One key worker, child should stay home

[Areyouactuallyseriousrightnow]

Not sure if there has already been a thread but AIBU to think that if only one parent is key worker and other is WFH, child should be staying home as school provision is for key workers who cannot complete their important role if they have to look after child at home, not so that the other parent can continue with work without interruption?

My partner is a key worker, but I don’t consider us eligible as I am home and therefore technically can be with the children.

YABU- if there’s one key worker take that opportunity to send the child in.
YANBU- if there’s another parent at home, child should stay home.

@AG1981 I don’t know what to say to you because everyone’s situation is apparently an exception, 33 pages of them on this thread. The fact is if non KW parents who are at home don’t look after their kids, and there is then high attendance at school, this introduces risk of further spread and a prolonging of agony.
Couldn’t say on the increase of vulnerable kids because every single parent I know who has taken a place this has, is in a couple with a KW, and a non KW partner at home, and has told me they are doing it so that they can work.

@Silenceisgolden20
That's exactly the problem really isn't it. So many people don't give a crap about anyone apart from themselves. There is none of the community effort to reduce the impact of the virus this time.
I think most children's and parents mental health suffered terribly during the last lockdown and undoubtedly they would all be better off in school but there is supposed to be a bigger picture here of saving lives and protecting the NHS which so many people don't seem to care about at all anymore.
I'm sure your circumstances and reasons for sending your child in are completely valid but it is very clear that there are many who's aren't.
And yes of course I have complained to all of the places you've mentioned but it is also useful to read forums like this, to gain a picture about what is going on in different parts of the country and to know that I am not alone in my complete outrage about this situation

I'm not even going to respond in detail.
Had it all my life for my child, not doing it with a stranger on the internet. Judgment from people all their life.
I work as a keyworker helping people, esp now, so obviously I give a crap about other people but when it comes to my child, I've been fighting all their life. That's when I dont give a crap. Most parents in my position are the same.
Covid won't stop that.
Hope you get some answers from the people you have complained to

Oh and where I live there is loads of community spirit. Especially where I work.

Cannot believe the ignorance of the situation on this thread. No wonder there is such selfish entitlement in full abound out there, when there are people like this, who simply can’t see the wood for the trees...

there is supposed to be a bigger picture here of saving lives and protecting the NHS which so many people don't seem to care about at all anymore

That bigger picture is of health services cut to the bone, if education services underfunded, overstretched and in crisis irrespective of a pandemic, of social services ran til their threadbare, of families pushed to crisis point. This pandemic is showing the cracks in all those services which, with proper funding and support would be nimble enough to adapt and cope. I’d save your ire for politicians and leaders who have facilitated this and a voting public who have allowed it to happen - not for parents who are doing their best for their families, regardless of whether you agree with their individual decisions based on their private circumstances.

We shouldn’t need to protect the NHS, schools should have the funding and equipment they need to safety educate their children, vulnerable children and families should be able to find support long before they aren’t able to cope. That they can’t is the national disgrace here - not Mrs Smith sending her kids to school.

I think one of the hardest things for me throughout this has been how judgmental people have become.

One of my closest friends has been awful, I think we all do it to a certain extent, but she won’t let up posts on Facebook, text rants, moan whinge etc.

She doesn’t realise how easy she has it and everything is black and white, right or wrong, no grey area, no consideration for different circumstances.

I realise I probably come across the same, but it really irritates me and has changed my opinion of her tbh.

@Silenceisgolden20 - why are you getting so arsey on here, when the discussion is not about people with situations like yours? Children with vulnerabilities such as this, are properly accommodated, and their attendance at school is not being questioned in any way? Might help to read the thread...but I hope your child is ok this time around.

@Jellycatspyjamas - “not Mrs Smith sending her kids to school” - yes when we are supposed to be in a national lockdown,

This pandemic really has brought out the worst in people. How do you know how many kids are in school if yours isn’t? How do you know which ones are key workers or vulnerable? What business is it of yours anyway? There is little evidence to show that schools are hotbeds of infection, so what is the problem?

Why bring other parents (women) down when we are all just trying to do our best?

I suppose people are on the surface quite community minded where we live but then we've had 50% of students attending
our local primary school this week. People don't seem to be able to see outside of their own circumstances and look at the bigger picture of the fact that whilst it might be terribly hard to homeschool their children again, if it is in any way possible, this is what needs to be done to keep the virus from getting even more out of control

Our school did zoom type classes with the home and school children together.

Obviously you could see who was in school.

The next day school emailed to say that they had received emails from cross parents stating that some of the children in school had parents who were not key workers and were working or furloughed at home.

