Those concerned about ongoing lack of education in Spetember and onwards....

[Weepinggreenwillow]

I know there is a lot of differenc eof opinion on this, this isnt about teacher bashing etc.
But for those who are concerned about the potentail lack of access to full time education in September I would urge you to wrtie to your MP.
I have just done this to express my concern. I have never, ever done this before but I am so, so angry and upset about this I feel I need to do whatever i can, even if it will not help much.

This is my letter - to give you an idea....obviously everyone's individual circumstances will be different but the the general ideas will be similar.

Dear Mr xxxxxx,

In these difficult and challenging times I feel I need to contact you to request your help to address a matter of some urgency. I would like to know what the Government is planning to do regarding the current breach of Protocol 1, Article 2 of the Human Rights act which states that “No person shall be denied the right to an education.”

As an example I have 4 school aged children aged 12, 14, 15 and 18. None of them have received an education since March 17th this year. They have had some work set on line to be completed at home but I can assure that this does not in any way constitute an education. I am a doctor working full time in the NHS. My husband is a secondary school teacher.I fully appreciate all the many implications of this pandemic. I understand the reasons for school closures thus far. However this situation is simply unsustainable at this point. I am increasingly concerned that there seems to be no clear plan in place for a return to education for September. Part time schooling mixed with at home learning is being suggested by many schools. This will not provide my children with an education as both my husband and I will be working out of the home and will not be able to support the children with at home learning. I have been told if I instead chose to utilize the key worker children’s provision my children would need to remain in this “bubble” and would not be able to join their year groups on any day they were in school. The key worker bubble will not be being taught proper lessons unlike the year groups and so my children would be massively disadvantaged as well as missing out on being able to mix with their friends. Given that I have been working flat out in the NHS all through this, I find it incredibly unfair that my children may end up being penalised because of this.

Children all across the country are suffering massively. The many, many vulnerable children and those living in poverty are being placed at great risk of permanent harm. The impacts of this on young people’s mental health will be felt for many years to come.

A child’s right to an education is a basic human right. I understand why this has been temporarily suspended in these unprecedented circumstances but this can not be allowed to continue. I would remind you of the concept of Proportionality which applies when a basic convention is interfered with : this states that “Interference with a Convention Right must not be excessive, arbitrary or unfair, or have too severe an impact on a particular group or individual.” I would argue that interference with this particular human right is having a most severe impact on the group of the nation’s children and I would also argue that currently the interference seems to be both unfair and arbitrary.

I am not unaware of the many challenges of returning children to school safely in September, but I am greatly dismayed by the apparent lack of planning and problem solving that seems to be happening by the government. It was all perfectly possible to build extra hospitals (still unused) and to bring back retired NHS staff, but no such measures, or any other creative problem solving strategies, are being talked about to secure our children's futures it seems. Schools are confused, angered and frustrated at lack of discussion and planning from the Government. It would certainly seem as if the nation’s children and young people are a very low priority for the Government.

So please can you tell me, without further delay, how the Government plans to respond to this ongoing breach of a child’s basic human right to an education.

Yours Sincerely

People need to take responsibility for themselves, the government simply can’t afford to do it for you. If you can afford to switch to the private sector you have a moral obligation to do so. If you can afford to hone school you have a moral obligation to do so. If everyone who could provide their children with an education did so they chances of children from disadvantaged families having spaces to go to school cons September is much higher. I will be very clear. If you have other options but you decide to send little Hugo to state school in September you may be costing another child their education. I will also be writing to my MP, urging them to prioritise disadvantaged children in the return to schools. These schools were created for their benefit, the middle class already push them out of ‘good’ state schools en masse, they must not be allowed to push these children out of education altogether.

@Gwynfluff this is happening everywhere. My gut feel is that schools will break up with no clear idea of what to do once the start of the next academic year begins.

So we will hit the start of the next academic year and schools will then need 2-3 weeks of planning and CPD days to decide what to do and how to do it. Meanwhile kids still don't get to go to school and in all probability some years will still not be allowed back.

Our secondary are allowing only Y10 back as of next week but for one morning a week only. They can't go all day as the school needs the afternoon time to deep clean the classrooms. This is because they can't manage to organise cleaners that could start later allowing for a full school day. Incredible- the day is reduced my half so cleaners can start at 1 rather than 3pm! Argh.

If you have other options but you decide to send little Hugo to state school in September you may be costing another child their education

I am a Chair or Governors and that isn’t the case at our school. The headteacher will provide places to the year groups they are expected to by the government. If for example half of the reception parents don’t take up the place, this will not open up places to DC from any other year group, regardless of the circumstances. Those places will have to be kept open in case the reception parents change their mind.
Declining a place offered will not open up a place for anyone else. It will just mean smaller groups.

I suggest we avoid letting the suggestions of @EmperorCovidula derail this thread. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that one is best left alone.

@Drivingdownthe101 in our area some schools don’t have capacity already and have been employing a first come first served system for the year levels that have been allowed to return. The main one in particular is struggling for space because their class sizes are so large but classrooms are not particularly big. If all year groups are permitted to go back but social distancing requirements remain many children won’t be able to go. Anyone who can sort themselves out should do so that the state schools can focus on getting the children that most need it back to school sooner rather than later. It’s not fair to fail these children. When schools go back these children must be prioritised.

@Chaotic45

I suggest we avoid letting the suggestions of *@EmperorCovidula* derail this thread. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that one is best left alone.

👍

People need to take responsibility for themselves, the government simply can’t afford to do it for you.

