why doesn't the gov pay the parents to home educate if they want to?

[tinselwreath]

I just have a question as I'm curious what people think here since there is the obstacle of closing primary schools to keep virus numbers down.

Why doesn't the government offer the pupil funding to the parent instead? This could be completely voluntary but considering there is about £3750 attached to each primary school pupil, they could give this directly to parents at around £300+ per month for each child and not include this in universal credit calculation to make it more lucrative. Plenty of parents would probably choose not to send their children in and it would leave more space for rotas/social distancing for the parents who cannot take the pupil funding option instead. This shouldn't cost anymore money because it is simply taking the money that the school would receive and giving it to the parent.

@tinselwreath
There is nit one person in this thread who has agreed with you and many, many people who have given detailed, valid responses to counteract your proposals. You are basically refusing to acknowledge what anyone is saying and gave an extremely blinkered view of someone who has absolutely no idea how schools work, how the funding in schools works, how safeguarding works etc, etc. You are people disagreeing with you as bullying which is absolutely ridiculous. The more you comment with you bizarre and ridiculous proposals, the more absolutely batshit you make yourself look.

[quote tinselwreath]@SimonJT

In a situation where the school has such a severe deficit, I would expect there to be some form of additional support with maintenance and utility costs. At this point there seems to be a blank cheque for furlough, so I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility.[/quote]
I would firstly point out that where school budgete are concerned £200,000 would be a small deficit, an average sized secondary school with the same proportion of students homeschooled (15%) would lose around £1,500,000.

So you would like to provide additional funds for maintenace and utilities, where would this money come from?

As you do not wish to pay the wages of staff, how does the school remain open when they no longer have enough teachers, TAs, kitchen staff and cleaners?

Hmmmmmmmmmm

First time poster

Provocative content

Winding people up

Christmas holidays on

Just saying.

@Whatayear1234

I'm a primary school teacher. I'm a mum to primary aged child (sane year group as I teach) £300 a month to homeschool? No thank you.

Just a thought; if you think that parents doing homeschooling are doing all the work, where do you think the work appears from??

I mean what people have being doing during the pandemic isn’t really what I would call ‘homeschooling’. More ‘schooling at home’.

I only say that because people who actually do home school for other reasons than covid do sort their own resources/ plans etc.

Don't be so ridiculous - this idea is a joke.

@Posturesorposes

Anything against the "groupthink" isn't allowed? How boring.

Safeguarding cannot be done via Zoom. If a child is being abused and their abuser is in the room, do you think they will make a disclosure over the screen? Furthermore, staff in schools build relationships of trust with pupils which can then facilitate disclosure. A child may be less likely to share safeguarding details with someone they don’t know/ only see once every few weeks or months on a screen.

Also @tinselwreath you keep saying teacher to pupil ratio will improve. Yet you have also stated that schools will not be given additional funding to pay wages.

So either you wish for schools to have fewer teachers meaning ratios remain the same but pupils are less likely to have a subject specialist.

Or you think teachers should have a significant pay cut.

@tinselwreath

OR (and this would be much more straightforward)

Schools could develop an online arm for those who want to be homeschooled and are given money to provide this by the government. But it would require money for extra teachers and pastoral staff (as health visitors don’t have the raining or time to deal with young adults and older children).

So, instead of giving the money to parents, give it to schools to develop online schools as an extension of the current schooling for those who can successfully home learn.

And there should be regular check ups and registration and the kid has to keep their grades up to qualify.

@LadyPenelope68

I feel sad for you that you cannot discuss an idea without lashing out.

The other alternative is working mums will be dropped from employment en masse as their kids are continuously sent home.

Er, no, the other alternative for many families would be both parents work reduced hours.

Unfortunately all the research is showing that it is women who are disproportionately disadvantaged as a result of the pandemic.
They are taking on the bulk of homeschooling and domestic chores and they are more likely to be made redundant- at one point they were 48% more likely to lose their job than men.

Those of you who are so keen for schools to close need to consider this. It is women who will suffer in terms of work and career development. Not to mention the OPs idea which would see funding removed from schools and mass redundancies in a sector which is female dominated.
I'm very concerned about women's participation in the labour market going forward. We're at risk of losing decades of progress.

I think you have valid concerns op. Women doing the bulk of schooling at home and having their careers/jobs unequally affected. Carers having to support children with SEN at home without support because lack of suitable schooling.....and a few of the other things you mentioned I agree are issues that should be addressed.

However I don’t think the idea you suggest is a workable solution to those things.

Yes, if parents don't mind submitting curriculum lesson plans to the government (long, medium and short term ones), then evaluation notes on how each lesson went, detailed pink and green marking, your children's performance data (half-termly) and then having an Ofsted inspection to grade your overall performance and capability. But I suppose parents' evening would be easy.

