Why do my children not deserve an education?

[noitsachicken]

Just because we are not key workers?
My children don’t qualify for a school place, that means they won’t be educated in a classroom, by a teacher, with their peers, they won’t have time to socialise with their friends or play in a group.
They will be sat around the kitchen table, sharing a space with siblings of different ages, all with different needs, with a non-teacher parent trying to do the best they can.
Last lockdown school provision was ‘childcare’ the curriculum was suspended and there was no expectation. That is not the case this time, children who are not allowed in school are at a huge disadvantage.
I realise we are ‘lucky’ compared to others, we have access to technology and I can be home with the children, but I worry for my children, for their mental health and their education.
Why do they not deserve an education and others are prioritised for an education based on their parents job?
How long will those of us with children who are not allowed in school accept this?
I understand the reasons for closing schools, but children are not being treated fairly, if childcare is needed for those with critical jobs then it should be no more than that.

@Littlewhitedove2

Yeah. You’re about 10 months too late for that quote. I was nodding my head along with that in March/April. Aren’t I lucky? Aren’t I privileged! Least I have four working limbs. Least I can feed my children good food whilst others elsewhere are hungry.

I do still have glimmers of that buried deep down, so I appreciate the sentiment. But I am very very tired. I have a partner with an autoimmune issue who is eligible for a vaccination soon and I am extremely grateful for that. But I am weary to the bones and frustrated and I don’t need people telling me to be safe or feel blessed.

I'm a key worker in the nhs. My child is at home because Dh is. If you would like to come and do my job op, feel free. You can have the punishing hours, the relentless problem solving, the sheer bloody worry AND the exciting knowledge that your chance of catching Covid is at least three times higher.It might give you something else to think about instead of how unfair life is.

ElizabethP141 I do blame the teachers at all, they are doing the best they can under the direction of the head, which is teach 100% as normal and then send whatever worksheets you can home for those not in school (presumably in their own time). I am not criticising the individual teachers. I am critical of the leadership team. I have raised my concerns with the head and been brushed off. Yet all other locals schools are offering more aqequate remote learning already, therefore the argument that it's not possible is simply untrue.

OP - what do you propose should happen?

There is no easy solution. It's nothing to do with who 'deserves' to be in school or not.

Critical workers who have to work out of the house need the childcare aspect of school in order for our essential services and industries to keep going. In a pandemic unfortunately some jobs are going to be classed as more essential than others.

Teaching and school staff do need some level of protection. Overcrowded classrooms with no social distancing, no masks, etc have ended up proving to be a difficult area for this. Covid is in schools and spreading quickly in many of them. Unsurprisingly children do catch covid, even if they don't get as ill with it overall, and they do transmit it. The unions finally got some information that actually showed this, information the government were not overly keen to share.

Therefore school staff need to be able to access the basic protection of SD, etc. In order to do this we need to reduce class sizes. We know we can't shut to all as that means the economy cannot keep working.

Parents ideally should only be using their school place if they are a critical worker and there is no one at home to look after/supervise their child. Obviously there will be some who really push this and could have their child at home - yes, they may be working still if at home but then so are many non critical workers. However, it's very hard for schools to prevent this. We have to trust the parents to do the right thing where possible.

Obviously vulnerable children need to be a priority. Most schools are very aware of their vulnerable children, even those where it is less obvious. They are in as they deserve to maintain the 'safe space' of school in lots of situations.

Some children under the vulnerable category need to be in due to their specific needs. These obviously need to be higher priority to those who can cope with remote learning fairly well, even if it's not ideal.

So OP, what do you propose we do that still helps reduce the spread of covid and still helps to protect school staff, children and parents from this virus?

What a self-centred post.

Seriouslymole - that is simply not true

*do NOT blame the teachers

The key worker kids in school are doing exactly the same thing as the kids at home. My DS is in school for mental health and asd reasons and is sat infront of a computer doing the same work as her friends. She has one other person she knows in her class.

