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.

So because your kids can't go to school no-ones should?
My husband and I are both front line NHS, we are only sending our children in on the days we can't work our shifts around each other. Our kids are doing the sane work as the kids at home, they just have a classroom assistant sitting with them to supervise rather than us. The work they are doing is exactly the same as the rest of the class.
I do have an incredible amount of sympathy for parents who are under pressure to continue to work from home as well as supervising their children with their home learning, I can't imagine how tough that must be. But feeling resentful towards the children of key workers is daft, direct your anger elsewhere and except we are in extraordinary times.
I don't feel entirely happy about my children having to go into school and continue to mix while the virus is so rife but sadly for them I am not able to keep them home and safe.

@Theredjellybean

I think the OP has had some harsh replies, over on another educational thread, most people saying in their schools teachers are in teaching the children with places. One person asked why their school could not just live stream the lesson and was told it was not possible for the teacher to have a video recording them as they were too busy teaching the class. So many parents reporting getting no more than an hour of live online lessons while the teacher then carries on in school teaching those present. So yes I think the op has every right to question the situation, and every right to feel concerned for her children. The government said that schools must move online.. I read that to mean teachers would actually be teaching online. Many schools are doing this so it's not impossible

We have had less than an hour of live lessons. Which I find more irritating actually as it requires me to set up the camera etc at the right time. While still attending my own meetings. Live teaching isn’t as amazing as people seem to think. There is a lot of wasted time, ten minutes waiting for children to arrive (because of parents poor time keeping) then lots of nonsense discussion (I’d be muting the children). It takes them twice as long to get the same output from my DS as it would if he was just on task.

My DS teacher is in school but isn’t in the same room as the key worker children from his year. She is completely separate from them. No ‘teaching’ is happening in school.

@noitsachicken you don’t need to be a teacher to get through this. You need to set your children to the tasks they have been set and give each of them time to talk to you about their work. If I’m being completely honest which shouldn’t be that different to a normal school day.

Why am I entitled for wanting my children to be treated the same as others?

Because sometimes life isn't about giving everybody the same size box to stand on. This is the thing you can do to help the world at the moment.

I spend 30 hours a week in direct contact with covid positive people.

My DH spends 40 hours a week onsite in education.

My children spend 2 days a week in school doing the exact same school day as they do the 3 days I home school them.

I think my families risk of getting the virus is probably a bit higher than those who get to stay at home.

You’re right it’s not fair, why am I blindly accepting this?

Those in school are doing exactly the same as those at home. No teaching going on in my experience....

Please op, go get a job as a nurse who is dealing with life/death daily, on every shift, risking themselves for the rest of us. We won’t begrudge your child taking limited place at school during a pandemic while you’re saving the rest of humanity.

What’s more, as an additional reward, we’ll clap for you.

In my daughter's school, all kids are doing exactly the same - online live lessons via the teacher whether they are home or in school. The tas are in with them and teachers are on zoom all day long. It's a shame that not all schools are doing the same.

Please go and find something else to complain about. Think yourself lucky you are not a key worker and count your blessings.

@noitsachicken - because the Government does not prioritise education, it prioritises making childcare as cheap as possible by pretending schools can teach in multiple ways at the same time on a shoestring. If Government really prioritised education, it would not have systematically underfunded schools, failed to ensure adequate technology is available to families and schools, and refused to separate out the childcare issue from the education issue when warned that full time, face to face education in schools was not advisable.

I do get your point OP. My children are at home and we get recordings of the lessons that have been given in school (all teachers are in as normal and teaching the very small number of key worker/ vulnerable children from their class). Despite this, it doesn’t feel quite same, and especially for my Reception son, it cannot mimick the experience of being in school.

That said, last time round, the children who had to go school were disadvantaged compared with those from homes who were able to give a lot of input and do quite a lot of work. So in some ways, it balances out, and ultimately, I would rather my children are safe, and as far as they can be, the teachers and children in school are.

loulouljh, no my DS in school is not doing exactly the same as those at home. He is doing den building, cooking, playing, no access to learning, online or otherwise.

Oh yes I forgot that. Along with the clapping bingo square let’s add ‘count our blessings’. Marvellous! Nearly a full house here.

What a heartless, selfish post.
So many key workers have died. I personally have lost 4 young (eldest was 45) nurse colleagues.
If this post was written for clicks then fair enough you will get plenty, if you genuinely mean what you wrote then you need to go away and think it through.

If it helps the children in my school are getting the exact same learning as the children at home.

Agree with the comment above though..people are really really struggling. Not being a key worker does not mean you are not working hard, sometimes on calls from morning until night with no chance of teaching/assisting your children at all.

This is my situation. I barely get to go to the loo let alone help my offspring. I check they are alive and doing vaguely what I think they should be doing. That is all I can do. It is crap. My stress levels are through the roof. It is an awful awful situation.

@noitsachicken

In our school children have been prioritised based on their parents jobs (as well as vulnerable children) those children are in school with their teachers and peers being taught as normal (with distancing etc) How is that fair? Yes it goes without saying I understand the crisis, I am greatful for what we have and that we are all well.

