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.

I can’t remember if I said this or not sorry if I did but I would really love someone to take a judicial review against the Scottish government for this absolute nonsense.

@Sittingontheveranda

Wow, what about those people who live in areas where there is a shocking lack of affordable housing, where even modest homes cost a fortune and the rental market is shocking. Some parents have to work to be able to afford a home you know and there is no option to downsize!

Also, employers do set limits for how part-time you can actually be. The NHS is one of these employers I believe ... not all requests can be accommodated.

I had a reply from my MSP stating his understanding was that care for key workers would continue, he didn’t elaborate so I’m a little more hopeful.

To the poster who used the scenario of nhs and a DH who works away. This is our scenario, I already work on flexible working and cannot work any more flexibly due to my job in the community and the tasks I carry out, they can only be done between the hours of 9-3 (phlebotomy etc.) mon to fri.

We have a childminder for holidays, she had 3 young kids herself so will probably be reluctant to have her mindees and try and home school her own kids but who knows? Not to mention the ongoing cost, it’s already expensive during the holidays to have 2 in but we budget for that, 2 or 3 extra days every week would be crippling

To the poster who said about not forcing women back to work as soon as possible after birth, that wasn’t the case with me. I chose to go back to work and factored in caring costs, the job I do requires a lot of skills which would be out of date if I’d waited till they all went to school and would have found it more difficult to get back into my job and also for my own benefit

Oh and it’s funny how some posters says school isn’t childcare? Tell the government that when they are forcing people to find jobs once their kids are at school to continue claiming benefits and even earlier now if on UC, so clearly the government see it as a form of childcare

And again, it's STILL going on 'Education is not childcare so suck it up' completely ignoring that for secondary school pupils, education is just that and they won't be getting it under this 'blended learning' crock of shit.

If that means downsizing, so be it.

As is this. 'Just' downsize. Renters, find another landlord who will rent you a too-small place as you need to 'downsize' and pay all the fees with your decreased income. Sellers, the market must be booming in all this! Sure you can easily sell your home and buy another one all so the government can skive out of its legal compulsion to offer FT education .

Parents have to adapt but employers have to allow flexibility.

No, employers don't. It's not their job to enable peoples' reproductive choices nor is it the job of employees who don't have children. That's discriminatory. We're all looking at massive unemployment and recession. People are going to have to be more flexible to keep the wolf from the door, not expect to skive off working part-time to take over a job they're unqualified to do, educate their children formally.

All for panic and over-reaction to a virus that kills less than 4% of those who contract it.

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but I believe part time learning is a greater risk to my sons future than covid 19 has ever been

@frasersmummy I totally agree and don't even think its especially controversial to say so. Virtually everything is a greater risk to children than COVID19, there have been a grand total of 3 children under 15 in the UK who have died from it, and none in Scotland.

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but I believe part time learning is a greater risk to my sons future than covid 19 has ever been

The risk via schools is not to the students. because social distancing and infection control is impossible in fully-attended schools, the risk is that schools provide ideal 'virus transmission routes' within the whole community. Not only to staff (who are at risk simply because of the time they spend in a single room with limited ventilation with particular pupils, who may be asymptomatic carriers), but also to every adult in every household where a child attends the school.

A full school will be the route by which virus from asympromatic adult carrier A gets to diabetic parent B and nursing home carer C, and this on to a whole group of vulnerable adults in the nursing home.

Schools are not being kept closed / very slowly eased out of lockdown because of direct danger to pupils. It is the indirect danger they pose, through the uncontrolled / imperfectly controlled virus transmission environments within them, to the whole community that is the problem.

I understand perfectly the risks of transmission to the community through schools but I think the impact on parents has been minimised through this and there is often a disproportionate effect on women.

So - I simplify but where is the help for working parents? Where is the financial support to allow us to temporarily reduce our hours in acknowledgement we will be home schooling? I have come to the conclusion we are just expected to get on It doesn't matter about our mental health.

I think it is completely reasonable to ask those questions. I apologise that my reply was based solely on 'why can't schools just open as normal?' (most people's solution when they see part time schooling as unreasonable).

It seems to me that there should be a plan [and at least in Scotland you HAVE a plan] that says: IF schools cannot return full time for THEN what should we do, not only about the education for children but also about the difficulties it poses to parents who have to educate and be present for children at home during hours they would normally be at school?

