Anyone not sending their kids back until it's compulsory?

[louise5754]

If are given a choice and you are able to work from home / have childcare / not working.

My ds2 is in yr 12 and really keen to go back to school.

Starting next week he will have three 2-hour lessons a fortnight of his three subjects. So v few students in school at a time, max of about 20 for one subject, fewer for others. School has sent out clear guidelines of what they are going to do and tbh it sounds better than my office so I am happy.

Mine isn't going back for now. I've seen Reception set up and it looks rubbish and sad compared to normal. They say the kids are happy but I know my child will be just as happy at home.

Also, they are only doing home learning packs at school, not teaching properly. He will also likely be left to get on with it once more kids are back in as he has made stacks of progress at home. (I used to teach Reception and Yr 1, so I know this about his progress for definite.).

My DCs schools won't be opening until September at the earliest. I will not send them to school in the summer holiday if that materialises, DS has been working incredibly hard doing 8-10 hour days to keep up with all the work being set by school. He needs a break.

Our reception child is not going back in. We will see how the situation is when the new school year starts. We are able to manage well at home. She is happy to spend time with us. The entire point of reception is social interaction, playing together etc. And that's going to happen in a very strange way with the current situation. So we are keeping her home.

Ds2 y10 is going back for 2 mornings.

He’s nervous but excited too.

@TheMurk September AT THE EARLIEST I said. Aka, review again in September. If nothing has changed from now until September, then they won't be going then either.

Thankfully mine aren’t in the going back now year groups, so I don’t need to make that decision. Very soon there will either be a second wave of infections due to schools, shops, people meeting up, beaches and protects, or there won’t be. We will either know it’s safe or it’s not by July/August so September decision can be made then with a lot more information.

My year 1 has gone back already and my reception aged child goes back on Monday. I’m at home with a 17 month old so could have kept them off. With the smaller classes and teacher attention DD1 is loving it, she says it’s better than normal school because there are less children messing around and copying her work. So we’d be more than happy if people decide not to send theirs back for a while .
School is never compulsory, by the way. You can just deregister them.

Why September? Why this arbitrary month when apparently everything will be fine?
This 100%! I can’t find an answer to why people focus on September being the month corona disappears?

Our Y6 back full time, our Y4 desparate to go back but unable to. Presuming it will be part time next year at first.

Are you being deliberately obtuse with that question?

September is the start of the new school year (for schools in England), I don't think it's arbitrary to say "maybe when the new term begins". Saying "maybe August" would be ridiculous in the cases of English schools because they would be closed.

No. I’m not frozen with fear. Fil died on Tuesday. He had had corona for 9 weeks, tested clear, came home and died from a heart attack.
It’s too soon.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

School isn't compulsory in England (and rest of UK I believe), just education. So you don't ever have to send them back if you don't want to.

I'll be sending mine back as soon as I can... Unfortunately that is September at the earliest. I believe the positives are worth the small risk.

This is what I thought . You never have to send them back,

I have sent mine back to Kip McGrath so he gets some tutor support.

Saying "maybe August" would be ridiculous in the cases of English schools because they would be closed

Our English state school is open in August. There are a few areas in England whose new term starts in August.

@YesIDoLoveCrisps I assume (with all my scientific knowledge ) that if summer holidays didn't exist, the pupils would be going back before September. Things are opening, people need to go back to work and school. However, the summer holidays are in the way, teachers need a break, there's a lot of planning involved in reopening, it isn't plausible to do by mid July or at least pointless to do for such a short period before the holidays, but that doesn't mean July-August are a write off from an infection point of view, so this is why everyone is shooting for September, in my mind.

Specific examples aside, I think it's pretty clear that when posters say "September" for a school return they are indicating the beginning of the autumn term and thus the start of the school year.

The faux naïve wide eyed "but why do you say September though? Why will that be the month the virus goes?!??" questions aren't actually asking anything meaningful.

Mine are going back ASAP. They are both desperate to get back to some sort or normality.

My reception child hasn’t gone back. Not overly worried about risk, but I’m off work, so we don’t have to and thought we’d wait a couple of weeks to see what was going on and not make it any harder than it had to be for the school to start with. I think they’re running out of places though so I think if we change our minds, it’ll be too late before the summer anyway.

I don’t think it makes a heap of difference either way right now. At home they’re fed up of lockdown, at school, we’d be re-transitioning and going through that upset for a month of abnormal school setup. Our school is functioning as a childcare service, rather than education. I’m hoping that come September, that will have reversed, and there will be a plan, in whatever shape that is.

My DS won't be back until September at least.
I cried when this was announced.
Even though both me and DH are working from home we're completely exhausted and stressed. There is very little home schooling going on and DS misses his friends.
I was really hoping he'd get a few weeks back before summer.

As soon as they let her. She is bored silly, and I think having so little social interaction (other than digitally) has been harmful to her mental health. She loves school, and misses the structure of the day.

Those I know with DC’s in Reception and Yr1 are really enjoying being back in school with their teacher and friends and getting proper lessons. Everyone I know will be sending their DC’s back full time in September as everyone needs to get back to work. We can’t stay at home in fear of what could happen when the economy and our futures collapse.

DD in reception has already gone back, we sent her back for the social interaction mainly and also because she was not enjoying doing the school work with us.
In hindsight I probably should have been a bit more inventive with the educational stuff but I was nervous of deviating from what her teacher was setting in case she then ended up falling behind.

The risk of coronavirus had no impact on deciding whether to send her back or not, we aren't worried about catching it at all.

Mine recently went back into a keyworker bubble, they are honestly so much happier than before. Home is great but after weeks passed they got bored and missed their friends. DS in particular was really starting to suffer, his mental health was really becoming a concern. Now he's back to his old self.

Mine are happy at home.

My year 10 dc will be back the first day the school reopens. Was hoping this would be before the summer holidays but unfortunately their school has decided not to open at all until at least September.