To think working from home and looking after//home schooling kids is unsustainable until sept!

[heh1]

Had enough. Dh and I both in pressured busy jobs. Dc in non returning year group

We are surviving by sticking them in front of screens all day when we are on con calls

Don't want to ask for furlough as then my colleagues without dcs or who have much older dcs will get my work ( client focussed sector) and I might be made redundant

Feel pretty rubbish..

House is a shit tip..
Dcs craving attention and largely ignored
Work carrying on like business as usual

Can't manage this until Sept

GPs too far away and in vulnerable category so can't help

[Londonmummy66]

THere are lots of teenagers who have had their summer holiday plans decimated and are at a loose end. Some of them would happily spend time with primary school DC doing home school/crafts/sport etc.

Mine are looking to spend their summer doing that as they have had 60 things cancelled between them due to COVID since March including all their summer tours etc.

[framboisier]

I have put a link in Education but sharing here for the traffic

www.septforschools.org

I know the deadline says midday but I know the person who started this and she is looking at everything submitted and is helping prepare a report for the Education Select Committee

FYI: neither she nor I are journalists
Just sharing this for anyone who feels parents haven't been involved in the conversation so far

[andweallsingalong]

Thanks @Stuckforthefourthtime

I agree with you.

Around here only one school seems to be doing online lessons and it's well known for being outstanding (offsted and parent feedback).

The poorer performing schools feel like their children are at the most risk of being split between those whose parents who can teach and those who fall further and further behind.

My DC's school are good and send a weekly email with some activities, but between dd being in year 4 (and so unlikely to be any school space for her in the foreseeable) and wfh I've no idea if we're anywhere close to keeping up with her education enough for her not to fall behind.

[Stuckforthefourthtime]

@andweallsingalong due to safeguarding concerns for students and also teachers, plus concerns that it will further entrench disadvantage - though I personally think that leaving everyone to their own devices and letting the private schools catapult even further ahead, state school families with educated parents at home and time/money to spend do pretty well, and everyone else to languish is hardly the level playing field solution either 🤷🏼‍♀️

www.economist.com/britain/2020/05/16/why-teachers-are-doing-so-little-teaching

[andweallsingalong]

Slight tangent, but why on earth have the Unions advised against online lessons?

I realise not all schools have the resources or free staff, but would have thought online classes would have been the ideal for those who could run them.

Surely no different from the rest of us working from home rather than going in to work.

[Stuckforthefourthtime]

@nanbread that survey is very odd. The union has been strongly against zoom/online classes, and this has been largely followed, especially at primary level. Here, it is 2% of teachers reporting doing any online classes. Oak Academy is national provision of online learning during lockdown, fairly average and very basic, but with online lessons so maybe it means this. It doesn't explain why the primary videochat number is also oddly high, or why they say that 9% of the poorest fifth of households are having private tutoring during the pandemic, which is a very high percentage.
www.google.com/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/coronavirus-teachers-warned-against-live-streaming-lessons/amp/

[nanbread]

I'm not sure what Oak Academy is @Stuckforthefourthtime so can't answer that - there's a separate section for online platforms.

This is the link to the study

www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14848

[Stuckforthefourthtime]

I had based my previous statement on my own and friends' experiences, but data from an IFS survey of more than 4000 parents shows that between approx 33% and 43% of state primary school families - were given online classes. The 33% representing the poorest third, and 43% representing the richest.

Given that unions have told their employees not to do Zoom live or prerecorded classes, these numbers seem far too high. Does this perhaps include people sharing links to Oak Academy?

[Dk20]

After my internet issues were resolved on Tuesday, the last two days havent been too bad here workwise and with the kids, BUT I havent done any schoolwork at all with ds this week . He is 6 and has SEN so needs my help to keep focused. I think at this stage, we will just try and do it on Saturday while the baby is napping.

[nanbread]

But I am very aware that a lot of kids are getting an even more raw deal. I’m furious with how children are the absolute lowest priority in all of this.

Yes it's pretty shit.

My children are happy enough being at home and that's great - but I'm very worried for my son who I'm trying to teach myself - he has some mild SEN and I have NO idea whether what we are doing is being absorbed or taught effectively, the impact of him not getting the specialist one on one time he usually gets, etc

[aquashiv]

Three teenagers.
Full time career.
Sole breadwinner.
I'm ready for a straight jacket.

