Will you send your DC to school if they're open for keyworkers only?

[BlowDryRat]

Hopefully this won't happen but if it does (probably with hours' notice like last Jan )...

DH and I both qualified as keyworkers (medical supplies) for all the previous lockdowns. We could WFH though so kept the DC at home so they weren't taking up spaces really needed by others and to minimise the risk to the school staff. The DC got on with it but both struggled socially and DD in particular fell very behind academically.

Now that everyone who wants a vaccine has had at least 2, if there's another partial school closure I'll be prioritising my DC and sending them in.

What are you planning to do?

@cantkeepawayforever

I don’t understand how allowing their grandparents to die by denying them medical care is meant to be GOOD for my children?

You do realise at some point your children will lose their grandparents and that's entirely normal and to be expected.

Yes. As all my grandparents lived well into their 90s, and lived to see all their grandchildren married, my parents have between 5 and 10 years of good quality life left as a minimum life expectancy.

My father is just considering retiring, having worked for himself for the last 35 years or so. Can you explain again how deliberately denying them medical treatment at this point is beneficial to my children, who have the reasonable expectation that they live in a humane society?

You are surely able to comprehend that there is a difference between a grandparent dying from a disease that cannot be treated (or where the patient is unable to tolerate the treatment required - my grandfather died when the heart pacemaker fitted when his heart gave out, weakened after polio as a child and consequent lifelong disability, failed to wholly alleviate the problem - and deliberately facilitating the death of an elderly person by denying them protection from or treatment for a disease?

@cantkeepawayforever

Yes. As all my grandparents lived well into their 90s, and lived to see all their grandchildren married, my parents have between 5 and 10 years of good quality life left as a minimum life expectancy.

My father is just considering retiring, having worked for himself for the last 35 years or so. Can you explain again how deliberately denying them medical treatment at this point is beneficial to my children, who have the reasonable expectation that they live in a humane society?

I don't think they should be denied medical treatment but I don't think we should decimate the economy, deny children an education whilst destroying their mental health in order to prolong the life of those who have lived a long time.

Have already had a discussion with the school head about it in terms of my kids' SEN and mental health (different kids) and my own mental health... they'd be going in as vulnerable children if required, depending on how the LEA recommend doing key worker definitions that time.

Don't actually give much of a shiny shit about any of the emotional blackmail scenarios being thrown around by the usual suspects who've descended now here... what if your child breaks their leg and the NHS is closed because of Covid (spoiler: it won't be - the waits will just be horrendous)... what if your granny dies because your child goes to school (spoiler: granny is 100% behind the decision) and all the other absolute bullying shite being thrown at families trying to do their best through it all. I DO care about the fact I have a 9 year old talking about suicide and on various waiting lists (have already accepted the waiting lists are fucked), and I care about the child with SEN who has only just got over the terror of the virus inflicted on her by a bitch of a teacher who thought the schools should never be open and decided to take it out on her entire class by making their year at school hell. I'm not having a child again lose chunks of her language, be too scared to go outside the front door and walking into rooms and just sobbing because of the pain inside her brain from it all.

You said that the elderly should be denied treatment.

@cantkeepawayforever

You said that the elderly should be denied treatment.

I didn't

Apologies, Comedy. It was another poster who has, mercifully, been deleted and whose views I mistakenly attributed to you. I’m really sorry.

Coffee, again apologies. I was replying specifically to a poster who said “Yea I think Past a certain age covid patients need not take a hospital bed” and therefore diverted this thread unnecessarily. Again, really sorry.

No worries

Yes because we are both emergency services

I will be sending in my child if I’m allowed and neither of us are key workers but both worked though both lockdowns dh at work premises and me at home. Ds has asd and an ehcp so was allowed school place in 2nd lockdown as vulnerable child. Remember getting some abuse for this in 2nd lockdown both on here and in rl but I don’t think those people have any comprehension what it’s like to live with an autistic child, particularly in a lockdown and there is a change of routine so I won’t be made to feel guilty

We are both keyworkers in the truest sense- we can't work from home and we work for a civil service dept which never closes (nor NHS but similar in a way). We didn't send eldest DS because he was too old- secondary only accepted older years Y9 + if SEN or vulnerable. Yes we did and would send youngest primary aged DC.

@cantkeepawayforever

I don’t understand how allowing their grandparents to die by denying them medical care is meant to be GOOD for my children?

My children won't really notice when their grannies are dead. They haven't seen them in two years and don't remember them very well any more. It will make little practical difference to their lives.

My children do notice when they are deprived of a right to an appropriate education. They did not meet the criteria to set foot in school March to September 2020. Although home learning was a total failure, it was marketed as childcare which would not have solved the education problem. To my regret, I did not try sending them in because it would have stopped DS2 (7) becoming depressed by a total lack of interactions beyond our household due to a lack of local family and not knowing local people well enough to know if they'd interpret a social invitation as attempted murder. Our closest friends were not prepared to meet until late August.

