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.

Don’t know if this is a wind up or what. You’re missing the point. You CAN stay at home and at least try to educate your DC. A critical worker has to go out to work, therefore they aren’t at home AT ALL to try to educate their DC.

Don’t be angry at critical workers. I’m sure they’d much prefer to be at home!

But who said life is fair? It's not remotely fair. The school system right now is as fair as it can possibly be right now. Whether children attend or not is down to a fair criteria. In the great scheme of things there are far far greater injustices. If you feel that your kids are missing out on an education, then spend your weekends and evenings doing fun educational activities with them. Take some responsibility instead of expecting someone else to do it for you.

It’s very easy to complain and say things aren’t fair (which you are correct, it isn’t) but what is the solution? We are all trying to get by as best as we can, and no matter how it is organised someone will be disadvantaged. The best thing we can do is try to keep positive for our own mental health and that of our kids

Is op for real!? If so, some people are so massively myopic it's breath-taking. 🤔

If you want to make things fairer, OP, why don't you try and redress the balance and recreate some of the conditions other children are experiencing.

Open every window in the house, even when there is a thick frost, and then sit for hours at a time in a draft. Get your DH to look after them and you go hang out in a covid ward and let their imaginations go crazy with the worry of you dying.

Or you could stick them into separate rooms and not let them see each other to recreate being an only child, maybe start abusing drugs or alcohol so it is fair to those poor children with addict parents.

I'm not going to suggest trying to create a fairness with those poor kids in the care system, until you have worked with them you don't realise just how awful their lives are.

Life isn't fair! Your children, along with mine are the lucky ones. They have a parent that cares about them, a routine and access to an education, all be it in a different format, food in their bellies and a knowledge that things will get better in the not so distant future.

Teachers have a 4 x more risk of contracting Covid than the general public. Their risk is higher than any other keyworker. The government have concealed these figures. They were uncovered by the unions who had to request it under the FOI act. Teachers and kids can then carry it into the community.

I’m worried about my 14 year old DD. She’s doing GCSE’s for god sake.

We’re all worried about our children’s education. You’re no special or different than the rest of us. But judging by the press this morning we may be going into tighter lockdown. And Boris has pleaded with key workers only to send their children in if it’s urgent.

I hope you’re proud of yourself. ALL children deserve an education. We’re in the middle of a public health crisis. Stop whining and being selfish.

My sibling school is the kids are doing the same work in school as what is set for home supervised by TA. While teachers do the online learning for everyone etc. They aren’t getting anything better than those at home.

Funny how in the first lockdown I was reading how parents didn’t want their precious to be mixing with dirty keyworker children whose parents were full of covid. Keyworker kids got even less education then as they were often placed together and not taught in their classes like now.

Now cases are even higher with a more contagious strain they are fighting for them to be in school with the same kids.

With respect OP, your school cannot be operating as a 'normal' primary and I very much doubt that all teachers are in and delivering normal lessons.

Teachers and all staff are working on rota's to provide childcare for keyworker and vulnerable children. Classes aren't running as normal because all teachers are delivering work/lessons to pupils who are at home, as well as pupils in the day-care setting.

They are working on rota because a high percentage of staff are parents themselves with their own DC who are learning from home. School staff can't bring their own DC into work with them so many are working from home, delivering lessons to pupils online.

TA teams are rota'd to provide childcare - so they monitor children as they work on the same tasks as the children at home.

None of this school experience is 'normal' for anyone.

If you've heard of classes that are being taught as 'normal' then I question whether some patents are taking the absolute piss and sending their DC to relieve them of their own parenting duties. These 'normal' classes are probably filled with a mix of ages and an over-anxious teacher/TA who are doing their best to manage a large number of children with varying learning needs in too large a bubble.

School areas - certainly in secondary schools are closed off, so childcare is in a very small secured section. The rest of the schools are areas where teachers can deliver online lessons in a live stream. For safeguarding reasons, teachers (certainly in Wales) shouldn't be delivering 'live' lessons from their own homes, using their own equipment - it's not allowed.

I often wonder whether some patents forget that their children's teachers are also parents themselves who are trying to balance work responsibilities and caring for their own DC who are at home. Anyway, these last 2 points aren't strictly relevant to your OP, but the overwhelming feeling I have is to say that you just have to give your head a bit of a wobble here OP, and power through it.

There is no ideal scenario here. Many people are behaving 'unfairly' here and are pushing the 'system' to its knees (Health and Education). Some folk are really doing the very best they can - just be one of them.

