Is anyone considering keeping their child at home when schools go back?

[Chollok]

Just that really, considering keeping my reception aged DS at home after 8 March for a number of reasons. Wondered if anyone else was doing likewise?

Have read all your posts and you seem to have 2 issues, health anxiety about covid and then your DS SEN with possible undiagnosed ADHD. I think you need to take some medical advice on the second issue. Perhaps even post separately here without mixing it up with covid concerns.

SEN provision in the UK is atrocious. Suggest going private to get a diagnosis then you can agree the best way to approach his what you say are lack of social skills and force the school to put a plan in place for him.

Something to bear in mind that if school isn't causing undue distress then it's probably best to have him in so he can forge friendships so he doesn't feel more left out when he does go back in.

You might get better more positive advice if you ask other homeschoolers if that's the way you want to go long term. My lovely home Schooling friend tells me this lockdown school is nothing like normal homeschool she has always been out and about in museums and nature, wood school, music etc. Seems like it's hard to do the real home school experience at the moment.

You are also mixing up how things work in your home country with how things work here. It's going to be different if everyone else is in school and your dc starts much later. That's not the same thing as everyone starting at the same time at 7.

I get that it's a really difficult issue for you. Maybe best to try and take covid anxiety out of the mix and deal with what is best for him educationally absent that. Then balance up what his our your family risk is from Covid. If there is no one CEV in your bubble I think you should go with whatever you decide best addresses his social and educational issues.

@MarshaBradyo

He’s 15.
I’d rather wait and see. I’m not worried about old Covid, but I’m worried about Covid disruption in school. He’s doing amazingly from home.
I’d also like to observe a bit more about this long Covid and whether new mutations take off and effect children.
Once I know whether other kids are fine, I’ll send my own in.

itallworkedouthorribly

Yes, mine will stay home until most adults are vaccinated.“

Sensible, I think. At the rate of the vaccination programme, it really won’t be very long now and we can at last, all of us, realistically look at getting “back to normal”.

[quote DBML]@MarshaBradyo

He’s 15.
I’d rather wait and see. I’m not worried about old Covid, but I’m worried about Covid disruption in school. He’s doing amazingly from home.
I’d also like to observe a bit more about this long Covid and whether new mutations take off and effect children.
Once I know whether other kids are fine, I’ll send my own in.[/quote]
DBML will you just use other resources? As won’t home learning provision stop - or will the school still provide some

@MarshaBradyo

I anticipate that I’ll keep him off about 3 weeks and aim for him to go back after Easter providing mutations haven’t been found to start spreading.

I’m in the fortunate position that DS attends my school. I attended a meeting last week where we discussed all staff uploading the class work onto Teams to ensure any pupils shielding, isolating, etc can access for the foreseeable.

They won’t get ‘live’ teaching anymore, but they’ll have access to worksheets, PowerPoints etc. My son is predicted all A*s, so I know that a further 3 weeks in this format won’t make much of a difference to him.

He’s going to actually move in with his grandparents from now until after Easter. They live in the countryside and his cousin is moving there too. They’ll have access to the horses, a pool, go karts etc, so they’ll have more of an Easter holiday if we’re still in lockdown. He’s very excited about this and it’ll do his well-being a world of good.

As I say, I’m very fortunate to have a child who is naturally doing well and we can afford to make these decisions. It’s a challenging position for all parents to be in.

Like a lot of people I don't necessarily think schools shouldn't reopen but there should definitely be more measures in place. The government have outright ruled out ideas like rotas so you have half the class in at a time, which would allow social distancing. Schools would be safer if staff and children wore masks, and there were fewer people in any one classroom at a time.
Also, more choice for people to stay at home if they want to. Last term our school were supportive of parent choice in that they didn't issue fines or complain if people chose to keep their kids off. But they also didn't provide any materials in this case as school was open.
However, at the moment, they have a handful of keyworker kids in the classroom taking part in a live lesson at the same time as the kids who are logging onto the live lesson at home. So I don't see why this couldn't continue to happen when it's the other way round with the majority in the classroom and a minority at home.

