Please don't send your child to school if you don't need to.

[Zacharyezrarawlings]

Please, please can I ask you to NOT send your child to school unless you really need to?
I realise the government guidance is badly written and clear as mud (what a surprise) but actually if you read it all (and not just check if you're on a list of keyworkers) it does state many times:

"If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be."

"If children can stay safely at home, they should, to limit the chance of the virus spreading."

"And every child who can be safely cared for at home should be."

already I am seeing posts on here and elsewhere along the lines of "Im on the list of keyworkers, wondering if I should send my child to school. My DH/partner is WFH but would get much more done if fred went to school" or " I'm on the list of keyworkers - should I send 15 yr old betty to school s she can see her freinds and keep up with her studies?"
Or even posts asking " can I turn down my child's school place if I am a key worker"

I am a doctor. This is going to be the worst few months of my medical career. Im not scaremongering but we need to take responsibilty for doing what we can to limit the impact of this.

I realise some people absolutely will need to send their dc to school for various reasons and so they should, but please, please if their is any way your child could stay at home please dont send them in.

BatleyTownswomansGuild, you're making the right decision.

School won't be routine though, it will be so unstructured and far removed from normal routine that it would probably be counter productive. They won't get the chance to socialise either as that's not in keeping with the social distancing guidelines.

I am very concerned with sending my 8 year old son, back in the fall, he is a severe asthmatic and gets so so sick every winter, im terrified to send him back. im just wondering how they are going to enforce social distancing, children just don't know how to social distance, especially the little ones. How can a teacher stay 6 feet away from a 3 4 5 year old? Its impossible, I Hope they put something into place for these children with weak immune systems . hopefully they can still have remote learning available to these kids and parents.

glo this thread is quite old, a lot has changed since then, including Gov guidance about encouraging keyworkers children to school. We are in a different stage of the pandemic.

This thread was also written when it looked like many, many key worker parents were going to be sending their kids in - which in the end didn't happen.

GLo. If it makes you feel any better. I Won't be sending mine back after the Autumn half term. Too many illnesses already floating around and DS ends up in hospital every year with chest infections. I'd be happy to send back in June, but latter half of Autumn term no chance. I could be home schooling for sometime! Then again things are changing very fast so, I'll decide how to cross each bridge as I get closer to it, but as things stand mine will be at home after Oct. halfterm. (If they go back in September).