the social interaction. It's obviously not the same but a lot better than endless unmarked work sheets. I have also encouraged lots of book reading and we have been drawing together and baking. I have actually seen massive progress in my four year old since Feb. Education starts at the home.

Imagine where we would be if the supermarket workers, delivery drivers and police demanded PPE to do their front line jobs.

And point blank refused until magical September.

@HairOfTheFrog,

I'm so sorry to hear your situation, both you and your child completely let down. I wish the Unions would galvanise their increased power just now and highlight such cases. I don't have anything useful to say, but you sound like you've done a great job.

The won’t get “an education” with:
part time classes
queuing up to wash hands every hour
cleaning their desks every hour
staggered entry and exit/break time
social distancing in the yard
the class clown coughing on everyone
anxiety raddled unfamiliar teachers for 3 weeks before they break up for the summer. HTH.

YANBU 100% OP. I'm totally sick to the back teeth of the "unsafe" argument all over here and social media. The risk to kids is very low, and to most teachers. If you're in the vulnerable group schools should flex for this obviously.

I'm beginning to feel increasingly militant about this from a child mental health perspective...and we CANNOT home school, we're both working full pelt. We've tried, it doesn't work. I'm actually getting physical anxiety symptoms from the stress of it all.

And for those teachers on this thread who get this, don't support the unions and understand the devastating impact on our kids thank you so much, please please please try to make your voices heard. I know how tough it is when you're in a minority but it needs to happen.

The mental health fall out of six months out of school will be far bigger than the academic one.

I'm not sure what you mean. Both of those risks are quite low. And the risk of having adults who have not been DBS checked in an actual classroom is low but we still have to check them, its the law

Do you mean that the risk of catching covid is so low that there is no need for zoom lessons so we can go back to school? Because I really want to go back to school!

I agree. Mine are working but it's hard and I'm really concerned about the social development they are missing out on. Mine are not high priority years but I intend to send them back

I'm pretty sure dd had it in feb after sking and gave it to us anyway though luckily we had mild cases.
My son had covid toes so I can't wait to antibody tests to be available so we can be sure.

The teacher/ nursery nurse/ TA working with that child won't have any PPE and won't be able to socially distance, so spending the whole day with them probably means they're at a fair risk of catching it

The evidence seems to be that children aren’t spreaders.

@mumsneedwine, I can't see any post anywhere from any time that said you deserve to die

Oh and to the "education starts at home" and "teach them yourselves" posters - fine for small children.

And not even then when small children have parents wfh.

Our teachers have a right to a safe work environment. That tops the right of your child to an education, since that can be provided at home!!

I don’t understand why people are so desperate to send their kids into school during a global pandemic that is killing thousands

Scotland have a blanket ban on online teaching in state schools

No they don’t. Your school might. Our teacher does small group sessions a couple of times a week, sets work daily, answers questions and marks and returns it. I would guess she would be able to do some other stuff alongside, possibly finish her day earlier, but she is definitely working a good number of hours each day. (State School)

Our children are bottom of the rung. They absolutely don't matter. That is absolutely clear to me.

Their now is horrible and their future fucked too.

I think long term it would be useful to try a bit more online engagment.
Even an hour a day would be useful and might help parents to work from home.
My friends dd does a full day on google classroom and it seems to be working.
I am not a teacher so i admit i dont know how hard this could be but i am WAH in a people job and have managed to adapt to still offer a hopefully good service. I even do visits in gardens or through windows using phones if necessary.
My own 9 year old is fairly ok to sit alongside me doing her work which is set online and im lucky my husband works shifts so is sometimes here to help.
She has little by way of school contact apart from the odd comment on the website and I do think they could do a bit more.
They only have a small number of key worker children in school so only 2 teachers per day are going in.
Most of the work set is done on websites such as my maths and purple mash and links to you tube videos.

The jobs that were most at risk, so said but research, are taxi drivers, low paid manual work, predominantly male environments. I I cannot see the outcry from these sectors that matches that from teachers? Although granted I am on MN so that would skew my intake.

My friend works in a private school.
The children have a very full timetable of lessons via zoom.
The teachers in that school are probably working harder than normal.
When the fees are at stake a way can be found to teach.

They won’t get “an education” with

It will be better than sitting in front of screens most of the day, which is what parents wfh are having to resort to.

When the fees are at stake a way can be found to teach

Ain’t that the truth

Trust me @Hadenoughfornow your children are not bottom of the rung.

Disabled children who don't have a school to go to in the first place or return to when this is all over hold that devastating position.

Imagine where we would be if the supermarket workers, delivery drivers and police demanded PPE to do their front line jobs.

I'm not sure it's comparable? I'm under the impression there are screens around checkouts and staff are allowed to use things like gloves. Every delivery driver who has been to my house has been wearing a mask and gloves. Teachers don't have this. Plus we need to think about viral load- someone in a supermarket may interact with an infected person (from behind their screen) for a couple of minutes. For a teacher it's around 6 hours, for a nursery nurse around 10 hours.

Over a 14 year school career children attend for 2,730 days. Today will be day 28 of missed schooling. So 1%. I think that’s worth it to stop the spread of a deadly virus...