To be angry there is no school place for my son?

[supersonicginandtonic]

I have been told that there is no place for my son in school. He has SEND and 2 parents are key workers. In year 7 at secondary school. They've told me there is no place for him as they've had to prioritise children of critical workers.

Sorry I have no experience of this. I see you’ve raised it with the LA. Have you also raised a complaint and escalated it to the Governors? The more the head is held accountable, the more likely she is to get her head out of her arse and start acting like a decent head perhaps? It doesn’t sound as if you rate her in general.

@LadyPenelope68 actually yes I do and I'm far from stupid thank you very much.
I was a teacher of special educational needs for 6 years and ran my own day nursery afterwards. If you read my full thread you will see it's just the head being difficult. The head of year 7 even told me herself they didn't have many people in and she cannot understand the head. Is that you headteacher?

@Mummyoflittledragon she doesn't have a compassionate bone on her body. She's like a dictator. She is only there as she was brought in to raise the OFSTED rating. She's vile. The rest of the staff at the school are absolutely amazing.

Can I just say to any school staff on here, I am not bashing you at all. I know what you're going through. My brother is a teacher in school in inner city Birmingham, it sounds a nightmare. You have my full support.

OP, I just want to say thank you for the work you do with your service users

@supersonicginandtonic
Can I just say to any school staff on here, I am not bashing you at all. I know what you're going through.
Absolute bollocks, you’ve no idea. I’m a teacher, I’ve children I desperately want in school due to SEND/vulnerability, but due to staff numbers, actual space in classrooms etc, it’s not possible to get them in. I’m letting them down, but there’s f**k all I can do to get them a place.

I’ve heard it all on this thread. A GP not a critical role- they are seeing covid positive patients in the community, delivering the vaccine and seeing normally unwell patients as well trying to keep them out of hospital as much as possible. Although it may seem like it- Covid isn’t the only illness that matters- I’m still seeing patients with other illnesses to. What a ridiculous statement @LittleMissBrainy
I’m working in medical admissions looking after both covid and non covid patients included in that are those with substance misuse issues. I need the safeguarding team and substance misuse teams to support my role. If they aren’t here my time is taken up with more safeguarding issues and taken away from looking after covid patients. Just because some HCP/support worker isn’t in direct contact with Covid patients doesn’t mean their role isn’t critical in allowing for the care of covid patients. And not all healthcare is about Covid.
That aside my DH has been told he is a critical worker. He is in the armed forces and is not involved in the response to Covid. His role has been identified by the government as something that cannot stop and a directive has come from high up to his team that they must ensure the duty is covered- it is vital for national security so this whole only brexit or covid makes you a critical worker is nonsense.
Thank you @supersonicginandtonic from a HCP, we need you to do your role so we can do ours.

My understanding is that schools can cap students based on individual risk assessments- e.g. if they do not have the staff available due to self isolation etc, they cannot have all the students in that they usually would.

The school will also have individual risk assessments around social distancing etc.

If all work is being set online, some schools may be practically limited by access to IT and feel the need to prioritise.

It is a really difficult situation, and just because the government guidance says something should be in place does not mean it is always practical or possible to offer.

That said, it does seem to me that your son ought to be offered a place. It sounds like, even with their published criteria, places were offered on a first come/first serve basis, the school have hit capacity and they now can't offer your son a place without refusing someone else- which would be very tricky to do. And it's easy to say that one extra child wouldn't be an issue, but I bet you aren't the only one asking for a place.

I hope you do manage to get somewhere with the school and I think it's entirely reasonable to be angry, but unfortunately, I think you also need to think about plan B.

@LadyPenelope68

You’re a teacher?

Please tell me you’re not serious.

@FamilyOfAliens I think she's the head teacher at my sons school 😂

It’s very difficult OP
We live in an a fluent area and everyone and their dog is a key worker. Our village alone (no more than 200 people) has multiple doctors, nurses and emergency service workers.

Some local primary’s had 75% capacity kids who were ‘technically’ entitled to a place under government guidance but the school simply didn’t have the ability or staff to do that. So they started having to make really tough calls over whose parents were more essential.

Obviously drs, nurses and supermarket workers are going to be prioritised over other roles like probation workers and non food delivery drivers. Seems unfair but what else were the schools supposed to do. They were running with almost half staff levels due to self isolation and childcare issues. They can’t have children coming into the school when they don’t have safe staffing levels to care for them.

To those disputing the OPs eligibility, if you scroll down on the guidance there is a section that covers health and social care which makes clear that roles like OPs are eligible - as they should be.

Hi, you mentioned also having 3 teenagers. I'm just wondering (rightly or wrongly as I have idea if this would be a reason) whether the school are assuming, depending on their ages, that they would be able to look after your 11 year old?

I'm not saying that is appropriate depending on your sons needs, but it might explain their thinking a bit

@tiredteacher100 Possibly. I've got my 15 year old nephew who is classed as vulnerable. He doesn't need a place though as he's capable of working from home.
I also have DD and DSD Who are 13 and 12 so I feel, personally that they are too young to have the responsibility of caring for him.

It could be that they are indeed expecting the other children to step up and supervise, but once it has been pointed out to them why that is not an option, then they should understand alternative plans need to be put in place.

I'm sorry, OP, this must be really stressful for your family. I hope it gets sorted soon. I would be considering my child's future at that school after all this.

Good luck for today OP.
There are some weird responses on this thread. Even if you disagree with an OP I don't understand the need by some to be so snide about it.

[quote FamilyOfAliens]@LadyPenelope68

You’re a teacher?

Please tell me you’re not serious.[/quote]
I think you could be right, OP

Sorry, quoted the wrong post. Guess I’m stupid too, OP

You are quite clearly a critical worker, your work and your DP’s work are critical, even more so during covid and are both directly related. Anyone who can’t see that is stupid! My sister’s a nurse and her husband a care worker, they are entitled to a school place but aren’t taking it because they can work their shifts around it. If you cannot do that then you need a school place, end of!!!

[quote LadyPenelope68]@supersonicginandtonic
According to this, no school should be restricting numbers of key worker children.
Workers whose work is critical to Covid take priority, read it correctly!!! You’ve already said they can’t take your son due to number of “critical” worker children, your job does not come under that category. You are probably classed as keyworker, but you and your husband are NOT critical workers. If they’ve no staff or no space for your son due to staffing/distancing restrictions, then they can’t take him. At the school I’m at, we’ve had to say no places to some keyworker families, there’s nothing we can do about it.[/quote]
This is nonsense and is based on a reading of only the first few lines of the guidance. If you read all of it, whilst it starts by saying that critical workers are those in coronavirus-related occupations, it goes on to define that very widely to include wide swathes of jobs that are only indirectly related, e.g. people in the justice system, people working in utilities, food supply, etc. I've quoted above the guidance relating to those in the health system which very obviously covers OP.

I find it incredibly unlikely that a school that normally takes 2000 pupils hasn't got space for the vulnerable child of two critical worker parents.

How are there still people coming on here and saying that the OP and her DP's role aren't critical?!

You're clearly a critical worker OP and your son should have a place in school.
My brother is very loosely classed as a key either (he says); he sells 'something' to the NHS but his partner WFH. They have a place for their 7yo. At another school in our city, my GS does not have a place; my son (who is definitely a key worker along with DIL who is a domestic in a hospice) has asked me to home school GS (I'm a librarian WFH) as there just isn't time in the day or indeed time off for them to do it. It's very frustrating.