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.

Our school are doing only one key worker. In the first lockdown the definition of ‘key worker’ was very vague at our school.

Definitely need it now all London schools are closed. Need to get sorted by Monday 😩

I work part time (three days) and DH works full time (five days but long hours each day). We have both WFH since March. We have two DC, one with severe SN.

During the first lockdown, when we had no childcare, I approached my employer to agree alternative working hours so that we could each work and take turns looking after the Dc. Thankfully they agreed, because they needed me to work (we had loads to do) and were happy that I was making a proposal.

What we did was: I worked 6am-9am, DH worked 9-12noon; I worked 12noon-2pm, DH worked 2pm-6pm; I worked 6pm-8:30pm; DH worked as many hours as he needed to after this, and I worked whatever more hours I needed to after the DC were asleep. Sometimes we both worked until midnight.

I worked two weekdays and one weekend day (normal working hours on that weekend day, so 9-5 or so). DH worked all weekdays. We had one day together as a family at the weekend.

It was really tough, but we managed, and I still don’t know how else we could have done it.

Just setting it out here in case it helps anyone else.

@year5teacher. My own view, with which you may disagree, is that it is "impossible" to do most jobs with young children at home. The question then becomes which parent should stop work to care for them and supervise home education.

@LoopyGremlin I'll have the same issue as I rely on breakfast club to get to work for the dc coming in. Less urgent as I'm not a teacher but it will leave my 1:1 without cover and also have an impact on my wages that I can ill afford as a single parent.

It depends on the school and what capacity they can manage.

The amount of key workers varies wildly per setting. Some schools can only manage specific key worker children whilst some extend the boundaries.

@year5teacher

I think people need to understand it's not "childcare for if it's going to be hard having your kid at home", it's "childcare for if you are one of these specific jobs and having your child at home would mean you can't work"

To be fair I think the majority of people do understand this, if I had a choice I’d stay at home and keep my DS there too. My elder DC will be doing their school work at home online

@SuperbGorgonzola

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

Do you have a link for this, I can't find that guidance?

I think it depends on the school - my DH isn't a key worker but I am, and my kids went to school last lockdown.

@WellTidy

I work part time (three days) and DH works full time (five days but long hours each day). We have both WFH since March. We have two DC, one with severe SN.

During the first lockdown, when we had no childcare, I approached my employer to agree alternative working hours so that we could each work and take turns looking after the Dc. Thankfully they agreed, because they needed me to work (we had loads to do) and were happy that I was making a proposal.

What we did was: I worked 6am-9am, DH worked 9-12noon; I worked 12noon-2pm, DH worked 2pm-6pm; I worked 6pm-8:30pm; DH worked as many hours as he needed to after this, and I worked whatever more hours I needed to after the DC were asleep. Sometimes we both worked until midnight.

I worked two weekdays and one weekend day (normal working hours on that weekend day, so 9-5 or so). DH worked all weekdays. We had one day together as a family at the weekend.

It was really tough, but we managed, and I still don’t know how else we could have done it.

Just setting it out here in case it helps anyone else.

😅 👍

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

Where did you see that @SuperbGorgonzola, my DS’s primary school has still only specified one parent to be a key worker.

@WellTidy. That's not going to work if one of you works out of the house and can't share the load.

Who thinks it’s going to end up being more than two weeks?.. 😂😭

I don’t know what the solution is but the whole key worker thing doesn’t work for many people. There’s lots of key worker roles that can be done from home and lots of non key workers who work out of the house so those non key workers are really going to struggle and resent key workers who are wfh for taking a key worker place.

It doesn't say in that guidance that it has to be 2 key worker parents.

Mess- no, I accept that. DH and I both WFH. I only mentioned it in case it helped someone.

@Passmeabottlemrjones

It doesn't say in that guidance that it has to be 2 key worker parents.

No, I couldn’t see that it said that either.

It doesn't say in that guidance that it has to be 2 key worker parents.

I'd assume individual local authorities send out their own criteria so perhaps it varies. Ours is definitely very strictly both parents

It doesn't say in that guidance that it has to be 2 key worker parents

Guidance...not law.

Schools don't all have the facility to offer places when it is just one KW child. Guidance was always 'stay at home if you can'. We relied on parents wanting to keep their children safe and also in parents wanting to support the greater cause, not selfishly taking up places when they were at home or able to be flexible.
Schools only have so much space, under social distancing this capped the number of children in school. Parents who take place they don't need are denying others.

My sisters children’s primary school has sent an email stating both need to be critical workers:nhs/healthcare and blue light services. They will also be contacting vulnerable children (parents of) directly. They say it’s due to lack of staff and the need for social distancing.

In some schools on military bases, near hospitals schools had 400+ children if they didn't apply the two parent guide. How on earth would they staff that in small bubbles and where? Think beyond yourself.

DH is a key worker; I'm not - I also have decent flexitime. DS' school said that they can take key worker kids if absolutely essential, but both parents have to be key workers (for families with 2 parents). Fair enough.

For some reason, DH has decided that DS should be allowed to go to school as a key worker child, and has emailed the school with screenshots of the guidance. I'm absolutely mortified, because I don't think DS deserves a place at all, and I think it's just making things more difficult for the school. DH, however, has decided that this is the hill on which he will die.

I really hope the school just say no, to be honest. There's absolutely no reason for DS to go in.

I think it's very hard all round. However there isn't any point closing schools if large numbers then go in as children of keyworkers, it just defeats the whole exercise. Once school staff become infected or have to self isolate, there will be less and less places available. If you can work from home then you really should try and keep your children off school. Plenty of people can work different hours and can work around their children and partners.
Personally I advocated schools remaining shut long ago and we might have avoided this situation now. I know plenty of people who have not been lucky enough to be furloughed, they have simply been sacked.
I think the government really needs to (and should have done so a long time ago) think about what is and what isn't essential. Lots of things make life easier but they are not essential.

Also keyworker children are much more likely to spread coronavirus as their parents are likely to come into contact with lots of people. So limiting the number of them gathering is an important part of reducing spread.