AIBU to think parents should be offered the option to keep children home from school?

[Nefariousnick]

I don’t think the current decision takes account of individual circumstances.

The DoE states ‘ Our overriding priorities are fairness to students this summer and keeping disruption to a minimum."

I have 2 primary aged DC under 5 with asthma. One has been hospitalised for it in the past.

In terms of fairness to students, this should be a concern for secondary school children and those with exams approaching. Parents of primary aged children should be offered the opportunity to home educate temporarily.

I know a key concern is disruption to the workforce and I appreciate some jobs can’t be done remotely. However, some can. I’ve agreed condensed WFH hours with my employer. Again, I appreciate this may not be well received as it’s not considered ‘fair’ but in this situation, I sincerely believe reduction in social contact where possible will ultimately benefit us all.

Finally, giving the public more options would allow families to address their own circumstances. A friend of mine cares for her immune compromised mum. mortality rates are 20% for the immune compromised. She would like to keep her primary aged DC home as any lost learning doesn’t outweigh the risk to her mum and I think she should have the option.

The whole country need to self isolate for 28 days or the virus WILL NOT GET BETTER. It’s that simple.

Hospital workers - including cooks, cleaners, maintenance etc.
Care home workers
Emergency services
Pharmacists
Food delivery drivers
Farmers
Zookeepers
Vets
Utilities - gas, water electricity
TV and radio
Internet service providers
Mobile phone companies
Workers in the prison service
Public transport workers
Fuel delivery drivers
Petrol stations - because all the above people need to be able to get to work
And no doubt others I've forgotten.

And you do all this, and then the day after you lift the quarantine, coach parties of students arrive from France, half of them infected with the virus but showing no symptoms.
And planeloads of people fly out to countries where the virus is still circulating.

Then what?

Kids aren’t even at risk.

What are schools currently doing about all the pressure about attendance stats? Realistically they have to give up on it, and I would hope that the Department for Education is telling them that.

I would be interested to know if any schools have categorically said that children who may be vulnerable to this virus being serious for them absolutely have to attend school or is this just people just assuming that schools are being completely unreasonable.

Kids aren’t even at risk.

OP's kid has asthma. I wouldn't rest easily with that.

Are schools actually forcing them to attend, I very much doubt it.

Unless you're thinking about isolating your family until a vaccine is found you're going to be at home for a long time.

You get that this isn't about preventing people getting the virus but stretching the timeframe of transmission so fewer people are ill at one time?

Whilst attendance is encourage in reception, it is not a legal requirement until the child reaches their 5th birthday.

This isn't communicated as you would have parents taking their (under 5yo) kids out in term time.

I can't work out how @Nefariousnick you have a Y1 child who is aged under 5?

The whole country need to self isolate for 28 days or the virus WILL NOT GET BETTER. It’s that simple.

Thank you so much for your input professor.

My daughter is immunosuppressed from chemo.
Her school phoned us to let us know about children from her class self isolating.
We’ve discussed with her treating hospital and read all the information I can find.
She’s in school today. Evidence suggests kids not a high risk group even with pre existing illness. There’s other research out there suggesting asthma doesn’t add risk to Coronavirus infection.

If you want to keep them off, I think you should just go ahead and blame family coughs if school are not understanding.

Yanbu. My child is yr 2 and I would really like to keep him out of school until we’re over the first peak which apparently is due in 10-14 weeks. The government hasn’t closed schools because of the effect on economy / key jobs, but as I’m sahm none of that applies to us and I could easily cover the curriculum at home. But as things are, it’s illegal for me to take him out, unless I completely give up his place and deregister, in which case we’d never get back into the school as oversubscribed.

I really think they should be more flexible. If we want to become hermits for a few months then that just helps the ‘delay’ strategy.

Oh and to echo what others have said a child can skip school anytime you fancy it until the term after they turn 5 and the school has to keep the place open. Good practice to inform the school obvs. You haven’t been informed of that in the same way you haven’t been informed of any other laws.

Most people appear to misunderstand government direction here. It should be an acknowledged truth that more than half the population will catch the virus. The current approach is not about preventing spread per se, but about preventing it spreading and peaking quickly.

Taking your children out of school to prevent them catching it WILL NOT WORK. They will be exposed to it at some other time and likely catch it. It's going to be around for months, not a few weeks.

So anybody planning to isolate for reasons other than because they or their families have the symptoms are deluding themselves that they're taking the right actions.

Unhomme

You're wrong. Yes they may well catch it in any event but delaying catching it buys time for the NHS to get over the winter flu season/more beds/more ventilators available. It also buys time for more efficient treatments and a potential vaccine. Its a no brainer for any parent to delay as long as possible.

willyoujustbequiet

I'm not wrong. You've just made my same point in a different way.

Following current government advice to only isolate if showing symptoms will allow a slow spread and moves the peak to later spring/early summer and flattens it so the capacity is there (not a vaccine though).

Pulling healthy people out of circulation now (ie, too early) moves the peak to autumn and doesn't flatten it, so the impact is there and likely higher than NHS capacity.

China is about to live-test the early quarantine approach when it lifts movement sanctions and we'll see if it has genuinely reduced or just paused.

Schools will be closed by friday

ChocolateQuiltedShitPig do you know something the rest of us don't? Currently schools are being told not to close even if they have confirmed Covid-19 cases. Our HT told the leadership team yesterday that there is talk of bringing in new legislation to stop Head Teachers who choose to ignore Government advice and close anyway from doing so. The government seem pretty adamant.

Who will care for your children if they are kept home from school if you are working from home because you can't do both.

If they're both under five they're under compulsory school age and can be kept off for any reason or none whenever you feel like without penalty. Though I'm confused as to how you've got an under five year old in year one.

@BecauseReasons i imagine the op changed the childs age/ school year slightly as not to be outing

The DFE is telling heads to be sympathetic to studets with their own health concerns and vulnerable family members in terms of recording attendance ie authorise it.

I don’t think heads are going to make an issue about attendance in the current climate. My dc school are encouraging anyone with cold symptoms to stay away for 7 days.