Todays u-turn from DfE, key workers working from home should NOT send kids to school

[Esmerelda01]

In case you've not seen.

Could cause a lot of people issues on Monday

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/09/school-guidance-for-children-of-key-workers-changes-again?CMP=twt_a-education_b-gdnedu

People also seem to be forgetting that the gov want people to wfh where possible because that also impacts the R rate.

@wonderup

I'm confused as to what's changed?

Nothing has changed, Unions and the Guardian are still peddling propaganda to further their own agendas.

@wonderup

People also seem to be forgetting that the gov want people to wfh where possible because that also impacts the R rate.

People are working from home?

Some Kids still need a keyworker place.

@ScrumptiousBears THIS! My emails pleading people to keep their children at home if they can only results in two doctor parent families and the like changing their shifts to try and keep their children at home more and profusely apologising for sending them in (I do tell them the school is open for genuine critical workers like them!) and the pisstakers don’t bat an eyelid. I have one keyworker and one SAHP families demanding I let their child attend as it is their entitlement. It is madness!

Both the school I work in and the school my younger two DC attend have spelled out right from the start that parents should only request key worker spaces if they can absolutely not take care of DC at home.

They could not have spelled it out more sensibly and articulately. The message has been clear: please only take up these places if you have no other option.

Problem is, parents hear: I'm technically entitled to something so I'm gonna take it!

Human nature is fundamentally selfish, and our instinct will always be to take care of ourselves and our nearest and dearest rather than 'doing the right thing' for the country as a whole.

I'm a keyworker (school office worker, will need to be in five days a week throughout lockdown, albeit PT hours). In theory I could have requested a space for DC (Y6 and Y3). We haven't, because DH is working from home and we don't feel we can justify it - I can supervise the home learning as I work PT and then they'll -have far too much bloody screen time- be taken care of by DH whilst I work.

But God, the number of friends who've expressed absolute disbelief and amazement that I haven't 'taken what I'm eligible for' is quite an eye opener. Never mind that we don't actually need it. Most of our friends think we're mad. Most of my friends who are in a similar situation (one PT keyworker, one parent WFH) have taken up their keyworker spaces like a shot BECAUSE THEY CAN AND IT WILL MAKE THEIR LIVES EASIER.

This is the fundamental problem, we're all conditioned to put ourselves and our individual families first (aka taking the piss, in many circumstances), and this is why so many parents are not looking at the wider picture. And this is why there are so many kids in school.

I know that, my point is for the people who think that if you are wfh you shouldn't have a key worker place. Most of the doctors at my GP surgery are wfh, if a school place was refused some would probably just go back to the office so that they "deserve" their place.

@wonderup

I'm confused as to what's changed?

The guidelines have been updated yesterday to add a sentence “ Children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can.

This is the fundamental problem, we're all conditioned to put ourselves and our individual families first (aka taking the piss, in many circumstances), and this is why so many parents are not looking at the wider picture. And this is why there are so many kids in school.

That's not what I see, logically wouldn't most want to keep their dc home & keep their family safe?

Last lockdown I didn't take places as I was p/t so it was stressful but manageable. I'm f/t now & have to be in the office for a few days a wk so does DH. My 5 & 6 yr olds are not old to be left unsupervised.

It’s the employers I’m bloody angry with. I believe they fully have a part to play in these numbers and covid deaths. Big consultancy companies... Banking corporations... etc Saying to staff they HAVE to work full time, no flexibility. It’s making people fear for their jobs. People I know on city wages.. e.g. £150k ++ who just aren’t prepared to keep kids at home because their work is ‘so important’. One family has a SAHM, the DH is MD of a top management consultancy. Kids in school.

I call them the financial key workers. It’s got ridiculous, divisive and everyone is getting angry.

Meanwhile rates are spiralling out of control.. real key workers are at the end of their rope and we are utterly screwed for many, many more weeks.

@ceeveebee I thought it originally said something similar, that's how the school I work at already interpreted it.

Our headteacher sent a letter home on Friday saying the numbers attending school needs to reduce drastically and if you are working from home your child needs to stay home also. Theres a number of dc in our school this time that weren't in during the initial lockdown with keyworker parents wfh, if they could do it then,they can do it now.
Bubbles have already burst in a nearby school as some idiot sent their child in awaiting test results that turned out to be positive and these people are so called key to keep our country running the mind boggles
I wonder if maybe some parents did think that being in school would mean a better education opportunity when the reality isnt the case at all. It was a very quick moving situation from going back to school Monday morning to be being in lockdown by night time, there wasn't much time to think and a mad scramble to be able to sort out working and child care commitments

@ceeveebee where does it say what the OP is suggesting?

Am I wrong in thinking that primary aged kids are not going to suffer academically so much if they miss six weeks of school? What they will miss out on is the social interaction with their peers etc. So shouldn't parents cut themselves some slack and take the pressure off?

They need to tighten the rules up and quickly.

There are parents wfh in admin roles sat with their trotters up having a cuppa while others are run ragged trying to do the right thing.

