I think this needs to be managed very carefully this time round. Last time with the keyworker/vulnerable system in secondary at least there were low numbers in school so kids properly spread out in IT rooms supervised by TAs, who were not able to give too much help with the work as there was only one teacher present between quite a few classrooms, and obviously that teacher is a subject specialist in only one subject so.....
This time if more kids come in there will not be enough TAs to cover the supervision, not enough spacing out, more teachers will have to come to help supervise meaning teachers who are parents to young kids will have to send their own kids into primaries, resulting in more attending there than last time.
I really hope that in secondaries at least only the neediest vulnerable kids are sent in by their parents.
Call me naive but I actually didn’t know that the keyworker/vulnerable places had been taken by parents who were physically at home. I thought last time that they were there for kids who would have been literally physically home alone otherwise and too young or vulnerable to keep themselves safe.
I do think that remote learning is different this time, with live teaching on Meet and Classroom, as opposed to “work through this” pamphlets put in Classroom or getting sent by email. There should be more structure to the day and actual support from teachers by video/audio link, for secondary kids at least.
DH and I are both key workers and he works 60/70 hours a week out of the home. I’m not sure if I can work at home this time yet but last time when I had to go to work I turned down DS’s keyworker place as he was in year 9, was able to keep himself safe at home and had access to a device. He got in a muddle with his schedule (immature And left to his own devices and gaming he got behind with his work etc) and considered that would be better in school in the event of another lockdown to give him some discipline. But I have decided against it because a) thread remote learning set up is much better and b) the virus is more transmissible amongst that age group this time round.
I think with junior school children if you are physically at home and working that you should aim to keep your children there, even if they are in the next room while you make certain phone calls. They do not need a person constantly in the same room as them if they are doing some online learning with the teacher on a screen. The rest of the time then I’m sure there will be an over reliance on screens and TV entertainment a screen as outside play is limited in the winter but it is what it is. It’s hopefully for a shorter time this time round as no school summer holidays round the corner on top of lockdown and the vaccine will start to affect transmission rates.
(It’s another thread but part of me thinks school pupils and staff should be done first along with NHS staff as many older and vulnerable people are shielding by choice anyway and it’s the school kids who are likely to bring the virus to them)