To ask if you AREN'T sending your child back to school...

[Frume]

If your childs school is opening and your child/children are in the year groups returning, what made you decide to not send them back?

I'm still undecided and have until tomorrow to decide. I've read many reasons for sending them back, but not many reasons against.

Thank you!

I'm not sending my 6 year old because

1. There are only three others in her class who have gone back
2. I am clinically vulnerable
3. She has other siblings at home and I don't want to send her and not the others.
4. The ones that have gone in have been playing all day so of course they will say they are enjoying it. They aren't doing any work
5. My kids have actually come on more with their learning at home with me on on one that at school.
6. I will only send them back when there's no socal distancing in schools

I'm not sending my dc back because I don't think the science supports sending dc back at this point. I think they are safer at home and will not be unduly affected by staying at home as we are able to provide a reasonable education here.

Because we don't have to and I would rather not add extra pressure onto the school. Also only one of mine would be going in so it would make our lives more complicated (doing drop off and pick ups and not having them both home entertaii each other). Also I seriously doubt they will be getting any real schooling. I can get them to do more at home. We have a great little routine going and the move back to the classroom at the moment is clearly just childcare. Both DH and I sort from home, bug I am part time and our employers have said it's a personal decision whether we send them back.

Redwine - only 3 days in and tons of real schooling here. But maybe you have little ones?

My yr 6 has played with circuits in parallel and series, afternoon of art, maths problems and logic challenges and creative writing at least.

I think theres different issues with different age groups.

Oops hit send. I mean I might not choose to send back yr R as I am competent with play based learning and teaching to read, but my yr 6 is missing the end of primary and is a bright spark who wanted the stimulation and it has done her the world of good.

@Pluckedpencil

At my sister's school they are being sat 1m apart and must stay looking straight forward. They can't have their own pencil cases or regular books, just the home learning packs. The teacher can't come to help at their desk. They eat lunch at desks too. To me, if that's the set up, it's not time to go back. Either it's a low enough risk to be safe to be together or its not. I'd say in those conditions the damage is more than the education.

Exactly the same as at my daughter's school. They spend all day at the desks apart from for scheduled outside time, or the many timetabled hand washing sessions

Gosh. Ours brought in their own pencil cases, which they leave on their tray. They have art/science equipment put on their desk that morning. It would be boring just doing homelearning packs- school has been so much more than that for mine. It does make me appreciate my school more.

The repeated msg seems to be that the lack of proper 'test, track and trace' on the mainland is the issue.

In the Crown Dependency islands we (firstly, and most importantly) closed our borders, and (secondly, and equally importantly) included every sector of society in what we do next. Hence, no teaching unions here are shouting about it being 'unsafe' to go back to work (on the contrary, they're praising our governments for their response to their concerns) but also we're only concentrating on the 'transition' year groups (so late nursery to Reception, Yr6 - Yr7, Yr 10-Yr11 and Yr12-Yr13.).

In a fortnight we'll look at opening up schooling to more year groups (yes, I'm a teacher).

Unlike the mainland, we're also proactively testing to 'chase down' the odd asymptomatic cases in the community. We don't wait for people to ask for test. That is also helping our cases (pro rata) stay well below those of the mainland.

Our problem comes when BA, Easyjet etc. start to shout about restarting air link.s when there is no testing policy for travellers in place (although we've started our own pilot scheme to test travellers, there's no current msg that the mainland want to do the same).

We can't afford to lose our air and sea links.. but thank goodness, no one can force anyone to buy a ticket! So, currently, islanders are not in any hurry to book tickets to leave, and it doesn't seem like anyone on the mainland is in a hurry to book to come here.

Our tourism industry is fucked this year. We know that, and our government has pledged to support it well into 2021. Our safety as an island means more. It's, frankly, awful seeing what's going on in the mainland when our figures are so low. And it's all because of our closed borders.

Why didn't the UK so the same? It would have been a game-changer.