Absolute piss takers.

Nope that was added yesterday
.
“8 January 2021
Updated 'Critical workers' section to clarify that parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.”

Back in May, it was updated to encourage key workers to send their children in so this is essentially reversing that - updates shown at the bottom

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision#history

@wonderup

This is the fundamental problem, we're all conditioned to put ourselves and our individual families first (aka taking the piss, in many circumstances), and this is why so many parents are not looking at the wider picture. And this is why there are so many kids in school.

That's not what I see, logically wouldn't most want to keep their dc home & keep their family safe?

Last lockdown I didn't take places as I was p/t so it was stressful but manageable. I'm f/t now & have to be in the office for a few days a wk so does DH. My 5 & 6 yr olds are not old to be left unsupervised.

Logically yes, @wonderup.

But realistically that's not what's happening.

I genuinely don't think most people are seeing that keeping their dc home = keeping them safe. They're seeing that keeping their dc home = massive logistical stress because they have to do home learning. And so they want the dc in school.

NotSoHappyNewTier

Nothing has changed, Unions and the Guardian are still peddling propaganda to further their own agendas.

The Guardian used to be excellent, what happened?

Different schools will have different capacity e.g. a primary school near a hospital is likely to have lots of parents who work there and so may have more keyworker pupils needing places than a primary located near an Ikea store. The Ikea primary may find it easier to be much more flexible with its places and so able to offer them to Reception and KS1 parents WFH whereas the hospital primary may have less flexibility because it's full of hospital offspring. As is often the case, it's helpful when headteachers are trusted to make decisions that work for their school communities' specific needs.

I can't imagine any headteacher thinking it would be OK for a child to be put in a position whereby there's a very real risk of overhearing safeguarding conversations and most would be extremely sympathetic to requests coming from professionals most often encountered in CP conferences such as housing officers, social workers, mental health practitioners and others in similarly sensitive roles. The problem with the media drawing attention to education-related changes over the weekend is that it causes unnecessary panic, often among the very parents who should be able to rely on schools to support them at the moment.

DH and I are both teachers and are both in our schools every day, teaching. He's delivering his lessons remotely, from an empty classroom because our home WiFi is unreliable and because it doesn't do well with four people trying to teach/attend online lessons. My school is an AP so our pupils are mostly attending. DC1 stays home alone all day and DC2 attends school remotely from the home of our childcare bubble.

It doesn’t - it’s the guardian putting a spin on it

But realistically that's not what's happening.

Do we have true attendance figures yet? I work in a school, DB is a headteacher, my dc is school. All London & I don't see this 70-80% figures. More like 30% & logically it would be higher than last time.

@DirtyDancing

It’s the employers I’m bloody angry with. I believe they fully have a part to play in these numbers and covid deaths. Big consultancy companies... Banking corporations... etc Saying to staff they HAVE to work full time, no flexibility. It’s making people fear for their jobs. People I know on city wages.. e.g. £150k ++ who just aren’t prepared to keep kids at home because their work is ‘so important’. One family has a SAHM, the DH is MD of a top management consultancy. Kids in school.

I call them the financial key workers. It’s got ridiculous, divisive and everyone is getting angry.

Meanwhile rates are spiralling out of control.. real key workers are at the end of their rope and we are utterly screwed for many, many more weeks.

Not all employers. We are bending over backwards to make as many adjustments as we can to support our employees who are homeschooling, and reminded men it’s their responsibility too!. We have closed our offices and also have donated a load of laptops to local schools with high levels of deprivation

WFH does not mean you are not working in a key and essential role. When my kids were 8 and under there was no chance of working whilst looking after them. I think we perhaps need to give some parents with younger children permission to just not give any significant ed at all as that seems to be confusing the picture. Do you want people to educated the kids or do you want them to work? For some people doing 9 hour days 'at' work in public sector roles there is not really enough time around that to do anything with the kids. So this pushes people to send kids in as they realistically can't do both.

the requirement should be say, 8-10 hours maths and english minimum (in total) for primary ks2 spread over the week so , maybe an hour a day after work, plus a couple of hours a day at the weekend. kids keep up, but it is flexible so parents can fit it in around their work. optional tasks, perhaps more work on your own tasks for year 5 and 6. Educational tv. The expectation that kids are doing fixed hours of homeschooling does not work around peoples fixed hours of work.

employers should also be required to be flexible if work can be done out of hours.

prioritising ks 1/sen ks2 in school as they need more input and supervision at the best of times.

I thought it said something similar in Jan, maybe I had only looked Friday.

Maybe I'm confusing it with the DoE document about attendance.

@Silversun83

Doesn't it just say that if critical workers can work from home AND look after children, they should do so...?

Agreed, headline is misleading. I don’t think this a u turn. I also don’t think working from home should be the defining reason you do or don’t get a place. As I’ve said before - doctor doing telephone consultations surely needs a place before an HR admin staff in a supermarket. Even though one may be working from home and one being required to come in.