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?

The thing is there are plenty of people who are keyworkers who don’t actually need the spaces but are using them anyway.

I know of 4 people who are classed as keyworkers and are sending their children to school full time.

Two of them their spouses work at home in non keyworker roles (one of the KWs only works 3 days), another her DH works out of the home in a non keyworker role, and the other one is only needed to provide keywork on rota one day a week (opening up some premises and staying on site) but is sending kids to school full time

None of them NEED full time school place to work anymore than the rest of us do.

Wow alltheisernamesaretaken. This is definitely not happening at my school. Keyworker Parents want children in for minimum number of days and sometimes collect early if shift finishes

@Mumratheevergiving

Talk to the DFE. Our school were planning for all children in on a week on, week off basis (50% of all classes each week, arranged so siblings all in on same week). Key worker group separately in the hall in full time, 7.30-6 wraparound as we normally provide. A nightmare to staff, but our HT thought she’d cracked it....

Then there was the whole ‘no rotas allowed, oh wait you can but with the veiled warning that you’re going against guidance so on your own head be it’ fudge up. Our governors (sensibly) didn’t dare take the risk so are following the year group guidelines.

Thunder - I don’t blame the schools who have been trying to navigate changing Govt guidelines & keep staff and pupils safe. Unfortunately the Government are as likely to listen to parents as they are to teachers or healthcare staff I.e. not at all. We were just told to lump it this week with the vague ‘promise’ of remedial work in the summer!

Wfh should strongly be encouraged for as long as necessary . Schools aren't open if you've wfh during this pandemic then I see no issue why it can't continue.
We are still in the middle of a pandemic so for employers to ask people to go back to the office is unreasonable.

Everyone who can wfh should be to reduce contacts in the community.

But it's not a magic bullet for either education or childcare.

Under normal circumstances, if you told your employer you'd wfh while looking after your toddler or homeschooling your older children, your employer wouldn't stand for it (and you'd be lynched on MN).

We're at three months now. Those of us who are wfh need childcare too, and our kids need education. Wfh with children at home simply isn't sustainable any more.

We also planned a rota and then the government decided we couldn't do this despite us then finding out that this is a model Sage suggested.

It wound have seen all pupils back in school in some form weekly until the end of term

Sometimes I really wonder if this government makes these decisions just to make things difficult.

OP never came back

So another week underway while accountants, architects, environment agency workers, administrators, university workers etc etc plough on trying to concentrate WFH while simultaneously attempting to provide some form of education to their children.

So far I have heard more from Johnson on Dominic Cummings and Churchill’s statue than about my yr3s education. Maybe he expects us to sack off work and home school to hit the shops instead!

Sometimes I really wonder if this government makes these decisions just to make things difficult.

No, the government doesn’t make decisions. It makes rash promises to keep the public happy. It’s not their fault that SAGE and teachers can’t sort their shit out and make their promises reality.

@BertNErnie

We also planned a rota and then the government decided we couldn't do this despite us then finding out that this is a model Sage suggested.

It wound have seen all pupils back in school in some form weekly until the end of term

Sometimes I really wonder if this government makes these decisions just to make things difficult.

A rota is the perfect solution to this for now, it's infuriating that schools were told not to. Even a day a week would be better than nothing.

I admit, I have felt the same a few times when some friends have mentioned their kids have “been in the whole time”. I have two friends who are keyworkers but their DPs are definitely not and were either furloughed or Wfh. Their attitude was a bit “well how would DP work AND look after the kids”.....”erm like the rest of us?”

Yet I also have other friends who are both patient facing NHS roles, both not taking up keyworker places and juggling kids and shifts constantly.

I think my frustration come from the guidance not being applied universally with some schools being super strict and others not.

Now that keyworkers are encouraged to send their children in even if they can work from home it’s even more unequal.

What is also unequal is each local education authority decides what a keyworker is. So you can be told by your employer you’re a keyworker in one area but if your kids go to school in another and your job isn’t on the list, your kids won’t get a place......(which is what had happened to us)

Not the schools fault, more that the government guidance is ridiculous!

Aye, because we all saw the bloody pandemic coming eh

To be fair it was widely predicted that there would be a pandemic.

Parental leave is acquired at 1 week per year per child up until they are 18. You can take up to 4 weeks per year but you have to take a full working week so no odd days. It's unpaid and 4 weeks in the current situation is a drop in the ocean.

