Schooling - do you think there will be a choice?

[Missmummy88]

I know school threads have been done and no one really has any answers just speculation and guesses.

My question though is do you think we will have a choice whether to send our kids to school should they reopen in June?

In my personal situation dh is a shielder ( cancer and autoimmune and history of stroke) I am currently pregnant on furlough but 90% sure I’m being made redundant should furlough not be extended. If not I can work from home as only work part time online.

My kids have been so happy at homeschool. My 8yo maths has come very far with 1-1 learning (although I appreciate I have focused much more on maths and English than the full range of subjects)

My 5 yo is happy and engaged in the different activities we do, is doing well with handwriting, number formations, counting and reading.

Technically my 8yo falls under pupil premium as the pp stays with the child for 7 years as we claimed benefits while dh was ill when he was in foundation. Stats would say he is disadvantaged by virtue of this, but technically he’s not we are degree educated, no mortgage, financially stable.

I don’t want to send my kids back to school in June, to me it seems too early. The risk for us as a family, I believe, outweighs the benefits. Do you think there will be an element of choice? Particularly for those with shielders in the family?

I have had a quick google and there are quite a few articles about this. Hers another one:

amp.lbc.co.uk/hot-topics/coronavirus/can-children-spread-pass-on-covid-19/

You don't need to pay, if you scroll down then you just add your email address. That's how I managed to view the whole article.

I’m not being a cow, but I won’t go by an unsigned article from LBC. Anyway, I followed the name Dr Munro and that led me on to another article but also to a statement by the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health which is v cautious. This also led me to the Don't Forget the Bubbles website where I think I’ll spend a lot of time. Thanks 🙏

@Theresomethingaboutdairy I’ve just properly noticed your username. My mention of cow was totally coincidental and not a dig (if anything, I’m vegan so I should stop using such negative words about animals).

Thanks Dairy for sharing link

I think IF schools start reopening from 1st June it will be quite part time for many pupils. I also think that non-attendance may not be managed as fastidiously as it usually is as they know many parents will be scared and/or have vulnerable people at home. Having fewer children at school will make it easier for everyone so I can’t seem them pushing against this too much initially.

However I would expect that teachers would be concentrating on teaching those children that are present and so home learning packs will cease and it will be up to parents to teach their children independently.

If come the summer holidays the infection rate hasn’t risen exponentially they will make a more thorough plan for September. From then yes I believe you will have to send your child to school to retain their place unless they are in a vulnerable category/shielding as things will effectively be back to normal.

In France they are reopening primaries but have said it's not compulsory.

We think that based on how things were in the last 2 weeks before closure, we'd have less than 50% attendance at our school, even if we opened completely.

You always have the option of homeschooling but you won't have the back up of their school. I'm expecting there to be leniency with attendance until September but at that point families will need to choose. If the scientists have hit the jackpot straight away it will still be the end of the year for a vaccine so we need to ensure children are educated, not all parents are ensuring their children are at the moment

I am teacher eager to get back and teach children in classrooms. Certainly no dual economy team of live teaching and online -I have had enough of that. Children kept at home are likely to pester their parents non stop to be back with their friends.

Well I'm getting pestered to not send my DD back all day everyday. I'm sure some kids miss school.

When I was a kid I’d have been desperate to go back to see my friends,

I’d be very worried about any child that didn’t wish to, It would indicate something isn’t right at school. Which is understandable if parents know something is wrong, but if they don’t, it should be a red flag.

Any child who is desperate to go back and see their friends, and who has parents who don’t wish to let them through fear only, are going to find it very tough knowing all their friends are in school together and they aren’t allowed to. Different If there are health issues, as that can be explained, but if it’s just fear, that’s going to be a hard one for kids to understand when none of the other parents are behaving the same way.

Mine don’t want to go back. No red flags here. They have plenty of friends and are in a very good school. They like the pace at home and in fact they’ve flourished. They miss drama, PE and music. Those will be mostly out anyway in the first weeks back.

What are you going to do after your mat leave? Unless you wfh you'll be mixing with people with covid anyway. There's no magic gone before September scenario.
I don't thin it's fair to expect your place to be kept open, what if you decide there are too many cases in september and others could have had the place?
If it was me and I was so worried i'd just H.ed again.
It does sound like you send them in or deregister, from what was said.

"I’d be very worried about any child that didn’t wish to, It would indicate something isn’t right at school"

I hated school because I hated being forced to do things for 8 hours per day (incl school bus commute)
in a crowded environment with people I would not have chosen to be with.

A waste of time that I wanted to spend having the freedom to do exactly as I wanted
Then at grammar there was also 90 minutes homework M-F, taking up more of my free time

I also hated being forced to wear a school uniform until 6th form, especially as in those days it was a dress / skirt for girls

At least with paid work, I had the power to change jobs to what I found most tolerable, including commute and casual clothing - no skirt or dress since an interview in 1993.

I've been retired since 1 Feb and FINALLY I am free to do as I please every day.
Even fucking awful COVID restrictions aren't as stressful for me personally as having to go to work or school all day was

That’s very sad big choc, that so much of your life has been stressful unhappy or simply tolerable. I’m glad you’re happy now. Here’s hoping for a long healthy retirement. 💐

I think we’d all agree that we don’t want that for our children though. Most kids don’t love school as such, but the going out, meeting their friends, the structure, the independence, and the socialisation they thrive on.

I’d have wished to go, not because I wished to do the lessons, but so I could see my friends and not be stuck at home with my parents day in day out.