I've just seen a video from a local school about what social distancing would actually mean in school. Bearing in mind this is for infant children. It's horrendous. My child would have been petrified of going to school like that. Either school resumes as normally as possible and we take our chances or not at all. If schools can't open properly help should be available.
It's awful what is happening. And yes it does affect women more.

But @Sootybear isn’t that why social distancing isn’t being required for early years and younger primary children? Or is it different in Scotland?

Our email from our nursery today (youngest going back on Monday) was really positive and reassuring.

@JassyRadlett maybe it is different in Scotland, and I really hope so, but the video I saw from a local primary school was awful. Maybe they were trying to reassure parents that they were practising social distancing, but for me it was worse than letting children be children. Sorry I didn't want to worry anyone but that's what was shown.

Sootybear,

For primary schools, 'bubbles' of up to 15 children are being used for infection control, rather than social distancing. The guidance actually states that social distancing is impossible for young children, so bubbles are being used instead.

Understandably, though, heads have also wanted to implement social distancing as much as possible, because there is no other infection control available for the adults within each bubble. The guidance does state that trying to maintain distance (not strict 2m social distancing but everyday approaches to increase distance) is sensible.

Most heads have found a pragmatic route through the guidance - removal of soft furnishings, reasonable steps to move desks apart and not have carpet groups etc, washing routines for toys, lots of time outside - but it has been interpreted differently in different settings. The videos that I have seen have tended to be from the 'more extreme' end, and do - IMO - seem to come with a subtext .

Are Secondaries going to be part time In September? (England )

Feellike - who knows? There won't be any information about that for months yet.

Guidance for bringing Y10 and Y12 back in for some 'face to face' time was only issued 6.5 days before it was originally announced to be happening, and 24 hours after it was announced to be being deferred for 2 weeks. Schools (and to a great extent the Department for Education) knew nothing about Johnson's original 10th May announcement that it was even a possibility until he made his speech...

Given that, I would expect no information on return in September until early / mid August.

Sorry, that was unclear.

Original documentation suggested that y10 & 12 would be returning for some 'face to face time' from 1st June.

Guidance on this was finally issued on 25th May.

Deferral of the start date for these arrangements to15th June was announced on 24th may, as a throwaway line in a press conference mainly about Mr Cummings.

Honestly, NS announcing part time / blended learning with proper time to prepare for it and a fixed start date? I'd bite your hand off for that.....

In Scotland, the suggestion from the bbc Is that social distancing will be in place for all childrem returning in August, and they will be back part time,

@cantkeepawayforever thank you for your post. I did know about the bubble, and yes that is a much better solution, in fact similar to what we would do at work. The video just really upset me.

For England, the guidance is here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-primary-schools

However, there have been, IIRC, over 40 pieces of guidance / amended pieces of guidance for heads to take on since the 10th May announcement, so it is quite understandable that different schools have reached different conclusions in such a fast-moving landscape.

The Scottish government have published the scientific advice surrounding the opening of schools here

The advice makes a point of saying that the educational impact of the school closures, health inequalities etc. was not considered, and notes that the modelling available shows smaller predicted impacts the younger the children. It's not clear why all schools are therefore being treated as one block. There was apparently a split in opinion, with some members thinking it might be OK to open schools in full, but the majority thinking it would be safer not to (the ratio of the split isn't shown). The sticking point seems to be that the data showing children don't spread the virus is still weak, although at least they acknowledge that this is what the data show to date and that there is no evidence that children spread it more than adults. The data presented in the annex shows a predicted R with a August 13th opening of below 1 (even the upper limit of the range), but notes that if other things are relaxed at the same time it might push R above 1 overall.

The opening in England over the coming weeks will provide data that should hopefully inform (fingers crossed not too frighteningly) Scotland's next steps.

There are always educational differences. parent’s standard of education, hone tuition, tutors, grinds, private education, parent’s standard of education, extra curriculum activities, travel abroad, sports, ski-ing, amenities in the local area.

The state should be trying to minimise how these factors lead to inequalities in education. Not make them worse.

The sticking point seems to be that the data showing children don't spread the virus is still weak

Data about children spreading the virus - or not - is weak either way due to lockdown. The children going back in June are, in a very real sense of the word, guinea pigs - and the very weakness of control of virus transmission in schools that is so worrying to those of us who are older primary teachers is a benefit in terms of robust data collection....

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but I believe part time learning is a greater risk to my sons future than covid 19 has ever been

Not at all controversial.