To wonder if I'm the only person who won't be sending kids to school in August

[user8558]

AIBU to wonder if I'm the only one who won't be sending DC back to school in August.

I initially thought "wait and see", but now the details are coming out about what it will be like. And my instinct is telling me to keep them off until normality resumes. Or something closer to normality.

Homeschooling has been going well. I'm not worried about their education.

I do worry about the lack of social interaction, but feel on balance this need wouldn't be satisfied adequately until things are a bit more relaxed anyway.

I wouldn't be expecting any work to be set for my kids, I'll take care of their home learning.

I cannot be the only one feeling this and thinking this?

Or is everyone going back in August/September?

Can I just ask - it seems that many year 5s have gone back? Was that the government’s direction (year 5 specifically allowed but not year 2,3,4) or the schools’ choice?

Mine are Yr1 and Yr 6. They have been back for several weeks now and are enjoying it tremendously. Kids need school.

* You have no idea what circumstances are involved. *

I’m Op you started a thread.

So if people speculate about your situation it’s because YOU have not included information pertinent to your OP

Homeschooling is a valid choice for a number of reasons. I don't think having an anxious parent is the best reason

DDs small rural primary (we're in England) has given the option for them to go back for two random weeks before the summer.
DD has SN and although she is in Y5 her friends are in Y4. She will see them but not be able to play with them.
When I told her that she could go back for 2 weeks but explained that she would be in a bubble with her own class she said to me "but no-one will want to play with me". That nearly broke my heart. I won't be sending her back for two weeks but hopefully if the schools reopen properly in September she will be going back.
We have been lucky in that we've still been having speech and language therapy online once a week and the school have issued work every week.
Socialisation is very important for her so I do want her to go back but I don't want her going back and being isolated from her friends which will make her miserable. Her Dad also has an underlying respiratory condition so I wouldn't take the chance for the sake of two weeks.

Scotland's schools will re-open fully in August if the virus is still repressed.

So all the work that's been done in schools for distancing was a waste of time and effort for the staff.

On an individual level, I don't care what other parents do about sending their children back.

But on a mass-education level, I do care - the schools do need to reopen to all year groups because for every loving middle-class parent who's a bit anxious and can adequately homeschool and is just being cautious there will be another parent who can't homeschool and doesn't care - they just don't value their children's education. And those are the children at most risk of all sorts of horrible things with schools shut. So the poverty gap will widen.

My Y6 is back at school and enjoying seeing her friends. Pretty sure all the benefit is social, not educational. My younger DC is really very upset not to be back and missing school and socialising terribly. My DH and I are WFH and feeling pretty ground down by the relentlessness of everything. Life can't go 'back to normal' but it can't stay like this long-term for the vast majority of the population.

I guess ot depends on how long you expect the school to hold your place open if they have a wait list. I don't think you can expect the luxury of swanning back when you fancy it if others are waiting for a place.

Your children, your choice but from your posts OP, I think you sound disproportionately anxious. I hope that your children aren't picking up on that because as PP has said,18+ months out of school is not at all their or any child's interests, or even feasible.

School isn't just for learning, it is every bit as important for socialising and you'd be doing a disservice to your children if you impressed your quite insular view on them.

@chloworm

Can I just ask - it seems that many year 5s have gone back? Was that the government’s direction (year 5 specifically allowed but not year 2,3,4) or the schools’ choice?

Schools have been given discretion. All of my daughter’s went back last Thursday as it can be done within guidelines.

I don't have a horse in this race, with grown-up DSC, but a couple of family members are adamant that there's no way their DC are going anywhere near school, and they're so sensitive about it that I can't ask why without them hearing, '... you loon' at the end of my sentence.

But I can ask internet randoms, luckily. So, OP - Genuine question: when will you be happy to send them back? When there are zero cases of coronavirus in the country as a whole? Or in your area?

Can I just ask - it seems that many year 5s have gone back? Was that the government’s direction (year 5 specifically allowed but not year 2,3,4) or the schools’ choice?

It's the schools discretion, and they chose year 5 because they are the ones that impact their stats next year as they'll be year 6, if they actually cared about the children it would be all years for less time (even if that was 1 day) because what children need is a chance to talk to someone from outside their home about their home situation.

@chloworm

Can I just ask - it seems that many year 5s have gone back? Was that the government’s direction (year 5 specifically allowed but not year 2,3,4) or the schools’ choice?

In our case it was the school’s choice, they had capacity for one more year group after they had years R, 1 and 6 back in and decided year 5 was the priority (due to SATs next year I guess).

Our school will be getting every single year group back in for at least a week before the end of term though.

Its at the school‘s discretion- ours have all kids back fulltime as they have the space and teachers to do it.

We probably will send DS back. The biggest issue, as far as I can see, is what happens if school teaching starts again. Our school, at the moment, has the key worker children, the year 10 and year 12 students in. It's a secondary school.

