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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Our children have the right to an education.

999 replies

NameChange738676756 · 13/05/2020 05:41

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
LemonPudding · 13/05/2020 08:29

Abuse? Nice. Reported.

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 13/05/2020 08:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Drivingdownthe101 · 13/05/2020 08:30

Abuse? I posted above you to say that people saying things like that were making me close to suicidal. Then you said it again.
No compassion for anything whose circumstances are different to yours.
If my post is deleted, I 100% stand by what I said.

Notonthestairs · 13/05/2020 08:31

"I don't see why teachers think they are special compared to nurses, or doctors, or dentists, or people working in shops."

PPE. Screens. Electronic payment only. In hospital hand washing facilities are everywhere. Mixing with self aware adults. And I don't how many dentists appointments you've had recently but my dentist is still closed.

And I'm somebody who is v keen to get kids back in to school - and I can see the difference!

FirTree31 · 13/05/2020 08:32

OP there will be little to no learning going on in school in June or July

I keep seeing this, Excuse my ignorance, but why won't children be educated upon their return? I understand classrooms will be spilt up and teachers will be covering these, but what are the children expected to be doing? Activities, educational activities?

LemonPudding · 13/05/2020 08:32

I was replying to the original post. I hadn't even read yours. A lot of people just address the original post - did you not consider that?

Iwalkinmyclothing · 13/05/2020 08:32

Voting is at 48/52 right now, the cursed numbers.

I agree with you, OP. And I will be really interested in how schools react in the future to parents taking term time holidays and trips and so on, because the old "no, if Johnny misses these four crucial days of Year 3 next week his education will be blighted and never recover" shtick is going to be really bloody hard to defend after this!

Abbccc · 13/05/2020 08:32

Yes, but legally you are responsible for making sure your child gets an education.

Drivingdownthe101 · 13/05/2020 08:34

All I considered LemonPudding is that you haven’t got an ounce of compassion.

LaurieMarlow · 13/05/2020 08:34

Education starts at home love.

Yet teachers are still on full pay to fulfill this function.

But it’s actually the parents job now?

How does that work? Confused

PineappleDanish · 13/05/2020 08:34

Actually @LemonPudding, you deserved the abuse for your smugness. If you read the thread you'll see there are DOZENS of reasons why people are struggling enormously with home learning. In senior school especially you cannot replicate the interior of a science lab, drama classroom or D&T department in the kitchen. Even if you have parents who aren't working as usual trying to pay the bills.

Your little passive aggressive dig of "if your child isn't learning then it's your fault. All the resources are out there" is totally uncalled for.

Daffodil101 · 13/05/2020 08:35

Yes to personal and informed choice.

Also, what’s not being discussed is that, if schools remain closed indefinitely, working parents will start asking for unpaid parental leave because they can’t do their jobs and looking after their kids. I’m hearing a bit of this amongst my friends. One is a GP, one a pharmacist in a hospital. For example.

Once other professions currently working stop being able to work, we may have a problem.

LaurieMarlow · 13/05/2020 08:35

I agree with you, OP. And I will be really interested in how schools react in the future to parents taking term time holidays and trips and so on, because the old "no, if Johnny misses these four crucial days of Year 3 next week his education will be blighted and never recover" shtick is going to be really bloody hard to defend after this!

Absolutely this

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 13/05/2020 08:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nuitdesetoiles · 13/05/2020 08:36

@Biscuit0110 every word of your post so bloody true.

I re registered as a mental health professional this April, 21 years in. Throughout those 21 years I've been at risk. Threatened, spat at, insulted, bullied, only last week I was cyber stalked. I remember one occasion in a childrens home (those residential care workers working with the nation's most vulnerable kids going in too by the way those of you screeching unsafe), I had a table thrown at me, luckily I sensed the kid might be aggressive had positioned myself near the door and got out. Also multiple exposures to umpteen germs over the years...mental health wards far from sanitary!

Why do I do it? It's my job, my registration and my profession. It's what I'm paid to do. So, despite this virus most of us key workers are still cracking on.

LaurieMarlow · 13/05/2020 08:36

Once other professions currently working stop being able to work, we may have a problem.

Many are already hugely struggling

Rosebel · 13/05/2020 08:36

I'm a bit tired of teachers have the right to work safely but no-one else does..I wasn't given or even allowed to wear PPE when I was still working in retail. No one suggested we stopped working. We were supposed to suck it up and carry on. Probably at far more risk due to the amount of people. There are no screens and no equipment for floor staff.
Having said that children shouldn't be going back. Thing is I do think the staff should get PPE but not why teachers should be a priority. It's not just the children at risk, what about staff and parents? Why would you put 6 weeks of education (which won't be proper education anyway) before your child's health? You are,the parent,set boundaries so he does the work or don't. But education isn't just down to school, it's supposed to be a joint effort anyway.

Noconceptofnormal · 13/05/2020 08:37

I've read a few of these threads and it's always roughly 50 / 50 about who wants schools to open and who doesn't. If that split plays out in real life I wonder whether it's better to let those that wabt to return to school to get on with it and for those who want to continue cowering in their homes to do so.

And no, teachers are not covering themselves in glory here. Imagine if people who work for the NHS or other jet workers just said no we're not going to work,the country would have come to a stand still.

CoronaIsComing · 13/05/2020 08:37

Educate him then. There’s so much content online that he can access if the work that school have set isn’t interesting him. DS is in year 6 and is working his way through the Oak Academy year 7 work so that he’s more prepared for the level of work that will be taught at his Grammar School next term. For me, this is much more useful than doing a play and sports every afternoon.

Sockwomble · 13/05/2020 08:37

"If your child isn't learning then it's your fault. All the resources are out there."

If that your is a general your than that isn't true. There are plenty of children out there who need specialist support and at the moment will not be accessing it. These are the childen who should be the priority to get back to school (rather than random age groups).

Candyfloss99 · 13/05/2020 08:38

Maybe it’s time for adults to take responsibility for the children they decided to create instead of them always being someone else’s problem.

Yes this. It's like some people just decided to have children to keep teachers in a job, how kind of them.

LemonPudding · 13/05/2020 08:38

Still not sure (abuse aside) why people think that teachers should work in unsafe conditions because they are having problems home -schooling.

I'm sick of the abuse teachers are getting on MN. Not smug, just pissed off that people expect teachers to just go back into schools when it isn't safe.

LemonPudding · 13/05/2020 08:40

@Sockwomble

If that your is a general your than that isn't true.

I've already said once that I was addressing the original post.

Smellbellina · 13/05/2020 08:41

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

You can’t get your own child to do anything, feel it’s someone else’s responsibility and want to absolve yourself of any responsibility you mean.

The amount of parents who don’t recognise their own child and like to blame their teachers for the fact they are lazy and not very clever. Now they’re at home and it’s still the teachers fault!