Will you be sending your child to school in lockdown?

[peacockfeather11]

I know they will be open, but I am curious to see if parents will feel they will be safer at home.

@Iliketeaagain great post. Absolutely right

Completely agree @Angrymum22

Yes. Not sure why anyone would feel their children will be fine at school on Thursday yet in mortel danger on Friday...

Final one is in the sixth form. She is going to school come what may.

Yes my kids need school.

Yes definitely

Yes, primary and secondary

@olivesonapizza

Yes.

Also I still don't get this "they will be safer at home" stuff. Covid is and always has been very low risk for children.

I don't have DC so have no skin in the game either way but...

People pulling children out or thinking about it are concerned about the DC catching it and passing it on to them.

Many parents are 50+ or clinically vulnerable.

@MintyMabel

I literally don't know a single parent who is anxious about Covid re their children - not one.

I know plenty. Mainly because the child or an adult in the home is vulnerable.

Bulleye. Is it really that hard for people to catch onto what the issues would be?

Bullseye, sorry

@NoDramaMama14

I really think that the schools should provide an option for remote learning to keep both teachers and parents safe. Lockdown 2.0 has the colder weather to complicate things further. Why does the government need the worse case scenarios to become a reality before they act??

Idealism versus realism. I work in a small primary school. All the teachers teach full time. When they taught remotely during lockdown it took all day to plan and record lessons alongside marking and responding to the children. It’s simply impossible for our teachers to teach full time In school and provide full time remote education as an option for parents who don’t want to send their kids to school. It’s challenging enough to manage the education of those who are isolating for two weeks.

Yes.
Dd’s School has had zero cases to date and has good procedures in place: masks in corridors, desks sanitised at start and end of every lesson, regular use of hand sanitiser, students in bubbles etc.

@WoahHeyThere

Ironic how before the first lockdown everyone was crying for the schools to close and no one was wanting to send their kids back to school when they finally reopened...few months of homeschooling and dealing with the reality and now everyone is desperate to keep them in school 🤣

I'm really not. We were shielding and the numbers are rising. We would like the choice to homeschool just for the worst of the winter.

Yes

Yes, year 8 here. DS hated year 7, loathed having to go in and had no friends. He was quite pleased when the first lockdown came and he didn't have to attend anymore, but then the reality set in and he found it impossible to work at home plus having no one but me to talk to.

The change in him since he's gone back has been drastic. I don't know what's happened to make him this way but suddenly he loves going in and has friends he even plays games online with during the weekend.

I kept him off during the first lockdown even though with his ECHP plan he could have had a school place. I felt bad about sending him when I was at home myself so I didn't. Should the schools close again but provide places for vulnerable and keyworker children I wouldn't hesitate in sending him in for his own wellbeing.

I will be back at work Monday too (Science Tech in Secondary)

My DS is 3 and really enjoys his 15 hours at nursery.

But I'm 29 weeks pregnant and therefore vulnerable. DH and I both WFH (self-employment in industries decimated by Covid so not many hours).

For us it's not worth sending him in next week. It exposes the whole family to risks that we don't need to take.

I appreciate nursery isn't the same as school but for us keeping him home is a no-brainer. We had young fit friends die in London in spring and summer, leaving kids with no mum...

Covid is no joke and the situation is already scarily out of control.

@olivesonapizza

Yes.

Also I still don't get this "they will be safer at home" stuff. Covid is and always has been very low risk for children.

Low risk? Really? Try telling that to the families of the children in the hospital where I work where they are spending 24/7 with their very poorly children diagnosed with covid-19 and many of them have NO underlying health conditions.

Try looking at the hospital data where school children are being admitted to hospital in higher numbers since schools re-opened in September.

In terms of covid, of course we are all safer at home. It is stupid to state otherwise.

@BogRollBOGOF Death by worksheet is like a slow, dull educational death to a child with dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Perfectly sums up my experience.

So yes, sending DS because his mental health fell apart due to isolation, teaching a child with SEN is a highly specialised job (which I turn out to be shit at) and mine is the sole income in our house and I can't afford to lose my job.

Yes

Yes

@Beebityboo

The issue of fines / legal action is being debated by MP’s on 2nd November.

Let’s await the outcome of that and hope they relax the rules re school attendance and fines, especially now with the lockdown and teaching unions arguing for schools to close.

Yes, as long as the school is open then DS will be going in (Yr10).

Yes, but (a) we have to if we don't want to be fined! and (b) it's worth remembering it's not without risk for clinically vulnerable family members.

Yes! I’ll be in school so my kids might as well go

@CaraDuneRedux That's me too. My job may be relatively safe but I'm a single parent and found it impossible to assist DS effectively with learning (Dyslexic, Autistic/ADHD)