School will be closed at lunchtime one day a week from Sept

[Ilovecranberries]

The school (primary) had just informed the parents that they will be closing at lunchtime on one day a week from September to facilitate "planning".
I don't even know what to say. AIBU to think it is ridiculous? I am a single working parent, not sure how I am supposed to work around this. Extra childcare for these 3.5 hours at the local childminders rates will be £56 a week (two children here). Or two grand a year post tax. I probably will be told I am BU (I probably am), just very anxious right now.

To the person who says schools are for education and not childcare. Are you home schooling 6.5 hours a day during lockdown, whilst being Mother Earth who knits her own yoghurt and judges anyone who believes it takes more than one person, a mother, to raise a child?
I am thinking you judge any woman who doesn’t wear Lycra on the school run, gnaws the teachers ear off as it is your private daily parents evening, stays until little Tarquin has disappeared into the classroom and then goes for a jog with her mummy friends. You then have coffee, scroll social media and judge any woman not like you.
I hope you enjoy the Security your partner brings in to keep you in your hallucinogenic state your life is in. However, he is probably screwing the career woman you cannot stand. That in turn may lead to you becoming a single mum and then my dear, misguided woman...you will realise you need school, as how else will you work to support yourself, because you cannot afford the childcare.....
Do you see?

LittleGsmum

wow.. such a bitter post.

I stand by what I wrote, I strongly believe schools are NOT childcare - and for all the reasons I wrote above.

Nice little story you've just made though Shame you spectacularly miss the point!

Can you get Friday afternoon off with flexi-time?

Damn, talk about kicking a person when they’re down. OP isn’t blaming individual teachers or schools. I’m sure she’s aware it’s a sustained chronic underfunding problem and the blame lies at the hands of the govern,ent. The system is shit and disproportionately affects single parents, who are usually women. She’s trying to work to raise her children, it’s not asking for endless free childcare ffs. Also, she’s allowed a moan and a rant.

and for you @Ilovecranberries

OP does the school rim an after school club? Would they be willing to open for childcare during this afternoon? The school I work in, and other local schools were looking at closing one afternoon a week to deep clean give teachers planning time without bubbles being popped. I've no idea why we have such strict bubbles, and then children from all classes go off to the same after school club!

I really don't know what the answer is. It must be really stressful, but if enough parents shout loud enough I would hope the school might be able to come up with an affordable solution such as some sort of sports activity or after school club, although with social distancing it may be tricky all round.

😂oh the irony you even think I envy such a life.
Just to piss you off school is ONLY childcare

@Clavinova my school doesn’t have a supply budget because we can’t afford it so no savings there. Rightly or wrongly, TAs do all the cover needed. This has been the situation for several years.

@Localocal

"Not qualified to look after several five to six year olds" ? You are the parent of a five to six year old, yes? I get that as a working mum you may not have made close friendships at school, but presumably your child has friends? I'm sure other parents would be interested in round robin play dates.

Space is the primary issue for parents where I live.

I might be fine looking after my child since I know their habits and what makes them tick. Other people's children? Nope. Not without parents accompanying them on a playdate.

My child has friends. I THOUGHT they were all pretty nice and well behaved.

However since the incident of the child who pulled the bathrail off the wall when he went to the toilet cos he was messing about and hanging off it, leaving a massive hole in the plaster and since the incident where DH caught another holding DS head down underneath the balls in the ballpool at soft play...

...I'm somewhat less inclined to have regular play dates with several of them.

Fortunately childcare isn't an issue for me, however I can completely sympathise with other parents not particularly wanting to deal with other people's children and feeling like they aren't qualified to manage the behaviour of other people's children - especially when it involves challenging behaviour.

This is also one of many reason I won't be offering to bail out other people with childcare, because its a one way ticket to falling out with the parents of DS's friends.

The guidance says that teachers can cover each other to enable PPA. Guidance also says there should be no part time models. Lots of schools are doing the Friday 1/2 day solution but mostly because they are woefully underfunded. Covid has dented our budgets massively and govt funding sounds impressive on the news but is £80 per child when divided up. That doesn't go far when you're paying salaries.
Half days are a complete PITA for working parents but some schools have few options. Have you written to the HT and expressed your concerns?

@Ilovecranberries - I’m sorry you’re having a crappy time. Single working parenthood during lockdown has been incredibly emotionally damaging for a lot of people and I just wanted to give a bit of support. Sometimes it is the smallest thing that can tip you over the edge and £2k per year isn’t exactly small.

You sound like you’ve got the hump With everything and everyone, OP!
Time to take up kick boxing.

OP YANBU - whilst schools do not go back full time this will hit women hardest who will, for the most part, be the ones who will have to organise their work around this and will, no doubt be first in line to be made redundant as a result or, worse, they will crack before redundancy and resign their jobs (which the government won't give a damn about be cause it will make the numbers look better and leave more jobs for the boys).

