15 out of 20 children in ds class

[eeliie]

It's a reception class. So there are just 5 children who cannot attend. Is it this bad in your child's school?

In our kids school there are 150 out of 700 attending. Higher numbers in the lower year groups. There are about 10 out of 80 in DC Yr4, 30 out of 90 in Yr2. The school are cracking down this week and have now notified parents that they must keep kids at home unless they are keyworkers who can't work from home. They have a waiting list of people who genuinely need the places.

My dc schools are 25-30%. Village school is 60-70% and there has been an outbreak.

Is the definition of being a key worker that you have a key in your pocket?

This and all the offices that haven't shut for wfh are really not helping us all get back to normal asap and are giving me the rage.

@eeliie

If one parent is not working (furloughed or SAHM) and you have a R/Y1 age child then do the learning with them! It's reading, and singing, and baking and nature walks. And play - lots and lots of play.

You make it sound so easy!

My ds is expected to do 5x lessons a day reading, writing, English, maths and curriculum. On the one day we missed out curriculum, I received an email reminding me it needs sending in.

My other children also need assistance with their work.

eerie - don't worry its total airy fairy crap. Kids need to be learning how to interact with their peers not their jeffing parents 24/7!

What an absolutely horrible thread, so now parents sending their children into school shouldn't have had them. It is also amazing how many posters claim to know the full situation of every parent and child who is in school.

People have no idea what others are dealing with.

It's a joke and it's clearly not just vulnerable kids, unless half the class are 'vulnerable'. If you cast the web that wide ALL kids will have some degree of vulnerability and at the moment there are widening vulnerabilities with the kids at home asking 'why am I not allowed in when X is in?'. Children see when things are unfair.

There are well- adjusted kids in school whose parents have them signed up for private secondaries with both parents WFH.

In fact I'd say in DDs school the families where the children seem more vulnerable are less likely to be in school because their parents are the ones not articulate and pushy enough to fight for the places. The families that seem to have more chaotic lives and where the kids are the ones the teacher is asking for on the zoom calls but who never show up. Those kids.

I know the schools do their best, but as they're inundated with requests and also have a responsibility to try and make the workplace as safe as possible for teachers, they're between a rock and a hard place.

The fact is, unless there are fewer kids in school then we'll end up with lockdown going on longer and widening inequalities between those in school and those at home.

Why they won't just consider rotas for all - which would be fairer at least - I don't know.

I think also to those saying kids may be 'vulnerable'. Unless it's educational vulnerability, I think it's a shame schools are expected to plug a gap that should be filled by other services. Schools are expected to increasingly fill the gap of mental health services, social services and many others. It's just unsustainable.

We have about 20% in, mostly vulnerable.

@Iamsodonewith2020

Yep, same here in our previously tier 4 area. 27/39 in reception. Walked past one parents house the other day whilst on lunch break at work ( primary school staff) and they are digging up their garden and were sat having a cup of tea in the sun. Their 3 children are in all day, every day as critical worker children. Both apparently WFH too

I want to come and live where you are. Our garden swings between being flooded and frozen over. No sun, no digging.

This system was bound to cause resentment, especially as it’s gone on for so long. No one is debating that genuine key workers need to have their kids in school, but there are parents who are able to have their children at home and aren’t. If you are working from home then that’s where your children should be, as long as you aren’t doing a job involving sensitive information (e.g social worker, GP, nurse). If there is one KW but another parent at home (working or not) then the child should be at home.

Also, the children in school should be receiving supervision only and access to exactly the same teaching provision and resources as those at home. They should not be getting taught. This is the only fair way to do it.

Dentist lakes. Children in school are getting proper lessons this time.

@Iamsodonewith2020

Dentist lakes. Children in school are getting proper lessons this time.

They shouldn’t be. That’s my point. The school has a responsibility to all pupils and the provision should be the same for everyone.

Very difficult not to feel resentful. I know a mum who work 1 day a week from home. She is sending all 3 children in full time as they are classed as being vulnerable. She is going through a shitty divorce. They have plenty of money. A nice house full of devices but no she’s made me feel bad for asking as her children are all vulnerable due to her husband and her arguing. He has moved out so isn’t in the house full time or anything. People are taking the piss.

@Splodgetastic

We should be asking questions about why they are so many children whose parents are financially, physically or mentally unable to provide for them. This pandemic has been quite an eye opener. Maybe we should support people who can’t manage to look after their children not to have children in the first place by allowing easier access to contraception and abortion or more public information. Maybe we should clamp down on employers effectively taking subsidies to low wages from the state in the form of tax credits to families. Maybe lots of things. But 75% of children shouldn’t be at risk of being at home with their parents.

You think vulnerability just means their parents can't look after them or keep them safe? And should probably have been supported to abort? Wow.

TheGreatEave, sadly as I work in the school I know which children are vulnerable and have been offered a place. The “taking the piss” parents who “can’t WFH whilst kids are around” make up about 50% of our children in. You can tell who they are as they are the non vulnerable children and are sent in every day. Those genuine critical workers only send in on the days they are physically in work. It’s a shame as the vulnerable children could really benefit from smaller numbers and quieter environment and we could try to close attainment gap if only we had genuinely critical worker children in who patents are not WFH. I blame the companies writing the letters who are basically lying to get employees children in school so their staff are more productive.

Totally agree that the guidance should have been clearer and tighter.

I also know families of 2 parents, 1 KW and 1 SAHP who have spaces and families with 2 WFH parents who are not KW being denied.

I know there is always inequalities and certainly vulnerable children should have a space. In fact personally I think vulnerable children should have a place over those 2 groups I said above.

A bit like the vaccines.

