How will you cope logistically / financially / mentally if schools are still PT in September?

[Bollss]

Just wanted to ask, really... Get an insight into how many families this will totally fuck things up for.

For us, if school is PT whatever we do we will be under massive financial / mental / logistical pressure.

We both work FT, and neither of us can WFH. I have so far been furloughed but am starting a new role where I won't be able to do that (NHS).

I guess there's a possibility key worker provision will still exist but I'm not certain.

If it doesnt, and we get say 10hrs a week (based on Scotland's plans!) Then really our only options are... One of us taking unpaid leave (which we cannot afford), finding a childminder for the 3 days a week ds isn't at school and having to leave work early for the other 2 days (no childminders pick up from his school) which will cost us more than a full time nursery place does now. Or keep him in ft nursery until school goes ft (which we could only afford to do if he keeps his funded hours half of which we haven't been able to use)

How will you cope? Will it affect you? Do you have any better ideas than my crap and expensive ones

Also if the afterschool club doesn't run we'll be properly screwed.

I'm a teacher with a 3yo and 6mo.

3yo was supposed to start pre school in Sept full time but no idea what she will get. 6mo going to grandparents but they can't have both all day every day.

If it comes to it H will take unpaid leave but it's a bother we could do without.

Families with primary/pre school children have been forgotten.

I would usually work four short days in the office and then do an hours work everyday at home to complete my contracted hours.

I’m now fully working from home and the company I work for are planning for this to be the norm for those who want it and who have been at the company 6 months plus.

I’m very lucky I can work flexibly, if my son was to attend school two days a week I can work those hours then on the other days I can work when he is in bed. Due to the type of job I do I wouldn’t be able to look after my son and work at the same time.

At the moment I work before my son gets up and I work as soon as he has gone to bed, I give myself Monday night off. So while I can manage I get very little time to myself and my boyfriend doesn’t get a lot of quality time with me.

I don’t have to return to my office this year so logistically just about . Currently doing a mix of school for one child (2 soon hopefully) , childminder and their dad/ stepmum also do some care .
Mentally I don’t think we will be in such a good place .

Already struggling with the mental and physical workload, but I guess we'd have to keep going because there is no alternative. Luckily I am able to work from home very flexibly so currently finances are not affected too much.

I’ve not had any issues working FT at home in regards to delivering my outputs. I don’t miss the office at all and hope their is a wider culture of wfh when the kids return to school. However, the kids are bored, lonely, under stimulated, under exercised and stare at their iPads while slobbing on the sofa way too much. One has a good amount of school work provided but it only fills about 2.5hrs per day. The other doesn’t, and doesn’t need to send it in, so sees no value in doing it.

I think that lots of families will have to rethink the age at which they are comfortable in leaving children at home alone (SN aside of course). There has been some talk in my area of secondary school teachers being roped in to teach/provide childcare for primary school pupils, leaving their secondary students to home school. I could see this happening, especially in areas where a MAT is in place with secondary at its head.

Social distancing will be dropped by September so none of us will be in these awful predicted scenarios

We would be alright. We already have had to employ our nanny full time, so that would just continue. Financially we are for now better off, our biggest challenge is mentally. We’ve had to push hard to get our SEN dd her school place too, it would be heartbreaking for her not to finally get to go to school. Also very draining to continue to feel more like her carer than parent.

We would be ok. Currently DH and I are both wfh and I'm part time, so I have a bit of spare time to help the DC with their home schooling. Youngest is 10 so they are reasonably self sufficient. In Sept, I think we can both continue to wfh at least some of the time, so the current setup should be sustainable.

However, although it would be doable for us, I support the schools returning full time with no social distancing. IMO the risk from the virus is outweighed by the negative impact on the DC's education.

I really hope you are right bulletjourneybilly. It would certainly be the sensible and logical approach. We have bad flu seasons every few years which kill more children than covid has but we don’t shut schools. If governments continue to insist on social distancing in schools and they therefore remain part time or only open to certain students, people will get together in groups and provide childcare/homeschooling in reciprocal arrangements with others. Obviously a much worse option to them being at school being taught by qualified dbs checked teachers but people will do what they have to in order to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads. The question is, does the government look at the whole picture or not. Education has been bottom of the pile throughout this and it is shameful.