[matchboxtwentyunwell]

@KillashandraRee

That's really not on, teachers openly posting about their jolly days all over social media during school hours. And actually telling school families that they don't want to go back?! Wow. They should be providing work for students and checking in with families. Schools are still responsible for safeguarding issues during term time as well! Please complain to your LEA as well. The Head of your school isn't doing his/her job if this is being allowed.

Our Head has been very clear about being careful of social media, etc, and we are still providing work for our students who are not back in school. Most of us are now back in school with our KW/vulnerable children, YR, Y1 and Y6 students who have returned, but all pupils at home are still being checked on weekly and work is being provided.

(Great user name, btw. Loved those books back in the day.)

[matchboxtwentyunwell]

Can you find a Year 11 who was working towards the childcare GCSE and is happy to babysit? Even if you paid for 4 hours a day of babysitting, you might be able to get some peace and some work done while they're hopefully doing fun things with the babysitter?

A lot of 16 year olds won't be able to find jobs this year, and many make excellent babysitters.

[JassyRadlett]

But I am very aware that a lot of kids are getting an even more raw deal. I’m furious with how children are the absolute lowest priority in all of this.

[highmarkingsnowbile]

It's fucking ridiculous, YANBU. The school's fubared thread is full of vitriol towards older/teen pupils who are just 'lazy' and need to learn how to self-instruct blah blah blah. Load of comments about 'selfishness', it's apparently selfish to expect full-time education in school for children, fucking hell.

[JassyRadlett]

The trouble here is that there has been no standard set so we all have to accept what we’ve been given. I was ok with our provision before - as you say, it seemed on the more balanced side of the spectrum.

But I do have a real issue with taking even more away from kids who have already lost so much. And their attitude to the children without access to tech is shameful.

[nanbread]

That should read "average rather than shit".

[nanbread]

I'm sorry not to show you much empathy, but honestly I thought your experience and level of schooling until now was quite rare and I would have classed what it is going to as averagely shit. Perhaps I should have demanded higher standards on reflection!

[nanbread]

@JassyRadlett I had based my previous statement on my own and friends' experiences, but data from an IFS survey of more than 4000 parents shows that between approx 33% and 43% of state primary school families - were given online classes. The 33% representing the poorest third, and 43% representing the richest.

So on balance, I'd say my experience may be closer to the overall picture than yours is.

[JassyRadlett]

Don't fancy showing me a bit of empathy and kindness given how shit our "schooling" provision is, and how much harder that might make it, then?

It is shit. It is hard. As I set out above, I acknowledge that yours is more shit than mine. Interestingly, you’ve chosen to attack me for lack of empathy despite showing none for me - quite the opposite.

It doesn’t make the decisions my son’s school has made good.

You’ll forgive my bluntness, I’ve just been printing off and dropping round worksheets for my son’s classmate as the school has decided they can’t do this for children who don’t have IT access any more and that they should ask other parents to do it for them instead. I’m not signing up to the idea that this is excellent educational provision just because other schools are doing an equally or even more crap job.

[nanbread]

@JassyRadlett

Don't fancy showing me a bit of empathy and kindness given how shit our "schooling" provision is, and how much harder that might make it, then?

[JassyRadlett]

In other words the school is still doing more than the vast majority of schools were already doing... Well certainly ours!

That your school is more shit than mine in terms of provision for children not at school doesn’t make mine good - most schools I’m aware of are doing a hell of a lot more.

The first issue is an individual school cutting provision for the children already at a disadvantage by not being able to return.

The second is the lack of a standard for what ‘good’ looks like.

I’m interested in your datapoint for ‘the vast majority’ - is it just personal experience?

[nanbread]

Whilst I hear other mums say ‘lockdown has been great, a really chance to slow down and reflect’ bloody hell really

They've probably been furloughed, lost their jobs, worked from home without childcare anyway or are SAHM...

[cocktailoclock]

It has already been flagged as a Mumsnet campaign ...

[puffinandkoala]

Some of my work colleagues are effectively working shifts - one does 7-1 and the other does 1-7 and they share the childcare that way. We were all reduced to 80% hours anyway so they don't have to worry about trying to be completely full time. Of course a reduction in hours means a reduction in pay, too.