Is anyone not sending their secondary school child back initially?

[lastkisstoo]

I've decided to keep my 15 year old home, probably until the October hols to see what happens.

We are in Scotland. What just happened in the pubs in Aberdeen is exactly what I see happening in schools. Mostly young adults, enclosed space, no social distancing.

My child has asthma, and while not on the list for sheltering I still feel is vulnerable enough that I don't want to see him being used as a guinea pig while the government assess just how big the uptick in cases will be on schools re-opening.

@Morfin

I think I'm leaning towards keeping at home. My thoughts are if it all goes to shit we will see mass school closures by October, if we don't get these closures then I will Reevaluate. It's taken less than a month for the social distancing restrictions to be lifted to result is a spike. So if all go back in September by October if there is going to be a spike we will have seen it.

I agree @Morfin that is my thinking also.

Myonlineschooling are doing short term covid package deals i think

Try Seneca for focused gcse course... Does cost £ per month though

There isn't an alternative @lastkisstoo. Your son needs to be in school preparing for his exams with his classmates and trained teachers. You will be putting his whole future at risk otherwise.

I presume you never allow him to be a passenger in a car or walk on a pavement. There is far, far more likelihood of him being killed this way than Covid-19.

You know what, none of us would be worried about this if we had a competent government who had got the infection rate sufficiently down and stepped the testing and tracking sufficiently up that going into a building with no social distancing, no temperature checks and no masks was safe.

I'm pretty pissed off that we're being put in this position tbh

Thanks @Branleuse and @orangeicecream I'll have a look at them tomorrow.

@SpanishPork

There isn't an alternative *@lastkisstoo*. Your son needs to be in school preparing for his exams with his classmates and trained teachers. You will be putting his whole future at risk otherwise.

I presume you never allow him to be a passenger in a car or walk on a pavement. There is far, far more likelihood of him being killed this way than Covid-19.

Thanks for your opinion.

I am sending my DC back, they don't have a any other health conditions so different to your DS, however, there's no way I'd be able to support my eldest in education as he starts his GCSE years. If you can ensure his studies are kept up to where they need to be then great go for it.
I would also be mindful that you've given a date of Oct half term, and its possible things could be no different then than they are now so what happens then? Are you able and is he willing to continue to home school?

If he has exams then absolutely. The job market is likely to be a mess for years to come, he will be at a disadvantage if he doesn't get the grades he could get because he stayed at home. He probably is apprehensive about returning because it's been a while as much as to do with Covid.

46000 tho.

BBC bitesize isn’t poor at all. But it isn’t a substitute for teacher led lessons.

Look at SQA materials. Sample papers and past papers for the sorts of content to cover and go from there.

I say again though that you need to talk to your child’s school and their GP. If the GP agrees then the school will be able to provide more support through the local authority.

You could also consider your son sitting his N5s at the end of S5 and higher at the end of S6. All of these things have consequences but you need to be discussing them with people who know you and know your son

I wish I shared the certainty of some posters who say this virus is safe for children. That’s the opposite of what most scientists are saying. It doesn’t seem to cause acute illness in most children, but we have no idea whether there will be long-term complications.

Big dice to roll. This is nowhere near as easy a decision as some are making out.

www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-19-children-doctors-see-link-between-virus-neurological-side-n1235501

If your son feels unsafe and anxious in school, he will struggle to learn there, too. I think he needs to feel confident about going to school to get the benefit from going in.

Even if he completely messes up his exams this year, it will be possible to retake and catch up later on. Given the circumstances, I'm sure unis/colleges will be understanding if he needs to, and he won't be the only one to completely mess up- I'm not saying that he will, but if he does.

There are lots of good online resources out there. It's not a substitute for face-to-face teaching, but it is better than nothing.

Hopefully, by October, you'll have more of an idea about how school reopening has been managed in your area and if it is safe.

