Our children have the right to an education.

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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.

*For those parents that are simply unable to do any school work with their children, for the children that are left in bed all day or on screens because parents are finding it hard to cope working full time as well. For the children without food, proper bedding, abused or afraid.

Six whole months of this will be life changing. Absolutely life changing in the most negative way.*

Absolutely. Thank you.

I hate people barking "Educate your child!! it is your job, it's up to you!!"

I can't do it, and I'm not "working". I have tried to my absolute best to stick to a routine and I'm exhausted now. Eldest is SEN, youngest is just at a stage where he screams and screams from 6 in the morning (currently crying and screaming because I haven't made breakfast yet). I'm a single parent and I have to try and keep the house clean. I have no dishwasher and all I seem to do is scrub plates, cutlery and pans. I can't go to a shop. I have seen no other adult in weeks. Food is dropped off outside. I can't stand a disgusting house and the dog is shedding everywhere, so I am constantly hoovering, wiping, tidying, emptying bins, recycling.

I do everything and the last few weeks I have done all the educating as well and I made myself ill with it. I have no friends, I have no partner, and now I have no family support. Their dad couldn't care less on his high wage, living with his parents and brother, saving for his mortgage deposit, chatting to his friends via social media. I have probably lost my September college course, which is the only thing I was focusing on. I have lost the tiny bit of socialising I had at the school gates and at my parents. I was knackered anyway but now I am spent. I cut myself washing up and I nearly passed out twice last week. My kids are suffering because I am exhausted and depressed. "EDUCATE YOUR KIDS!!" being yelled at me does NOT help, for Gods sake, yet more orders instead of a few words of support that I am desperate for.. teachers bombarding me with work for them that turns into a battle. These boys should have teachers, friends, 2 sets of grandparents and a mum and dad. I am their everything now, they are now anxious wrecks and if I go to the toilet they yell for me. I should get 10 minutes to have a shower without one of them taking a chunk out of the other, or kicking a door in too. People seem to think it's easy staying at home and not "working" but it's the total opposite.

I just want a break.

The schools are closed therefore, in law that option is not there and the onus falls back on the parent to provide the education

In Scotland there is no law requiring the schools to close or relieving councils of their responsibility to provide adequate and efficient education for all children.

Yes your child has a right to an education. Why aren't you educating him at the moment? Because you can't be bothered to motivate him?

One thing I would like to see is a strategy for 'distance education' brought in and worked on in parallel with getting schools open again. Teaching classes where half are in school and half are at home isn't going to be very effective. Supporting significant numbers isolating because of a cold or a sibling's cold, will be tricky, and that is a reality that we need to be planning for over the next couple of years at least. Our thresholds for 'stay at home you're ill' will need to be low as it will be hard to distinguish 'a cold' from potential covid.

Such a strategy could work by bringing together things that are already happening such as the BBC stuff, with perhaps separately employed teachers to coordinate work emailed or posted in, be available for phone support for families without enough spare 'tech', and generally bolster home learning for those who for whatever reason can't be in school. not cheap but done more centrally might be better than every individual school struggling.

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

The picture I attached in my post that you've just quoted, from the WHO, says otherwise.

I'm under the impression there are screens around checkouts and staff are allowed to use things like gloves

That is just checkout staff, the pickers are surrounded by hundreds of shoppers all day long.

You're not doing much to motivate your child or you just want free childcare.
How are schools "free"? I am paying taxes for it, and the school gets funding of around £10.5K for my two children.
Give it back to me and I will gladly homeschool, carefully selecting tutors.

I don't know what people think the answer is.

There may not be a vaccine ever, or there may be one soon.

Children cannot stay off school indefinitely. It impacts on their learning and development and the economy as their parents can't get to work either.

They will have to go back at some point!

The idea is to have small classes and maybe part time attendance across all age groups.

The risk of transmission from children is thought to be low.
Also, children who do catch it appear to be okay- with a few rare exceptions.

Life cannot be put on hold for years with this virus.

I really don't know what parents want to happen?

The lockdown was meant to slow the infection rates. We can't stop everything until there is a vaccine or treatment. It's not possible.

What do parents think the asnwer is?

The provision for remote learning has been good from my DCs school. But they are being terribly affected by not seeing friends. The older one has been sobbing about having no friends. It's so much easier to be excluded or not keep up with social circles when not physically in the same place. The younger one loves physical interaction and imaginary play. She's constantly asking when they can go back to school. They are both anxious and tearful, I have no answers for them.

If it is not safe now, I don't think 8 weeks more for information from countries that will have largely been lockdown with schools closed will tell us anything to assist back to school. If we are waiting for a vaccine and/or herd immunity we've got another 18 months of this. My children will be irreversibly changed by then. Not for the better.

The global pandemic is killing thousands of over 60s. It is not killing thousands of healthy adults of working age.

Sweden have kept schools for the under 16s open throughout and only 1% of their deaths are in the under 70s.

I would not send my dad to a care home during the pandemic but would happily send my kids and myself to school

Yeah... everybody has a right to education, and everybody has a right to not be exposed to unnecessary dangers at work.

This government has made a shambled of easily combining the two.

Ha ha -right to education or not- do you actually think the Gov is opening schools because the right to Ed?
It’s because schools are needed for people in order to return To work. “Schools are child minders.“ People have built their lives around these childminders; a system that’s broke down and not functioning because of a global disaster.

One way of fixing this problem, is building more makeshift classrooms in the playgrounds and school fields (portacabins, marquees that they use for @exhibitions etc) have small group sizes and hire more teachers to deal with the extra groups. Have one group come am time and one pm time etc . This way children can safely social distance.