Disregarding the fact that KW and v children are being exposed to an increased risk while their families work hard to provide the UK with critical systems....

Your school must be one of very few operating like that then as with everyone I know across the UK, their KW and v child is doing the exact same in school as those at home under the supervision of a school staff member who may or may not be a teacher.

But yeah you carry on with your tale.

There are already 11 million crying threads about this.
I’m not sending my kids in because ours is a heavily unionised school and their entire attitude towards the welfare of children during the whole pandemic has been shocking. Friends children who are using keyworker places are literally sitting at desks being snarled at occasionally by a TA. There is no ‘teaching’, no support and no pastoral care.
So when my friends and I finish our 14 hour shifts, scrub ourselves raw in the shower to try and reduce the risk of transmitting to our children, not letting them hug us as soon as we walk in the door, we then have to paint a smile on and start checking where they are with their schoolwork, help them navigate what they don’t understand and try and hide the fact that we are on our knees with exhaustion.

But yes OP. It’s really not fair on YOUR kids.

This is not about prioritising certain children’s education. It’s about freeing up their parents to be able to do their job if that job has been identified as critical.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Whatever next.

Maybe this has already been said but I'd view it more that you and your children are the lucky ones. They get to stay home safe in the middle of a horrible pandemic while those other poor children have to go into school, many of which are virus hot spots, and share it around.

We all know what BJ said last week about schools being safe was a lie.

Some PPs have said that children at school are just being supervised while doing the same online work as the children at home. This is not the case at my children's school.

Children at school are in the usual classes, in their usual room with their usual teacher and TAs. They have the same educational experience as they did in Dec, but with only 30%-50% of the pupils.

Children at home get the day's powerpoints and worksheets uploaded to Google classrooms at the start of the day. There are 2x 15 min live lessons each day which the teacher delivers from the classroom with the children at school there too.

So the content is the same but children at home are dependent on how much time / ability an adult in the house has to support them with the powerpoints and worksheets.

Educationally, the children at home are getting a worse deal so I agree with OP on that.

I think that it would be fairer for the teacher to deliver everything remotely to all children, but that is not practical for our school because they have twice as many children in as they have school ipads and laptops so wouldn't be able to give each child in school a device.

@Doublefaced

There are already 11 million crying threads about this. I’m not sending my kids in because ours is a heavily unionised school and their entire attitude towards the welfare of children during the whole pandemic has been shocking. Friends children who are using keyworker places are literally sitting at desks being snarled at occasionally by a TA. There is no ‘teaching’, no support and no pastoral care. So when my friends and I finish our 14 hour shifts, scrub ourselves raw in the shower to try and reduce the risk of transmitting to our children, not letting them hug us as soon as we walk in the door, we then have to paint a smile on and start checking where they are with their schoolwork, help them navigate what they don’t understand and try and hide the fact that we are on our knees with exhaustion.

But yes OP. It’s really not fair on YOUR kids.

Well said. And thank you for the awesome work you do and the sacrifices you are making.

Oh for heaven's sake OP enough already with the specious issue of 'fairness'. There is NO fairness.

By FAIRNESS you mean you want ALL children either out of school or in. Let's examine those scenarios:

A) OUT OF SCHOOL: very tough and hard on kids, parents etc but at least it facilitates an effective lockdown which means results in fewer sick and dying. People get vaxxed, eventually things begin to resemble normality.

B) IN SCHOOL: the virus spreads like wildfire (as it is now) and eventually the corpses will be piled high in giant fridges like they were in NYC in April/May last year owing to the hospitals and mortuaries being overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses and teachers dying in large numbers to which your dc will have contributed. The NHS and education system massively and enduringly fucked.

I hope that clarifies the matter for you OP. Now I await your measured response without the pleading, selfish 'it's not fair' plea which frankly makes you sound like Kevin the Teenager.

The children of key worked at my sons school are on laptops in the hall participating in exactly the same lesson as my son at home.

I absolutely despair. From the mouth of a teacher let’s get some things straight.

1. We are doing our ABSOLUTE best. I worked 13-14 hours days all last week to set up home learning. It’s not simple or easy. The expectations are completely different from last lockdown and again the gov give us one days notice. So please, I’ve seem some posters complain - do not moan about home learning YET. Give us a chance.
2. Schools are prioritising children where there is absolutely no way they can be at home. Let’s get one thing straight, schools are not child care facilities so we should be grateful they are even doing this. The risk to teachers is enormous (333% more likely to have covid according to a recent study) and the more people who selfishly send their children in when they don’t need to only keeps the spread in the community high.
3. Children in school are accessing the exact same learning as children at home. Yes there’s more resources at school, children to socialise with etc but the crux of the learning is the same. In most schools, TAs are in school and teachers are at home live/videoing.

It’s time to take some parental responsibility for the children YOU chose to have. As long as teachers are providing education for home then they are doing their job.