I'm in a similar situation to SimonJT but if my school and my DD's school both return part time, the hours won't match so we're going to need to hire an after school nanny (Btw, London posters - Koru Kids have plenty of nannies available and cost for us at least is the same as the school wrap-around - which I'm assuming won't run).

I am actually much more worried about the availability of public transport into London than the education issue per se. Remote education is possible but I can't teleport!

I work three days a week but if this goes ahead I will probably have to resign as with three children at school, I just don’t see how that would work if it was PT. I also rely on wraparound care. I can’t do my work from home.

I'll eat my hat if English schools are not open to everyone full time in September.

However, my gut instinct is that they will say we still have to have arrangements to allow social distancing of adults (parents) on site and 'bubbles' for children- albeit of 30+. This will mean there are still issues with school day length as there will have to be staggered drop off/ pick up and before/ after school clubs that mix bubbles would not be allowed.

@bulletjournalbilly I so hope you are right.

I'm lucky to work part time and have a very lovely flexible boss so we will be fine.
I've not actually discussed it with my work but I expect I'll be allowed to continue working from home.

I hope you are right reefedsail and largely agree with you. I think they will be open at least for primary (secondary is trickier but hope a solution is found). No wrap around will be a pita but we could juggle for a while (as we are now). I do think it's important for all children to be in school full time

Childcare not an issue for us as my youngest is 12 and the oldest 17.

My main issue is that I just can't support the oldest two with a lot of what they're doing. They are studying subjects at levels I never reached - DH did a-levels in Maths, accounting, economics, I did languages and geography at Higher, oldest DS is doing biology, chemistry and computer science and we just haven't a clue.

If the school were providing good online teaching it'd be bearable - just. But they're not, we've had zero online teaching so far, very little feedback on work submitted. It's exceptionally poor and very worrying for my middle child who should be doing her exams in May.

On a personal level I always really strggle in the autumn with the decreasing levels of light, especially in November which is just one long hellish slog from start to finish. Even with high levels of Vit d tablets and a light box it was so bad last winter I ended up crying all over the GP and leaving with a prescription for prozac. Usually november/december is bearable because i've stocked up on sunshine on a summer holiday somewhere lovely, or made the most of the uK sunshine by getting out and about. This summer that's being stolen from me too.

I would probably have to quit my job. I only work part time and am furloughed at the moment, but the industry I work in ramps up in September and I would need to be in the office, but is very quiet June, July and August. If the school hours fit around my job which is 3 days a week we would cope, although my oldest has SEN and it has been hard, not because it's hard having him home but because he was starting to school refuse since Christmas, although we did always manage to get him in eventually. Having had 6 months off I predict he is going to be challenging come September when/if they go back. My husband runs his own business but we don't qualify for any support so he has earnt nothing since march. When he is earning, he earns a lot more than me and his work is very full on so we need to leave his time free to accept work otherwise we will be in serious trouble. It's all such rubbish at the moment!

Oh and I'd dearly love to send them private as the local private school has been teaching online since March. But with fees of about 40k per year for 3 children, and DH's job on a shoogly peg because of the economic crash, we just can't afford it.

I am the higher earner. My husband's contract is not being renewed (this was on the cards even before coronavirus, so we've had some time to prep).

Silly, really, that his unemployment makes us feel lucky, but it does.

I am worrying about this too. I work in a school so luckily have a key worker place for my youngest. So I realise I am in a better position than lots of people. I am starting back next week and feeling nervous. But my older two will be at home still. The last few months have been very hard.
If schools don’t go back in September I will have to ask to work part time or quit.

I've had to cut my hours already. We are both key workers but school are no longer providing full time key worker care for reception class, only part time hours. I'm the higher earner, but my husband isn't able to cut his hours. We'll be in deep financial doo doo if this continues into next year.

It's all a nightmare isn't it. Even for those of you who it won't be too bad logistically and financially, it's still affecting you mentally.
Me too. Ive worried about it every night! Ridiculous because there's sweet fa I can do about it!

I'm seriously worried!

we could struggle on. I'm PT and were both WFH but I'd probably choose to resign if likely to go on til Xmas time. DD6 is struggling at school and I hate how little time I have with her.