If parents think that their children will get some kind of advantage by being in school, think again.

[OwlWearingGlasses]

I am a TA.
I am supervising 20 vulnerable and key worker children children in class (KS2 and spread across Yr 3, 4, 5 & 6).
They are doing exactly the same online work as the children at home.
Many of the children in school have challenges, I spend most of the day managing behaviour.
Children working at home have a MUCH better chance of getting individual attention.
Children working at home also have much less chance of getting COVID.
I would have much less chance of getting COVID if more children worked at home.

This post is not aimed at vulnerable children or those with 2 frontline parents. I am very happy to be supervising those.

This post is aimed at the (many) parents getting their children in on very tenuous links to a key worker space, quite a few with a parent at home who is not working (I am not kidding).

Sorry I needed to rant. I have had a very difficult day and it will be worse next week as I have another 4 in class next week.

It really is not an advantage to have your children in school. Please keep them at home unless there is no other choice.

I must admit it must be annoying when parents will try to find any loophole to get a place for their child.

They aren't doing it because they think their kids will get a better education.....they're doing it because you're looking after their kids and they aren't.

Exceptions for kids who genuinely need to be there obvs. Not the SAHM chucking the kids in school

In most Scottish councils you have to both parents keyworkers working outwith the home and only on the days they're working to get a place. Headteachers seem to be quite strict by all accounts.

It's the vulnerable children that are the real concern - the ones that fall through the cracks again.

I hope you're post doesn't make parents who have a legitimate need to utilise places feel guilty!

I’m grateful to the staff in schools. I am a key worker but was furloughed last time. My child is definitely doing better at school so far than if I was homeschooling.
Yes it’s the same online work, but he won’t do it for me at
Home. He will at school, because it’s expected there. That’s what school is for. I’m grateful to the staff as I know the whole situation is not easy and my child needs a lot of attention.

Why do people keep posting about this?

Don't people realise that parents have to earn a living?

I've got a child in as a key worker this time. Didn't last time because I was working at home, don't have that option this time. I'm not 'frontline' but I'm doing an essential service (think nhs admin). Dh isn't frontline either but it working outside the home in an essential job, but probably not one that any of you would be familiar with.

There are many more essential workers than just police officers, supermarket staff, doctors and nurses.

There are all kind of people who n key roles propping up these services.

How do you know for certain that the parents are at home not working anyway?

That's not the case though in every school, which is why it is such a contentious subject.

Out of DS class 20/30 children are in as they have one keyworker parent. I know in lots of cases the other parent is either wfh or furloughed.

The school are doing full lessons following the curriculum, however the 10 children at home are just getting two worksheets a day to complete.

So yes I wish that my ds had a place as this is going to be detrimental to him academically and socially.

I am also a TA. I disagree.

The kids I’ve looked after today weren’t lonely for a start...... things aren’t perfect but they enjoyed snow ball fights, and a game of indoor dodge ball, alongside the work that the teacher is also setting for the children at home.

No but they will have the advantage of their parents not risking losing their jobs and the roof over their heads 🤷‍♀️

@Cherryup
Id be putting a complaint into ofsted in your case as it clear your child being schooled at home is getting significantly less support than those who are going into school

Complete opposite with my DH. When he is in school he is only with one year group of around 3 students, they ask him whatever maths help they need and they spend the whole day revising. They will 100% do better and he admits they're at an advantage.

Don't people realise that parents have to earn a living?

OP mentioned families with a parent at home, so expect those families do not need to have their dcs go to school in order to earn a living.

I'm a SAHM fwiw and DH is technically a key worker. We aren't sending our dd in. But for some, it may be MH issues or SEN. On the face of it though, you do wonder if some people just like the free childcare and aren't worried about the virus, so find a way to send them in. You just don't know though, so best not to judge too much.

I do judge the fucking government though. That pack of ball roots have fucked up again! In an extremely strong category, this is one of the dumbest things they have done to date. Arseholes.

I’ve just read online that apparently a dog Walker tried to claim she was a key worker as she walked the dogs of NHS workers and so thus deserved a place.

We have had an email from school pleading with people to keep their children at home if they wfh. Anybody can tie themselves in knots to justify taking a place, it seems.

I was furloughed last time. Now I am not.

This time around I am deemed to be a key worker - a definition that seemingly many of you will contest. But for this reason - my employers will 100% not furlough me again. They are also incredibly inflexible. I could not afford unpaid leave even if i wanted do as we met the breadline the last lockdown and are scrambling to stay afloat this time.