But then I didn’t have a good child hood, so can empathise with the children who don’t want to be stuck at home with awful parents. There are too many. And it’s right we let the schools go back for these children alone.

Keeping children locked up with their abusers with no respite is something we should all be rallying against.

Children are not all the same though. Many are unpopular and struggle with friendships. Daily seeing classmates with piles of party invites. And getting the weekly star etc. Never actually rewarded or praised for being good at anything. Completely overlooked. Stuck reading books years below their level.
Having to sit and write at 4.0yo.
Having to do performances.
Siting on a carpet surrounded by others.
My dc is very bright and school does not suit at all.

Lots of people are introverts. And the number of kids not wanting to do the singing etc was at least 5 out of 60.
If youre a bit quirky there often arent that many similar in 30/60 etc. Let alone possibly beinv 12m younger than some classmates.
Personally school is a lot like work.

I was worried how strongly DD has been pestering from home ed - it's all day and she's researched exam boards, fees, nearest centre, subjects and presented a plan to home school to end GCSEs. Year 9 now. It's a different sixth form college.

Have asked her why and she says it's as she's bored at school, says she watches clock all day, there's lots of disruption, says she can learn far more at home and has started enjoying learning again since home but doesn't enjoy learning at school and can't concentrate at school. She says the lessons are geared to least able in class so nothing to do for parts of lessons, says she's not being bullied. Prefers not to have to walk to school (that's a whole 5 mins each way!) and wear what she likes, prefers being able to control syllabus and start time - she has lots of trouble sleeping.

Wants to stay in touch with friends but says she can do this via air cadets (twice a week for 3 hours each time) and youth club (twice a week) for hour or two once back open as well as meet ups once allowed. She's on many millions of group chats. Her mood was very volatile - depressed and prone to anger - when she was going to school and very stable and happier since it stopped, she's only been angry for 1 minute since lockdown whereas was regular before, still in room a lot but voluntarily started making everyone breakfast, cleaning room , painting room, laying a floor. We also have 5 pets at home who she loves. She's studied hard - doing school work plus extra voluntarily, all organised neatly in files. What's been reviewed which is only 2 assessments grades have gone up. So I guess school to her is like having a job you really hate with colleagues who annoy you rather than totally unbearable.

I didn't like school much, but I was much more shy than her. She's already changed schools once as she got severely depressed in first secondary (one girl committed suicide and she told me that was how that school made her feel) after being happy at primary, girls very selective grammar but that wasn't so surprising as no social life and all work plus hours commute each way. She did start shutting herself in her room for a while before school ended but had appeared to come out of that but day before lockdown was asking about homeschool saying she was depressed with school due to constant arguments between children. She hasn't had any migraines since school stopped.

Her brother is ASD and he doesn't want to go back either but is much more 50-50 than her about it which is odd as he's the one with no friends at school. He will just accept whatever as long as pre-warned, with a first day of screaming due to change. I'm dreading on-off-on-off with him though. His ideal would be full time holiday at home with the pets and no school work but he's learning OK.

I always enjoyed working but I could choose what I did and could change firms if one was awful. I enjoyed university, very happy there but that's doing just your favourite subject, it's fun being away from home and was the first time for me there was people who helped you with issues.

I'm not sure what we are doing yet just waiting to see what options are given. I did a year's home-schooling myself and taught myself - it was fine but 2nd year of A levels so had already done one at school. She's already on 6+ for all her subjects and predicted mostly 9s but feels a safer bet to stick with school. On the other hand she's a lot happier here and so far she's working really hard and grades we've got back have gone up 2 grades. I suspect schools maybe on - off - on - off or part-time so will see exactly what is being offered. Though part-time could be a good option. It may well be year 8 and 9 aren't back until September anyway which buys some time to monitor more.

Imo school is especially tough for those of us who are hardcore Aspies and could never relate to kids even when we were kids ourselves.

In my primary school, I was subject to continual racism, but my grammar school was fine - it was just me, not them

Similarly at work, I have had mostly v decent colleagues

• and in my last years in Germany, colleagues have become friends outside work -

but it didn't make up for the stress of having to be indoors and among people every day

Some Aspie kids will welcome the return to school routine, but for others, school is something to be endured,
as any employment later outside the home will be, for the next 40 years

For me i think it's the stress (work or school) of imposed deadlines. I literally cant sleep, before exams too which affects performance.
Dd7yo already gets bad sleep before school shows etc. End of terms and start are horrific overtired and then not sleeping.
I sway between thinking its just adhd and thinking its asd too. (Things like aversion to needles/any medical treatment to am extreme level.) very demand avoidant. But school has always just blamed us and her for being naughty.

Be interested how will work as know some say online teaching will stop if teaching in class

But there will also be pupils that shielding as chances are that will be extended beyond end of June so they will still need access to online

In France you can either continue to online school with work provided or send child back but will be interesting to see what they propose here. Voluntary system in France.

www.tellerreport.com/news/2020-05-06-back-to-school-in-france-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic--a-headache.SybfwQKJqU.html

I want to believe the unions are strong enough in the U.K. that teachers won’t be required to teach across two platforms (remote and in person) at once- but we’ll see.

@Missmummy88
In your position the school would be able to code y your dc. I am shielding and that is what will be happening with my dc.

@AppleKatie
I want to believe the unions are strong enough in the U.K. that teachers won’t be required to teach across two platforms (remote and in person) at once- but we’ll see
I want to believe my dd’s teachers will care enough about her GCSE’s to teach her online so her mother doesn’t potentially die and she can continue her education.