To think that high levels of children being sent to school are the beginnings of lockdown resistance from the working age population

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

I keep hearing widespread reports of high levels of children being sent to school under key worker provision. In the first lockdown many people did what they could to keep children at home, and employers tolerated this, but this time almost everyone I know even vaguely connected with a key worker occupation has been given a letter from their employer and told they must get their children to school. In almost all cases the parents are happy about this.

AIBU to think that this is the beginnings of resistance from younger people at continued school closures & lockdowns, when the statistics continue to be clear that few people under 50 who are not CEV are getting severely I'll with Covid?

YABU - no, people are supportive of school closures & wider lockdowns
YANBU - yes, younger people are becoming less tolerant of school closures/wider lockdowns

We are in this ‘group’. I think it’s less political and more just the reality that what was possible in March for families isn’t possible now. Either because their children and them are at breaking point or their employer is being far far less flexible. If the government want to reduce numbers they need to make legally binding requirements on key worker employers.

I haven't seen any other posts, so thank you for posting this, because it's what I've been thinking. I'm a teacher, currently wfh, but my mum is able to look after my son for me. Even so, I was told yesterday that he can go to school, and there seemed to be an expectation that I would send him. He doesn't want to go, and I don't really want to add him to the list when my mum can watch him, but I seem to be in the minority.

@Heartlantern2

I’m really annoyed about it and feel like I have short changed my children.

I could have sent them in as DH is a key worker but on furlough, now they are stuck at home for what started at two weeks, progressed to the entire term!!! Now it’s rumours it will be the rest of the school year! My kids will suffer without the social interaction and being somehwere else other than the same four walls!!

Next time if it happens again I will be sending them in!!

How can your DH be a key worker if he is on furlough?

Surely things are easier for your family having a parent on furlough than for those who are having to WFH and home educate their kids. Everyone wants their kids to have social interaction!

They can do this, I’m a teacher. I’ve also had a text from dds school saying no more provision left.

Whether they are doing it and whether they are legally permitted to refuse a space to a child of a key worker parent are different. They really are not supposed to do this.

@contrmary

If people are told their children are safe at school, and also told that they are key workers (and therefore their job is necessary to keep the country running during the pandemic) why wouldn't they send them in?

The problem (if there is one) is that there is no definition of "key worker". Probably a third or more of people could be considered key workers, in that their employer contributes in some way to medical supplies, food supplies, financial transactions or a whole host of other essential industries.

There is a definition. It’s very clear. You may disagree but no one can send their child to school without at least one parent being on this list (or vulnerable/SEND).

@Heartlantern2

I’m really annoyed about it and feel like I have short changed my children.

I could have sent them in as DH is a key worker but on furlough, now they are stuck at home for what started at two weeks, progressed to the entire term!!! Now it’s rumours it will be the rest of the school year! My kids will suffer without the social interaction and being somehwere else other than the same four walls!!

Next time if it happens again I will be sending them in!!

A keyworker on furlough. I dont get that at all? He can't be very 'Key' then.

In the longer-term though it's going to have a detrimental economic effect on everyone if we don't get the transmission of the virus down. Longer term retail/hospitality etc closures will damage the economy, furlough will be unable to continue long-term if we can't get hold of the virus so many people will lose their jobs.

Schools are driving community transmission. The government needs to make up its mind. It either wants to get a firm hold of the virus infection rate, in which case schools need to be limited to as few children as possible with sanctions against employers who are not flexible around parents with children at home and financial support for parents who cannot work due to childcare. Or it can choose to continue with wishy-washy measures which don't do anything to get the health crisis under control and end up damaging the economy at the same time.

10% still have symptoms after 4 weeks, that could be a cough or loss of taste and smell. The proportion that are debilitated will be much lower.

Are you a journalist, OP, because I was wondering how it is that you are hearing widespread reports of large numbers of children going in to school. How would you know? How would most parents know?

Another poster mentioned the possibility of some schools being used as centres to serve the surrounding area.

You must be in touch with a great number of people, if you know, incidentally, that anyone connected with a key worker is being given a letter by their employer saying their children must be in school.

I hope that people follow the rules, but with such weak leadership uninspiring of trust, people may begin to interpret guidelines to suit their particular situation.

YANBU.

My friend is a key worker but would only need her son to be in the school one day a week, however she is sending him everyday because “I just don’t want him at home all day with me. I need a break.”

He is a key worker, he is in furlough. He works at the airport.

