Schools not to open over the summer for children of keyworkers

[Hopingforsummer1]

Am I missing something or is this completely unworkable? How are keyworkers supposed to arrange childcare over the summer holidays when friends and family members can't help due to social distancing? Surely rules will need to be changed to make this doable....

Bubbles are beginning to be introduced.
Childminder’s are allowed to work.

Summer clubs/camps etc need to be allowed to open as they would any other year when schools are closed over the summer. They should adopt the measures that school have had to eg bubbles. The government can not rely on the good will of teachers over the summer holiday . Some have not had a break since February. Someone else has to step up also now.

Our school will be providing holiday club as usual.

That's confusing, with headlines today such as this one on the BBC: Summer catch-up plan for England's schools pledged

@flumposie - absolutely, I didn't mean to suggest that schools were to blame. The government should be clear that other options would be made available and detailed what those options should be.

*should have been clear

As hours of work return to normal, then the idea that everyone who serves the nation is a key worker loses its impact. Soon, someone who is a key worker has the same issues as any employee so it seems rather odd to continue to insist on preferential treatment in terms of childcare.
Let's say I work in a supermarket. At the start of the epidemic, shelves were empty and there were issues that meant that supermarkets were short staffed. This is no longer the case; therefore should supermarket workers have different childcare arrangements to someone who works in another kind of shop?

Childminders are open. Some schools have said they will still be running summer camps, if under reduced numbers. The idea of bubbles has been introduced - I suspect that if you can’t get a childminder (and some of them do have extra spaces during the holidays because Teachers and other school employees don’t use them), you will have to reach out to local parents in your area and arrange some “swaps” for childcare - it isn’t only key workers that will be back at work by summer, Lots of employers will want people back. So perhaps friends will be able to help, but I imagine the advice will be to avoid using grandparents (because of higher risk to them if they catch it)

As a parent, and a teacher (so not at work during the summer holidays) I have already told some local parents that if they need help, I am happy to provide it if allowed to do so.

Ours is running a holiday club.

Might not be a blanket rule.

We're open for key workers over summer. But it's a private school so maybe different rules (though we have to follow govt rules at the moment so I don't know that we can just make up our own for summer)

My nursery provides after school & holiday clubs and are planning to open their summer holiday club. After school club is back open. No idea how that works but they opened on 8th June!

They do need to make it clear very soon what the other options will be. A lot of people probably assumed schools would stay open over the summer for key worker children. Hopefully holiday clubs will be up and running, or households with more than two adults in them can form support bubbles too.

All workers are key workers now.

Schools need to close as usual over the summer so teachers can be well rested for the massive work they will need to do catching children up from the months of education they have missed in this academic year.

Holiday clubs are running at our school we've already had the promo emails through.

... BJ's assertion that these vulnerable 'grandparents' can't look after children over the holidays make me laugh, at 52 I'm older than lots of the children's grandparents at our school!! 😆

The childcare issue affects both key workers and non ‘key workers’, as the vast majority of people are expected to be back at work now (and most jobs are important, otherwise they wouldn’t exist).
Hopefully summer clubs will open.

Summers camps will be open by then Won’t they?

My camp has been running all the way through from April and on some extra days to help the parents. Smaller groups will be introduced now as things probably will start to fill up more now.

I'm really hoping summer camps are running just so my DCs can get out of the house and mix with other children. I'm a key worker, but luckily DH is working from home so we've managed up till now. But now they need some social contact and some activity.

They do it’s a long time for children to not have been interacting with others.

@NovemberDecember surely by now after all the many posts discussing this you must have realised that teachers are not paid for their holidays and you can’t just force people to work above their contracted hours. All the teachers in my state school have been doing more than usual-actually teaching a lesson is much quicker to prep than running one online.

@NovemberDecember you do realise that teachers don’t get paid for the holidays don’t you? I have worked through my Easter holiday, two bank holidays and half term for free. I’ve had to leave my 11 and 13 year olds home alone. I will not be working for free over the summer. No way!

I think the term “ key worker” is defunct now as everyone starts to return to work. Childcare arrangements are a problem for us all now unfortunately