DH was self employed last time, which went down the pan. He has set up a new business which obviously needs huge time and dedication and he works 12 hour days at least.

I did not use a school place last time. Now I will.

The choice for me is stark - I lose my job/DH business fails - and all that follows after it Or use a place which i am entitled to.

Just to address the vulnerable kids slipping through the cracks, our school knows who all the vulnerable kids are and has given them school places. If they don't show up we call them, home visit them, alert their social worker/family support worker etc. We don't just leave them to it.

My ds will be at an advantage as I am also a TA and single parent have to keep going into school, he has serious depression at the moment and I would be terrified if I had to leave him alone.

Hmmmm. My DB is a key worker (works in a hospital) and my DSIL works 3 days a week currently from home. They have two DC, aged 6 and 9. They applied for school places for the 3 days she works. Fortunately, they got them. There is no way DSIL can work with her two DC at home, and no way she can home school them. I feel tremendously sorry for those families with only one key worker who haven’t been offered a place at school. How incredibly stressful for the non key worker to be burdened with their job, childcare and homeschool. They must feel like they are failing in all quarters. Second time round, how many employers are as sympathetic to the plight of working parents???

This again 😂 I send my primary school child in because I have to work in a secondary school, not a teacher so can’t work from home. Incidentally my DS has only 4 others in his class and is being taught be the teacher so is very happy and doing well but again not why I sent him.

No but they will have the advantage of their parents not risking losing their jobs and the roof over their heads 🤷‍♀️

EXACTLY. Whats the point of this judgy patronising post?

You arent the only one in a pickle here- I am on the frontline and a key worker and I am just as tired and fed up as you are. I'm sorry my kids are such an apparent burden to you but guess what? I'm out there in the community keeping disabled and ill people alive at home.
Most of us are doing the best we can to simply survive and we dont need stupid lectures from people like you.

The schools should be cracking down and refusing places to anyone where a parent is furloughed or a SAHP for a start. There will always be people who try and play the system so the system has to find ways to push back. I appreciate that schools have better things to do than police the working situations of their parents at this point but sadly it appears necessary...

Ok but how does she or anyone know for certain whether or not someone is at home?

I really don't understand how everyone knows all the ins and out of everyone's else's specific circumstances.

There will be lots of people who were able to manage at home last time but now aren't.

And why do people keep going on about key workers being frontline? How do you for example think that your food is produced and delivered to the supermarket? Who do you think delivers all of the PPE?

It's the opposite in my kids school - on the "busiest" day Yr2 DD had 7 kids in class, one teacher & two TA's, and on the quietest day 4 kids, one teacher and two TA's.

They're still in their class bubbles, not mixed years. I'm under no illusions whatsoever that she's definitely being massively advantaged by being in school on my three working days, and gets a far higher quality of education from the teacher than she does from the online provision she does at home with me on the two days I don't work and she's at home with me.

As an aside, the fact a key worker works from home doesn't always mean their kids should be there. I'm a keyworker working from home (single parent) dealing with child protection. Today I had a video child protection conference that was 2hours long, and discussed, in detail, the sexual assault the very young child had experienced. It would be completely inappropriate, and a massive safeguarding issue, for me to have my kids around while I work. I wouldn't be able to do any justice or help the kids that I support, who need my full attention, and equally my kids shouldn't have to hear about some of the horrific things I have to talk about on a daily basis.

I didn't think the stories we hear of parents wanting a space because they are entitled was real until ......

Tuesday morning having been told she'd be assessed on data given an acquaintance I know turned up at school with her children stating they had to accept them as they are entitled to a space as her DH is a keyworker.

Kids have own bed rooms and also own devices.

She's still posting on FB and Instagram page about it and how her kids are being treated terribly and being refused to access the online learning in school as opposed to home (she seems to accept there's no difference in provision)

It wouldn't be so bad but she's a SAHM and her kids are 11 and 13!!!!!

So you know which kids you aren’t happy to be looking after OP? Do they not spread COVID too 😂😂 pull yourself together, if you feel the school is putting you at risk complain to them don’t bitch on a forum.

Seems to me like Not Sending Your Kids to School is the new I Have Went Out of My House Less Times than you have contest.

I work with a girl whose sister is a TA and is apparently Fuming that she is expected to work over this lockdown for key worker/vulnerable children (2.5 days a week). Fully expected to be sat at home enjoying herself like last time. No fear of the virus or anything, just cross she has to work.