To think the school hasn’t thought it through.

[Canneverthinkofagoodusername]

Firstly, I would like to say I have respect for all schools and teaching staff through this tough time and I know that they are under a huge amount of pressure and all that.

Generally the school (primary!) dc go to is fantastic, supportive etc.

But I feel they haven’t really been fair at all!

Firstly they prioritised keyworker children which is great but they’ve given spaces to children who still have one parent at home. They’ve given children with just one keyworker parent a full 5 days as those parents were given first choice before anyone else.

As there is a fair few keyworker children at the school it’s left little to no capacity for any children that are vulnerable!

Aibu to think they should have prioritised those children with both parents being keyworkers, then vulnerable children and then keyworker children with one parent still at home if spaces available rather than no provision for vulnerable children. Some children have been given 1, 2 or 3 days depending on space. Some go the full week.

I only ask as DS is somewhat vulnerable and hasn’t been given any provision. He is on the spectrum and has an EHCP. He didn’t go during the last lockdown for various reasons but we didn’t anticipate how bad things would get. The social skills we built years learning become too hard for him, it took several weeks to settle him into school in September - to the point where he was screaming outside the school every morning sitting on the grass just refusing to budge. He started suffering from severe anxiety, panic episodes. He wasn’t himself at all. He was biting himself in frustration etc. Lashing out at us. All issues he didn’t have before lockdown and it was just the anxiety about the virus and not seeing anyone apart from us - for someone on the spectrum he is a very sociable boy and thrives on it.

Basically he went from a happy go lucky child who was generally settled and happy at school with support to an over anxious, snappy and at times would lash out which isn’t like him at all . To the point that I had the school putting a cause for concern record on us and blamed us after he changed so much during lockdown. Very little work got done during lockdown (I was always honest about this and the school knew this from the start!) and he’s already behind his peers by 2 years.

Thing is things have got improved since September. He’s more settled and usually enjoying school but I’m worried sick a prolonged time off school is really going to set us back and we will be back to that again.

His behaviour at home isn’t great and it affects Dd. Partner doesn’t qualify as a keyworker but has worked throughout all lockdowns and long hours. The pressure is on me.

As well as this we had a terrible 2020 as family not just due to covid but various other things - death in the family etc etc.

This isn’t the case of me trying to get him into school for my own benefit. Of course it would take the strain off me but it would really benefit DS being in school as well as benefitting the school after they knew how hard things were settling him back in. I would rather keep him home safe but I feel the benefit of DS being in school outweighs the risk.

the school have said he isn’t classed as vulnerable as no social care involved but he has an EHCP and we’ve had all these issues above and I’m drained and scared to be honest.

As far as I know that only only child in DS’s class has both keyworker parents and they are going 3 days a week yet another child with just one keyworker parent is 5 days a week.. there’s just no logic.

To add, the work on google classroom is way too hard for DS and we haven’t been given anything else yet. He has 1:1 support at school and I just can’t motivate him to concentrate like he does at school. 😭

If they are off for weeks or months it’s not just the case of him going back to school. Settling him in takes him so long.

They can’t magic up a school space can they 😭😭

The guidance from DfE is that we have to take children with only one keyworker parent, we aren’t allowed to insist on 2 keyworker parents.

However, my school hasnt turned down ANY child that is vulnerable or has a keyworker parent.

Schools are trying to keep pupil numbers down. Currently they're failing miserably and it's going to make it impossible to keep infection rates down.

My friend's school has six times as many DCs in school for this lockdown than they had last time. Obviously lots of parents are judging their need differently this time round. It's been one week and they've already had a case of covid and a bubble has had to isolate.

It's fine to push for lots more DCs to be in school but what will end up happening is that there will be even more bubbles isolating and even less provision available going forward because the teachers will get ill too.

There aren't any easy answers and, of course, OP your DS sounds like he should be in school. But I genuinely doubt that all the DCs in school need to be there. Parents and businesses are playing the system - somehow oblivious to the fact that they will be amongst the ones to suffer because of it when the NHS collapses.

@HowManyToes

YABU. School places are for children of key workers or vulnerable children. Your child is neither, you’ve had this confirmed.

He is vulnerable and clearly meets the criteria to be in school.

OP, as others have said, I’d contact the LA 0-25 team or your EHCP case worker (assuming you’ve already spoken to school Senco). Both our DC have EHCPs (but no diagnosis yet nor 1-2-1) and their head phoned on day one to offer them both a full time place.

Your LO should get a place OP. I’d be on the phone tomorrow!

The problem is there are some children on the SEN register that absolutely need ECHP’s but can’t get one in one LA. Had they been in another LA they would potentially get one.

I’ve seen parents having to fight tooth and nail to get their child to get a ECHP as the school say academically the child copes, but of course ASD isn’t about the academic ability necessarily.

You then get DC with MLD who can’t access the curriculum and never will be can’t get EHCP because they don’t have behavioural issues.

End of they day, any DC that is significantly behind their peers, whether it be socially or academically, should be allowed a place before a DC that has one parents at home.

There are no limits on places. School are able to accommodate key worker AND vulnerable children. Your DS has an EHCP and needs to be in school. You are not being ‘entitled’.

Please ask your school again and if you don’t have any success, take your complaint to the Governors and LEA.