Priority 1: 2 KW parents (1in single parent families)
2: vulnerable

1. 2 parents working out of home/ 1 for single parent families
2. 1 kw parent and other parent working
3. 2 parents WFH/ 1 for single parent families
4. 1 kw parent and 1 SAHP

Then there should have been prescribed limits. Eg numbers of people per sq m allowed.

I've been in same position where I'm a single LP who is a Kw WON and ds also has ehcp. I made decision to keep him home as felt it was best and we could manage (he is in college and was offered a place).

I find it actually quite annoying that others who could make that sacrifice won't. I feel cheated somehow that I'm in it for everyone when other aren't.

And yes, blah blah blah people will say don't judge. Don't know circumstances etc etc. Worry about yourself.

I am. And I'm not letting me eat it up because I know I'm keeping CV ds safe.

But I also do know the circumstances of many people - for a start I have 25 cousins and a few siblings and I know their circumstances well.

It's so much o begrudge others making their own choices - it purely just is that i feel like a mug because I'm willing to make choices for best of collective and others aren't. And if everyone didn't we'd never get out of this.

Our school have said key workers only, and only send your child in if no parent is at home. 20 out 30 kids went in week 1 till they made this rule, now about 10 are in but not every day. It is hard to walk past and see them playing outside, as that's the part that kids obviously miss most of all. The online teaching has been massively improved week on week and ds1 is much more motivated than in the previous lockdown.
Last June/July when school opened to more children they had so many requesting key worker places that they couldn't open to early years at all. I would find this a very bitter pill to swallow this time round if my Reception age ds2 didn't get a place (he's had a term and a half of nursery and 1 term of school up to now. Some kids who will have remained at school will have done 5 terms of nursery and 2 school terms!)

The main issue this time is that those children that are in school are having actual lessons. So those parents who keep their children off are in fact putting their children at a disadvantage as most likely their child will be behind when the schools finally reopen. If the schools acted more like childcare like last time I bet there would be a lot less children actually going to school.

I'm not sure if this works differently in Wales but my school have capped classes at a maximum of 4 pupils per class. The hubs are made up of two classes combined eg nursery/reception, Y1/Y2 etc. so a maximum of 8 allowed in each day from a pool of 120 pupils. The school have been very strict about it.

Because of the class mix and the teachers having to organise online learning, my daughter is not actually doing the same work as those at home a lot of the time and she doesn't take part in their weekly virtual meets; she's mostly colouring/painting by the seems of it.

They're not having lessons at school. Mine are at primary and they're logged into teams and doing the same assignments on laptops, overseen by a TA, as the kids at home.

It depends on the school, ours has the teacher in class delivering lessons. Another teacher is setting the online work for the kids at home and giving feedback on that. They are all doing the same work but the kids in our school have a face to face teacher delivering it.

Some schools are making this more difficult for themselves though. I have an nhs friend, definitely a keyworker and DH also in same position. She works 2 days a week so her DD was in for 2 days. School have now asked her to send her in full time! It does take the piss a bit when people are struggling working full time from home and homeschooling whilst she gets to relax on her days off!

Mine are in primary and are being taught at school. The school said they would be doing the same work as is set online for DC at home, but they are somehow managing to fit in PE and Art activities (to be fair, they may have put the Art on the online learning, but it didn’t sound like something you could do at home with minimal support from a parent). The teacher is teaching not just logging them on to the online learning website and giving them the print outs of the worksheets. They are also not teaching the same things on the same day as it’s set online, which makes it difficult when they don’t go everyday of the week to work out what they have already done and what they have missed because the teacher taught something different the previous day while I was out at work.There seems to be about 10 children in each of my DC’s year groups out of about 60.

Well this is the issue because it’s not the same across the board. In my dd’s school the children are being taught by a teacher all day every day!

The main issue this time is that those children that are in school are having actual lessons. So those parents who keep their children off are in fact putting their children at a disadvantage as most likely their child will be behind when the schools finally reopen. If the schools acted more like childcare like last time I bet there would be a lot less children actually going to school

This. There should be a rule that there is equality of provision in school and at home. I know schools that are doing this, and others not.

Kids in school should be accessing the same materials and getting the same videos etc. That's the only way. It must be easier for teachers too - surely - otherwise they're effectively doing two jobs.

I agree with this too i feel like a mug because I'm willing to make choices for best of collective and others aren't. And if everyone didn't we'd never get out of this

I know a lot of people who are technically critical workers who have kept their kids home but technically entitled to a place who are reconsidering as they see the selfish behaviour of others is putting their child at a disadvantage.

This pandemic has been an eye opener to me about how selfish and unwilling to be inconvenienced many many people are even for the greater good or to reduce the number of deaths. I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me before the pandemic began, I generally used to give the benefit of the doubt. Seeing what I have since this pandemic began, I no longer feel that way. I think the UK contains many many very selfish people and it's not a nice place to live any more.

There are those who are community spirited, wonderful people (many teachers and school staff among them) but there are lots who just simply don't give a flying toss about anyone other than themselves.

IloveajK I wonder if it's circumstance that makes people make these decisions. I work with vulnerable people in a KW role and know what risks I take daily. Therefore I wouldn't send my ds to school. I know staying at home really is best short term for the nation.

If you don't work in frontline role or are a SAHP I wonder if you really have as much insight as others of risks and transmission and also how it is actually extremely difficult to prevent transmission in schools?

I do feel like a mug but I'd rather be a mug and be able to hold my head high that I was willing to do my bit.

@Olivia333

Well this is the issue because it’s not the same across the board. In my dd’s school the children are being taught by a teacher all day every day!

My DS is in secondary, but he is doing what has been set for everyone. That is fine by me as he just needs to be in school to do the work, because it is school work, therefore gets done at school.