Anyone else awake wondering what to do?

[hystericaljellyfish]

Whether to send their child to primary school in the morning?!

We are tier 4 although not as bad as London/SE yet. DS loves going to school and is desperate to go back, I felt fine about it all day but I'm having doubts now.

Lockdown looking more likely or schools to close soon anyway and for the sake of the going back potentially just for a few days it seems crazy to have all that mixing going on. But if I say no in the morning he will be so upset

I’ve had a few sleepless nights of it but mine aren’t due back till Tuesday. It’s a farce. My children’s school is located in one of the worst areas for Covid in East Midlands. Just shy of 800 in 100,000. The town average is about 440. Lots of schools in the town have decided to close... but not ours!

My eldest will be very upset as we’ve decided they aren’t going in. My youngest will be very happy not to go in.

With those rates I just can’t send them. I know I am extremely lucky to be able to change my work schedule to do that. I don’t know what I would do if I weren’t self employed!

Yes, I ve spent 3 days bouncing between stop being neurotic he ll be fine and nooo it’s not safe!! We are tier 4, rates slightly lower than average but some schools in our area have closed so if they are not safe why is ours?? One school has specifically stated it’s because the risk is too high, not because of lack of staff. I don’t want him missing out on school but it looks like lockdown and closure is days away anyway so a couple of days won’t matter. Our city council is begins schools who don’t want to open and has said parents won’t be fined but we live in the county, DS goes to school in the county and no word from the county council. I don’t know what to do!!

Yes. Exactly this. I'm working from home, alongside dd1 and dh and being asked to send dd2 to school. She is very excited to go. I am worried sick. Tier 4 area too with other local primaries all closed.

Unfortunately my council haven’t said anything about fines. We are going to tell the truth and if they fine us they fine us. I can’t see it standing up in court!

We are also tier 4 and our school is open for years 5 and 6 - it's a middle school, so years 5-8. I don't want to take the risk, I wish they'd just close and take the decision out of our hands.

I'm also awake because DD said she had a bad headache at 7.15, she went straight to bed in her clothes and was still there still sound asleep when I came to bed at 11.30. DH stayed up a while in case she woke up and was confused to find the house in darkness and he's not come to bed so either he's still awake or he's sleeping in his chair. I just hope DD is ok, this isn't like her and I'm worried. Part of me wants to check on her but I don't want to wake her!

I don't think it's worth the risk, for the school staff sake & fir bringing it home. Especially as I'm convinced they're all going to be closed by the end of the week (as they should be)

Cheer him up with something he'll enjoy..trip to the woods/park, playing Lego with him, ordering a new game, whatever his 'thing' is.

Yes it's such a hard decision but I really think the decision will be taken out of your hands in a matter of days with more school closures. I'm not sending mine in. It speaks volumes when councils are backing head teachers closing schools closing in their areas.

Mine is meant to go in as has an EHCP. We didn't use the provision last time. I'm feeling more and more guilty but I just can't do it again.
Im actually more worried about the situation when they come back. Full school, not vaccine for teachers. The mass testing will just be a massive flop and cause so many logistical problems.

If it is any comfort, numbers will be WAY down and social distancing will be possible. Teachers will be really hot on it for those that do come in.

In Scotland here, so we don’t go back til 18th but, in the last week before Christmas my DS was one of only 6 pupils in his 25+ class. Everyone else’s parents just freaked over the announcement about the new virus strain.

I'm just torn, it's just awful for their mental health isn't it. If I decide to keep him off I will manage to cheer him up and I'm sure he will understand but he loves school and misses his friends so much when he is off although I'm wondering how many will show up tomorrow

It's all just so bloody depressing. I normally sleep without a problem but I've been struggling the last few nights. My DD is in Y8 so much older than the little ones in primary but she cant really be left alone. I feel like her 'normal peers' shouldn't really be either. So many of her friends are looking after their small siblings, and it's all so crap.

Our school has decided to close, but had it not, I was going to keep DD at home and say we're self isolating as we'd been in contact with someone with symptoms. (Until you get symptoms you can't get a test anyway.)

@personaNonGarter I am telling myself this too. So far only 5 kids in DDs secondary have signed up. I think parents are very scared of the new strain. It'll probably be the safest it's ever been for her when she goes in on Tuesday.

I've spent most of the day preparing him for back to school, uniform ready, shoes polished by the door, packed lunch made! Nice early night ready for the morning and now I'm wide awake wondering what is the right thing to do

I think the safest thing now is to stay at home. There are a lot of very sobering headlines out there tonight and it seems to me that timing should have been everything. I don't understand why the blustering procrastination happened today on the Andrew Marr show, since the mutant version is ripping through us and every hour of school is potentially so many more infections. Any delay in closing now is pretty much sending the children home with it. I was considering sending our 15 year old in as a KW pupil this week but I've changed my mind tonight, whilst being unable to sleep.

@PersonaNonGarter that is a good point.

I think it's partly because I felt like this the first time before schools closed and still sent him in and it all turned out to be fine for us so now I'm wondering if I'm just panicking and it would be an overreaction!

We can't say for sure what will happen, we can only guess. I wasn't keeping DD off school because I was scared she'd catch covid tomorrow. I decided to keep her home because cases are rising quickly and we might well be headed for a huge explosion in cases and schools closing anyway. We can't be sure but we'll know a lot more in a week. I saw it as buying time to make a better informed decision.

I’m a wide awake teacher and parent. I have no choice but to send mine in - same school that I work in!

I'd say stay safe at home...

This is a different kind of virus. Last term we were fine with one case in the whole school in London until the last week of term when there were six. I really think we dodged a bullet, because none of us got it over the holiday but thousands of others did when their children brought it home from school.

And stay home not only for your family but for everyone. We really don't want the virus rampaging round the country when we're vaccinating because it increases the chances of a virus resistant mutation.

Good luck anyway...

@ashard20 I completely understand you and feel similar. We may well change our mind before Tuesday. I am worried them messing around with dosage of the vaccines will create an ever bigger problem, I'm worried that my DD will now never catch up and all the rest of it. Ultimately I'm staying up worried that her bus will crash on the way to school and there will be no drs there to help. All irrational but a little not.

@Sparkles715

I’m a wide awake teacher and parent. I have no choice but to send mine in - same school that I work in!

Best case scenario most of the parents at your school keep their children off? I hope

"I've spent most of the day preparing him for back to school, uniform ready, shoes polished by the door, packed lunch made"

Well then you've primed him to go to school...sorry but you could've easily prepared those things undercover and told him you don't know what day he'll go back yet.

The government have been an absolute shit show on this matter throughout. It's up to us not to create excitement about going back to school when it's well publicised that they might not.

We found out at 5pm give or take that our school won't be open...but obviously it was a possibility before that. I can't imagine making a big deal to my children and getting them excited by polishing shoes and making packed lunches

@blazinglightonthehill were all here at 2am worried. Let's not be assholes.

Until today I had said to him I wasn't sure if he will definitely go back on Monday, after watching Boris this morning and receiving an email from the school confirming they will be open as normal I was all ready for him going back and I always do the back to school routine, it's only since reading more headlines about lockdowns late tonight and thinking a lot more that I've started to doubt myself

Sorry. I'm not being an arsehole.

I'm pointing out that it was always obvious this would be the scenario. It's not news is it?