School compulsory after Summer

[Orangeblossom78]

Boris Johnson has said it will be compulsory for all children in England to go to school when they reopen after the summer holidays.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-heads-caution-against-fines-for-parents-who-keep-children-at-home-pszxwx2mx

May be a 'period of grace' before fines though.

I wonder if parents who don't send their kids back will let them see friends, go out, play sports? If they are doing those things they may as well be at school. And if not- that's not a traditional home school model or childhood

@MrsWhites

I’m finding the complete ignorance of secondary schools hard to stomach at the moment! Bubbles of 30 will not help when children have to move between classrooms!

I was annoyed with Nick Ferrari for not pushing him about it / they seem to be completely forgotten. I have no idea how it’s going to work come September, which isn’t that far away now. There is supposed to be a further statement from GW coming this week - hopefully it’ll have comprehensive guidance. (Not holding my breath though)

Fair enough as others have said if you don't want to send them then de register and home school but i do wonder if some of those saying that still let there kids out to play or take to the beach etc
For those medically vunArable i dont know what can be done unless they can set up small classes for them
Or support with home learning or maybe by then all advised shielding will be stopped
We have to try and get kids back in school , other countries have managed it and sept is a few moths off so hopefully we are in a slightly better place by then

I have emailsd gavin williamson re : exams and will email again about social bubbles at secondary as it will be impossible when they all do different subjects and different sets
If i hear back ( unlikely ) then i will put on here
But when these journalists get them on why do they not press this more

Isn't it the case that for pupils whose parents want schooling, who are (temporarily, or even permanently) unable to be schooled on site, the LA has to provide home tutoring?

Indeed. Which with my suspicious head on, I would imagine a few things will happen...

• LAs will essentially ignore this, because shielding will be over, and they will argue that there is no medical/social reason - just parental choice. They make a good fist of ignoring it in many cases now unfortunately, I can't see that changing.
• parents won't know they can fight for it and will in many cases either withdrawal a child, or feel forced to send a child to school when this make them uncomfortable
• eventually, the government may water down that obligation I fear, or tighten the regulations around it.

So yes, the desire not to spend money on this will be there, but I think They'll find some way not to do it anyway....

After completely ignoring the needs of millions of children this government can fuck right off!

The desperate need to validate people’s choices on this topic is really sickening.

How easy it is for healthy people to say that compulsory attendance is the right approach! Right and acceptable for you maybe but what about families with health conditions who are not covered by shielding? We should forget the huge efforts and mental strain we’ll have endured for 5 months come September and just send our kids back, possibly after a summer where cases have increased, to get it anyway?

And be fined if we don’t!?

How nice for you that you can send your kids back to school knowing your family is likely to survive if they catch it. Some of us don’t have that luxury.

But of course, we should deregister our children from school so we have zero input or guidance for home-schooling in favour of the hordes of non-existent children desperate for that place?

I want my kids to be able to go back to the schools and staff that know them, that have helped draft their EHCPs, where their friends are - when it is safe for them to do so.

But fuck them, right? You want to send your kids back and anyone who doesn’t should be punished. Nice.

And of course people who are in our situation are not letting their kids mix with friends or go to theme parks or sit on crowded beaches.
We’re still being as careful as possible while everyone else forgets social distancing and spends a day at the shops. What a fucking insult.

@Bollocking I understand your frustration but teachers cant possibly lesson plan for the classroom and home learning along with the actual teaching and everything else that goes with the job.

We would never expect lessons. Perhaps another pack of worksheets at the most. Maybe a weekly phone call.
Mostly we want the school place kept open for a couple more months and people to attempt a little empathy for others less fortunate than themselves. This includes not baying for people to be punished for keeping their families safe.

And I'm not saying it's fair or right but its the reality of the situation. Teachers will be teaching the classroom.

Exactly Mrs White @mrswhites

Will watch and wait and see what happens and risk assess myself. What worries me is that I fear they are going to start hiding information about infection rates and outbreaks:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-yorkshire-cleckheaton-outbreak-meat-packing-plant-factory-a9576396.html

If they start doing that then it will be impossible to risk assess for yourself.

I don’t want to deregister my children but if it comes to it then I’ll do it.

