Sorry to ask another school one but slightly different

[Blackdog19]

If my primary aged dc went back to school in June/July) but my y7 nt dc didn’t, would you be happy leaving the y7 at home all day to go to work? (I can work from home). I’d be happy leaving them for a few hours but all day seems way too much.

I would, but I'd hope to negotiate a couple of days working from home. I think 3 days home alone is enough for a Y7.

All day would seem too much to me as an ongoing thing, sensible eleven year old as a one off yes, for a few hours a day yes, but I think apart from anything else they'd be incredibly lonely even if you only work 9-5 that's eight hours plus commute alone.

I wouldn't, but my year 7 DS would be lonely. Would it be 5 days a week? If not then maybe, but I wouldn't leave mine all day 5 days a week no.
Would your employer have an issue with you continuing to work from home?

No. I think they're too young. I would definitely work from home since you can

I wouldn't be happy about it, no. If you can work from home, what are your reasons for not planning to do that? (I don't mean to sound judgemental with that one, but I struggled to write it in a way that didn't sound accusing.)

I think it depends on how many days a week because when your younger children go back to primary school they wont be there all day every day if the school has to follow the current guidelines (15 to a classrom) because they simply wont fit.
So say your children go back for 2-3 days a week you could work outside the home and leave the child on these days and then wfh on the other days.

I think I was asking for other perspectives/expectations. I think 7 hours a day is to long to be left alone despite my dc being sensible, they would be too lonely. And they’d rush schoolwork to get back to PlayStation! To be fair, nothing has been said yet about anyone going back to office, so may be a moot point.

My kids stayed at home all day during every holidays when they were in y7 as I worked ft with a commute. They loved it and never caused problem. Where I live, there are no holiday clubs at all for secondary school kids anyway.

When you say it's too much, do you mean in them being bored or I creasing the risk of putting themselves in danger?

Can you do some days from home? At my workplace that’s impossible. Either all the time at home or all the time in the office.

I wouldn't do it if I could WFH. I would consider using the flexibility to be able to go into work for a couple of short days each week, though. Varying start/finish times and working from home as much as possible are going to be important in continuing social distancing in the medium term.

I have a Y7 boy who I could leave, but I'd rather not tbh. He's sensible and wouldn't do anything stupid, but he'd be lonely and bored after a couple of hours on his own and I don't think I'd be comfortable leaving him every day or even three days a week. If I could WFH, I definitely would.

I’ll be back in school on June 1st and my year 7 will be home alone. Our area will only take key worker children up to year 6.

Tillyfloss,

Current government guidance ( and I say current because it changes from day to day!) is that there will be no part time schooling or rotation of children. At the moment schools are expected to take all R/1/6 children in full time.

I wish the voting sounded less harsh, I’ve YABU, but you’re not being (unreasonable), to question and think. However, a sensible year 7, call them during the day. Write out a timetable, have a safety plan, (don’t answer the door, emergency number, location of keys etc.), sort out food. Check they are ok with it. Try it then review it. The first time they are by themselves, make the time shorter, build up.

If you have healthy relatives nearby that are willing to help I'd drop the older DC off there.

@spanieleyes

Yes I think schools could manage to take on r, y1 and y6 full time at the moment. But the government wants all primary schools children back before summer for a few weeks, this will be when a rota is put in place. Because then they definitely wont be able to fit in and even if all schools staff were in there would not be enough people to cover this (even if us TAs took classes by ourselves).

So we are in the position of setting up full time provision for R1/6 for a couple of weeks to allow parents to return to work and then potentially having to revert to part time provision to allow more year groups in- what happens to working parents then! In effect we will be back to 32 a class and hope nothing goes wrong!

I wouldn't, and in fact our secondary school sent out advice at the start of lockdown saying that Y7 would be prioritised for attending school if parents worked as they shouldn't be left alone all day for a whole shift.

I personally wouldn't. But I think that y7 is still incredibly young and immature on the whole. Plus given the last 2 months, it's probably hampered their independence.

@spanieleyes yeah seems that way. If all children come back on a full timetable then yes full classes would have to happen.
But so much can change between now and then you never know, like you said government advices changes all the time. I'm just trying to go with the flow and follow what our head says but its such a stressful time for all involved

I have a Y7 and a very similar scenario. He's an only child and I don't think it's acceptable to leave him at home every day by himself. He's too young and it would be bad for him mentally I think. Some mornings - fine. Not full days across the week.

@Blackdog19 - you have accumulated holidays while WFH / furlough, I'd use some of this wih a combination of unpaid leave to do half days. Or if holidays are calculated in hours you can do 5 hours instead of 7. That's why I will have to do.