Schools - only now taking 'critical workers' and vulnerable children

[Remmy123]

New government advice and letter from schools, it's now all changed again to all year groups of parents who are 'critical care' workers, even those who can work from home.

The critical care workers listed is so vast!!

I can't attach a link I'm not sure how - but have you all received letters from your school?

Just copy and paste for the link.

No-I haven’t received this.

It's in the government guidance that more keyworkers children and vulnerable children should be encouraged to attend.

That’s not government advice op I think you have misunderstood. Your dc school may be saying that.

It seems in keeping with our schools approach but I am confused will these kids now be given education?

Basically if state education becomes only available to those with parents in certain jobs I think that is slightly unethical..obviously providing childcare is different but for schools such as our providing virtually no remote learning it does provide an extreme restriction on the access to our education system which would seem very difficult to justify unless very short term.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

It could just be our school rather than official advice but they are def prioritising critical workers children over any “year group” with a clear message they do not anticipate offering anything to non critical workers families (but they have been unclear on the education v childcare point which send critical in this approach as I said)

If it's like our school, the children in school will continue to do the same work as those at home. Our keyworker children have been doing that up until now. We have a lovely platform where the children are learning and responding and making us laugh etc! This will continue until the summer.

It's only up to 31st May on that guidance. The expectation is still that from 1st June primary schools will have children of critical workers (even those who are working from home) and vulnerable children plus nursery, reception, Y1 and Y6 - that's what it says.

The way I read it they are only taking criticical worker children up to May 31st then all children from June 1st.

Yes but our school isn’t offering home learning and doesn’t have a home learning platform..I have assumed (certainly from Twitter photos) that key worker children are mainly doing crafts and games too so it’s not an issue - no one is being educated - but obviously education for some and not others feels significantly more unethical.

But have you seen the list of critical workers it's very vast, it covers many professions - Information Technology for example that covers a lot of jobs

Of course IT is critical!

How do you expect companies to wfh effectively (or hospitals and surgeries etc) to be able to operate without a robust IT provision or maintenance?

This was in last week's guidance. All those in the priority groups are now encouraged to attend rather than keep them home if you can.

IT is obviously a key job. Traffic lights, banks,hospitals,research labs, food distribution, tills in shops are just a few critical services that rely on computer systems.

And in case people miss it (as it isn't in the OP) I am going to repeat what someone else said which is that this advice only applies to end of May (which is two weeks time or one week if people are not attending during half-term) and clearly says it will be updated before 1 June, i.e. when schools are supposed to be more generally reopening.

I mention IT which my husband is in, he is working from home, just didn't feel like its critical - IT covers all businesses so there will be a lot of people sending kids in

Yes and schools now have 2 days to find out which children will be wanting a place on 1 June!

The list has always been long but the expectation was that families who could manage at home should do so. We can't ask families to "manage" indefinitely.

Thanks my school sent a letter it was so unclear and jumbled - just felt like a shambles

Actually, I take that back it's not new guidance, on today's world it's quite old, last updated on 14 May.

That list has been in place since the beginning of lockdown. Yes I agree though, IT does cover a vast range of jobs, some not remotely critical, but I guess there just wasn't time to be more detailed in the definitions. I wonder if this will develop at some point?

It is an update from previous guidance as more employers begin to open.

The language from Keyworkers to Critical is a key change.

It is updated, and the key/critical worker lost looks like it's phrased differently to me, but I don't have a saved copy of the previous list to check.

This has been the case all the way through the process. School never stopped for the children of key workers and for vulnerable children. This has been the guidance ever since schools closed.

The recent change has just been that it is now possible that other children in certain years may go back from June 1st at the earliest but only if the data supports it.

Our local authority did this at first but had to reduce the list as they didn't have enough space.

As time has gone on, fewer people have used the service so they widened the criteria.

Didn't some politician say the other day that not enough parents were taking up the places? Seems sensible to offer to more people if they aren't being used.

I mention IT which my husband is in, he is working from home, just didn't feel like its critical
Have you told him you don't think his job is critical? OH works from home in IT (pretty easy for him to do) People still need IT support. He had to go in to the office yesterday as there was an issue with some hardware that meant over 300 people couldn't do any work. That's pretty critical IMO.

If this has taught anyone anything, it is that IT is probably the most business critical service there is. Too many people think it is just an administrative department. Without IT a company cannot function.