66% of my daughters reception class are in school this week

[Crazyoldmaurice]

We live in a very affluent part of South West London, avg house price 750k+

Turns out that 66% of my daughters reception class are due to attend school this week. There are 75 kids in her year group and all 48 keyworker child places have been taken (I was too late to book her on so have had to send an email!).

Hardly seems worth keeping the 25 other kids off at this point.

hat's fine for a day or a week but not for 6 weeks plus. The school said they were happy to have them and they agreed with me

But its OK for other kids?

That is the reality for many parents / kids!

I think a teacher teaching online lessons qualifies as a keyworker, no bother. I have no idea why a childminder with no ratio issues needs their children to have a kw place though?

That's fine for a day or a week but not for 6 weeks plus

Do people get this is the situation they are expecting others to put themselves in?

My husband and I run a riding school and livery yard. We have 20 full liveries (we do ALL the care) plus 30 riding school ponies. We have a full team of grooms,

None of us can work from home.
None of us can ‘just cut back’ as the animals need to be fed and looked after.
We can’t even use up annual leave as the work is still there and needs to be done

None of us are entitled to any key worker places, we are at our wits end. My head girl has resorted to asking her husband to call in sick, so she can come in tomorrow,

Threads like this make me really sad. The thought of people having children in school when they have a parent at home is so unfair, when I have had staff crying on the phone to me this morning and couldn’t do my own children’s school education with them either,

1/4 of children in at our school - affluent outer London

Are people on here talking about primary or secondary schools?

People aren’t stretching the definition of key worker, they don’t need to. Just look at the official government list of what counts as a key worker. It’s very extensive, and seems to cover about 75% of professions. Government also states only one parent needs to be a key worker.

You can’t really blame parents for trying to get their children into school, and getting a proper education rather than ineffective (imo) online learning, when official guidance says they qualify.

To those saying do I think that it's ok for other kids --of course I don't. It must be awful for you. If I couldn't have a place I would have to do this and would do it because I care about the kids I teach and long term I need to keep a roof over our head. It wouldn't be ideal but I'd do it. As it happens I am entitled to a key worker place and checked it with the school because I am technically at home and they agreed for my kids to come In full time. My sympathies if you have to juggle full time working and looking after kids but I don't think me not taking my place would create a place for you? I have heard of a friend who works 2 days but is taking a full time place and I don't agree with that at all

Wander I’m for anyone who is KW to take place (unless campaigned for closed schools ;)

But on one hand you have posts outlining why KWs must

• children isolated etc
• too hard to work etc

On other hand posts berating anyone who dares take a place but for some reason they shouldn’t. And of course the above is exactly why they are taking it. But no that person must suffer etc

I know you didn’t say this about others taking places so not really aimed at you

More highlighting your post because hopefully people will realise that what drives people to take what is offered is the same for everyone, and therefore all the ‘selfish’ jibes are rather hypocritical

I don’t have kw place and would probably be last on list given the sector I work in so it’s not about my dc getting one, sadly.

Yeah I agree. I know how hard it is to work and look after kids as did it last time and I'm relieved I have a place . I don't agree with people sitting at home not working with kids in school unless they have vulnerabilities that mean they need the continuity that school provides. I think there should be some protection for those that cannot go to work because their children don't get a school place abs risk losing their jobs. I'm lucky in my area that they haven't had to turn people away from critical worker classes; there was only 4 kids in my daughters class today. They are struggling because 2 teachers have caught COVID and are off this week so only have a very small staff left. I think it shows how we are all linked; if I can't work your kids get no lessons if you can't work I can't buy food or get my bank account sorted or my car fixed etc etc . The whole key worker thing comes with the problems of anything where they have to create lists some people are included and others excluded and there's always winners and losers

I don’t think it’s ok at all that kids are getting a poor education while their parents stress trying to work and look after them and educate them.

So I’m not joining their ranks just because it’s technically feasible.

On our live online registration right now, DD keeps asking where certain friends are/ why she can’t see them. I can’t bear to explain to her that they are actually still in school, all together, because their stay-at-home foul mothers have still sent them into school as their husbands work in finance, so somehow qualify as a key worker.

@DollyParton2 bitter? Surely you try to do the best for your kids, well so are they. More risk but they have taken the option that was given to them.

@DollyParton2

On our live online registration right now, DD keeps asking where certain friends are/ why she can’t see them. I can’t bear to explain to her that they are actually still in school, all together, because their stay-at-home foul mothers have still sent them into school as their husbands work in finance, so somehow qualify as a key worker.

It's fucking outrageous

[quote sleepingwhitecat]@DollyParton2 bitter? Surely you try to do the best for your kids, well so are they. More risk but they have taken the option that was given to them. [/quote]
Of course this is making people bitter! Imagine if it was your child stuck at home while their friends are in school basically receiving a private school style education!!!

@muddyellowdog well surely one to one or one to two is actually better than 1 to 15/20. Plus they aren't haven't having teachers that know them at our school, so it's quite different from carrying on after Xmas holidays. I suppose this is because sour school is a a big one, 4 classes per year group, so others may be different. I think DS may be told not to go in next week as I'm not sure the school consider me keyworker enough, they are redoing the places, so let's hope my boss doesn't mind ?

Ps just so you don't worry I'm on my break !

[quote sleepingwhitecat]@muddyellowdog well surely one to one or one to two is actually better than 1 to 15/20. Plus they aren't haven't having teachers that know them at our school, so it's quite different from carrying on after Xmas holidays. I suppose this is because sour school is a a big one, 4 classes per year group, so others may be different. I think DS may be told not to go in next week as I'm not sure the school consider me keyworker enough, they are redoing the places, so let's hope my boss doesn't mind ?

Ps just so you don't worry I'm on my break ! [/quote]
But it's not one to one if the parent is working full time is it! Could you provide one to one teaching to your child while working from home? And it's not really proper teaching if you're not a qualified teacher and don't understand the pedagogy behind what you're actually doing.

My 2 ds' school is providing full time teaching to children in school and I know this because so far their home learning has consisted of the teachers plans for their class in school for us at home to try and re create!

Hope you enjoyed your child free break!

I understand people being jealous, I'd be pretty fuming if I couldn't get a place. I imagine most people don't want to actually have a go at the people they know in real life that are doing this as that would make things awkward so they take it out on anonymous people on Mumsnet, which I guess is fair enough.

Our school isn't bothering with live lessons. They posted a few random bits up and will be concentrating on the key worker children like last time.

You can report them to Ofsted then as they are required to.

I don't think they are actually required to do live lessons are they?

Also presumably they closed schools to get r rate down, and the more kids in school who really shouldn’t be means more transmission, slower lowering of r and the rest of us who haven’t used keyworker places have to do both work and homeschool at the same time for longer, or people who are having to take unpaid leave to look after DC need to be off work for longer. They need to change the rules ASAP or re-open schools to all.

@Manteo

We have set out clear, legally binding requirements for schools to provide high-quality remote education. This is mandatory for ALL state-funded schools and will be enforced by Ofsted. We expect schools to provide between three and five teaching hours a day, depending on a child’s age.

Your right it doesn't have to actually be "live"but they cannot send random bits & only teach keyworker children which is want the poster said.

My dc can log on to the live classroom & it's the same provision. The children in school don't get extra attention.

@rolliy

Your right it doesn't have to actually be "live"but they cannot send random bits & only teach keyworker children which is want the poster said.

My dc can log on to the live classroom & it's the same provision. The children in school don't get extra attention.

That's good that they can log on to join a live lesson at least. We're very much getting random tasks with no teaching unfortunately.

They have to provide remote teaching whether that's live or recorded.