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.

We're in a closing borough and school have not specified how many parents have to be critical workers, and have just added 'and you cannot effectively facilitate their learning at home'. The children are expected to attend specific online sessions at set times. We're both critical workers but if my role made that impossible and I wasn't I'd be speaking to the school.

I know last time they expected there to be much more take up than there was and I think it is a MAT-wide push to get more kids in this time. The school is reasonably well resourced though.

ad nauseam

Yep we had to. Some of the local schools serving military families would have had 400+ pupils in every day. Hardly keeping everyone safe.
The other parent needs to step up.

The expectation was that the other parent took time off or whatever to look after the children

@AdmiralButterfly

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

How is that different to non-keyworker families? At this stage it should be nothing to do with key worker/non key worker, as lots of people are in in work and cannot take time off etc. It should be based on who can work from home/who can't. If one adult can wfh then no school place.

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/01/all-primary-schools-in-london-to-remain-closed-after-u-turn

I think it depends.

In cases of nhs staff - especially those working frontline - I would think one keyworker parent is enough to qualify.
Would also think same with other blue light workers who may be working extra long shifts in difficult circumstances currently.

Where you have one parent keyworker and another furloughed then no - they don't need a space.

If you have 1 keyworker parent and another works from home then part time maybe an option to offer support.

If you have 1 keyworker parent and the other works out of home I think you'd have to consider each case on it's merits. But I'm not sure in tier 4 what non keyworker roles are still working out of home? Surely there isn't many?

The other parent wouldn't be doing it 24 hours a day as the children sleep when they do. It's fair enough that the places are only for those where both patents or the only parent in the house is a key worker if they idea is to close schools to as many as possible.

@itsgettingweird

I think it depends.

In cases of nhs staff - especially those working frontline - I would think one keyworker parent is enough to qualify.
Would also think same with other blue light workers who may be working extra long shifts in difficult circumstances currently.

Where you have one parent keyworker and another furloughed then no - they don't need a space.

If you have 1 keyworker parent and another works from home then part time maybe an option to offer support.

If you have 1 keyworker parent and the other works out of home I think you'd have to consider each case on it's merits. But I'm not sure in tier 4 what non keyworker roles are still working out of home? Surely there isn't many?

What about two non-keyworker parents both working out of the home with no option to work from home?

There are many people working out of the home still who aren't classed as keyworkers. Take my work for example, no one is a keyworker but lots have to work out of the home every week. I'm on mat leave luckily so not affected but many of my colleagues are struggling.

Mouse again that should be looked at as an individual case.

Families should do what is right for them. If the non-keyworker's salary is paying the bills, the keyworker should take time off.

No one should be trying to balance wfh with childcare/homeschooling unless it's absolutely financially necessary. Prioritise your children's wellbeing and your mental health.

It’s one here and I’m glad of it, I work at a secondary school and have no choice but to go in and my husband is a green keeper so can’t work from home, he wasn’t given furlough last time so I’d have to give up my job as he earns most. Non Keyworkers can work from home so whilst not ideal you’ll physically be there so that’s the difference.

@MessAllOver

Families should do what is right for them. If the non-keyworker's salary is paying the bills, the keyworker should take time off.

No one should be trying to balance wfh with childcare/homeschooling unless it's absolutely financially necessary. Prioritise your children's wellbeing and your mental health.

Erm, ok 😂

Yes that was my schools policy last lock down too.

The WFH argument doesn't really hold though- I'm a critical worker who can work from home. Work expect me to access school childcare because I can (and so work full time) and I'm public sector so can't be furloughed. WFH doesn't necessarily mean you're available to supervise a KS1 pupil for 6 hours

As people have pointed out, the expectations for home learning have quite rightly massively upped, more staff are getting ill, so while I’m sure most schools are trying their best, they can not work miracles and will only be able to provide what they can with the staff available. It’s no good quoting guidelines when 40% of staff are off having tested positive. You can ask though and I’m sure most schools will be the best they can to help their communities.

@SansaSnark

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.

Yes I saw that too, very naughty. I was lucky enough to not have to go in every day last time so I literally only sent my DS in on those days.

It’s just silly when you work in a school and have to put your child in school so you can go and look after other people’s kids in a school 😂

No one should be trying to balance wfh with childcare/homeschooling unless it's absolutely financially necessary. Prioritise your children's wellbeing and your mental health.

If you're financially comfortable with a reasonable employer, stay at home.

If you're struggling and/ or your employer will sack you if you take leave, then you're not putting your child's wellbeing first.

Some privilege showing there!

I think what that poster meant was that if you can get your child into school, do so... likewise if it makes more financial sense for the keyworker to take time off while the non keyworker carries on working then so be it.

@AdmiralButterfly

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.

Difficult as it is there are many, many families in this situation. Often one parent has to stay home with the kids because one employer is totally inflexible. Leaving the one wfh whilst looking after kids totally exposed in terms of work performance.

By take time off do you mean unpaid leave?

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.

How is that any different to a single parent? A single parent who has to keep working because they have no other wage to rely on.

I would want to see places offered to single parents before I saw them being offered to families with one key worker parent.

Last time there was some totally unfair abuse of the system. 2 that spring to kind who I know:

• family where one parent is a vicar working from home with stay at home second parent not working. Claimed a key worker place for child.

• GP working part time, other half working from home. Sent kids to school, even on GP’s day off. Not kidding.

Both of these made me so angry, these kids had no more of a right to be in school than mine. If there weren’t so many key worker kids taking up places, schools may have been able to get more year groups back in before summer.
It was an absolute disgrace.

But you want us at schools for those children sooo..