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.

@Eckhart

I believe that this new 'virus' has affected the lives of quite a few people, so try not to feel too singled out. It's really not all about your children, even though it might feel to you as if it is.

Are you being serious?

Apologies if I'm missing the joke but why do you type “virus”? Do you not believe in covid?

Oh for god sake. The NHS is literally about to collapse. We are key workers but are leaving ours out if school apart from the youngest when our shifts clash. We are exhausted. It's frightening doing our jobs. We've both had covid and DH hasn't ever fully recovered. It shit but schools spread the virus.the virus kills people.

I used to care for a lady in her 90s. She was a child in ww2. She said she used to.get schooling in her teachers garden in the afternoon. She said it was actually gardening and household chores! She said it was a wonder she knew anything at all.

They all coped. It will all work out.

@noitsachicken your school must be very well resourced them to have face to face teaching as well as online lessons.
Even in our wealthy private school, whilst children of key workers etc will be supervised, they have to log on online and follow online lessons the same as everyone else

They are not being taught any more than the children at home, they are being looked after. We are both keyworkers and have manage to juggle shifts so our children haven't been to school once during the lockdowns, as it is safer at home.

I am NHS staff. My children are at home as they don't HAVE to be in school. (The school recommended only sending them if both parents were out the house for work.) I am annoyed that others are getting taught in school, some on dubious grounds. The system isn't fair. But then I speak to colleagues and read in the media about the unfairness in ICU. My children have a sibling, a loving home and many other advantages. They will be OK in the long run and right now things are so bad where I am that morally I need to do my bit, however tiny, and suck up my kids being at home.

I realise we are ‘lucky’ compared to others, we have access to technology and I can be home with the children

There you go. Read and repeat. Our DC are all grown up with their own homes but I cannot imagine the stress for parents that don't have the situation you do. Stop whining.

@Boopeedoop

I used to care for a lady in her 90s. She was a child in ww2. She said she used to.get schooling in her teachers garden in the afternoon. She said it was actually gardening and household chores! She said it was a wonder she knew anything at all.

They all coped. It will all work out.

With respect to her she grew up in an era where you didn’t need a degree to get a secretarial job. Times are different now. Gardening isn’t going to get you A levels.

There are many threads with key workers explaining why they can’t work with their children at home. I was on a teams call yesterday with a key worker from a different area. She had toys/nappies/nursery in the background and looked exhausted. I wanted to go and tidy up for her. Do you really care so little about keeping really vital services running that you begrudge children going to school. My child in school is doing exactly the same as another child at home. The teacher isn’t teaching them in the same way as he is also interacting with the children at home. My DD has made it her mission to tidy up the classroom and organise the books, pens, iPads etc so she tells me so has periods of the day where she isn’t being taught at all.

but you don't need it - you're at home with your children, well able to educate them.

I'm well able to educate my children. But I can't school them, which is what the work set this time around is essentially expecting of parents. Attendance is being recorded and when I said I cannot keep up with the work I was "reassured" that school don't mind if it's done at 9am or 9pm. That's great but at 9pm I'm trying to do my actual job.

My kids have 3-4 hours of work a day each, perhaps only 1-2 hours for my Reception kid. There are no live lessons at all. They all need some level of parental support with every single task, because they're all trying to get to grips with new technology, as am I. There are 3 of them and a toddler. I'm working. DH is working.

There are all the tick-boxy bad bits of school but none of the socialising, group learning etc.

It is also not an easy decision for those who have sent their kids in.

It's fucking bollocks, the lot of it.

I would like to add, DDs school ARE teaching. It's not that tricky in a larger school. There are 3 classes in her year group with 6 members of staff (a TA per class as it is Reception). 2 members of staff are doing online learning and 4 are in school teaching.

If those children who are vulnerable get a little more individual attention and a boost in their learning then I fully support that. If those children whose parents are both out on the front line get to do their learning in school with a TA then great. Dh and I are both full time wfh key workers, our dc are at home.