Between to parents that would easily see you through to the end of the term. Even a single parent would only be a week short now.

I completely agree. There shouldn’t have been the blanket re opening for R, 1 and 6, just a wider opening for children whose parents have to go back to work and need a place.

This is what I have said all along. The keyworker scheme should have been extended to all those with working parents who need it. People need to work to support their families. That is important. And it is important for the economy too. It would have been far more beneficial than choosing three random year groups to come back.

Whats wrong with the army setting up some 40ft shipping containers on a school site, they can be kitted out as temporary classrooms.

Lack of toilets and handwashing facilities for one. Lack of grounds to erect them in for another. But I expect the main barrier would be money. We all know how the government loathe spending actual money on children.

nursery children have to adhere to the social distancing, where did you read / hear otherwise?

The government guidance!
We know that, unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff. In deciding to bring more children back to early years and schools, we are taking this into account.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings

I noticed the local pub owner picking her child up from school a couple of weeks ago. How is that key working when they’re shut ?

Perhaps they are classed as vulnerable or have an EHCP?

When I walked past my local primary I noticed that the key workers children were playing together and using the ‘gym’ equipment in the playground.
No social distancing there.

If they are within their bubble they don't need to, see above. We are keeping children apart in the classroom and when lining up but when they play they do what children do.

so they send their children into childcare even when they are working from home. How is that not abusing the system?

It's not abusing the system because it's what the govt want people to be encouraged to do. Your anger needs to be aimed at the decision-makers, not at the people perfectly legitimately using the places they are encouraged to use.

A rota is the perfect solution to this for now, it's infuriating that schools were told not to. Even a day a week would be better than nothing.

I agree. I think it would be really good for all primary children to get the opportunity for a bit of time in school before the holidays and a rota is the only way that could have happened. It wouldn't be much use for childcare but it would have done wonders for the children's mental health and well being.

I think the definition of key workers has been a bit generous tbh. DP and I are both designated KWs. He's a payroll manager for one of the emergency services and thinks it's crazy that they're treated as KWs when they're all WFH.

I'm a benefits adviser, but because we only take referrals for people who are already our employer's clients, and they are all vulnerable for one reason or another (mostly MH, but some with other vulnerabilities) everyone in the whole organisation has been designated a KW. If DP and I had school age children, we'd have been able to send them in, which seems absurd.

To be fair, I have colleagues where they are both KWs but one of them is WFH and none of them have taken up a school place, but it does seem daft.

DH is tenuously a keyworker and I WFH, my daughter is going in full time. I emailed the school during half term when DH was taken off furlough to ask whether both parents needed to be a keyworker and they emailed me back within minutes to say she could have a place. I know I'm lucky.

YANBU BUT this is my side, I am a key worker in the nhs. Have never had my child in as took unpaid leave, annual leave and worked weekends to avoid this, now I need to go back to normal and school won’t have her back. Youngest is in year 1 class and went back when they did. Now they have a whole bunch of kids from foster homes or more challenging behaviours filling up all the other pods and keyworkers just can’t have childcare. I honestly don’t get how anyone is meant to cover the holidays? Or how parents are meant to go to work?

Should clarify DS (y1) went back and now DD (y3) can’t go in the keyworker pod as it’s full, not with keyworker kids but anyone else who phoned up and kicked off. I do understand the challenges of “cared for children” but perhaps I am naive to think when foster parents are literally plaid to look after the kids they shouldn’t be sending them in and using keyworker spaces

@mywayhighway I absolutely agree, and the keyworker list is absolutely ridiculous anyway. I have someone who works in a car
rental shop and still carried on sending him in to school as keyworker, stopped once furloughed but he’s now back and she’s clearly not at work. At this point the keyworker concept is void. My annoyance is filling the pods with kids who don’t meet the criteria so now even the original people can’t get places

@KeepYourDistance2m I absolutely agree with you there, I think I’m just upset that I sacrificed so much to lessen the load on the school and now have missed my chance to have any kind of childcare and as a single parent I don’t know when that will be. Your right about the foster kids though, perhaps school knowing how many kids met this criteria could have planned better as they have now in the last 10 min sent an email saying we are sorry but if you kids aren’t already attending then you can’t now come

@KeepYourDistance2m and by people who don’t meet the criteria I should of pointed out I meant more the parents who have said they can’t deal at home with there own offspring. Saw at least 4 year 4/5s today who were going back in