The same government that’s told people to go back to work and is curtailing the furlough scheme? That’s immediately going to disqualify a huge number of people from the everyone you refer to.

In fact the economic shit is about to completely hit the fan in the next few weeks as employers start to demand employees return to work and there is no childcare or education properly open. In the next couple of weeks retail is reopening and in early July all the beauty therapists and hairdressers will go back. In essence a disproportionately female part of the workforce needs to be back at work (so far, outside of healthcare who get childcare, it’s male dominated professions that have gone back to work).

The only way this will be done is households mixing to share childcare, getting relatives involved in looking after kids again, including the most vulnerable group - older people. Let’s hope that’s a ‘safer’ strategy than getting schools reopened.

@EmperorCovidula just wow!

@Chaotic45

I suggest we avoid letting the suggestions of *@EmperorCovidula* derail this thread. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and that one is best left alone.

Yes, what's the saying "opinions are like arseholes....."

Thank you for this. I have submitted a variation of your letter to my MP and to Gavin Williamson. This was after seeing it on a previous thread. Do you know if the MP’s office are obliged to provide a reply at all?

@Gwynfluff that’s my point. Things are about to get very hard for a lot of people. Those of us who are lucky enough to have that choice to pay for places in private schools with capacity or for a SAHP need to have a conscience and prioritise the needs of those who don’t. The government isn’t going to magic up three times the space or three times the teachers and teachers should not be coerced into compromising their own safety to pick up the slack. It’s the people who can afford to pick up the slack that should pick up the slack. If you have a choice, exercise it to the benefit of those who don’t.

That’s laudable but as the stretched middle who pay high taxes already which go towards education are we really expected to bankrupt ourselves paying two sets of private school fees on top of that out of taxed income?! 🙄

emperor I am not sure why you would imagine there are all these people suddenly able to find thousands of pounds a year to pay for school fees, or be able to suddenly live on one income We would certainly not be classed as a disadvantaged family (and for that I am very grateful) however there is genuinely no way we could afford 3 lots of private school fees for dc and if one of us gave up our jobs we simply could not meet our outgoings in mortgage and bills and so our home would be repossessed and we would be declared bankrupt.
I don't know of anyone in my social circle actually that could suddenly afford to do either of those things, and none of my friends are what I would consider to be disadvantaged either.
If that is the position you find yourself in then I would consider to you to be very fortunate, and one of small minority.

Those of us who are lucky enough to have that choice to pay for places in private schools with capacity or for a SAHP need to have a conscience and prioritise the needs of those who don’t

Wage stagnation over the last 12 years means the vast majority of homes needs to be dual income. Private school provision has massively reduced through recession and wage stagnation that means some professions such as medicine are no longer as highly paid in relative terms and with the North losing further in economic prominence. Places such as Blackpool, for example, have no private school provision left. In my own Northern city - there is now a girls only, a boys only and a co-Ed private provision after several smaller schools folded in the last 10 years. Where’s the private school capacity for your plans, assuming people can fund it?

The employment rate for women is 72.4 with the male employment rate at 80.6%

The U.K. economy is reliant on childcare and educational provision to allow people to work.

I think you need to get real.

Chaotic same farce with the cleaners at our school (which now isn't opening at all next week, NW).
In general practice I don't 'deep clean' between the twenty or so patients (some shielding, elderly, vulnerable) I see each day in my room. I wipe round the desk and chair with a pack of Azowipes and the cleaner runs the hoover round at the end of the day.

@EmperorCovidula I think you’ll find there will be private school parents who have, due to Coronavirus, taken severe blows to their livelihoods and will be putting their kids back in to the state system. So I’m afraid your idea is probably not going to go quite how you want it to.

Agree with all of this and borrowed the letter.

So annoyed that keyworker provison does not include teaching. Have had to take my dd out of keyworker provision and drop my work days in the nhs to homeschool her two days a week because all she was doing was watching tv at her marked desk or in her marked square in the playground and was getting so behind. School actually has excellent home learning provison.

nonot that sounds rubbish. I can understand up until now keyworker provision was supposed to just allow them to complete same work as at home. Going forwards though I think there is a real risk that keyworker kids will miss out on teaching opportunities that are being offered to other children, not to mention the chance to be with their friends and peers, and that seems very unfair to me.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3933047-Update-on-wider-opening-of-schools-tomorrow

FYI @Weepinggreenwillow (don't normally tag people if on here, but as it's pertinent).

It’s laughable that schools are closing fir deep cleaning. The WHO have now said that asymptomatic are very very rarely passing the virus on.

So provided children are not symptomatic, they should be in school.

Even Hospital operating theatres are not closing for periodic deep cleans. A massive over reaction.

Thanks for this thread OP. I'm just sent a (edited to my own circumstances) version of your letter to my own MP.

She's labour but in the Shadow Cabinet so I'm at least hoping she'll take notice.

Usforthem is campaigning on these issues and also has template letters to schools and on its site as well as its open letter to Gavin Williamson.

There is no scientific justification for this whatsoever- children have little risk from virus, limited role in transmission and now asymptomatic transmission not a factor. Good thread by Alasdair Munro a clinical researcher. twitter.com/apsmunro/status/1269670885100748801?s=19

@CountessFrog
'Even Hospital operating theatres are not closing for periodic deep cleans. A massive over reaction'

I completely agree .

Oh, thank you bernard I will be at work but will check for upadtes on my break hopefully. Sadly though I am fearful it will be more poorly thought out waffle with little actual planning or probelm solving, but I would love to be proved wrong!