How the hell are parents meant to work?

[worzelsnurzel123]

With this latest blow from schools and yet further delays, I predict employers will cease to be “ fair” and they will run out of the patience BJ vaguely muttered about hoping they’d have. So what are the options?

1. Resign from jobs? This could have massive impact on income, likely to affect women and the future of women’s’ rights and progress in the workplace, creation of mental health issues and socio economic problems
2. Will some parents be pushed in to feeling the have no choice but to leave kids home alone? Esp those who are borderline age group eg 8-12. Not ideal at all. Clearly this will impact on MH, safety, parental work performance.
3. Leave kids with grandparents who are likely to be over 70 in many cases, shielding or vulnerable. Risks of passing the virus on would lead to guilt , worry on both sides.
4. Wait for everything to fuck up work wise, scrabble for child care here there and everywhere, lose employers good will due to time off needed and eventually get dismissed for poor attendance, breach of conduct and or poor performance

This is a disgrace. An absolute disgrace

I still want to know what all the other sectors have done to get round the problem of working during CV other than WFH. What magical formulas have other sectors used to ensure that all their workers are in and everything is fine ..

@Crazycrazylady

I don't think employers are the baddies in all this. I think that its unfeasible that people who don't have childcare and can't work are paid indefinitely by their company. If that was the case, every second employer would simply go to the wall. I don't know what the best solution is..

The furlough scheme. Literally the point of it.

Teacher and mum of two, in all honesty I'm desperate for the schools to reopen and for a bit of normality. But like others have said teachers and schools don't make the rules, and they change every 5 minutes often
I'm lucky in teaching online from home at my regular school times has worked for me. But as the only adult in the house it's been up and down and my own children's education has suffered as I can't be in 2 places at once.
My dd has been offered a school place as she has an ehcp but also has an auto immune condition so she'll only be going in when I do...which may be next week when we start having year 10 and 12 in small groups.
My ds can go into his school when I'm working to, but so far they've had no more than 11 students in. The r rate in our area is higher than 1, so they're try to minimise the risk. And I have 2 colleagues and 1 family friend who have passed away from COVID, all of which had no pre existing conditions, so I'm aware of the risks.

solutions need funding

It isn't just a switch to working from
Home that is the only sacrifice a lot of employers and employees have made - huge difficulty in meeting new people setting up new teams. My husband and I are having to try and stagger our working days between 7-9pm to try and homeschool and care for two primary school students whilst working in full one full time jobs - and one of us has had a 20% pay cut.

But we have had to adapt! Like schools need to adapt and consider new ways of working/doing things. People may say many are and great but I see no evidence in my local area and I think the fact that children they are looking after who aren't being taught as the school have said they won't teach as they are opening in a childcare provision basis only is an absolute disgrace.

You have got to be joking! There is no way that there is 10 layers above a teacher! If there is what the heck is going on?

MasterGland Tue 09-Jun-20 14:33:34
Education is an extremely hierarchical system, particular since the part-privatisation with the Academies program. My last school had 10 layers of management above a class teacher.

@snowballer - hasn't the furlough scheme cost just under £20bn so far. furlough is expensive

the next budget is going to be scary

Please don’t blame schools. We are doing our best. We don’t get much notice of changes! My school (secondary) has only just worked out how we’re going to get contact time for Y12 sorted with all the social distancing rules because we are hosting key workers kids from 3 other schools as well as our own. When the government makes announcements we have to make drastic changes on not much notice, and lots of people go into teaching chose it because it is a family-friendly job - they have childcare issues of their own, just like everybody.

Honestly, I think the most sensible thing For the economy/parents would be for schools to reopen, on a voluntary basis for attendance. We wouldn’t be able to socially distance though - there isn’t the space, and there aren’t enough staff. We’d just have to accept that.

The summer holidays is another issue. Without holiday clubs/grandparents, the only solution I can think of is that parents club together and try to work out some kind of rota for looking after each other’s kids. Again, no good for social distancing. But I don’t see how else working parents will cope. I think you’re right that employers are going to get impatient soon.

Teaching unions have a lot to answer for The frenzy and hysteria that has been whipped up are unforgivable.
We need to get the NHS up and running effectively again and work is rapidly being undertaken to deliver services that will be able to care for covid patients alongside non covid patients. Risks will have to be taken whether people like it or not. Same applies to schools.
Am utterly exhausted and disgusted with the whole school drama in the UK. How the hell have other European countries managed to safely get kids back to school?

I agree that there is no joined up thinking and it is going to really fuck over so many families. In our case I'm a key worker (agri) who can do some work from home but really need to be out on farms and my husband is a green keeper ,so again an outdoor job involving very early starts in the morning. When the Scottish government announced golf courses could reopen he had to go back full time. But our local council is sticking firmly to the rule that only families with 2 key workers get emergency childcare. There is no help for us as we dont qualify. We are managing at the moment on a combination of grandparent doing 1 day, another family member having the kids another day and a combination of a babysitter, working from home and annual leave for the rest of the time but it's a sticking point with my childless work colleagues that I'm getting special treatment when they are carrying on as usual. Normally my toddler would be at privare nursery and my eldest at school then her grandparent house until tea time or at holiday club. The kids dont know if they are coming or going and we are both stressed and not working as well as we should be. I love my job but as the lower earner we may have to consider that I will have to leave if this keeps up and school is indeed partime blended learning come August.

