Our (primary) head says kids can only have place (London Borough with schools shut) if there are two keyworker parents not one.

[AdmiralButterfly]

Is this legal? I thought school or council had to find school place if one parent a keyworker. A doctor friend explained this to me in lockdown one that if they didn’t have school place the other parent would be doing it 24 hours a day as the doctor parent needs to sleep after their shift not take over childcare.

I run a nursery in Kent where the schools are saying the acme thing. I have 3 employees who cannot work next week for this reason. I am potentially going to have to turn children away from my nursery next week because I don’t have enough staff. It defeats the point of opening for children of key workers if schools aren’t going to let them attend

Er, surely the children also need to sleep??? No child needs their parent to stay awake 24/7.

Yes, I only got a place at school last year because we are both key workers.
I thought this was the way it was everywhere tbh.

This was the case in March for many. The idea is to have as few on site as possible for it to work as little point closing if everyone claims places.

It was exactly the same during lockdown 1 here, and in many other local authority areas. However where such households explained that the keyworker was on nights and needed to sleep during the day, or other weird shift stuff, they were able to have a place for those specific days.

Not lots of kids @Soontobe60 for whatever reason. And doctor shifts are variable so if my doctor friend is working a night shift they then can’t sleep in the daytime in their small house if the kids are awake and being loud like cooped up kids do

I suppose they have to be fair on everybody so have strict guidelines. Luckily our London school is staying open for our kids but me and dh work in a school in a different borough and we’ve been told to come in, the kids will go if their school closes as we’re both key workers. I have no choice but to go in I can’t stay at home.

@Soontobe60

Er, surely the children also need to sleep??? No child needs their parent to stay awake 24/7.

Presumably the Dr is coming off a night shift. Our house is not soundproofed enough to hide the activity of young children seeking help with their work. There is also nowhere to take them.

The issue will be that all teachers will be delivering online lessons so probably won’t be in school. They can’t do both jobs; it will likely fall to support staff to take care of key worker children and therefore numbers will need to be manageable. That’s the plan in my primary school if we close, not that we will as we’re in the north and primary so replaceable!

Sorry that should of said our work place is closed except for key worker children and vulnerable children.

Yes, this is usually a decision made by the local authority or academy chain head.

Our school allow it with one keyworker parent, so it's not a universal rule

Yep 2 key worker parents. I could count because my oh has a disability, but if not we would not count.

I have 3 employees who cannot work next week for this reason.

This is surely because the other parent (I assume the dad) won’t step up & do the parenting when their key worker partner is at work. This admittedly is often because the employers of men won’t accept them being disrupted in the same way that women often have to cope with.

Having said that I don’t necessarily think it’s right to enforce a both parents must be key workers rule.

That was the rule here the last time schools were shut.

Yes, our school says both parents for KW places.

I think it must depend on capacity, but this was more of an issue in March when they were keeping bubbles to limited numbers, now they’ve made schools ‘covid safe’ (allegedly) and have full classes of kids there shouldn’t be a limit on number of key worker places.

@beaverbill

The issue will be that all teachers will be delivering online lessons so probably won’t be in school. They can’t do both jobs; it will likely fall to support staff to take care of key worker children and therefore numbers will need to be manageable. That’s the plan in my primary school if we close, not that we will as we’re in the north and primary so replaceable!

This If we close it will be TAs who are all part time covering so that teachers can focus on home learning. When we had bubbles close, holding online sessions, answering questions and providing feedback was more time consuming than normal teaching.

Those non keyworker dad probably have to keep their jobs @InDireStraits to pay bills etc

How is that different to families with non key workers. Not saying it's easy or fair, just a point.

The guidance that says schools should offer places to students with just one key worker parent is just that- guidance.

If the school know they will have lots of students wanting to come in, and perhaps limited staff available due to self isolation etc, they have to prioritise.

I would imagine most schools will consider individual circumstances if parents are desperate, but equally last time SAH parents were sending their children in because the other parent was a keyworker- which isn't really the point of the places.

If my dh asked to be furloughed for childcare for example we’d not be able to pay mortgage as furlough is capped and if he tried to do job and childcare he’d probably be in the shit with employer for not doing job properly.

Yes true @Strictly1. Whole school closure idea is terrible imo for this v reason

if they didn’t have school place the other parent would be doing it 24 hours a day

Don't lone parents do this every day?

I thought I did see that the guidance now specified both parents, so it's not the school's individual decision.