Just to set all this in context New Zealand have just closed schools in one city for three days as a result of THREE cases in that area. Meanwhile people here are baying for schools to reopen with almost no mitigations against transmission, while something like 160 people in 100,000 have Covid.

Meanwhile people here are baying for schools to reopen with almost no mitigations against transmission, while something like 160 people in 100,000 have Covid

Baying?! Give your head a wobble. People have huge concerns about their children's education, about their route to further education, about their futures. They all aren't 4 year olds pottering around with paint. Jesus.

Unlikely to send back when they open until cases have dropped further

Week by week case numbers are down 27%, as they were the week before. Rolling average is 13k cases a week. Case numbers were 11k today - admittedly it's Sunday but they were 15k the Sunday before. That with millions more achieving good immunity between now and then, 25% of the adult population immunised, many more in three weeks, I'm confident they'll open on the 8th given we aren't attempting to achieve 0 covid.

13k cases per day over the last week.

It's great that so many adults have had the vaccine, and the number of cases is falling. So much positive news. But there's more people in hospital now than at the peak in April, and schools didn't re-open then. It took 2 further months for partial re-opening. I wouldn't have thought that the government could risk opening schools when hospitals are still so swamped.

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

I wouldn't have thought that the government could risk opening schools when hospitals are still so swamped.

It looks like they are though.

@Chollok

I wouldn't have thought that the government could risk opening schools when hospitals are still so swamped.

It looks like they are though.

It's all just speculation at the moment though. I'd bet partial reopening on 8th, all back after Easter.

Partial reopening will almost certainly include my son, as he is in reception.

@Chollok

Partial reopening will almost certainly include my son, as he is in reception.

My posts about school re-opening above weren't really addressing your OP (which I already answered further up the thread) so much as the conversation that seems to have arisen about school opening. I agree with you that your OP isn't about school re-opening.

I do think it's going to be interesting how many people do decide to homeschool now, at least for some months/years. As I said in my earlier post, I'd been considering HE for my children, especially my eldest, before the pandemic and before schools shut. I think a large part of my reservation was that I wasn't up to the job. But being forced to do it for half an academic year now has meant I've been able to see how well I would manage. It's definitely given me some confidence.

Not made my mind up though, and mine are older than yours - year 5 and year 7.

All those who are desperate for schools to reopen should understand this. Reopening too early will just cause restrictions to go on for longer.

@bonbonours

All those who are desperate for schools to reopen should understand this. Reopening too early will just cause restrictions to go on for longer.

Has Chris Witty seen this important research?!

Week by week case numbers are down 27%, as they were the week before. Rolling average is 13k cases a week. Case numbers were 11k today - admittedly it's Sunday but they were 15k the Sunday before. That with millions more achieving good immunity between now and then, 25% of the adult population immunised, many more in three weeks, I'm confident they'll open on the 8th given we aren't attempting to achieve 0 covid.

That's what I am expecting too. We're not aiming to eliminate covid. We're trying to live with it, without it overwhelming the nhs. Prof Whitty has talked about getting to a "tolerable" level of death.

Home ed in normal times is nothing like pandemic home ed. If you and he can do it and prefer it then dereg him. We home educated for years and didn't really encounter any prejudice.

Redtulipses

Week by week case numbers are down 27%, as they were the week before. Rolling average is 13k cases a week. Case numbers were 11k today - admittedly it's Sunday but they were 15k the Sunday before. “

Because there has been a national lockdown?

DenisetheMenace That post was written in response to the earlier poster who said:

Unlikely to send back when they open until cases have dropped further

And I was simply pointing out that by every measure cases are going down.

FourTeaFallOut

My apologies, I misunderstood.

No worries. It happens. Looking forward to when the vaccines start to do some heavy lifting.

FourTeaFallOut

No worries. It happens. Looking forward to when the vaccines start to do some heavy lifting.”

Amen to that