Sending child to school when there is a parent available

[bellrooster]

My partners ex-wife is insisting on sending their son to school under the keyworker provision despite my partner offering to look after him whilst she's at work.

would you agree that this is so wrong?

firstly, the school have asked that only children who absolutely have no other form of childcare in place to be sent to school.

secondly, isn't the best way of slowing down the spread of virus is to limit contact wherever we possibly can? When its not necessary, why send a child into a setting where he will be in contact with many other children and adults. Its not just the school day but wrap around care aswell, so breakfast club and afterschool club.

from a selfish point of view I feel that its putting myself, my partner and my 2 daughters at unnecessary risk aswell, in particular I'm concerned about my 6 month old baby catching the virus.

I get the impression that the ex-wife doesn't want her son to spend time with his Dad outside the set times that they have in place.

Generally speaking if a parent wants to and can care for a child then it’s unreasonable to send them elsewhere, unless there’s a particular reason - eg a child’s desire to go somewhere (outside of pandemic times) for a reasonable length of time or if there’s something wrong with the abilities of parent who wants them

I think he will email the school and let them know he is happy to home school his son and see what happens from there.

Make contact with the school and outline the problem to them, they may very well pull his place if they know that he has a parent actually willing to parent! That will solve the whole problem!😁

I’d think that both parents should be involved in the decision making assuming they both have parental responsibility. I can’t imagine school being happy that a 9 year old with both parents working from home, one of whom can focus solely on his home schooling, is being sent in.

On the first lockdown there were between 3 and 7 kids in the whole school. At the moment there are 12 in year 6 with more coming from tomorrow. If any one of those children get a positive test then they all go home to self isolate. As well as increasing risk to school staff, the keyworkers unable to work from home will not be able to work.