Anyone taken their kids out of school?

[mac12]

My husband wants to take our 3 kids out of school (ages 8-13). He’s involved in an international study on the incubation period (he works on comms side) so has lots of access to clinical data, which means he’s read some scary stuff & often sees worst case scenarios, which maybe skews our thinking.
I am v conflicted & worried, what is the process, will we get into trouble with the local authority, can heads have discretion at times like this? Has anyone else done it or thinking of it? Or are we mad to be even thinking about it? The eldest definitely would hate it as loves school (yeah, strange)
I was hoping the govt would follow Japan & shut schools for early containment but that doesn’t appear to be on the cards for now.

No. GCSE year, so not planning to take her out unless required to.

Mine is GCSE year they have study leave soon and only have to go in for instrumental lessons and their exams. So mine will be home anyway, thank God.

I guess my logic is if it escalated quickly why woke i wait until it was knocking at our door? We're in London too which makes it a bit more likely I guess.

Are those taking kids out not worried about not getting the same school when they re register with the LA, or do they intend to keep them on roll but pay the fine?

I'm thinking say they're off I'll for the next week. And then see how things are. It's all moving so quickly.

I'm a teacher and we haven't had any children taken out yet (as far as I know!)

Would people advocating closing schools (not meaning on this thread as most people making an individual choice for their own kids) be comfortable with vast amounts of essential workers having to have time off to look after their kids and leaving hospitals understaffed?

I don't think every child in the country has parents who work as essential workers.
I think they'd expect you to find childcare and carry on, as school is education not childcare. Why do so many people confuse the two, it's not difficult.

I think they'd expect you to find childcare and carry on

Because thats so easy isnt it.

There is the sum total of 1 childminder in the radius of 2 local primary schools here.

How many parents would struggle for childcare here? Most id imagine. Me included.

Ds is at nursery (paid for) if they close im fucked essentially.

@Devlesko what childcare settings do you imagine still running if schools close? Not everyone has family who can help, and even if so they might not be in a position to help. School is not childcare, but they care for children in the sense that they are in a safe environment for x hours a day which facilitates parents going to work. No, not every child had parents who are essential workers, but many do (a surprising amount of jobs make the cogs keep turning), should they be expected to go to school whilst others stay at home? Or should we try to treat families and children the same until we have a need to close schools where necessary.

@Devlesko

I have two disabled children so it's not easy to find childcare and carry on as there aren't any settings/clubs that would accept them. Family can't cope with them.

So yep I'd be taking time off to look after them if their schools close.

There is the sum total of 1 childminder in the radius of 2 local primary schools here.How many parents would struggle for childcare here? Most id imagine. Me included.

This must also have been true in China - what did they do over there? Their strategy of keeping kids off school seems to have worked.

Bobby

If you don't have any choice of course you have to be at home.
Are you an essential worker?

Presumably they just stayed off work and will now struggle to pay their mortgage next month?

Like a lot of people here will, i guess.

Not ideal is it.

Nope. They are going to school. We are all going into town (i.e. central London) regularly. We're going on holiday to mainland Europe next month unless something/someone actively stops us. You are being ridiculous.

@screamer1 I am also in London and my kids are Year 4 and Year 1. I have no intention of stopping normal life at all unless and until something forces us to.

They don't already have an understaffed health care system that is buckling under demand in normal circumstances. Have you seen the conditions the healthcare workers have been working in there as well? Do we want that when our numbers are thankfully relatively low still? For a comparison between us and them, they managed to build a fully functioning hospital in under a week, can you imagine that being possible here?! It's apples and pears, plus as the epicentre more robust measures are required.

I dont understand the whole if the children r off school then they can go to childcare , i thought the point of being off school was to stay at home to provent possibe spread, if they then go to a childminder who has other children, they r still mixing with other children and not preventing a spread they may as well stay at school!

I've got no immediate plans to take mine out of school / nursery. If school closed I'd have to take time off work. I wonder if parents would be able to take parental leave in those circumstances?

I have no intention of taking mine out, unless there was a confirmed case at the school in which case it would surely be closed anyway.

However I do think that parents have the right to do what they think is best and given the circumstances heads and local authorities should relax their attendance targets.

I’m think I’m about it. DD is only in year one and I am at home FT at the moment. With the jump on london numbers I expect it will end up everywhere quite quickly but feel there is benefit to trying to delay it until there is a let up in the weather and other bugs. I have a 2yo too so it’s been virus after virus for some time now.

If schools close, the economy will grind to a halt as parents working in hospitals, banks, supermarkets, manufacturing, emergency services etc are off work with their DC’s.

I wonder how many Chinese children were looked after by elderly relatives while their medic parents worked.. then passed the infection on to them? I suppose we will never know?

However I do think that parents have the right to do what they think is best and given the circumstances heads and local authorities should relax their attendance targets

I agree with this. If those who can WFH do WFH it will likely delay the spread and flatten the curve of the epidemic - and therefore reduce the total death toll. The same applies I think, if those for whom it is no hardship to keep their kids home do so, then it probably will reduce infection a little and also take the pressure off schools who may otherwise struggle with class sizes as staff get sick. I'd quite enjoy homeschooling mine for a bit and although the littlest has just started nursery and I was planning on going back to work, it wouldn't be too much of a hardship to delay that for several months if needed.

Perhaps teachers, nurses, supermarket staff etc would like to be at home with their DC’s to reduce the risk of their catching the virus.

Perhaps teachers, nurses, supermarket staff etc would like to be at home with their DC’s to reduce the risk of their catching the virus.

Essential workers having to be out and about and working during a pandemic deserve as much praise and support as any firefighter or other emergency worker who has to run towards danger rather than away. I know I appreciate what they've done even so far, and what they're going to have to do. I'm not sure they'll be helped if Joe Bloggs, who could easily wfh and stay indoors more and even keep his kids off school, insists on carrying on as normal just for the sake of it.

At some point maybe Joe Bloggs will need to step up and go outside and volunteer for essential work, and hopefully he will, as might any of us. Right now though, the most useful thing a lot of ordinary people could do might just be to stay out of the way, allow our normal lives to be restricted by staying at home as much as possible, keep our kids at home if we can, and thus help with the 'delay' stage.