Again, thank you for your input people. I cannot reply individually to you all. Generally I cannot complain about the school at all, usually fab. DS has been there since reception. He had the EHCP before he started school and they’ve always been great with him and offered him the right support which has really shown as he’s generally very happy and content at school. He thrives off the structure and routine. He has come on leaps and bounds from the non verbal child when he started. But the prolonged time off school last year really threw him out! I was being called into the school to chat about him every day for several weeks last year because of different things. Covid has turned him into a completely different child 🥺

In Scotland if you have 1 key worker and 1 non key worker, you don’t get a place. If you are a key worker working from home, you don’t get a place. Clearly finance staff in the emmergency services can get staff paid whilst homeschooling 🤷‍♀️

Have they totally refused a place, I couldn’t see in your original post but I’m presuming so? He meets the criteria so they should offer him at least part time

My son has an EHCP for ASD and ADHD and we were contacted by the school on the first day back after the holidays and offered a place. My son is sociable but generally prefers being at home to being at school - he doesn’t have that high level need for structure and routine and I think his ADHD makes him overwhelmed, so we are keeping him off and it is working fine. But I know very well that feeling of knowing what your child needs and the frustration at watching them trying to cope without it. It sounds like your don really needs to be in school. The government guidance is all over the place and you have sort of fallen through the cracks. I don’t think you should hesitate to contact whoever you need to to try to take this further.

Really hope that you get a place sorted for him soon.

My DS has an EHCP. He didn't attend school during the first lockdown and it was v tough. Like you say particularly when you see the progress that they have made reversed. This time school emailed me offering a place straight away. I think that his school is prioritising 'vulnerable children' (that label upsets me, even though I know it's valid re DS) over key workers' children.

Seems to be a postcode lottery for kids like your son, with some receiving their usual support, and others - nothing. From what you have said, he ought to be in school and it sounds like they need reminding. My year 5 son has ASD and he cannot access the online material provided - procrastinates/stresses out/refuses/threatens me/has meltdowns but in school he willingly produces work of high standard. Take it up with school, LA, MP. Good luck.

@WhatKatyDidNxt

Cool. Get the school to swap his place for a child with key worker parents, then the doctor / nurse etc can take some time off work. Nurses and doctors are hardly in demand at the moment! It’s a pandemic and a national crisis not a day out at the seaside. I don’t think anyone is thrilled with their lot.

Seriously am l the only one sick of the moaning threads about the NHS / teachers / schools etc. Everyone thinks they would do better but that easy from the comfort of your own home l suppose. Rather 12-14 hour days in a hospital wearing PPE

Did you actually bother to read the original post @WhatKatyDidNxt?

OP this definitely sounds unfair and you should challenge. You don’t sound entitled at all.

There are 13 weeks holiday a year ? What do you do in the summer holidays ? You are at home. Find ways to stimulate and entertain him yourself. He doesn’t need to be babysat at school. Don’t play the victim here you don’t know all the ins and outs of the key workers situation. Poor school staff having to cope with all these children. Stay home.

Did you post just to be good or did you genuinely not read the thread?

Its been explained multiple times why vulnerable children are to be prioritised for a place at school. The school holidays are irrelevant. Whether or not the OP is at home is irrelevant. The only issue here with any relevance is that her child is classified as vulnerable and should have a place in school due to that.

@gah2teenagers I can only assume you have no experience of having a child with SEN, particularly one that is severe enougn to require an EHCP.

Good = goady

If he has an EHCP he should be in school

Plenty of experience ta but try having a extremely clinically vulnerable DD working in a nursery having to look after 60% attendees who all seem to have a reason why they can’t stay home for a while.

@gah2teenagers

Plenty of experience ta but try having a extremely clinically vulnerable DD working in a nursery having to look after 60% attendees who all seem to have a reason why they can’t stay home for a while.

Nurseries are allowed to be open. If your dd is clinically vulnerable she could ask to be furloughed or re-deployed the same as anyone clinically vulnerable in any other profession at the moment.

What's your daughter being CEV got to do with a child with SDN receiving the education hes legally entitled to?

The answer would be for your DD to not expose herself to the risk if shes CEV during a pandemic.

And nurseries are open, so 100% of the children are meant to be in. If the parents choose otherwise thats up to them.

@Canneverthinkofagoodusername

I would keep pushing the school for him to have a place. Personally I would push for the entire week, not just two days, and see how that goes. Schools are stretched thin at the best of times and often the parents who shout the loudest get the most. (This isn't a criticism of schools as it's not their fault they're underfunded. I'm an SEN teacher now but when I taught in mainstream this was what I observed again and again) Your child has an EHCP and is therefore entitled to a place. I'd communicate with them over email so there is a paper chain and be sure to detail the effects that missing school had on him previously.

Best of luck!

If he has an EHCP & a funded 1:1 TA then he should DEFINITELY get a place!

I'm a teacher & am keen to dissuade people from sending their kids when they really could avoid it but in your case your child absolutely qualifies & IS vulnerable.

At my school, all of our EHCP children were immediately offered a place & where parents have taken us up on it their 1:1 TAs are with them as normal.

Our school is pretty bloody amazing though- all of our staff are balancing being in school teaching key worker & vulnerable children (including wraparound care) with recording lessons & supporting home learning for everyone else. Most of us are doing over & above our normal hours. Differentiated work & intervention sessions start this week, too.

Not gonna lie - it's as scary as hell but what choice do we have?

A lot of nurseries can’t furlong staff now as “they are in receipt of public funds” ie the 15/30 hours provision. This means that any vulnerable staff would have to go off on stat sick pay. Could you pay your mortgage/rent/your child’s nursery bill/buy food on this? If you can keep your child at home then try too as it’s safer for all.

In Scotland if you have 1 key worker and 1 non key worker, you don’t get a place. If you are a key worker working from home, you don’t get a place.

There is provision in Scotland for kids with ASN irrespective of their parents’ work status, because these kids are known to be more vulnerable.