Now the key worker children are doing what DS and others like him are doing at home. Work set by teachers. A lot of it is revision at the moment as it's that time of year when the school starts to wind down but assessments are done to get a level for next year. So that's fine.
Year 10 and 12 are having intense lessons in their core subjects and one to one help in subjects they are struggling in. The rest is home schooling of a sort.

But, at some point, when the majority of school is back in some form or other, science (for example) will start doing experiments again; art will start making clay pots or working in oils, catering/home economics will start making bread or curry. In other words, the kids who are attending school will be getting 'hands on' in some form or other. Because you can't learn chemistry and some other lessons without testing/trying/making. How does that work at home? Assuming you're not actually fully home schooling - which is a totally different thing from what is happening at the moment.

My niece and a friend's son both had major health scares a few years ago and missed a fair amount of school. Although the school tried its hardest to keep them up to speed, the teachers were in the classroom - teaching. So work coming home wasn't always up to the standard the kids in the classroom were learning. Not good enough perhaps, but teachers can't be cloned. Once they are back, full time, in the classroom, home schooling will be scaled back. It has to - many teachers are working their hearts out at the moment but the majority of the children are at home so their 'audience' is all in pretty much the same place. Once that 'audience' is back in the classroom the emphasis has to shift and lessons have to gear up to catch up and move students forward ready for exams etc.

Obviously there will still be people shielding in some degree and something needs to be put in place for them but my fear is that DS, if he does stay off, will begin to slip as his friends get the benefit of experiments/assessments/hands on learning.

@Almostfifty I feel like my head is going to explode. The staff at DD’s school have been working like mad so the place complies with social distancing... for what?! She’s been in tears about going back with SD in place... why?! Anyway...

OP, I will be sending DD back because she is literally crossing off the days on her calendar. My friend won’t be sending her DD back because home Ed has been way better for their family than school. Each family to their own!

My son is in Year 1 and has been back for 3 weeks. There are 23 children in his class and initially only 18 went back, but as the weeks passed, the other parents realised that returning to school wasn’t as dangerous as they had perceived it to be and so they then sent their children back too.

There is only 1 child who isn’t back and I feel really sorry for him. He is what would be classed as a vulnerable child, who would benefit from being at school, and he is being kept at home because his parents are extremely anxious, to the point they haven't even let their children leave the house since the lockdown began.

I'm with you, OP. Mine is an only child and so good at entertaining himself. He does very well at school generally but I realise he isn't very confident and worries about being wrong/embarrassed by this at school - having me on a 1-1 basis for homeschooling has been great for him and he has really done well over the last few months.

I am a trained secondary teacher so more than capable of delivering a decent primary syllabus for him, plus you can get tutors online.

I'd very happily homeschool until things are more 'normal' in school.

@ktp100

I'm with you, OP. Mine is an only child and so good at entertaining himself. He does very well at school generally but I realise he isn't very confident and worries about being wrong/embarrassed by this at school - having me on a 1-1 basis for homeschooling has been great for him and he has really done well over the last few months.

I am a trained secondary teacher so more than capable of delivering a decent primary syllabus for him, plus you can get tutors online.

I'd very happily homeschool until things are more 'normal' in school.

Does he not miss his friends? Mine were great with homeschooling, but having no one to play with except each other (and they are best friends!) took its toll.

I'm in Scotland OP, we've just been told if the virus stays suppressed they will be going back full time in August. My son going into S1, he's just cried with happiness he's missed all of his p7 transition, misses his friends and all the social interaction. Me and my husband work full time, this is great news for us and we have everything crossed it goes to plan!

@Drivingdownthe101

Our school will be getting every single year group back in for at least a week before the end of term though.

I’m honestly not doubting you but how? How has a school got twice as many (at least) teaching spaces as it normally needs and twice as many staff? (I get that if every class has a TA AND there is room for half the class with distancing that might work, but means half the pupils are in but not seeing a teacher).

Spare a thought for the teachers in Scotland who have spent weeks rewriting their entire timetables, moving around classrooms, endless planning on how to enforce social distancing (according to govt rules). That has all been thrown out of the window this afternoon (acceptable risk... apparently) and considering some schools have only a day or two left before the summer holidays god knows how they will have time to establish new plans (which may well be thrown out of the window by August 11th anyway)

I know quite a few primary teachers, they really aren’t enforcing social distancing in “bubbles” only thing different certainly in our school is there are less children and they only have 2 to a table not the usual 4. All this over anxious nonsense, they are children, I’m pretty sure they can adapt to few fewer kids in the class without being “anxious”. What will you do if this goes on and the vaccine isn’t found, just keep your kids at home forever?

I’m so annoyed my child can’t go back, she is in the nursery attached to the primary she is starting in September and there isn’t enough space for her. School are great and sending all the same work home as the key workers children nursery age are doing in school, but she’s missing the social interaction and just the fun of being there.

It’s up to you what you do but I don’t really see the point in keeping them off any longer.

@Breckenridged The amount of work that's gone into sorting SD over the past three weeks is unbelievable. I bet John Swinney hasn't been near a school to see what they've had to do. The information has changed almost daily, I really feel for staff.