To feel I can't cope with schools only going back part time in August?

[jbonsor]

Just that. I was coping OK with lockdown, and trying to keep positive about juggling kids and working from home til June, then take a few weeks holiday over the summer just to do things with the kids even if still restricted. This week I have received a letter from my son's nursery to say he has a space for the 2020-2021 school year but that due to covid 19 they can't confirm pattern of attendance, as in, they can't confirm if he will have the 30 hours he was having since August. I also have read a lot that primary school might be 2 days only a week or a very day but only morning or afternoon session.. This has really tipped me over the edge as I am dreading having to keep juggling all this for over a year. This really puts a strain in family life and finances because now we have to basically decide on one income only, and not onky that but I don't feel I am that good at home schooling and feel like my kids are going to fall behind. Sometimes I can't believe how everything fell apart so spectacularly and how is the Scottish government deciding this is the best course of action without any regard for the mountain of problems this will bring to a huge amount of families.

IT'S NOT ABOUT BLOODY CHILDCARE WHEN IT COMES TO SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN! IT'S ABOUT THEIR FUTURE!

You know, those people who need to go out and WORK to the best of their potential to PAY for all of this?!

THEY DON'T STOP BEING CHILDREN WHEN THEY ENTER SECONDARY SCHOOL!

disagree with the poster who said this is not like being evacuated. It does have similarities. Although our children are being isolated in family groups they still have been separated from close family and friends and school.

@Meercatmama You're absolutely wrong - there really is no comparison between children being forced to live with complete strangers for years with almost no contact with their parents and kids remaining with their parents and being able to talk to their grandparents/friends on the phone or via social media for a couple of months.

The ignorance of the impact of evacuation on this thread is breathtaking and offensive.

@highmarkingsnowbile I couldn't agree more you - this is destroying my child's already limited prospects and I'm becoming more pissed off by the day with the school's response. I'm spending all day helping her with her work and sadly I don't understand GCSE physics any more than she does. I can currently help because I'm furloughed but when I go back to work it will all fall apart.

@masonmason good god! ‘Not going to affect children’ wow. I’ve heard some things on MN but this is one of the craziest. Most children won’t go back to any friends or school until September. In September schools will look different. Most likely scarily different. For some kids, this will be their only experience of school! So many issues with kids right now of all ages. Do you even have school aged children during this pandemic? Yes it does matter. This is unprecedented so only those who have children or are looking after a child’s welfare will have the relevant experience on the impact this lockdown might have!

lakes it all especially effects those secondary pupils who are focusing on the sciences, applied sciences, engineering and maths. Who the hell designed the ventilators and made sure they worked? Who made an engine to propel a car, a chopper, an aircraft? A syringe driver? A defribillator? Now 'it's not going to effect you, you can use Bitesize?' That REALLY works on a 17-year-old in calculus, said no one ever. FFS. This is a farce with them paying the price and tbh, I'm not entirely sure they're going sit tight and pay it. I don't blame them.

disagree with the poster who said this is not like being evacuated. It does have similarities. Although our children are being isolated in family groups they still have been separated from close family and friends and school.

Oh, PLEASE! This isn't a war! This is a virus which a) isn't going anywhere and b) almost entirely doesn't kill them. And hello?! They're not all in primary school! They don't stop being children when they go to secondary school, where their FUTURE, including that all important earning potential, is in large part determined. Even the ones who go into vocational/trade school. You can't teach a person to be a spark, a plumber, a gas fitter, a lorry or bus driver, a phone/fibre optic engineer (you know, that internet you need to work from home?), a roofer, a mason, a joiner or builder without getting close to them. Hell, they can't even learn to drive just now! But you're alright, you've already got a license. How do you think they feel, really? Try to think about it a moment. Now you just shut up and put up because and well, later you better step up and pay up.

I’d imagine the STEM pupils who are going on to invent the next ventilator or syringe driver have a fairly good grasp of why the situation isn’t ideal but might be necessary.

And what about the ones defending the country? Let's socially distance on a warship or submarine, an Army barracks, SAS training, yeah, that's going to work. Or are they less than from teachers and other employees because, well, they chose the job.

I’d imagine the STEM pupils who are going on to invent the next ventilator or syringe driver have a fairly good grasp of why the situation isn’t ideal but might be necessary.

Oh, definitely! They're going to teach themselves engineering or do it online, just like all the Dr Googles out there. Especially when they're on UC and after we get kicked out of the EU and all those pesky worker's rights and environmental laws are out of the way and Jacob Rees-Mogg sets up a plant in their area and now, well, it's work and under UC, you have to take it. It'll all seem really necessary. Ever been around teens much? If you think adults are selfish, haahaa! They're already seeing this as SO necessary, really. Said no one ever.

Oh, yes, they are such altruistic thinkers, willing to sacrifice their careers for a virus that doesn't bloody kill them. That's a great MO to work off.

