You only need to have ONE keyworker to secure a primary place

[PamDenick]

If you are a key worker and your spouse is not, your still have the right for your primary aged child/ren to have a place on site in their school.

It's much harder this time as when we had the first lock down everything stopped except essential things where as now things are continuing and more shops are open.

I am a key worker and work for the NHS. We had a national mandate to pause our work during the first lockdown so I didn't send my children to school.

Now I am swamped with work and have a mix of being in the office and working from home. My DH is self employed but a company director so no furlough. He works at a mix of home and sites so he can't be home all the time. This time I have asked for a key worker place as i really need it.

Someone at my work today said she had sent her 2 dc in because she ‘couldn’t be doing that again’ when it comes to home schooling. We’re classed as key workers (but then so seems are a lot of people!?). Office work that can be done at home and not call centre so don’t see why. Each to their own I suppose but I don’t want to put my dc unnecessarily at risk or put the school in anymore risk of being unsafe.

@PamDenick

No, but I don't think a nurse should lose out on a place just because her school is using the guidance from pre=January.

A nurse with a non key worker partner shouldn't need a place

The non key worker can look after their children surely

It's not about rights and deserving places, it's about staying at home unless there is no other option

The issue is, with KW provision making bubbles so huge the it is basically normal classes. You have the issue that a rota does have to be in place. You can't support children online throughout the day now. You have to be delivering lessons online at set times per the normal schools day. This is expected and I do agree with it. We did it to some degree last time. However a teacher cannot be in a full class AND do that for those at home. So rotas have to come in which means numbers are capped.

My child's school has 89% KW, not all will get places. We have not put ours in and we are 2 KW and an ECHP. Schools will end up so overwhelmed there is a risk KW provision will be as chaotic as last term re:closures. Especially in the coming weeks. No-one has a right to anything and if people are stretching KW to the limit schools can say no.

There is also the danger that with much fuller classes, Covid is more likely to transmit within them and burst bubbles.

That will mean no KW provision at all for any NHS worker children in that class.

@Letseatgrandma

There is also the danger that with much fuller classes, Covid is more likely to transmit within them and burst bubbles.

That will mean no KW provision at all for any NHS worker children in that class.

A lot of schools will have that issue I think.

No at our school. If the schools can't provide the staff, that's it really.

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@MrsWombat i have seen a few say that, doesn't make sense.
Surely its better for numbers to have less in sometimes[/quote]
My own Head says it’s because they don’t want the kids taken to the supermarket or playground or dropped off at aunty on her day off. Better to have them in the one place in one bubble longer. If they are at school all week it’s unlikely that would happen. With a double shift working key worker partner that definitely makes sense for us but I don’t know if that was my children’s Heads reasoning.

What does the hypothetical nurse do if her partner works in construction? You can’t leave the children at home unsupervised. Nor can you take them to a hospital or building site.

@HarryLimeFoxtrot

What does the hypothetical nurse do if her partner works in construction? You can’t leave the children at home unsupervised. Nor can you take them to a hospital or building site.

Both the nurse and her partner need to agree a way forward with both employers. Both parents need to ask for some form of flexibility (dropping days/shifts each if necessary). Can the construction worker be furloughed for childcare reasons? (If not, why not - because they won't ask?)

It's absolutely shockingly inconvenient for everyone and there are as many individual circumstances as there are families and employers.

But in essence, if the head doesn't make a priority order, that nurse/construction worker combo are treated the same as a nurse/SAHP, and that can't be right either.

More chance - in my opinion - of the nurse/construction worker family getting a place before others with less need if there's some hierarchy in the first place, even if it initially seems unfair.

DH is a keyworker, I am not. My dc are going to school because we have no other choice if I want to keep my job.

The NAHT (National association of Head Teachers) says that as guidance from Government is not clear yet and the suggestion that a space be offered to all children with one keyworker at home is putting pressure on schools. So their guidance suggests that after vulnerable children, children with two keyworker parents (or one if single parent) should be prioritised. Numbers will depend on a school's risk assessment and we're only one day in, so hopefully all who need a space will get one.

www.naht.org.uk/advice-and-support/management/schools-and-covid-19-your-questions-answered-updated-january-2021/#an-key-worker

Thank you @KatherineOfGaunt

@Mousehole10

That’s guidance only, and only works if the school have room.

Yes, last time our dd's school said both parents had to be keyworkers. This time they've said they're limited on space and will prioritise children of parents who work in healthcare or SS.

Both parents need to be key workers and work outside the home in my child's school. Both parents keyworkers and we didn't get a place as one can work from home.

Audrey this is the point I was trying to make on this thread before it got somewhat derailed by those who thought I was just being entitled.

I was trying to explain that last time you might have had to have two KW parents to get a place, but this time the guidance sent to Headteachers on Monday evening was that this time schools should provide provision for all KW chidden even if only one parent is registered as a KW. Some Heads, especially in smaller schools might have missed this.
This is to ensure that nurses, for example, who might have dropped shifts last time, are as available as possible. Where the other parents is, I don't know. He/she might not be around, he/she might be seriously ill with Covid, he/she might be a pilot and stuck overseas, he/she might be AWOL. I was just trying to help nurses and teachers and undertakers and food distribution workers etc etc negotiate with their schools with the ever-changing directives.