[quote tinselwreath]@SimonJT

In a situation where the school has such a severe deficit, I would expect there to be some form of additional support with maintenance and utility costs. At this point there seems to be a blank cheque for furlough, so I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility.[/quote]
The blank cheque isn't there, we'll be paying this off for decades, or should I say the home (in) educated children will be

"I am a carer, that's why it bothers me when I take on the work (hence I was up all night, not drink and drugs as someone wanted to suggest) and people think I should just do it as a parent. Its not easy and a lot of people give up. I haven't been given a SEN school place and the nursery we had told us they didn't have the ability, so here I am, no respite and no school"

The way to address all that is not to give people paltry amounts of money in compensation. Carers allowance (which I get myself) is too low. I know some people think parents of disabled children shouldn't get carers allowance but they are in the minority.

Everything else - it is better to fight collectively and individually for decent state provided provision. If school isn't suitable then eotas provision. Ds has an ehcp worth 70k. I don't want that money. I want his school place. We actually have money from social care to be used for respite but we cannot use it because there is none and that is not caused by covid.

Taking money out of schools to give all parents who want it £300 a month will mean less provision for everyone.

You're right that's what is, unfortunately, what's happening SueEllen - my alternative is what could/should happen.
The societal expectation that still persists that women are the default carers, and fathers don't have to do much parenting needs challenging. Coming at the same time as sectors employing more women being devastated is a perfect storm.

@SueEllenMishke

That absolutely is an issue. And it is important to remember that it affects teachers too. Teaching is a mainly female profession. Lots of working mothers.

There is a middle ground here somewhere. The data is clear that infections are out of control in schools, especially with the new strain. If we don’t close schools then we will have to keep everything else closed for months.

What is more permanently damaging to kids? A few months of blended learning or massive economic depression, jobless parents and poverty?

The government need to offer help to working parents. Because just keeping schools open is no longer a viable option without totally ruining the economy AND leading to a higher death rate.

What they should have done in June was used the money from eat out to help out to actually make a sustainable form of schooling and develop COVID safe childcare options for working parents.

Instead, the chose the short term fix and now both business and schools are fucked. So frustrating.

@AIMD

Thanks. Yeah, those are the problems I see for women in general and parents of SEN. The funding following the child is something I heard about in a documentary from America. I think it was a political thing at one point. It may be the government needs to be pushed to increase funding overall. I just don't know how parents (primarily mothers) will be able to handle the types of lockdowns that people are suggesting and keep their jobs. I'm sure lots of companies will find ways to force them out.

Video call with Health Visitors 🤣🤣🤣

My sons school are getting money for my son being on the register, yet done absolutely nothing since he has been away shielding. They have to provide remote education yet have not even done that, I have done their job for them, so yes I agree with the OP.

@CelestrialWarrior

My sons school are getting money for my son being on the register, yet done absolutely nothing since he has been away shielding. They have to provide remote education yet have not even done that, I have done their job for them, so yes I agree with the OP.

So how would you solve the funding deficits schools would be left with?

This is just a way to try and denigrate and dismiss teachers isn't it? Awful thread, thank goodness most have seen through the weary battle cry now.

@RHTawneyonabus

What would you need the £300 a month for unless you expect teaching your own kids to be a paid job. With three kids that’s £900 a month!

I can see a certain type of person withdrawing their kids purely for the financial advantage that would bring and then providing very little in the way of education. Hardly in the children’s best interests.

This Ridiculous and dangerous idea

2025?? Where the hell has it been suggested covid will disrupt schools for 5 years

There were two families in my DD’s school who took their children out to home educate. Neither of these four parents had qualifications beyond a few GCSEs. And also neither of these four parents worked.
Do I want more of my taxes to go to people like this to educate the future generation ( both families each had 4 kids under the age of 9 living with them)? No, thanks 🙄

[quote AldiAisleofCrap]**@FamilyOfAliens* Do you understand anything about safeguarding?* do you? I home educate my children , I don’t offer them up for viewing on zoom or otherwise. They, in non COVID times attend doctors , dentist, clubs and activities.
I would not want to be paid though.[/quote]
@AldiAisleofCrap

My comment was to the OP, not to you, in response to her batshit notion that a school’s statutory safeguarding duty can be discharged through video calls with a HV (who is trained to work with the under-5s). And that this process would be more effective than the current system of having a safeguarding team in schools, seeing the child’s face to face every day.

In answer to your question about whether I know anything about safeguarding,
yes I do, as a Designated Safeguarding Lead in a primary school for 12 years.