As for evacuation, plenty didn't let their kids go because they soon got wind about how a not insignificant number of them were treated. But hey, it's like the one poster said, let's go back to woman at home, being the good wifey.

The children who miss a bit of school will be fine, those who have lost a parent, grandparent, auntie, not so much. I remember in March the little girl who lost both parents to this horrible virus. So your son will miss a bit of nursery - so what? Mine is missing the lead up to big exams too without school - but they are all in the same boat.
People are dying and kids are grieving so pardon me for thinking that your angst over your son not getting as much nursery as you want is really not a big deal. Get over yourself op. YABU

@Meercatmama You're absolutely wrong - there really is no comparison between children being forced to live with complete strangers for years with almost no contact with their parents and kids remaining with their parents and being able to talk to their grandparents/friends on the phone or via social media for a couple of months

The ignorance of the impact of evacuation on this thread is breathtaking and offensive

This is so true, my mum is 88 and still has vivid memories of every detail and is still angry over the years of abuse. She's shielding here with me now, with her grandchildren around her, loved safe and happy. There is no comparison with evacuation.

The children who miss a bit of school will be fine, those who have lost a parent, grandparent, auntie, not so much

My mum lost her dad as a kid. Still managed to pass the 11 plus despite having the stigma of dead immigrant father and a widowed working mother. Education is massively important. Had she missed months of schooling, I doubt that would have happened.

I'm both grieving (my adored grandmother, died in march, couldn't go to the funeral and haven't been able to support my mum other than over the phone) and pissed off about part time schooling.

My mum lost her dad as a kid. Still managed to pass the 11 plus despite having the stigma of dead immigrant father and a widowed working mother. Education is massively important. Had she missed months of schooling, I doubt that would have happened

Well I guess you have very different priorities to us. In our family having both parents alive is more important than the bloody 11+ !!!
Are you seriously suggesting that losing a parent has a less negative effect long term than loosing a few months schooling? Because that's how your post reads and to me its just weird!

Because that's how your post reads and to me its just weird!

I agree with ^^. But tbh I end up shaking my head frequently these days when I read MN especially posts concerning CV19. I put it down to not being from the UK (and very glad of that).

Waxonwaxoff0
Yes, women, because it will likely be women having to give up their jobs because of this.

^This^

Women will be set back by about 60 years, in a million different ways.
It will be death by a 1000 cuts for women.

Loosing 'a few months' schooling. Out of school since March and then 'blended learning' for 'the foreseeable future'. So not just 'a few months schooling'.

My daughter's elder sister died, then we experienced extreme financial problems as a result of her sister's illness, then her brother was diagnosed with high functioning autism. Her own dyslexia was acknowledged but no diagnosis. Her brother's ADHD went undiagnosed, too, so when he hit puberty he also developed OCD and became so acutely ill the neighbours called the police. Social workers, doctors, ultimately because they all wrung their hands it resulted in her brother's having to live with my family abroad and attend boarding school there.

Now this. The girl is nearly 15, lost a sister, lived in several places changing schools due to that loss, then saw her brother go off the rails, then separated from her brother, now this. It's not 'just a few months schooling'. It's vital education. She's missing out on vital education. For what? A virus that has a 1 in 4 million chance of killing her and which a great many adults survive, indeed, about half of them will never even know they had it.

That's acceptable? I don't believe so. So, she, too, will likely face another change and have to leave the country to continue education because this blended learning shit doesn't see to her needs. Thanks, Nicola. Lost 2 more young people whilst political point scoring. Way to go!

Scotland’s education system is already on its knees.

In fact this whole debacle has conveniently delayed the secondary education review that was due in Feb (and reportedly scathing) and it will now come out in July (AFTER the Holyrood elections).

That works out rather neatly for the SNP.

Christ, everyone, CALM DOWN. Yes, it will affect children but it isn't going to be catastrophic. They will catch up with schooling, the world will go back to normal. I don't even think it is even being mooted that children won't go back full time in September. Why worry about something that isn't on the cards yet? I genuinely don't get why everyone is working themselves into a frenzied panic.

@ElizabethG81

Kids life chances could be ruined, especially those who rely on school Asan escape from poor home lives, with no teacher to encourage learning they are falling behind their peers. When I homeschooled my kids they shot ahead, but not everyone can do it (we are university educated and could afford the resources to do it) some schools are barely setting work. Thankfully my DD's are at university, but dd1 has lost her Sen support so life isnt easy

I don't even think it is even being mooted that children won't go back full time in September. Why worry about something that isn't on the cards yet?

This is about Scotland where it is the plan that they all go back part-time.

@StepAwayFromGoogle the thread is about Scottish schools which are going back part time from August 11th. I am quite CALM about how my child will cope but I'm not calm about how my DH and I who both work full time will manage if no wraparound care is available.