In January 2021, school ignored my appeal for a place for my AUTUSTIC, DYSLEXIC, DYSPRAXIC child (with an EHCP appication in the pipeline) and condemned him to another 2.5 months of lost education opportunity and social isolation.

I sat daily with DS2 sobbing on my lap through his teams session.
I sat daily through DS1's afternoon sessions meltdown, after meltdown after meltdown.
One day I ended up with him headbutting the windows from the garden because his screaming was disturbing DH's meeting upstairs. His teacher's response, "I hope he feels better soon".

WE WILL NOT ENDURE BEING DENIED ACCESS TO EDUCATION AGAIN.

I'm prepared to accept unauthorised absence for a temporary unavailabilty of a teacher isolating. Another lost week or so rounding up to 7 months of lost education hardly even matters at this point.

If we end up back to exclusionary policies based on the worthiness of parental occupation, my children WILL be taken to school every day.

I used to be a teacher until I had to support my SEN child who failed to cope with the combination of school and childcare, but I CAN NOT EDUCATE MY CHILDREN WITH THE PRESCRIBED CURRICULUM.
I am thoroughly engaged with their education, if I wasn't DS1 wouldn't even have more than a dyslexia diagnosis. They're provided with a broad wider education in life, resources, beautiful accessible books, enriching experiences, love, security, but they won't accept the school curriculum from me. They see my role as a mother and do not cope with me playing teacher despite my QTS.

I've never been that parent. I generally let school do their job. 2016- 2020 I volunteered in school up to 3x per week, reading, swimming, supervising interventions. I just need school to stop repeatedly failing my children in the event of a shut down and to do their job.

When I look back at the dc kept out last time and the sheer amount who got in - and I don’t blame the effort - I feel ill

We just accepted it.

Some classes with a minority in front of screens, isolated from contact with friends.

We sent both dc in on kw spaces last time and will be requesting kw spaces in any future lockdown too.

There were numerous kw families at our school who didn't take up their places last time, but have already said they'll be requesting their kids go in if there's a future lockdown and schools close.

I have two with SEN, they need school. My eldest will probably go in - he has a EHCP and is in Year 7. If he is asked to attend I will send him.

We may qualify for a keyworker position for youngest Year 4) due to husbands job, but as his EHCP application is yet to be submit he would
only get the keyworker provision. Therefore he will.not be able to attend as he will be not be able to do any of the work in school without support. If he was home the we may get some work out of him, so that would be better than nothing. He will slip even further behind as we will only be able to do bits of the work with him.

I hope they find ways to keep the schools open safely. I am so worried for this generation of kids who have had 2 school years of education disrupted, now possibly 3….

Anecdotally - first lockdown my youngest class mates keyworker parents were clear it was not safe for kids to be in school, by second lockdown over half were attending at least part time.

I would this time yes, school made no adjustments at all for additional needs last time and they still haven't caught up. They were very strict about places and there were a lot of unhappy parents but we will get a place and definitely using it this time.

Probably not. Dh and I are both teachers, but I do mostly secondary school supply plus a bit of peripatetic MFL teaching in primaries. All of that is likely to be cancelled if schools close to everyone except key workers. Plus my teen dc really liked distance learning!

I qualify as a key worker.

Last time my youngest dc stayed home and I juggled WFH and looking after a 4 year old...not again though. I'll be front of the queue to sign him up in future, if needed.

The older two are secondary age so I'll leave the decision up to them. I'm not sure in Comp it makes all that much difference because the kids who go in probably end up in front of a laptop alone and left to get on with it.

Schools won’t ‘shut’ as the government don’t care about teachers’ health in the slightest and omicron data (so far) looks like it will be manageable for hospitals. But if they do go down that route, it will be an act of absolute desperation to stop the health service from collapsing. If that is on the cards, they will limit school places to the bare minimum: both parents working; both parents NHS, I would suspect. All the ‘not that essential worker children’ will be turned away with one fell swoop of a pen. It isn’t hard to do and once it is legal, you have no right to send in your children. Remember, some countries never provided key worker children with in school places - it is not a ‘given’ if the situation is bad enough.

‘Accepting’ a week off school due to staff absences is your biggest problem. You are optimistic if you think disruptions will last only a week though.

If only mitigationary measures had been put into place in schools! Magic tape turned out to be pretty limited, didn’t it?

I don't think they'll lock down again tbh. But if they do I'll keep mine home.

Ds will go in because he has an ehcp and attends a special school which last time remained open to all children. He cannot learn at home ( needs specialist equipment and therapies) but even more requires 2:1 to be safe (unless very restricted about what he can do and never leaving the house) and he cannot remain that restricted for long periods as it causes mental health difficulties and violent behaviour.