@Seriouslymole

OP - I hear you - you will be told you are totally unreasonable but it absolutely feels like some communist, dystopian nightmare at the moment where if your parents work for the state you have an education, if they don’t you are thrown to the wolves.

This is not the same for secondary as it appears the children in school are doing exactly the same lessons, but primary anyone not in really is a second class citizen.

We are staffing the schools you want to send your kids to, the hospitals, the supermarkets. I would LOVE to stay at home but I can’t and this stupid tussle we’re in is not of our making. No we are not better but we can’t WFH

I am a key worker but my husband is not, my kids are not getting a place. At our school the teaching assistants are supervising the pupils to do the online learning set by the teacher. There will be no face to face teaching, only supervising.
The fewer kids that go to school, the more quickly we can get things under control and get all kids back.

I think it's crap for children being stuck at home, particularly if they have no similar aged siblings. DS2's friends are all at school together currently, and he isn't. He's feeling a bit rubbish with it and it's far from ideal but it is what it is

I have a child in Yr 11, by all accounts a very important school year given GCSE grades can determine so much for their future. I also have a Yr 6 child missing their last year of primary school, a year to be relished in my opinion as it all changes once they go to secondary school. I also have a toddler who hasn’t even ever seen a day in nursery yet.

Do you know what, I’m so so glad and utterly relieved that I am able to have them at home, where their risk of exposure to the virus is vastly reduced. Is it easy...god no!!! My older two have spent too much time cooped up together and would happily kill each other right now, and my youngest is a handful and restless due to the lack of things to do/social interaction with peers/others etc. All that said they are home, and they are all as safe as I can keep them, for that I am eternally grateful. Yes, they are missing out on school/experiences/education, but as long as we all stay healthy we hopefully have years to come to help them catch up on the things they might have missed, and that is all any of us can do given the circumstances. Yes it’s very sad the children have had to miss out at all, but it’s a pandemic and we are ALL suffering in some way or another adults and children alike. We are all affected, granted some more than others, but I certainly don’t begrudge anyone who is affected less, and grateful that I’m not affected more as some others are. In life there are always people better off, and there are always people worse off, in just the way life is....even during a pandemic!

@justanotherneighinparadise
Agree completely with your post. And the fact they post on Mumsnet to say they don’t care and to seek validation from other pisstakers shows they care. If they were truly oblivious, they’d just do it.

where if your parents work for the state you have an education, if they don’t you are thrown to the wolves.

not all critical workers work for the state?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision here is the list of workers it covers. It is not just people working on the frontline, which I think the majority of us would of course not begrudge them a school place.

@noitsachicken

Maybe our school is different but it’s just a normal primary. Teachers are in school with support staff with at least half the class if not more, work is the same as we have set at home yes, but the children in school have a ‘normal’ environment, normal resources, peers, normal structure to their day. Why I am I wrong to question this? Why is it wrong to blindly accept this situation for months? I don’t know what the ‘right’ answer is, but the curriculum should be suspended in my opinion, so that parents at home aren’t being expected to keep their children at the same standards to those in school who have a better situation

So you acknowledge they are doing the same work in school, but you also think they are getting 'proper' teaching. Certainly in the year group I work in at my school, the children are on Chromebooks doing the work that has been set for everyone, and which they would be doing if they were at home (most are in some days and at home some days). They are set daily work that follows a scheme and are expected to keep up each day. The 'advantage' the children in school have is that if they do need support they have someone who knows how to explain things to them, although it is designed for them to be able to follow without constant adult supervision. I think our children have very good provision, but it is very different to normal lessons because there is usually lots of interaction and collaborative work, which obviously can't happen if work is assigned online.

A typical day for the children in school will be English, Reading and Maths in the morning and then some Topic, followed by maybe Art or P.E. (which obviously isn't a proper PE lesson, just more a bit of a game of some sort). The children at home will hopefully be doing the same academic work(with a teacher available for them to ask questions if they need help) and then whatever activities they enjoy at home, so maybe art or some exercise. The point being the children in school are not going to get ahead academically.
Also regarding your point about the social aspect, in our upper KS2 classes the number of children has averaged 4-7 children, so random children who are not necessarily their friends, or even in the same class. I'm sure most of them would like to be at home chatting online to their mates.

