to think it's not fair only key workers can get a school place now have to go back into work?

[mywayhighway]

Work are wanting us back in the office. It's been hard enough home schooling whilst wfh, soon we will be in an impossible situation. We are valuable members of society too, paying taxes so why can only key workers send their dc to school?

Winkingprawn, I’m a teacher. If I can’t get a key worker place for my child then my bubble at school can’t run as we are using all staff. If it doesn’t run then that’s 15 families who feel the effect of that.

Key workers were at work at the height of the pandemic when everyone was told to stay home and stay safe. How quick some of us are to be annoyed at ‘preferential treatment’.

@whatshappeninginthisworld I agree with that. I think it’s disgusting that companies well able to afford to pay their own staff are taking advantage of the furlough scheme.

I didn’t say some people are more important than others but that some job roles are more essential, hence the government made a list of those roles it considers essential to the CoVid response.

I have no issue with key workers who genuinely need a school place, what I do have an issue with is the new guidance which means that if you are key worker, even with a partner who is furloughed or a sahp, you are still actively encouraged to send your child

This is not true, if you have a furloughed or WFH partner then dc are expected to stay with them and they wouldn't be given a place at our school

Few key worker families got preferential treatment.

@CountessFrog. It is manager's discretion I believe?

I have had no sick days at all since I was employed, even during Covid-19. Yet I've had to take parental leave unpaid. Including when my child was swabbed for Covid in Feb (before the isolating policies were in place) and I took 3 days off awaiting results.

I agree and I'm a key worker. The fact is there is not enough room in schools to take all children, taking account of social distancing. But meanwhile huge public buildings - libraries, town halls, the nightingale hospital et al, stand empty. Teaching staff are working from home whilst pupils are at home missing an education because there aren't enough classrooms to accommodate them. Doesn't take a genius to see a solution.

I think your issue should be with your employer.

Key workers - nurses, doctors, shop workers, bin men etc can't work from home.

Office workers can - so the issue is that your employer won't let you. I know there is a separate issue about how much you should expected to do when you are wfh with children but again that is something your employer should deal with.

There is no room in schools for all children a if they are social distant

Every teacher at my school is in work full time with a bubble. We are using every classroom and luckily we don’t have any shielding teachers.

So yes we do need more space if we were to accommodate more under the current guidance, but we aren’t sitting at home.

Seriously?? The clue is in the word keyworkers. They need to be facilitated to attend work as they are vital to society. Other jobs aren't as vital that's why they made the key worker list lol

@MissDollyMix That’s not the case in my child’s school. She wasn’t offered a place as although I am NHS frontline my partner is not a key worker. My partner had to take unpaid leave to care for our child instead. They were very clear that the priority was children where both parents were key workers, vulnerable children, children with an EHCP and then only if there was space (there wasn’t) children with 1 keyworker parent where the other parent wasn’t available to provide care.

Oh gosh sorry but it seems to me that we are now divided into being vital or non-vital to the society.

I lived to see this one too

Yes but we were also divided into those who got to stay at home safe and those who had to take on extra risk, especially if they happened to be be NHS or care workers. You can swing it both ways.

Why can't you work from home? - if you can't work from home you should be furloughed - why does your employer want you back in the office? Again the gripe should be with your employers surely?

Its not about what is fair. Its about what is managable.

My friends school has a situation where a 1/3 of all pupils are officially classed as key worker kids.

They physically can't take more under the guidance.

They have to prioritise somehow.

There isn't a better alternative.

Yep. In a global pandemic some roles are much more important and they are not the ones that have been valued in the UK for a long time....

Most schools require both parents to be a key worker under our LEA. However, even with both me and dds dad being key workers and my partner being one too, none of us, able to wfh I still cannot use a key worker place at school.

Dd is on meds that lower her immune system, despite the hospital saying she's at no increased risk, her blood work up shows her immunity is strong enough to be at school but the head teacher won't allow it.

So don't think just because we are key workers we have it easy.

You can wfh, you have been so direct your bile at your employer.

Haven't you heard about the pandemic, nobody to look after your darlings.
There are lots of people in your position, do you have a partner?
I do think sp should be able to send kids in as there's obviously only one potential earner.

@Bluebell1995 - I feel for you (currently trying to organise similar myself as can't let DS's schooling go to pot for any longer...)

I think there's a wider issue here, and I bloody well hope some of the trade unions are keeping stats on this. All companies' turnover will have taken a hell of a hit. A lot of them will be wanting to lay off staff, but wondering how to do it without having to pay huge redundancies payments. If they can make it impossible for staff to continue to do the job by insisting they work in the office (knowing they have children) they can push a proportion of their employees into resigning.

I think it could (in some instances) be a form of constructive dismissal, and it will undoubtedly hit women disproportionately. But in the general chaos of the post-covid economic crash, I worry that there will be so much shit hitting the fan that no-one will have either the will or the necessary stats to join up the dots.

@KeepYourDistance2m

I know the difference and there's no need for insults. Just because you don't agree with me point of view.
a nurse chose this career path and she/he knew they will be the front line if it came to it. Just like soldiers chose to fight for their country. Nobody forced them to choose this career path.

We all choose our career paths however all jobs are important not just the ones that the government decides are important.

I think I'll quit my job and go and work at Tesco just to feel entitled.

I have been asked to go back to the office also, my line managers words were “we can’t cope”. They’ve done pretty darn well for the last 12+ weeks with me wfh. Basically I was told it was because they were concerned over the mental health and well-being of the staff still in office. OH is keyworker and cannot wfh. One child is Y4 and other in nursery. Not been a walk in the park doing a FT job, home schooling and entertaining a toddler so not sure why my mental health and well-being takes a back seat. During conversation around returning to work when I said I could not due to child care, I was told at that point that I was a key worker and why couldn’t I return both Children To school. I was raging. Even though I could, why should I put the school or kids in that position? Plus it was the first time since this began that I was told I was a key worker! My job is nowhere near as important as OH’s, I feel if anything it is the business that is classified as “key”, not my role specifically. I told them that school is closed to any “newcomers” and they are continuing with children already there so there is nothing I can do. I would much prefer a place at the school to go to someone who now has no option but to return to work, I would feel a fraud knowing I can technically wfh but chose not to. Yes there is unpaid leave but many people are hanging onto their jobs by the skin of their teeth anyway now due to the virus, it is terrifying to see how many are already using food banks now, imagine another 3 months without pay and potentially no job come September!!

Keepyourdistance - in my school we are on a rota and when we're not in school we are lesson planning from home. We don't have enough classrooms for us all to be in school with classes of no more than 15 children.

So in short, yes we do have 'spare' teachers, as do other schools in my LA.

I agree, I'm classed as a key worker although I can and do normally wfh. I haven't taken a key workers place but it's mental I can and yet now people who need to work ft away from home can't get a childcare space (that's not being dismissive to teachers but that's what the govt expected teachers to provide)