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.

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

More like less than 1%.

I've found out a private school in Glasgow (Hutcheson's) plan on starting back on 11th August full time. I presume this is because class sizes are already small and they can spread the children out more.
So the attainment gap widens even further!

Surprise, surprise! TOTALLY disgusted with the Scottish government on this. Just beyond. And again, this harms secondary school pupils.

I'm totally with you OP. YANBU. Hope things get sorted out soon.

We are fucked at the moment quite frankly. My children’s nursery isn’t opening in June and has not set a date when they are going to open. We are stressed managing work and the eldest needs some nursery and social interaction otherwise she’ll start school having had 6 months of no contact with other children and then go into part time sodding about so no certainty of childcare then either (and questions over wrap around care). We just don’t know what to do. I can safely say, the impact of me (and it will be me) having to hand in my notice because of childcare will have a far greater impact on my children than Covid is likely to have.

As we know though, it’s ok to break the rules if you’re doing it for your kids so I am on the brink of saying sod it all to make sure my child has some chance to play.

And again, this harms secondary school pupils.

Yep. For parents of high school children it’s less about childcare and much more about how the hell parents are expected to help teach national, higher and advanced higher exams! It’s totally ridiculous. As I said upthread I got an A in higher maths and English myself, I’m well educated, but I left school 30 years ago and I am not a teacher! My son wants to study medicine, he needs straight As and the education that will help him do this.

And it’s not yet clear how they’ll shit over ASN children, they’ll be thrown to the dogs and left to founder again.

I received a nice email from my child’s chain private nursery the other day, all bright cheerful and reassuring about re-opening. With the added, “except Scotland we are waiting for clarity as to when and how we can re-open.”

We have to leave the country, Sudoku, or literally throw 14-year-old dyslexic DD's education under the proverbial bus. As it was, my son has had to leave, too, due their utterly failing him (he has HFA, ADHD and OCD) and that was before shit shower of shite. Fucking livid. This is a beautiful place to live, if you're rich. Everyone else can get knotted.

And it’s not yet clear how they’ll shit over ASN children, they’ll be thrown to the dogs and left to founder again.

100%.

@Sweetpotatoaddict that’s good to hear... although not so good re Scotland (private nursery part of an English owned chain so I’m hoping they will follow the English guidelines).

Christ, our education system in Scotland was world leading once upon a time.

We’re still waiting for a letter to tell us what’s happening with nurseries come August, which was due in early May. Radio silence since the ‘30 free hours are cancelled’ bombshell.

Yep. For parents of high school children it’s less about childcare and much more about how the hell parents are expected to help teach national, higher and advanced higher exams!

Exactly this. DH and I are well educated too - we both have degrees and I'm starting a Masters in the autumn. But I did subjects like Geography and languages, DH did Economics, Maths and History. Oldest child is doing Biology, Chemistry and Engineering science in s6. We haven't a clue. And we certainly don't have any of the science lab stuff.

Off to a great start too - Advanced Higher Chemistry has given out a workbook for the first unit, DS is totally lost and says it's more "physics than chemistry". This is an able student who was predicted an A at higher. His similarly able friend doesn't get it either. The teacher they had for Higher is on maternity leave. They have sent messages to school - no response.

Quote from DS "I;m sure if i was in class and there was a teacher talking me through it, I'd get it. But it's so HARD".

Not going to work, is it?

