Thread to state that you will not be playing a part in the experiment of secondary schools reopening as normal with no masks, no social distancing, no additional cleaning and no additional transport

[TheKarenWhoKnocks]

The arguments have all been hashed out many times on other threads. This thread is for parents to state that they won't be participating in this and will not be sending their young people back to secondary school as things stand. Not deregistering, just not attending. Phoning in sick, phoning in as self isolating etc but not sending them in.

I state that I am not going to send my children to secondary school under current proposals.

I’m genuinely interested - the OP stated that she was going to ring in sick, say the kids were self isolating etc., until and unless OP felt ready to send the children back in. Are people realistically going to do this? Surely it’s only a matter of time before the family are referred to educational welfare for non-attendance, deregistered or fined for truancy? And then, if fines aren’t paid, worse..... How long do people think they can keep their plan up for?

@IrmaFayLear

Absolutely agree, tilder.

there was a poster the other day emoting about being murdered by her dcs if she sent them back... drilling down (well, one did not have to drill too far, actually) what she wanted was to keep her dc's highly sought-after grammar school place open until she felt she wanted her dc to return. So, yes, cake and eat it.

And all those who want home learning to continue from teachers for their dc, whilst the teacher is simultaneously trying to teach a live class at school.

Home school or real school. There's your choice. It's not a great choice for most people, but demanding the holding of places ad infinitum or bespoke programmes for your dc is unworkable and selfish.

That is malicious bollocks. How heartless to have no empathy for the extremely clinically vulnerable. Reported.

I think they're more likely to fine parents who are playing games than those who engage with schools and have medical reasons not to attend.
Its OK to say fines won't get issued in the autumn term but the absence stays on record for the whole year, if children then do get genuinely ill and need to take time off later in the year then it may trigger fines then and parents won't have any argument for playing the boy who cried wolf early on.
Of course some parents might not be bothered about fines and can afford and prefer to pay them rather than send the children to school and thats their choice to make.

herecomesthesun * IrmaFayLear* has completely misrepresented your thread. You've been level and reasonable throughout.

@Crazycatlady83

I’m genuinely interested - the OP stated that she was going to ring in sick, say the kids were self isolating etc., until and unless OP felt ready to send the children back in. Are people realistically going to do this? Surely it’s only a matter of time before the family are referred to educational welfare for non-attendance, deregistered or fined for truancy? And then, if fines aren’t paid, worse..... How long do people think they can keep their plan up for?

It's not sustainable.

That's not to say I don't have empathy for those who are caught between a rock and a hard place, but the plan will not work in the long term.

It feels much more reasonable and adult to be able to discuss the issues openly with the school.

However, the way things are being managed by the government doesn't seem adult at all -

Boris shaking hands with corona patients
allowing large events to go forward in March
care homes
Cummings
all the crazy decisions followed by U turns because of mediadisquiet
pretending children can't infect anyone else.

Nice one, herecomesthesun.

I have been shielding. In fact I was practically the Original Shielder, having received the text of doom immediately. I would think I have a similar condition to you and I’m not portraying myself as a Victorian invalid.

I too have dcs and face the dilemma of schooling. HOWEVER I took issue with your dramatic thread title which did, indeed, mask the actual issue of losing a coveted school place rather than whether you were going to keel over with Covid.

Well,that is another misrepresentation.

I'm not sure however, that I want to continue a discussion about something so important to me right now,with someone who clearly has their own issues driving them to twist what I have been saying, making their own inferences here and there and making this sort of ad hominem attack.

Maybe it would be better to keep to the science of return to schools,or the general political issues?

If one parent does this and expects work sent home, I have to;

Message home. Get reply. Print reply. File reply. Open SIMS. Enter in reason for absence and duration of SI. Open list of classes. Email the teachers (assuming none of them are ill/SI) and the HoY requesting work. Then I have to wait for them to have time to reply, provide work for the next fortnight, which all needs to be saved and formatted so it can go out. I then have to send multiple separate emails due to the size of attachments for each subject.

Whilst I'm providing an individual concierge service to Parent 1, I'm not dealing with any other parent or child. There will be kids who are taken ill at school. There will be kids who haven't turned up and parents aren't responding to messages. There could be kids who are at risk not turning up. But I'm spending my valuable time dealing with the one child because if I don't get the work sent through asap, they'll be in touch complaining that there hasn't been any work provided.

Multiply that by 10, so ten kids in all being kept off, and you've taken up my entire day just in sending bloody emails. No time for my actual job.

And then repeat the whole process in a fortnight's time. And two weeks after that.

Make that 10 kids in every subject/year group or form and the entire system screeches to a halt and you aren't going to get any work at all, so they're having less support than during lockdown.

Just stop taking up a school place that you don't want. Deregister and we can give the place to a kid who desperately wants and needs it. And I can get back to looking after the welfare of the children who are there.

Herecomesthesun: “Something so important to me”

Extraordinary. Do you think no one else is affected by this pandemic? What a cheek you have.

How do your dc feel about it?

I wouldn’t do it for a few reasons, but the dc want to learn with their friends, do yours?

@TheKarenWhoKnocks

You said “I'm not asking for advice” then said “This isn't a thread for justification. Maybe tips and ideas”

I think your kids may be better of being educated by qualified teachers.

@MitziK I completely agree with your experience. Even if they don't want work, schools are under obligation to provide.

I agree completely - I just wonder how long OP thinks they will be able to keep up their plan, before other agencies become involved? “Fines” seem to be banded about as the “worst” punishment for parents not sending their children into school, but there are certainly more heavy handed punishments that can be used and if the government are serious about getting children back to school, I also wondered how long it will be until these are employed?

I’m pretty sure we were told no work supplied if child off isolating. I’m fine with that. Op should use Oak or other.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.tes.com/news/schools-need-remote-teaching-plans-end-september%3famp

You need to provide work to isolating pupils. DfE clear on that.

Yes work provided to those genuinely isolating but not to those choosing to keep their kids home with no medical reason.

But if OP lies, work needs to be provided.

“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do."
― Philip Larkin

Way to go teaching your children to lie & denying them an education.

School: "symptoms you say, send us a copy of their test result within 48 hours."

Parent: "F**k off.
School: "We will have to start sending you fines then."

Slow hand clap, for the anti vaxxers club.

Every part of the DfE guidance states where possible, I suspect many teachers in this case may chose to say it's not...

At any rate, 'work' can take any form you want. In 5 mins I can assign a hundred tasks to the child on a digital platform to do in their time at home and tell them to use bbc bitsize/oak/other to find out things they dont understand. If I want to do this for 20 kids off it will take 6 minutes.

We wont be providing the level of learning we did for lockdown.

I feel more for the office staff who will have to try and communicate everything, they're going to be swamped with parents like this.

@ZombieFan

I agreed with everything you said until this line...
Slow hand clap, for the anti vaxxers club.

I know lots of people who vaccinated their kids but are genuinely scared to send their kids into School in sept.

I think there will be so many parents not sending their children that the government will have to back down on fines etc.

If it hasn't climbed down on the whole plan by then already.

Their schools plan (as is) will obviously and inevitably increase the infection level and kill some more British people. Who wants to be a part of that?

I don't think that at all. I think schools going back will be fine.

Crazycatlady83

It's totally unsustainable. Another example of mumsnet being totally wrong and an outlier. Don't know a single person in rl, including clinically vulnerable parents who isn't locking forward to schools reopening. Yes, they are nervous, yes they all want to keep an eye on things

I'm making a statement. My year 10 son can't wait to go back to school.

I'm making another statement. The OP is an arse.