I can see that some questions are asked about those with a SAHP and a key worker parent who maybe could stay home. I think though how hard must their home life be that a parent would rather send their child into school in the middle of a pandemic when they could be at home. There must be other issues either with the parent or siblings whether diagnosed or not that means a parent can't spend time at home with their child. Those children have to live in that situation all week so again I can't really begrudge them that sanctuary. And yes I include the smug parents who found some loophole and boast about it on facebook. What message does that send to their child?

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

I agree it isn't fair but it is impossible to do anything fair for all in the situation.

Some key worker children are at an advantage being in school, they are in a classroom environment with smaller numbers with teaching staff. Though they have the stress mummy daddy etc are working and at risk! They have to come to school, whilst others are safe at home.

Live lessons are unfair, if parents are wfh, shared devices, more than 1 sibling. All might not be able to get on the live learning and therefore don't get that.

Only children are at a disadvantage as they don't have a child to child interaction.

Children with wfh parents are at a disadvantage to those who have been furloughed (time wise).

Parents educational ability is an disadvantage.

The list is endless.

But a place for children/ childcare, needs to be open for critical workers, so they can go to work. And school is the easiest place to have these children.

What is unreasonable is the inconsistency about which children are at school and which are not. Some schools only where both parents are key workers, some where one. No account of whether or not the job they do can or is being done at home.

Same as everyone else is saying here.
My kids' primary keyworker bubble is one big ICT suite where siblings in different classes are sitting near each other.
They access the work via seesaw same as they do at home (I know this because mine are only in a couple if days a week as I am a part-time keyworker).
The virtual learning supervision is glorified babysitting in secondary - kids have headphones, same tasks on VLE as at home, made to work in silence and get on with it. As they are all on different things and often different subjects, none are being taught - they can ask questions obviously (although few are) but the expectation is independent learning.

We need key workers to continue working, so their children require childcare that schools are providing (with the same amount of education being given to them as the children who are at home)

Would you rather send your child into school, to sit in a classroom with key worker kids, who are more at risk from their parents of catching the virus and transmitting it to others, just so you can have what you deem as "fair"?

None of this is fair.

It's actually not fair that children of key workers must go to school and mix with other children while your children are safely at home and not mixing with others!

We are both key workers in front line jobs and could have had places but have arranged our shifts so they don’t need to go in. Why would I want to send them out when I can keep them safe??

Of course education and mixing with peers is important but so is health and the health of teachers and families. Without that education is pointless. My children understand because we talk about how we are all feeling-angry, sad, frustrated and to be honest bloody terrified.

Think yourself lucky you have got them at home and you can be with them. Make the best of it because resentment isn’t going to make it any better for anyone!

I'm sure more and more people are leaving mumsnet because of threads like these. It's a pandemic, the worst we've seen.
Education provision is there, your both at home, your all safe but that's still not enough for you.

Your only other option is to get a key worker job, send your children into an environment that covid loves and then come back and complain some more.

I rant as every person I know who has caught covid has been a key worker or a colleague in education.
Give yourself a wobble, and look at the whole picture.

Don't worry, you aren't being treated unfairly. The ones who are in school aren't actually being taught properly either.

It's a fucking shit show.

Put a different spin on it, an opportunity to give your children a one to one education that they would rarely be afforded at school.

My children are sat in the IT room all day seeing exactly what the children at home are seeing.

They aren't being taught face to face in a classroom.

@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

So first you were upset that your children aren’t getting the same education as other kids, but when it was pointed out that the kids is school are also being plonked in front of a laptop, it’s now about the childcare? That you don’t need?

Perhaps get yourself a keyworker job so that your kids don’t miss out on the free childcare, then. I believe the supermarkets are hiring and lots of teaching assistants are resigning from their jobs because they don’t like being lambs to the slaughter.

Children also deserve to grow up with grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles OP.

There are all the tick-boxy bad bits of school but none of the socialising, group learning etc.

Very true!