The government are just not interested, they have shown time and time again that education/ young people are not a priority. Skate parks, playgrounds and bmx areas will remain closed when golf courses and lawn bowls can reopen, a clear indicator of the governments priority demographic. We ditched online learning yesterday, have just had a look at what we missed grand total of ten minutes of actual work. Some arts and crafts involving a split paper fastener and a wooden clothes peg, a few YouTube clips totalling 15 minutes. And an online reading book which appears to be the activity book accompanying a series of reading books . I get that this is a new way of working However it is impossible to engage my 5 year old with it, plus it all involves so much parental input. There is rarely a sit them down with a worksheet type activity! The thought of continuing in this way fills me with dread. It would be so much easier to engage with if the teacher recorded lessons, instead of having to be ready to foil my devious ds who changes to YouTube at the first opportunity. Don’t get me wrong I expect to have to engage with his learning and support him, but with working, ensuring the house is running and entertaining a younger dc it’s nearly impossible.
I saw that they thought that the R0 could be close to 1 when the schools go back, which is why they have suggested that social distancing will commence in schools and schools will be part-time. As long as the R0 does not rise above 1 there is no problem, I’ll be interested to see what NS says it is on Thursday. The numbers they have reported are reducing significantly, so either there is a huge failing in testing or the R0 is falling. If it has fallen getting young people back into education must be a priority so hopefully easing restrictions will be done in a way to prioritise schools return.

They are treating us like children with this R number stuff as well. If the disaster in care homes is what’s keeping it higher we should also be told what it is in the community

@trump is there anyway you can share your template to contact the MP on this thread? A few people have been asking for it and it would help me too. I am so concerned I actually raised thr question in the mum's chat but no one seems to be bothered this is happening. I guess I am the only terrible mum there ha!

@sitting so everyone that has a child should only work part time?? How would we ever afford to oay for other people's benefits, and services like education and health, plus pensions, if you reduce the workforce in half

I sympathise completely. Whether single with children or in a relationship with children, it's very difficult at the best of times juggling everything.

But, I think we need to get perspective and realise that we can't fight this situation or expect things to be exactly as they were. Families need to sit down together, reassess and make some decisions - were there are two able-bodied parents, together or not, both should think equally about the issues. It should not all be down to you.

As for preschool children being impacted educationally, that's not really true because, they still get some and preschool children have not always had 30 hours a week. In some countries, children don't start their education until they are 7. My youngest is 11 and she had 3 free afternoons per week at preschool then I popped out of work and took her to nursery if needed. For my other two, there was no free, so I paid £900 a month childcare for them. That was in the early 2000's, for 3 days each. I worked and earned £1200 - it was a huge amount of work for £300 a month.

Anyway, so my point is, things keep changing and we need to keep adapting. Having children is very difficult when you work. But, the country is bust due to the approach taken in relation to this virus, so I wouldn't be surprised if more changes are to come. Also, a lot of families have lost a main provider or main carer, or some have lot their jobs. But we can't fight it. We have to accept and work with what is being offered now.

In terms of primary (and younger) aged children I imagine this is where the rift between those who have grandparent/family care provision and those who don’t will widen significantly. Workplaces are unlikely to remain understanding or tolerant of parents WFH with little ones running around as they’re still paying employees to do a job they simply aren’t focused on. (Totally shit though as the parents will have no other options and it will force one to either SAHP or work PT around reduced school and nursery hours).

In terms of secondary school it’s unfortunately going the disadvantage this generation. It just is there’s no way around it. Whilst it’s very unfair most teachers would argue that a child’s education isn’t worth their lives. Lack of adaptation to online teaching is the biggest problem, I don’t blame schools or teachers for not wanting personal interaction but there’s no excuse for not making exceptional use of the technology available. Again this is where a huge rift between teens from privileged households (help/encourage them as much as possible and have access to internet and laptops/tablets) and under privileged households widens substantially. It isn’t fair and it will not be at all fair that’s just the way it is.

Parents of small children who have no reliable family help and teens from underprivileged home settings will have it the worst

I have just written to my msp asking how the government expect parents (lone parent in my case) to work out of the home, fed up of everyone assuming we can all work from home, whilst simultaneously caring for and educating our children. And since lone parent households account for a quarter of all households with children and 90% of those are women this will disproportionately affect women. I've asked him to raise this as a matter of urgency in the Scottish Parliament who are I believe having weekly sittings.

I think some solutions to the issue might be a regional approach, so that areas with low transmission dont have to be part time. Some children should be exempt - they need to define criteria for this. Obviously increasing teachers and teaching space would also work but that seems much harder to achieve! I don't think it should fall to parents giving up work. That's crazy.