Time to take up kick boxing.

This is an even dumber response than ‘school isn't childcare’. I didn’t think that was possible.

I am increasingly interested in how women’s anger (at entirely justifiable experiences) is ridiculed, pushed aside, belittled. Society wants us back in our compliant boxes. Angry women are a threat to it.

Oh dear, DS school has also just announced they are closing early, it's 2.45 M-Th but 1.30 on Friday. Shorter lunches and breaks. But it's better for us (we may be the only ones) to finish a little early on other days if DD school won't let us bring DS to pickup as the times have been very tight to take him home.
Friday is my day off so no extra costs for me but I am planning to increase my hours at some point and that won't happen unless DH reduces his - the only after school care we can get for him is a babysitter who is amazing but £££.

I am increasingly interested in how women’s anger (at entirely justifiable experiences) is ridiculed, pushed aside, belittled.

coning from someone who has made a point to mock, bully and ridicule anyone with a different point of view on this thread, this is a classic

coning from someone who has made a point to mock, bully and ridicule anyone with a different point of view on this thread, this is a classic

Well I haven’t held back with you and your attempts to put women back in their boxes and I’m not going to apologise for that.

Brilliant to read that "PPA should be covered by the class TA". I'd love to know where schools are with enough funding for a TA for each class.

Similarly that the savings on the supply budget could be used to cover PPA. That assumes there's a supply budget in the first place.

Funding does vary across the country and it is interesting to see cuts being felt by the historically better funded schools. They stop being able to afford things that seemed normal to them, but were unobtainable luxuries to those schools that were poorly funded. It feels like a race to the bottom.

We can't afford lunchtime staff, our head serves lunches so supply cover has long since gone.

How all our lives have been changed due to the pandemic. Such a very serious and deadly disease. How difficult all our lives have become.
Hopefully, there is more chance of our lives returning to normal if we adhere to rules imposed to keep people safe. It must be so difficult for you to organise childcare, but we all manage to find a solution. I find that thinking through things calmly does work. Speak to family, friends who may be able to advise you and even help you in some way.

I'd love to know where schools are with enough funding for a TA for each class
Our school has a TA for every class. I understand that some schools are undefunded, and I haven't said a word about teachers being lazy. I don't think underfunding is the reason in this particular school, the parents' charity fund has reserves sufficient to cover the amounts quoted earlier on the thread, there have been a couple of frivolous big expenses earlier in the year (frivolous from my point of view, of course). The fsm % in the school is less than a quarter of the national average, the parents are, as a rule, reasonably well-off.

OP we all need to accept for next few months thing are not going to be how it was before March. Schools aren’t being deliberately difficult but Are trying to do their best based on the given guidance to maintain bubbles etc. Every school is doing it differently depending on their individual sets of circumstances. There is no “social contract” for schools to provide set hours of childcare especially in the middle of a pandemic (which is still ongoing) where there is imminent danger to public health & at anytime there could be a local lockdown- so we all need to be prepared for different scenarios.
I have a child with disability & wraparound childcare for him costs a lot more - I pay one to one costs in addition to the usual after school club costs- I personally have always moved things around at work so I have to rely on childcare least amount of times to keep costs down. I consider myself lucky to be in a position to make a choice to do this, thank think it’s “unfair” I have to pay more because of my child’s disability when others Don’t etc. The point being it’s best to adapt to our individual set of circumstances than stress about it.
People over here have suggested a lot of reasonable options- working from home one afternoon if your role allows it (I know it is hard with young children, but lots of people have been doing it over the last few months), looking at your contract & see if you can not work that afternoon & if that makes you better or worse off financially depending on childcare you need, pooling with other working parents to help each other out etc None of that seem acceptable to you.
Yes you are being Unreasonable here.
You say you rely on childminder for wraparound care. What do you do if the childminder goes off sick & has to self isolate etc?
My understanding is these change in timings etc are only till end of autumn term for now- so may not necessarily be for the whole year you need this additional childcare expense for if that’s the path you decide to take.

Our school have announced this but with no extension to other school days. I’m concerned about the loss of teaching time, especially for my KS2 child. Are other schools setting work etc as they would normally be set work during teachers’ PPA and receiving feedback from whoever set the work? It seems the government are letting out children down massively, why isn’t there more outrage?

There is outrage but most of it is directed at the schools or the teachers, not the Government.

@iamruth my DS school has cut break, lunch and outside enrichment e.g. music workshops to fit in NC expectations. It's a small specialist school but follows NC.
@Ilovecranberries our DD school has a TA per classroom, I think three per two-form entry in lower years. I think we have more FSM than you but most local schools (NW England) have TAs. Some use them for specific PPA time and some I think will have PE time (for small schools it will be a bought in instructor) etc for PPA time.

LaurieMarlow
When MNHQ decides to delete your posts, you might want to reflect on why that would be, and if your behaviour really is acceptable.... just a thought