BogRollBOGOF
I completely disagree. Children are missing hugely on their social life and friendship, and all the fun parts of a school day, as well as most of their sporting activities.
Most schools send enough work, and there are enough resources online that there's enough to educate them from home. Most kids would be lost in a class of 30+ children! Let's be realistic on what state schools actually offer shall we.
The social aspect and everything else, that is missing badly. For adults too!
My autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic 9 yo needs that socialisation of school to learn. He looks at a worksheet, has a panic attack and melts down. I can fill his head with facts from documentaries, but in some parts of the curriculum he is behind, like still struggling to remember how to write his name accurately behind. He needs the role modelling of his peers to copy, to bounce ideas off. He masks his way through a school day to function and I get the fall out at home. A school day is not easy for him, but it is important experience in how to function in society and I cannot replicate that at home.
Unfortunately for him, the rest of his life will not be spent on the sofa watching the Smithsonian Channel and playing Minecraft, he needs to remember how to function in a busy world full of sensory input and the longer he is off school, the harder it will be to reintegrate into society. He hasn't got the social skills to handle talking to his friends on the phone or on Zoom and he can't manually process the non-verbal cues in that way.
Nursery was criticical for him as it was the main place where he got his SALT input. I modelled appropriately at home, but he had to manually learn to interact with children of his own age group, something that still isn't easy today. His key worker was brilliant at creating play situations to teach him how to construct a sentence, something that I have no expertise in other than positively modelling language which was not enough. When he was discharged in y1, the therapist was astounded by his progress, largely due to the input through school and nursery.
The early years are vital at closing potential gaps in a child's background be it from SEN, socio-economic status or experience of some kind of trauma.
The toll of schools being off is far greater across the school populayion than the risks of Covid 19. Children deserve their routines, friendship groups and a proper professional education.