To think that homeschooling should be optional at the moment?

[Albustydumbledore]

I realise there's been loads of threads on this.
I don't want to be fined for keeping my children home.
I don't want my child to lose their place at school.

It's not that I'm scared because I think there's a huge risk to our family. But I would rather homeschool (because I'm in a position where I could) through a second wave.

Feel like this because
I feel I've got a social responsibility for the part our family is playing in transmission and spread. (Allbeit a tiny tiny tiny tiny part but if the few families who can homeschool did, surely rates would drop a bit?)

I don't want to put unnecessary pressure on teachers right now. I hate that they are in this situation.

Ultimately I don't want to be a part of / responsible for the transmission of somebody else getting sick. I feel those of us that can should do our part to take weight off the system and it's making me angry that I can't.

Anybody else?

I agree. Especially for people who are high risk, caring for someone that's high risk etc it must be a very difficult decision to effectively expose the high risk person or risk losing a school place.

@Vgbeat

You could always unregister them and home school if you prefer. However, as long as you are taking sensible precautions I think the risk is relatively low. Make sure you wash hands as soon as your home, put uniform straight in the wash and limit unnecessary contact.

I'm sorry but when a blazer is 3xx pounds I don't think I'd want to buy 5.... and they need to be dry cleaned anyway....

I totally agree that we should have a non-deregistered HS option. I'm not sending my kid in because of my medical reasons and the school already said they have to report it.
They will try to talk to the case officer on my behalf, but that's as much as they can do.

On another note: I do think that schools should have the option to flag if it's okay/not okay for a kid to be homeschooled. They know the kids. If a kid did well, has their grades up or expected level and parents are engaged, then they should help and council/LEA should but out. They should be focusing their efforts where this is not the case ans where actual intervention is needed. Following up perfectly normal families is a waste of resources.

@timeforanew

The problem is the ridiculous place allocation in the uk school system. in most other countries, you are in a school area, you get a place. School knows how many kids are in the area (as there is a central registration), so they adapt. You move out of the area, you move schools, even mud year. there are no waiting lists. So they can offer a more flexible approach. in the uk where schools without a central registration, with schools having waitinglists and parents hogging places and then move away and get siblings in via the siblings list, its impossible.

So how does that actually work if (say) an extra 50 kids wanted a place in Year 4?

How do they magic up classrooms and teachers?

Or is it a car, if actually...class sizes just get bigger and you feasibly end up with 38 year 4s in a classroom?

@00100001 local authorities know how many houses etc are in a school area, so they have a good idea of he numbers of kids. 50 kids more without any more houses would be very unusual. If you move out of the area, you move schools. New houses etc are dependent on a new school being build, or an existing one being extended (or occasionally the borders of areas being tweaked a bit).
Local councils know how many children are at each address, so they can plan in advance. The occasional bulge class happens, so does the occasional combined class - many areas go through a baby boom, and then families are getting older, so my old primary school seems to have a bulge class every 6 years or so (either using internal rooms such as the art room, or renting space nearby, like in a secondary school, if there are 2 bulge classes at once), and has to combine classes once in a while because there are not enough kids. Teachers move between the schools in town anyway, so they are working at the school they are needed.
The problem in the uk is that people move out of catchment, but keep their kids in the school. If you move out of catchment , your child needs to move school. The end.