I can see both sides of this

Stopping a few extra children attending school is not going to ‘keep the virus from getting out of control’. Use your critical faculties, come on

@egfd2557

This pandemic really has brought out the worst in people. How do you know how many kids are in school if yours isn’t? How do you know which ones are key workers or vulnerable? What business is it of yours anyway? There is little evidence to show that schools are hotbeds of infection, so what is the problem?

Why bring other parents (women) down when we are all just trying to do our best?

Hello, I know because our headteacher keeps sending emails telling us and pleading with parents not to send children in because they can, but only if they have no one to care for them at home. It’s also in the media today that is happening up snd down the country, and that there is increasing evidence if spread of infection within school age children, albeit as we know their own symptoms are not the worry, it’s of those they may spread it to.

@Jellycatspyjamas - “not Mrs Smith sending her kids to school” - yes when we are supposed to be in a national lockdown,

When the parent and school have agreed the kids can be in school it’s quite literally no one else’s business. The bigger picture - ie that if schools were properly funded and resourced they’d be able to run safely, and if the NHS were fit for purpose it wouldn’t need protected, those are everyone’s business - but better to snipe at other mums. Much better.

Head teachers up and down the country are sending emails pleading to parents to keep their kids at home...clearly some people on here live under rocks, or just don’t engage with their community or read the news.

And I also know that I am a key worker and my son had one other child in his class today. What is the evidence of schools spreading infection that isn’t the headline of a daily mail article?

@egfd2557

Stopping a few extra children attending school is not going to ‘keep the virus from getting out of control’. Use your critical faculties, come on

@egfd2557 A few extra children? The majority of schools (72%) had less than 10% attendance last school closure. It’s now estimated that at the least, more than 2500 schools have over 30% attendance. The point is homeschooling whilst WFH is shit for EVERYONE. We all have really good reasons why it’s bad for us. If we all (those of us with a KW partner) then use the place we’re entitled to, schools fill up, as they are, infection spreads snd the misery of lockdown and school closure continues. It’s at a rate of at least 1 in 60 in the population. Schools should only be open to those in the greatest need.

The same headteachers who agreed school places with parents? Our local authority are very clear, both key workers with evidence from both employers with a copy of shift pattern where appropriate, vulnerable kids only as identified by the head teacher or other professional (eg social worker). Extremely low numbers of kids in school. I know a few parents who have been told no, or given cover for part time working only. It’s not a case of asking and getting, the school and education authority have a role to play in gatekeeping.

@egfd2557 - transmission in schools. It’s not new news. It’s why so many schools have had classes sent home.

From The Telegraph
Mr Johnson said on the announcement of closing schools: "I want to stress that the problem is not that schools are unsafe to children."

"The problem is that schools may nonetheless act as vectors for transmission, causing the virus to spread between households."

@Jellycatspyjamas that policy sounds sensible. Our school decided to go with the government guidance- one KW parent, and childcare needed at home. They assumed people would only apply if they needed childcare at home. I agree this was naive.

When they realised they said they will honour the places but urged parents not to use them unless they don’t have childcare at home.

Hospitals are struggling because many schools are refusing a child with only one KW parent. KWs are unlikely to be the higher earner in the family.

The same headteachers who agreed school places with parents? Our local authority are very clear, both key workers with evidence from both employers with a copy of shift pattern where appropriate, vulnerable kids only as identified by the head teacher or other professional (eg social worker). Extremely low numbers of kids in school. I know a few parents who have been told no, or given cover for part time working only. It’s not a case of asking and getting, the school and education authority have a role to play in gatekeeping.

Sadly, I think there has been a distinct lack of gatekeeping at our local primary school. Number of children at school were far lower in the last lockdown, so all of a sudden peoples situations have changed when they coped last time?

@Jellycatspyjamas that policy sounds sensible. Our school decided to go with the government guidance- one KW parent, and childcare needed at home. They assumed people would only apply if they needed childcare at home. I agree this was naive.

This.

They assumed people would only apply if they needed childcare at home. I agree this was naive.

Absolutely, incredibly naive - people will always try and I think people have far less resilience this time round. I know single parent key workers here have been asked for their shift patterns and have school places working around shifts. Relatively few have been given full time places.

In saying that, I think head teachers have come in for criticism on all fronts so I could see them wanting to be seen to be supportive and accommodating, not anticipating folk asking for places on spec and then being surprised to get them. The local authority here are vetting all requests, which takes the head teacher out of the firing line and makes the process less personal. The head can identify vulnerable students but doesn’t approve key worker places.