I'm sure there will be discretion for those medically unable to return to school. If a child is off school long term ill previous to this I doubt fines were handed out to those as they'll have medical records to back it up.
The "threat" of fines will be for those parents who won't send their dc back without a valid medical reason ie those who just cant be arsed to get them out of bed in the morning cos unfortunately their will be a number of parents in this category

@Orangeblossom78

It's not compulsory to send a school age child to school. Parents [etc] can just opt to "home school" and there is very little official control or supervision.

Whether there should be that option could well start a long post on MN!

Schools cannot be expected to accommodate parents who pull kids in & out and expect home schooling on the days they don’t send them. Its too much to ask.

OK, sure.

But what about the parent whose stance is "We want to stay out of school for a few months longer until the situation is under control/vaccine---not 'in and out' but actually out, for a few months. And we are happy to do our own homeschooling in the mean time, the teacher does not have to do anything."

Yes, people could deregister, but that's asking quite a lot. In many places there is pressure on school places. Deregistering could mean that when you are ready to send your child in again, you may not be able to reenter the same school as before and will only be able to get a place at the school nobody else wants, which could be miles from your house.

I think there needs to be a grace period until, say, the end of the winter (so, no fines and not losing school places). I also think it should be made clear that parents wishing to keep their children off until longer will need to communicate this clearly to the school, that they can't keep flipping back and forth between HSing and schooling, and that they need to be responsible for their own schooling provision.

Bollockingfuck genuine question, how long for? If Covid never disappears how long should a school hold a place for?

@havefunpeleton

I wonder if parents who don't send their kids back will let them see friends, go out, play sports? If they are doing those things they may as well be at school. And if not- that's not a traditional home school model or childhood

This may be a shock to you but home Ed kids go out to see their friends and play sports too.

Home Ed doesn’t mean locking your child in the house til they turn 18

The problem with saying that teachers should "just provide worksheets" to support homeschooling is that it all takes time! DH (teacher) has been saying that it takes him maybe 45 mins to create a worksheet which a child will do in 15 minutes. And that's not counting marking! Many activities are the same.

It's not really fair to expect teacher to spend +++ hours a week creating worksheets for pupils who haven't returned to school, while teaching their own classes full-time.

It was always going to have to be like this. Either the child returns or the parent makes the decision to relinquish the place and home schools.

Of course, exceptions should be made for shielding children, but that needs to be certified officially, otherwise some people wull be prompted by fear to decide that their child is medically vulnerable.

It would be wise, IMO, to waive fines and sanctions till after Christmas.

*This may be a shock to you but home Ed kids go out to see their friends and play sports too.

Home Ed doesn’t mean locking your child in the house til they turn 18*

Yep! I have a friend who home schools and her kids do umpteen extra curricular activities, plus private tuition for a few specific subjects. And they have all these meet-ups with other HS families.

havefunpeleton
I wonder if parents who don't send their kids back will let them see friends, go out, play sports? If they are doing those things they may as well be at school. And if not- that's not a traditional home school model or childhood.

When I take my children out I am in control of risk assessing the situation and deciding what is an acceptable level of risk for us as a family.

With the children going to school I have to trust the school and the other parents. I don’t trust that all parents will keep their children at home if they are unwell as some have no choice but to send them in. Some won’t even have symptoms so by the time the parents or school realise they are ill it will already be too late. I know we have bubbles but I don’t see that working well with all of the children back at school. I hope it does work well when they all resume, but I think it’s going to be very difficult.

So I will keep doing what I’ve done since the start and risk assess myself. That’s all we can do isn’t it? Covid isn’t going away any time soon.

This maybe a shock to you but home ed kids go out to see their friends and play sports too.
Home Ed doesn't mean locking your child in the house til they turn 18
Agree with that in usual circumstances but people will be choosing to home Ed now because they don't feel it's safe to be out the house

When I take my children out I am in control of risk assessing the situation and deciding what is an acceptable level of risk for us as a family going anywhere where the general public are means situations aren’t in your control entirely.

How will this work in secondary schools that have vertical tutor groups?

Is that healthy, though? Apart from anything else, no exposure to anything isn't good for a healthy child's immune system.