If your child qualifies for a school place through keyworker status have you taken it up?

[yefh]

I'm a keyworker but fortunately can wfh. Dh is not a keyworker but both our jobs are incredibly stressful and busier than ever. We have one child. Last lockdown we muddled through but dd yr2 was largely ignored whilst we worked all hours day and night and were on calls all day. We felt so guilty. Essentially the tv babysat. We nearly made ourselves ill with the hours worked and I am sure dd suffered too.

There is no chance of furlough for either of us.

We have contacted the school and they say we qualify for a keyworker place for dd but we are so torn as to whether to send her in. On one hand it will be good for her as she needs interaction with other children and she wants to go in and the alternative of being on her own all day whilst we both work is pretty miserable ( even with one hour of zoom lesson) on the other hand we are so worried about exposing her and us to risk. We are early 40s and in ok health.

We have no alternative support. GPS are far away and in vulnerable category

Just wondered if anyone else in this situation and what you did?

School rang today and offered places. I've said no, but I still think it might be the wrong decision.

I am a Dr, so a few acute shifts but mostly clinics. 1 day a week I go in. 2 days a week clinic from home. Husband works full time from home, I would say borderline keyworker.

We have 4dc. DS1 (11),DD1 (9), DS2 (6), DS3 (4). DS1 goes to private school and has a full day of zoom lessons so is fairly self sufficient. DD1 and DS2 both have three zoom calls a day plus work in between. Today I've been going for 14 hours and supervising their zoom calls in between patient appointments. Luckily DS2s classes fit perfectly in my gaps. DD1 I have to log in and send away to do her lesson. I have to banish them when I'm doing appointments because they are confidential, and it really isn't professional having your kids running round in the background. Meanwhile my 4 year old (preschool) is running feral. I've sat through a clinical governance meeting on mute this afternoon with my 6 year old one side and my nine year old on the other. We still didn't finish until gone 7.

I'm not entirely convinced this is sustainable. Also part of me still feels it is very wrong to have them at home, when I'm doing patient appointments. It feels very uncomfortable from a professionalism point of view. I still don't know what to do.

I said no because it looks a bit bleak in school. They are just being supervised by hcas as the teachers are all at home. They seem to be all sitting socially distanced with their computers and head phones. I asked the kids and they got pretty tearful but both said "we will go if you need us to, mummy". Also I feel guilty because DH isn't really a key worker (public sector though so no chance of furlough) and so if he was a single parent, we wouldn't qualify for a place. Plus part of the reason I'm so stretched is because he doesn't pull his weight with it at all, and that isn't schools fault.

@ofboris exactly

TAs not Hcas... Losing my mind already!

Im a teacher and in school full time as usual. Didnt take up kw place as dh is working from home, the children are organised and enjoy learning so it isnt a battle, and their school stopped wrap around care so the hours would have been useless anyway.

No. I can WFH and DS are both 14.

@NemoRocksMyWorld I would take the place tbh. It's the 6yo & 4yo who are difficult to manage in my opinion as they cannot be left to get on with it in any form really.

Yes school isn't perfect but I think my dc will benefit by being back in his school environment amongst some of his peers.

Or you give up trying to juggle it all & just do what you can otherwise you will burn out.

My husband and I are both keyworkers but as we both work from home neither of us see ourselves as critical workers , we have decided to keep are children at home with us as it’s safer. We are lucky that are children are of a age (12 and 10) they are happy to get on with work schools sets .

Yes and no. Oldest is working at home online but youngest (same school) has gone in. He also has an EHCP so qualifies in that category too. Only five children in his bubble so they are very spaced out.
I am CEV and teaching on Zoom all day.

No.

I qualify for a place as I work in a school but only during lunch and my other job is a key worker role too as is DH's. My eldest son also has an EHCP.

As another poster has said, as I work in a school, there's no way I want my child in one if at all possible.

DH works much of the time at home (not all) in a very demanding job. I wfh all the time but only part time. I have 4 dc but would much rather keep them at home if I can. Schools have shut to stop the spread. If everyone who can manage but doesn't sends their kids to school then the school closure will be pointless.

DH and I are both officially key workers but can both work mostly from home. I argued for and got a key worker place for our DC.

Whilst I agree the definition is too wide I think there’s not enough awareness of all the support side that goes into running the key industries. We’re both in roles that a proportion of our jobs are unarguably key, but not 100% of them. But there is no furlough available and we have no other childcare support.

And the last lockdown broke us. The DC (Age 5) were left for hours and hours every day on their own. It wasn’t fair on them. We worked every night then were up at 6 am every morning to do it all again. I can’t do it again.

Haven’t read the full thread at all. I’m a key worker and wfh so is DH. I’ve not taken up places for my kids at their schools and neither have my close colleagues. Main reason is we don’t want to risk the kids getting it. Not because we are high risk as we aren’t, but because it’s just not worth the hassle. I’ve 3 DC and I know if one gets it the others will as they are so close and we will too. No point being in lockdown if we can’t stay safe from the virus at least. Bit pointless if we still manage to catch it.

We both work in universities which qualifies us as key workers but I wouldn't exactly say the work was key worker work. We have twins in reception and a dc in year 3 and working is impossible. They are starting at school tomorrow but I'm really torn about it - I don't want us to get covid, and I don't want us to spread any either.

Should’ve said, it is hard. I’ve got 2 very energetic boys (primary age) and a baby girl who is twice as energetic! However, we are going to try to divide the work load between ourselves and try to just get on with it. The plan is to make sure we enjoy weekends as a family as much as possible, but work our butts off during the week!

DH and I are both KW but can WFH most of the time. We did shifts round each other last time so we could support the DC but this won't be possible this time for various reasons. We have 3DC, the older two are at secondary and we won't send them in but we've just asked for a place for our Y3. We'll see if we get it.

I'm a keyworker. A teacher. My dd is not going to school. I know how little social distancing goes on in a classroom. We will manage with keeping her at home. She won't do as much school work as she would in normal times. She'll come out of it even more of a recluse than she usually is. But we won't be taking up a KW place.

The more children are in school the more mixing there is, and the more chance one of them will catch it and bring it into school. Then the whole KW bubble pops, and the nurses and doctors who rely on being able to send their children to school will instead have to facilitate their child isolating.

Yes. Single parent. Their dad is a bus driver so key worker out of the home. I work for a university which apparently is also key work, although loosely and I’m wfh. Kids are 5 and 2. Both of them are going in. Last time I had a colleague put in a complaint that I wasn’t doing enough work. I noticed from the home learning already sent home that the school pretty much expect a schedule to be stuck to this time. I literally can’t juggle working with the kids as young as they are, let alone think about homeschooling on top of that. My mental health is really bad atm, to a really serious extent. If the school needed to be stricter about numbers I wouldn’t have much choice but to pull my children out, but places have been offered and I’m very grateful for them.

No I haven't. Much to the disbelief of my boss who would rather me take the place than WFH for a very short while.

My circumstances are very different to yours though OP, and if I were you, I would take it.

The list for key workers is so long I think my dog qualifies as one . Yet again it’s the children who parent are on benefits that miss out. All these bubbles bursts because to many children then the nhs police firefighters have no child care. People need to look after there own children if working from home. Ffs

Only key workers mh matters? What about other workers.

No. My kids qualify for a place. But I can do much of my work at home and they are old enough to be left when I can't. So there's no point.

I also feel sorry for teachers and school staff mh that why my dog won’t be taking a key worker place. I bet the teachers love being in classroom full of children.