I'm not a teacher, I wfh in a job which is 10 hours a day and without saying too much it is basically a safeguarding role and at these times more vital than ever. I'm sure many people think wfh is great because we can take long lunches, pop the kettle on and do the laundry but that isn't true of my job. I rarely manage a lunch break! I simply do not have the time, or the knowledge myself to teach my kids who are all at different stages. I dont even KNOW half the stuff they are learning (I always have been shocking at Maths) so would need to spend hours studying & learning myself first. I have neither the time nor the brain power.

Dh is emergency services, he has been wfh too. 12 hour+ days. His role is vital to the emergency response of those in his trust/force. He has had 6 days off since the middle of march and even on those days off hes been on the phone frequently. It's now looking like he'll be going back into his place of work, this adds 2 hours of commute each way. 16+ hours out the house.........he cannot also teach our kids even though he's much smarter than me hahaha

Wfh parents can not, on the whole, be realistically expected to home school our kids. Furlough parents may well have more of a chance to do so, but again this isn't a given. The schools need to open up, and are open already in many countries.

1st june is still 3 weeks away, by then other countries will have been open for a month at least so I expect the government will be looking to them to see what's happened there. My sister lives abroad and her kids are all back at school. No ppe, desks are separated but not 2m apart and playtimes are staggered. She is amazed at our teachers responses (shes a teacher herself, teaching english language) as she says her and her colleagues were all eager to get back. They just dont have this same fear of the virus that the uk populace seem to. Everyone is washing their hands and being careful but she also said she won't refuse to hug a student if they need it (she teaches primary mostly).

I dont know what the answer is, there will be no magic wand to fix this situation and we still have classrooms of 30 kids to get back into school eventually. They cannot stay off forever. We dont freak out that some students arent measles vaccinated and that is an R15 whereas covid is 3. And measles is deadly, and has nasty side effects. We dont freak out about norovirus, again, can be deadly to the vulnerable (much like covid) and is also more contagious. In 2017/18 regular flu went on a killing spree as the vaccine was ineffective excess deaths in the winter months topped 50,000. We didnt freak out then either. All these things put teachers and other workers at risk too.

What saddens me is teachers now dont seem to see my children and the beautiful little kids they are, but rather walking germ bomb factories when the evidence doesn't support this at all

Why aren't you educating him at the moment? Because you can't be bothered to motivate him?

No

Because people aren’t trained, have to work full time jobs and have plenty on their hands already managing their child’s worries and anxieties.

Meanwhile the people PAID to fulfil that function are doing it to a very limited degree and appear to have little interest in improving that.

It's not about their right to an education, of course they have that right (& you know that)......this country have been doing that for hundreds of years. This is a strange, new and serious situation which is why children aren't at school, it's not like someone decided one day to close all the schools because they felt like it. Honestly the tripe I read on mumsnet since coronavirus rolls eyes

Our teacher does small group sessions a couple of times a week, sets work daily, answers questions and marks and returns it.

Must just be our local authority then. We had a (stroppy) email from the Primary Head last week saying basically stop asking, because we're not doing it. Ever. And a more polite one from the secondary school saying the same.

Doesn't change the fact that my kids are missing out, big style. And totally agree that for younger children, homeschooling only works if they have an adult around to help out. At present we have one adult working full time from home in the loft, the other (me) trying to work part time as per usual from the lounge while fielding demands for food, keeping up with all the usual cooking/cleaning and trying to supervise three children's work. It's shit.

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

That’s not quite true though. If I attended a school to do a talk to a class and did so whilst the teacher was in the room, I wouldn’t be required to have a DBS check. If a parent stumbles through the back of a camera whilst a teacher is teaching its the same situation.

I'm just gonna shout loudly OP:
Teachers, TAs, admin, canteen, cleaning staff etc have the right to a safe working environment that doesn't put their lives at risk.

Teachers and TAs should be allowed to wear PPE, children should wear masks and Perspex screens should be provided for canteen and office staff.

I am a TA. I will be performing intimate care in an enclosed, overcrowded environment where social distancing is not possible with no protection for me.

My life matters, I have 3 young children and a husband.

Staying alive is more important to me than anything else to be honest. This virus can kill. It can kill adults of any age including those with no underlying conditions.

I really really like my job and the school and the pupils but I love my children and my life and want adequate protection the same as everyone else is entitled to.

I am a teacher who's had covid19. My symptoms returned a few days ago after a few weeks. I now have no idea if I'm contagious or not. My dc 8 has had it too.
There's no firm evidence about this virus. I'm concerned about going back now I know that children can get poorly from it and seen how erratic the virus behaves. In fact, I feel more concerned now than I did whe week the schools shut.
In saying that, I want dc back In school, but not to the cost of health. You can deteriorate quick with this virus.

@LaurieMarlow That’s a massive generalisation, some schools may not be doing enough but loads are. Don’t project your own inability to cope with this onto everyone either, some are finding home education and working difficult but manageable.

OP there will be little to no learning going on in school in June or July. Children will not be allowed to play with their friends the way they used to. Children will not be allowed a hug from their teacher if they felt scared. Children will likely be in a different classroom than they are used to, possibly with a different teacher, they will need to wash their hands before play time, after play time, before lunch, after lunch, on arrival, before departure and between any other transition in school. With reception in particular this alone takes up a big portion of the day. This is not going to be a pleasant or beneficial time for children.

So educate him then?
Until measures can be put in place to safeguard against the spread of the virus as much as possible (and it’s not really about the kids health, it’s the health of the adults they live with and mingle with that’s the point), it’s down to you. My similar-age child isn’t keen either but we still learn.

@jennylouisaa Exactly.