To not send my children to school on the strike days?

[mumoffourminimes]

(Primary) school have said they will open on the strike days with TAs in classrooms instead of teachers and they will not be covering the national curriculum (fair enough). But do I have to send the children in under these circumstances?

Is it even safe to have a school full of children and half the number of adults?

I'm especially thinking of the younger years, unfortunately there have been some violent incidents in both yr1 and reception classes and there are some kids that really need the supervision.

I don't want to send my children in for babysitting services, i'm at home on maternity leave so I don't need that, lucky I know. So AIBU not to send them?

Obviously don’t send them in because then you’ll have to cross the picket line. I would rather gouge my own eyes out than cross a picket line. I ain’t raising no scab! 🤣

I'm not sure what happens if your child does cross the picket line if the school is partly open

Genuinely, given that you'd rather gouge your own eyes out than cross a picket line, would you apply the same thinking to nurses strikes? If you had a hospital appointment that was still going ahead, would you not go to it? Would you not take your child to theirs if they had one?

My mum is a teacher and will be striking, but certainly doesn't view children as scabs if they go in!

@WeWereInParis the scab thing was tongue in cheek, but the answer to your question is yes. I rearranged my daughter’s physio appointment during the last nurses’ strike.

If school is open for your child then it will be unauthorised if you don't send them in. I don't blame you for not wanting to though.

I have one school open, one school closed for my two and work currently are only expecting two classes in. Could all change though.

You do realise that HTs are doing their best to keep schools open because they realise that some parents have no option but to go to work and other children will just be better off in school. They're not allowed to ask teachers if they are striking or not so of course they don't know which staff will be in (although in some schools there'll be a good enough relationship that the teachers may well say). All HTs can do is organise the day based on what they know - that TAs can work so that's all they can guarantee.

Send your child or don't send your child. It's up to you. But school is open and just because they're not following the curriculum that day doesn't mean the absence will be authorised - in the same way that parents take their child out the last week of the Summer term "because they're not doing any work anyway".

What is the attendance mark situation? Will they be given authorised absence if you don't send them? Or unauthorised? If the school haven't decided yet then they will need to make a policy.

Scabs?! Wtf? Some parents have to work you know, whether they are supportive of the teachers' strike or not.

Would send DC to holiday club which is staffed by non teachers and doesn't cover the national curriculum. Think of it as a day's free childcare

Dds school have said if you don’t send them in, they are expected to do the days work they will set online.

TAs will be covering in school but no formal lessons.

I think dd would rather go in, draw and play than stay at home and do work on line and me too, I bloody hate online school work

This is so frustrating.

I don't want to send my kids in - I support the strikes 100%. I don't want me sending them in to look like I don't support them.

But I don't want it to go down as unauthorised absence. Especially not for all 4 days.

Lucky you being a SAHM or having a flexible enough job that you're not inconvenienced by a day off.

How fucking stupid to call a 7-year-old a 'scab'.

My eldest's secondary school is completely shut, my youngest is at primary school and they are open as normal for some years, including ours, and closed for others. It's not crossing a picket line to send my child in when the school has written explaining that those classes are open as normal. Why should we get an unauthorised absence and miss a day's school if the rest of the class are in?

Wow. How selfless of you to prioritise your own ego over your child's health needs.

I didn’t when my child was at primary school. They were covering in a similar way and I sent a letter in to let them know I wasn’t impressed they were covering for striking workers. They probably didn’t care but I thought it was appalling. Have to say head at that time was a knob and I wasn’t surprised. I was a teacher myself then and I was out on strike. I’d have been furious if our head had negated our action by covering classes of striking staff. Fortunately she supported us.

If school is open for your child and you don't send them it's unauthorised.

And also - if they don’t go in, they are expected to do the online work that will be set. But it will be unauthorised absence.

If they are going to make it unauthorised absence, then good luck making people do the “whole days learning” they have planned for online.

Madness.

Of course they don’t 🙄 You are deliberately misrepresenting those comments which are very obviously made in jest. Even the singular comment that did appear to be serious was aimed at parents and not children. How pointless to perform this silly faux outrage over something that hasn't even happened.

What a nasty, personal thing to say. It's not egotistical to support strikes. Perhaps OP's child has a chronic condition that means she is likely to be affected all the more should conditions not improve within the NHS.

I mistyped - I'm referring to @WeWereInParis DD, not OP's.

You’re a scab if you send your child into school because a couple of teachers have decided to strike?

I don’t think you know what scab means. Or that it’s 2023.

You are aware ambulances were responding to life and limb calls during the strikes, yes? So it was absolutely fine to still call an ambulance during the strikes for a life threatening emergency.
Was the man in cardiac arrest a scab? Or the baby with meningitis? Or the 4 people critically injured in an RTC?

I would rather gouge my own eyes out than cross a picket line. I ain’t raising no scab! 🤣

From her previous post makes it very clear that it's about her own view of herself.

I wouldn't prioritise my own view of myself as 'someone who would rather gouge out their own eyes than cross a picket line' above a needed physiotherapy appointment for my child.

Not taking her child to that appointment doesn't make any difference at all to the likelihood of conditions improving within the NHS, but does adversely affect her child's wellbeing.

I don't think that her brief comments on this thread (the earlier one being very clearly tongue in cheek for a start) are a basis for you to decide what her values and character are or level insults about her as a mother.

Likewise you have no clue the effect on her DD of not attending that appointment, since you don't know what her condition is, what the physio involves, when the appointment was rearranged for etc.

Supporting strikes does make a difference. That's what society is; everyone doing their bit to create something collectively. Otherwise, if our individual actions don't matter, why bother voting? Why bother doing anything outside our own narrow sphere of influence?

But that's my point, if they don't know what teachers will be in then they offer a safe playing environment, not a teaching one therefor any child not attending should not have unauthorised absence recorded.

@Puppers and @BloodAndFire maybe I need to give more context. My daughter has physio on a fortnightly basis as her gross motor skills are slightly delayed (probably EDS like me). It was a non-urgent appointment. She is fine. She’s almost finished this block and has made a lot of improvement.

I felt showing solidarity for striking nurses was more important than one physio appointment, which was only moved by a day, anyway. And her physio was in agreement ☺️

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with putting the needs of an entire country ahead of one non-urgent appointment.