Yes, it probably is harder for some families, there is always someone who has it harder, doesn’t mean it’s ok to fall to the bottom of the pit!!

I just feel like the more and more we as a family follow the rules the more and more my children suffer for it. Not us as the parents, but them! I feel like I’m never learning my lesson and I’m starting to let them down now for it!

Do you think that it is only a coincidence that the rise in COVID started in September and has continued.
Nothing to do with schools and unis being back? And so let’s just carry on and do nothing.

Many more parents, who didn’t send their children in when they could have last time are doing this time. However, I think there are lot working the system. A friend told me of someone working in the complaints department of a fast food production company, who has taken a place on the basis of being a key worker. If schools don’t triage, this is the sort of scenario, which will be repeated up and down the country.

Doctors and nurses in the hospitals are telling us that younger people are suffering under this outbreak. I trust them.

Presumably, if the government wanted to keep schools open, and then u- turned, this volte face can only be because the warnings from scientists are so dire.

I've seen tweets today from a local primary with large ish classes engaging in fun learning activities. For example, there's an English lesson and they're interviewing each other and clearly enjoying learning together. I feel so sorry for the child at home with no siblings, parents working.

There's no doubt they are getting extra than those at home, so no wonder parents will be tempted to send their children in too.

The number of parents sending children into secondary school is ridiculous. Secondary school children can stay and home and access on-line working. But, if they can parents are sending them in - because they know they will not do the work at home. This passes the problem to schools. This then affects the ability of schools to provide a full provision of on-line learning because the in school children need supervising and teaching staff are required. So the whole remote learning experience for ALL students is watered down because selfish parents send their children to school. I do know the primary issue is different as primary school children are not able to learn remotely independently but secondary is different. The amount of dis-engaged 14-16 year olds sent in because their parents know they won't work at home contributes about 75% in my school.

The parents of school age kids are likely to be in the 25 to 55 age bracket.

You can be a key worker but still able to work from home in a reasonable enough way and employers who can be flexible should be. I am technically a key worker, as I am a university lecturer. Technically, I need to be working at full tilt to provide pastoral care and support students who are struggling, keep clinical research running, and plan teaching.

I can't reasonably do this while also homeschooling six hours a day according to the timetable we've been sent (very little of which can be done independently). But I can work from home and I can do the bare minimum at work and for that reason, I can keep mine home and not need to use a key worker place. My students and work will suffer, but that's life. I have an employer who is able to pay me regardless and as in the first lockdown, I will get paid my full salary even if I only manage to work 10 hours a week. My employer has been very flexible and supportive, as they should be because they have a lot of money and are not struggling. I recognise this is not going to be the same for people in different industries. But I also am trying to remind myself that it is temporary and one day it will be easier again, so if I can do my part, I will.

It really is so basic.

Don’t go to work = no job = no money for food.

It’s not selfish it’s sheer desperation and if people cannot understand that they must be in a very very lucky financial situation.

Nope I see sensible , caring and wanting to go back to normal as quickly as possible

Thank you. It stinks that people are sending their kids when they could be at home.
Such an entitled generation, so selfish.

@Seasaltyhair

It really is so basic.

Don’t go to work = no job = no money for food.

It’s not selfish it’s sheer desperation and if people cannot understand that they must be in a very very lucky financial situation.

But this is why the government needs to support working parents by either compelling employers to be flexible or supporting parents who cannot go to work for childcare reasons, for a short-term period.

Not being able to end restrictions because of a failure to control Covid is also going to end up with a lot of people with no job.

@Seasaltyhair

It really is so basic.

Don’t go to work = no job = no money for food.

It’s not selfish it’s sheer desperation and if people cannot understand that they must be in a very very lucky financial situation.

emphasis should shift with assumption of wfh. If employers require you to be in work, they should declare why you can't wfh rather than just say so.

emphasis should shift with assumption of wfh. If employers require you to be in work, they should declare why you can't wfh rather than just say so

What if you work in retail, factory, engineer?

It’s bizarre that I’m MN every one thinks that every one can work from home... honestly it’s the minority that can.

Maybe they should redefine what a key worker is. It seems to me that far too many claim to be when they just aren't.

It’s annoying for those who aren’t key workers or for whom no key worker place is available as it just means the lock down will be for longer as more transmission through schools. Having a SAHP and sending your child in (unless they are extremely vulnerable and can’t access education at home) is selfish. Everyone I know has been working full time at home and juggling childcare through last lockdown and this one, it’s hard and people sending their children to school unnecessarily just means the amount of time we have to do it for is extended.