Key worker kids are not getting any different to remote learning been offered for them at home. I’m tired of this argument now

@Lulu1919

I'm a TA I have family who are teachers

From what I've seen and know in my experience the children in school are doing the same work in the same way as they children at home ..they are just sitting in a classroom in the cold without their home comforts around them.
I supervise a bubble of 20-25 children all logged into iPads doing live lessons all day ..eating at their desks...etc etc
It's not fun trust me

yes my DS came home freezing on Wednesday.. He wore his oodie and sat on front of the fire Thursday

justanotherneighinparadise, but my DS is year 7, and had already missed all the education during the last lockdown and now this one that is going to be v long. He will be learning nothing at all for the whole half term.
I was just pointing out to the OP that her child who she is home schooling isn't missing out on some amazing 1 to 1 teaching and learning and top class education by not being in school.

My DD is a student teacher. With about 12 hrs notice, Bojo decided the school situation, and she is now expected to teach from home on Zoom. No dining room, so no table, apart from in the bedroom, and she refuses to teach from her bedroom. No supervision, which she was getting in schools every lesson. So though she is doing her best, with the best will in the world, this isn't going to be Oxford/Cambridge level teaching. I keep myself going by thinking it won't be like this forever, and the vaccines rolling out will help. No one is saying your children, or anyone else's don't deserve an education. As others have said, being in school doesn't mean much these days. Every one is just muddling through, tough though it is. And whilst DD is teaching via Zoom, she is safer than she was actually in a school.

If it makes you feel better OP. I didn’t send my DC in the first lockdown and they didn’t get any help with their education at all. My daughter said “the other mums are sitting with x, y, z all day and you can tell they have help to do the work as it is so much better”. This from an 8 year old. So maybe this is just rebalancing things.

There's a stark difference between what should happen and what can happen within the means we have.

All children should be treat fairly. Fair in this instance is making sure their health service doesn't collapse in the middle of a pandemic because they need access to healthcare more than they need equal opportunities to an education which can be picked up at a later date.

This isn’t about you. It isn’t about your children not being as important as key worker children. It’s about front line workers (Who are usually on minimum wage) being able to work to keep our economy and healthcare services running.
You’re welcome to go and get a job at Tesco If you want your children in school every day 😁

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.

This. With bells on. Schools aren't the place of safety in that perceived sense, anymore.

So many people have to shift their mindset, you included OP and I say that with the greatest of respect,

What is the reason your not currently a key worker OP?

Life isn’t fair and children cannot all be treated the same it’s about meeting each child’s individual needs

Last time around there were threads on here from keyworkers feeling incredibly frustrated that school would only offer childcare and not do the home learning with their children.

They thought it was very unfair that they had to go out to work to do a critical job and then come home to several hours of school work because the children had just watched cartoons and played outside all day.

There is no way to make this right for everyone.

It is beyond frustrating and I empathise with how you are feeling OP.

Key workers are just that - KEY. Their services are essential for keeping the basic and important cogs turning while we get through this shit show.

The key worker children at our school are being set the same work as the children at home. Left to her on with it and mark their own work. I am assuming this is the same for most schools. It is not by any stretch of the imagine an adequate education, but we are left with no option at the moment.

As a PP said, in the lottery of shit that is covid I count myself lucky. I've got a roof over my head, food on the table. DH has a job. No one in the family has died. My children, although bored out of their minds, are healthy, fed and loved.

Blame the government.

bylinetimes.com/2021/01/06/how-did-the-government-get-it-so-recklessly-wrong-on-covid-19-children-and-schools/?fbclid=IwAR3Brzzi6GA4_f-ixbOAL1eoH0k8vpa6SamjMNuR8zaJHidxeEsL0jVsPxw

Whinge at the school if you must.
They are the ones at fault for broadening the entry critera too wide and then how staff deliver content.

Our school has 1000 children.
3 - yes 3 - pupils are on site as key worker children, in addition to a handful of vulnerable pupils. Supervised by SLT and TAs.

They access what all other pupils are given online.

THIS is how it was designed to work, and is ultimately fair.

Also, we don’t deliver live lessons. All done via prepared content and video explanations by staff.

Perhaps I am wrong to question the situation

It's never wrong to question, but the answer is so glaringly obvious. You might as well post 'Why do I have to be 5'2" when other people get to be 5'8"? Don't I deserve to be tall?'

Life isn't fair. Sometimes we just have to cope.

@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.

Yup. Time to see the bigger picture.

CisMyArse
ExH is teaching live lessons from his home, in England. It is allowed here.

Which is why he can't look after DS who needs almost constant supervision due the his disabilities. He did try for 2 days, but it was impossible. So DS is now in school. Learning nothing, just playing.

Honestly some of you really do come across as clueless. I have to wonder how many people that have contributed to this thread are actually home schooling their children?

Amongst my friends group I have teachers/engineers/highly paid pharma employees- all of them are cracking up trying to juggle home schooling with their jobs. One is having to beg for unpaid leave as she cannot juggle her job with home schooling two children to the schedule the school has set.

Women I know who are usually so incredibly stoic and together are shutting themselves into toilets and sobbing. People are cracking up. They are not seeing the positives or practicing yoga for their good mental health. They are literally drowning in work and stress.