A large number of posters on this thread, like GWLTM, saying the OP has nothing to moan about, those at home are just getting what those at school are, just stop complaining and get on with watching the video lessons etc, are totally missing the point that not all schools are doing the same.

Our school is not providing videos, or live feeds, or feedback on work, or anything that could be called "teaching" for those at home. If they were I would be very happy and would get on with it.

Seriouslymole - you can come and do my job if you want too - we have over 500 patients on our books - all of which deserve to receive a decent service - last lockdown I had workers leave their kids home alone to do visits because the hubs were so inaccessible so if begrudge us places now then actually you are not being at all reasonable.

@noitsachicken

Why am I entitled for wanting my children to be treated the same as others? I am not blind to the situation, I understand what is going on, I understand everyone’s situation is different. There are lots of threads and news stories with schools with 50% and more of children in, people aren’t keeping their children home, parents are sending them given the chance. Schools aren’t properly closed.

They will be soon if the numbers going in are high! In my town, one primary has had to close due to high amounts of cases. Meaning NO critical worker provision at all for those children, who all need to isolate.

I feel your pain Op. For me, I would happily send my kids to school because while there is risk, for me it's a risk I would take because I saw the negative effects of the last lockdown on them, their mental health in particular, and in turn, it's effect on mine from seeing my kids so unhappy. Clearly from the posts on this thread there are many schools who are teaching as normal the children who are in school many of whom arguably shouldn't be there because their parents aren't key workers as intended by the use of the term. I would equally feel very aggrieved by this because my children suffering the effects of missing out on their normal school experience, educationally, socially and in any other way is the single worst effect of this pandemic for me.

@noitsachicken

I am aware of the crisis. But children are being treated unfairly, all children should be treated the same. Childcare should be provided for those who really need it

It is not childcare. We are teaching children of keyworkers and vulnerable children. In my school we have one teacher per year group in school alongside a ta. The children in school are being taught exactly the same as the children who are at home. I am a ta, I am teaching my class on line with zoom lessons. my colleagues are doing the same with their classes. We are providing 4 hours of education a day, either through zoom lessons, recorded lessons or by other means. I still have to make sure my children are learning and staying on track with their education. The goalposts this week have been altered so much by the DfE, the rhetoric from Gavin Williamson is disgusting. We want to teach children, but we have to have a safe working environment, in order to make sure everyone is safe. Children, staff and families.

If you can keep your kids home I would do so. Even if working from home is harder. I am a key worker and my kids are at home. Keeping them home will reduce the risk to your own kids, it will also reduce the risk to the keyworker kids who have to be in school. It really pissed me off that people are clamouring to get keyworker places when they shouldn't really have them because the more kids in school, the higher the risk to the keyworker kids who have no choice but to be there. Things are going to get worse over the next month or so, it will get better, but for now it won't feel like it. So for now let's just work together and fight this, stay home, work from home, keep your kids home unless no choice, and let's get through this to the other side. We can look at getting everything back on track then.

For example :

Food and other necessary goods
This includes those involved in food:

production
processing
distribution
sale and delivery
as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

So,that means you could have a parent who works part time in a supermarket and claim they are therefore a critical worker and get a school place, even if they have another parent who can work from home.

The list also includes financial services which covers thousands of jobs!

@LizDiz

But only allowing "front line" is complicated.

What about food production, supply chains? support staff in schools/hospitals? We still want the internet, heating etc I presume. Do we want to be able to call a plumber out if the boiler breaks?

if your parents work for the state you have an education, if they don’t you are thrown to the wolves

In my family there are 7 key workers. Only 3 work for the state (social worker, TA and teacher). The other 4 are: farmer, private school teacher, supermarket delivery driver and nursery school manager.