PLEASE dont send your children to school if you absolutely don’t have to!!

[heathcliffthe2nd]

I am horrified by the number of people on here considering sending their kids in tomorrow - even when they have back up childcare.
I am a teacher and I’ll be in tomorrow - I’m risking my health and the life of my kids dad who is massively immuno-compromised by doing this. But i dont mind doing this to help KEY workers (and I mean essential to fighting this disease). What I object to is looking after children whose parents have other options.... 50% of parents requesting childcare at my school. In one case the dad was a key worker but the mum was a stay at home parent.

Please, I am begging you. Be honest and think carefully if you really need this for your kids.
It won’t be school as normal. It will be unsettling and weird for the kids, as well as risking their health by continuing exposure in a limited space.

[Edited to remove identifying information]

Absolutely.

It is not school really - it’s childcare, and the guidance is clear that it’s only for those who really need it.

Key workers in the NHS are at high risk of getting covid 19, which means their kids will be carrier - anybody who doesn’t absolutely need their kids in childcare shouldn’t be exposing their kids and families to this extra risk.

I genuinely feel disgusted that people are even considering it when they have another option!

I agree. My sister is WFH now and as her husband is a postman he is a key worker so she will send my nieces to school... they are year 5 and 6 her husband finishes work at 12:30 home for 1. My sister has MS and at risk but has opted to send her kids in when old and sensible enough to occupy them selves for a few hours putting herself at increased risk.

I will be working one day a week, in a school kitchen (2 catering staff per day on a rota- obviously this will change should people get ill or self isolate). We have 16 kids in (secondary grammar with a very low percentage of FSM) there will be 7 members of staff in (including the 2 catering staff). I think SLT are hopeful that the kids will see that they work on the computers they will be doing can be done from home comfortably in their PJs rather than at a workstation in their full uniform and get fed up pretty quickly!

Sounds like some of the teachers who have been to they may work on site as long as social distancing is observed will be doing so, as that means they can get their free lunch- I’m not impressed as that puts everyone at increased risk and pissed off because I’ve already had complaints about the menu (by staff) I refuse to order more things in and will use up what I have first (I had 220 chicken burgers in for Monday which now need to be eaten through!) so if the menu is repetitive they can bring a packed lunch as I will not contribute to the movement of people (drivers/pickers and packers/manufacturing staff) to get in food when I have stuff in the freezer

I also hope that if/when schools are inevitably loosing staff if they or a household member has a cough that schools select very carefully who they take in

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

However, people are ignoring the increased risk of sending their children to school, because they don't want to be inconvenienced.

It's selfish, and these are the people who will be moaning the loudest when schools inevitably close

I think the word needs to get round schools that they don't need to 'offer' places to families that don't actually need them.

The tone in my school last week was that the listed children had a 'right' to a place if their parents wanted it for any reason- even if they could keep them home. I think we need to change that.

My hospital doctor friend said children should only be in school if otherwise they would directly prevent a doctor or nurse getting to work or if they might be beaten to death at home. She also said schools should be run along the lines of infection control units, not cheerful daycare.

It would mean some really difficult conversations where parents just didn't want the children at home, but I think that is what we should be doing.

I totally agree. There is someone on another board who claims as a bank analyst she is a key worker and is sending her kid to school. Pretty disgraceful.

Totally agree. Myself and Dh are both keyworkers but we will be doing everything possible to ensure DC do not need to attend school. For their own benefit, our benefit and the benefit of the schools staff. I have no idea why anyone would 'want' them to go if they can possibly help it. A massive thank you to all school staff.

I've just read our latest update email from school. It's a really strongly worded, upper cased plea to not try to abuse the emergency child care it offers. It reiterates that excuses like 'my child will be bored/they will miss friends' will not be tolerated, that it's a last resort and that we all need to keep our emergency workers and other key staff safe by not sending in children unless absolutely necessary.
Good on them.

When the government guidance on key workers came out, myself and my husband realised that we are both classed as such. We sent off a form to the school and they responded saying that 50% of the parents wanted to send their children in and asked us if we were considered to be in a 'critical' role. Neither of us are, so we will not be sending out child on Monday and we will just have to muddle through.

I think the guidance needed to be much more stringent. As it stands, it is open to far too much exploitation.

Same here, VisionQuest but our parents got very bolshy about their rights to send their child to school because they are on the key worker list.
reefedsail - I despair on how to be infection control units with so many young children and so few staff.

I bet they did, there are a lot of entitled people out there.

People will undoubtedly find it very difficult to work from home with kids around. I know I will, but that is simply not a good enough reason to send them in.

There’s a CONFIRMED case in my niece’s class as of Friday evening. This means that all 35 children and their teachers have been exposed and they are all having to self isolate for 7 days. This means that even if they have been lucky enough to not contract the virus (baring in mind they share things like stationery), all the parents of NHS staff and VITAL key workers cannot go to work. All those children that are coming in to school on Monday because “their dads can’t possible work from home and look after their own children” are potentially infecting the children of vital workers and are more likely to become infected themselves. I have no idea why people don’t care enough about their kids to keep them off if they POSSIBLY can.

Agree totally. This really is showing people’s true colours.