We’re still waiting for a letter to tell us what’s happening with nurseries come August, which was due in early May. Radio silence since the ‘30 free hours are cancelled’ bombshell.

I'm on the committee of our local preschool. We're having a zoom meeting next week to discuss information from the local LA and Government so it sounds like it's either out or due to be out very soon. We've been in the pilot for the 30 hours, so will be interesting to see whether that continues or goes back to 15. Although ds is starting school and dd isn't 3 until next year so not relevant to us.

But we can't fight it. We have to accept and work with what is being offered now.

I disagree. The stakes are too high for those on the margins. My kids will be fine but I've worked with vulnerable children and I've been a vulnerable child who needed school to escape my mother. It's far more complex than trying to shoehorn everyone into a blended approach for up to year if the newspaper I glanced at earlier is correct. Giving laptops to some of the teens in chaotic families I've worked with won't help unless they have somewhere safe to keep it/go to study. It's a band aid to stem a bleeding artery and for a country which prides itself on inclusivity it's not good enough.

However it is impossible to engage my 5 year old with it, plus it all involves so much parental input.

My ds is 5 and a YouTube fanatic too. Based on what they've posted for his transition stuff, wanting them to trace lines on the tablet rather than printing out and using a pencil etc which is a very different skill, for the at home stuff I'm going to do what I want I think. I suspect it will be a lot less hassle to make my own activities including items he can work through by himself than try and supervise the clearly thrown together stuff seen so far whilst doing my own studies, keeping them away from dh working from home and occupying a 2 year old.

The stakes are too high for those on the margins. My kids will be fine but I've worked with vulnerable children and I've been a vulnerable child who needed school to escape my mother. It's far more complex than trying to shoehorn everyone into a blended approach for up to year if the newspaper I glanced at earlier is correct. Giving laptops to some of the teens in chaotic families I've worked with won't help unless they have somewhere safe to keep it/go to study. It's a band aid to stem a bleeding artery and for a country which prides itself on inclusivity it's not good enough

@dinosaur this x a million. Especially your last sentence. But then they didn’t give two fucks about all the ASN units and schools getting shut down while they spent a fortune on the Commonwealth Games.

People need to put their efforts into changing employment conditions instead of just an earlier return to school date

Great. Childbearing women will always be at the back of the line, then. Not that you care. We all know that state-run education is done the way it is to enable parents, especially women, to work during their prime years. It’s of societal benefit

@jbonsor honestly my email to my MSP is not worth sharing. I should have spent more time writing a huge long email and perhaps referenced some scientific studies but I just wanted it done so wrote it really quickly. I used my own circumstances as an example (I work in a hospital so can't work from home and I do a specialised job so can't reduce my hours or else patient care will suffer) The SNP has said childcare for key workers will continue until July so I have no idea what will happen after that.
To be fair his office manager emailed me back straight away and said she would let me know once details emerge, but no reply from my MSP yet.

We all know that state-run education is done the way it is to enable parents, especially women, to work during their prime years.

The thing is, education is being done the way it is at the moment not because anyone has a grudge against working women, but because there is a global pandemic and we have managed infection control very poorly so have a very high number of infections and deaths.

Schools, if running at full capacity, are a hotbed of virus transmission, and therefore can't run as normal. No country has complete, unfettered, full time for all pupils return to school combined with low virus transmission in the community at the moment.

Therefore, either schools have to be closed completely OR only open for reduced numbers of pupils to allow distancing between them - that's not to protect children, or teachers particularly, but the whole school community of parents and grandparents and vulnerable children, and relatives who work in care homes etc.

Saying that schools ought to be fully open because of parents needing to work is wishful thinking in many ways - we all want school to be open, we all want it to be full time and full numbers and all the rest of it, but if we do that then we risk a huge explosion in virus transfer and associated illness and death in the community OR a return to full lockdown.

It's a hideous choice.

Glasgow city council are planning half kids in Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday school closed for cleaning, then the other half in Thursday and Friday.
That’s some cleaning regime planned, could they not clean overnight?