My DD is 17 and will be going back to her 2nd year in sixth form. We as a family have already said that if her timetable requests that she has to be in college for 2 hours on any given day or less then we will ask for work to be sent home instead. Trip to college is 30 minutes on a typically packed train which is the bit we don't feel comfy with. DD is a high achieving student and goes above and beyond with her learning whether at college or at home.

@lastkisstoo try Twinkl. You pay a small monthly subscription, it has lots of resources and covers the curriculum Ks3/4

www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/home-education

We are unsure too, we pulled ours out a week earlier than when lockdown started and didn't send them in when they allowed certain year groups back. I'm the one who is high risk and both my boys have Asthma. As a family we've already lost two Close family members very recently, one to Covid and one to cancer after they had their chemo stopped when Covid hit.

One ds will have to use the school bus to get to/from school and no social distancing in a bubble of 180 doesn't reassure me. I'm going to see what happens over the next four weeks regarding Scotland going back full time and wait to see what the situation in England is like in September.

I won’t be, by mutual decision. I support and understand those ehi roll be. I have no time for those who swiftly judge others in either direction. Please ignore them.

Those who will be. Curse my fat fingers

@Diplidally

I won’t be, by mutual decision. I support and understand those ehi roll be. I have no time for those who swiftly judge others in either direction. Please ignore them.

Exactly!

I have heard good things about Khan academy and the CGP range of books really good and reasonably priced.

He will be okay, you‘ve obviously thought about it a lot and will be putting in place everything to make the best of it - you know your family best.

Extreme blanket responses in either direction are responses that are fraught with underlying worries.

Or lazy one responses - like our government’s. Our whole education system is meant to be underpinned with “every child matters” and at the centre of this is every child is different.

The government’s current response is designed to make things feels normal - not very nice for people who can see things aren’t going to be normal for a while, especially if you’d rather watch and wait for a while longer before accepting the “new normal”.

Hope you have a good day, please DM me in the future if you run into the odd Maths problem - I love my sums 🤓 and will do my best to explain anything if you need me to.

I've been wondering how hardcore schools will be about fines etc. Even if mine don't go back immediately I won't deregister straight away as I have no idea how things will progress.

I don't mind paying the fine, but what will come next I am not sure as there are so many options. I'm assuming councils will have higher than normal level of absence to deal with.

Or lazy one responses - like our government’s. Our whole education system is meant to be underpinned with “every child matters” and at the centre of this is every child is different.

You are very out of date. "Every child matters" was a long time ago!

@lastkisstoo

so we discussed it and agreed that by the time the October holidays come around the situation should be more apparent and we can then better assess his risk.

I think that you are being incredibly optimistic with October. In reality if you are not even considering sending him back at the earliest in November then he will probably miss most of the end of the curriculum for GCSE as many schools aim to have it concluded by xmas and then go into revision

I don't agree with your decision. In England you will,be breaking the law. I dint know about Scotland but I seriously think he will be out at significant disadvantage to peers.

@mosquitofeast

Or lazy one responses - like our government’s. Our whole education system is meant to be underpinned with “every child matters” and at the centre of this is every child is different.

You are very out of date. "Every child matters" was a long time ago!

The principles of every child matters are still there, we teach classes of individuals with different circumstances. We try and cater for individual needs. But yes, my experiences do cover a lot of years.
Biggest lesson - it’s what you can make a child realise they can do alone is the most important bit of teaching.
School isn’t the best place for every child just yet. And it’s not a good idea to throw everyone back in and 🤞. We all need something sustainable right now.

@sunseekin
Thank you. We are all dealing with huge uncertainties, how anybody can judge other people’s decisions at the moment is beyond me.
I’m not ‘cowering at home’ but neither do I feel that the threat of Covid has passed.
My fil died from it in June, and it has affected the dc, of course it has!
That doesn’t mean we are neurotic, rather aware of the reality of Corona.

In England you will,be breaking the law.

I think this is a really bad move by the government. I've gone on about it a lot, but in Wales they have said they will not fine and that is the right approach in these circumstances.

Creating bad feeling or forcing parents to send their children into environments they feel are not safe enough is a really unpleasant move by the government.