I still want to know what all the other sectors have done to get round the problem of working during CV other than WFH. What magical formulas have other sectors used to ensure that all their workers are in and everything is fine ..

There is no magical solution other sectors have had to get on with it which other than those - teachers and pupils alike -who actively need to shield I think schools should. The two metre rule isn't being kept to in shops and out and about and people are breaking lockdown everywhere - why continue sacrificing our kids education and mental heath?

snowballer - furlough is all well and good, but my company's work still needs to be done. We've managed up til now with the people who can work from home (not all roles can), but those of us who are working are pretty much on our knees. Furlough only covers part of staff wages, our running costs consist of a lot more than that, which still need to be covered.

There are going to be no fun social indoor activities for the next year. There may not even be many more outdoor activities. So every time that is mentioned it can be ignored. If there are, it is because the pandemic is over and schools can reopen normally.

And I've emailed my mp asking that this be discussed. It is not the fault of local teachers, but there does need to be a push for something.

@wizzbangfizz But schools have adapted just like other sectors Teachers have adapted to teaching on line and improving their resources. Unlike some in the private sector, we have had to fund our own IT purchases. We have set up Teams/Google classrooms etc

Teachers with children also struggle teaching and homeschooling at the same time

Furlough is a good solution if there's not much work - this is my situation at the moment. But if there is a lot of work still, and employees are going off work for childcare reasons leaving the rest of the team working twice as hard to cover it, that's when resentment will build. Not a good solution long term.

[quote StaffAssociationRepresentative]@snowballer - hasn't the furlough scheme cost just under £20bn so far. furlough is expensive

the next budget is going to be scary[/quote]
Yes I know. It was that the poster said they didn't know what the solution was, and the solution currently exists in the form of the furlough scheme which is continuing until October.

Although the obvious solution of course is to get the schools back. But that is beyond the government who is willing to pay 11 million people to be off work, many of whom work for companies that can (a) afford to pay them themselves, and (b) won't go under regardless, but is unwilling to give any money to schools to help them get children back, which in turn would get adults back to work and off the state payroll. It's monstrous.

The furlough scheme was ground breaking in its innovation, and undeniably crucial for thousands of (particularly) small businesses, but it can't be denied that there are massive amounts of companies who are taking advantage of it when financially they didn't need to.

@wizzbangfizz The two metre rule isn't being kept to in shops and out and about and people are breaking lockdown everywhere

in which case the government says that of Monday lockdown is over for all and everyone just cracks on as before. No exceptions

We wouldn’t be able to socially distance though - there isn’t the space, and there aren’t enough staff. We’d just have to accept that

But as it stands, the Government doesn't accept that, does it? That's the whole point. We can debate this till the bloody cows come home but the bottom line is until the Government either stumps up the funding to double school capacity, reduces the qualification and DBS requirements of those working in schools in front of children or decides there are no concerns and we all go back as normal, then there is nothing at all that teachers as individuals and schools as one of thousands in the system are actually able to do.

And as for 'collateral damage', there is absolutely nothing hysterical about that when colleagues are being told to work or resign when they have shielding letters, or are vulnerable or when covid takes a hold in a community and teachers are at the centre of it. There is a post on another thread (might even be this one) about a child having tested positive but the parents not bothering to tell the school. What do you think the outcome of that might be?

Waxonwaxoff0 - it's not resentment I'm hearing from my staff - it's just exhaustion I tell them on a regular basis, but there are no words to thank them enough

@Waxonwaxoff0

Furlough is a good solution if there's not much work - this is my situation at the moment. But if there is a lot of work still, and employees are going off work for childcare reasons leaving the rest of the team working twice as hard to cover it, that's when resentment will build. Not a good solution long term.

Totally get this. Hence the pressing need to get schools open properly ASAP. Because guess who ends up being let go/having to resign to cover the childcare? Women.

Furlough will have finished 2 months into the next school year. Then what?

Part time learning will just mean loads of women (and it will be women) will lose their jobs, be forced to resign or be made redundant. So now their children will get a sub standard education and many of them will also be made very poor very quickly.

Tomorrowisanewday it must be so hard. It's just unworkable!

Agree. There's plenty of time to plan getting schools back full time from September.

I'm not surprised that they can't go back straightaway that I really think the aim should be for children to be taught full-time in September. That may involve relaxing the 2 m rule. I think the WHO say at least 1 m so perhaps current guidelines are unnecessarily restrictive. Perhaps they will know more by them about how to reduce the spread. I hope so anyway.

@Tomorrowisanewday I cannot imagine what hell you've all been through and I'm so sorry for the bashing you've all received.
I really hope all those complaining have a renewed understanding and deeper understanding of how wholly reliant they and their families are upon the education system which so many by necessity view as free childcare. They've been stressed wfh whilst you've all been hyper stressed navigating the ever changing guidelines with team and buildings incapable of doubling in size overnight.
Thank-you and all teaching staff who have continue daily seriously 👌🏻