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?

Yes, I'm a single parent key worker and their dad is a key worker who does not live near them, so they will need to be in school.

Keyworker provision in my school won't involve teaching so everyone sending their kids in because they want face to face teaching and don't have time to homeschool may end up disappointed.
The keyworker provision is purely childcare and if previous lockdowns are to go by it will not be staffed by teachers as they will be working from home on remote teaching in a bid to minimise the amount of people in the building. The keyworker care is mixed year groups especially in the younger years so therefore cannot cater for teaching all the children and parents will therefore still have to do some homeschooling despite the children being in school. Potentially different at older ages as they will be able to access the remote learning in school and work independently but that won't be happening in the younger years.

@RobinPenguins

NOT a school. There’s your clue. Some of office working friends still don’t know anyone who has had Covid. It’s a bloody joke.

But I’m talking about my office where a large group of people had covid. There’s nothing intrinsically different about the bodies of teachers vs non teachers.

If you’ll only accept schools as valid comparisons, DH is a secondary deputy head, I have just asked him and they have had no teachers who have had to take more than the 10 day isolation period off (albeit some may have been off sick before a holiday so doesn’t know for sure if that they would otherwise have been off for longer.) But no long covid, no one that’s been off for months, certainly no one who has caught it 3 times.

Oh well, you’ve got me bang to rights. If your husband hasn’t experienced it, it can’t be true. I’ll let my sick colleagues know.

Are you so blinkered that you can’t see that different areas have different experiences at different times? And why would I lie? I’m being perfectly open about wanting better mitigation in schools and as I said, you are the ones worried about school closures. They would be no cause for concern if it was all as hunky dory as it is in your workplace and your husband’s school.

Wow @jumpbounce did you not offer any education in tha January lockdown at all? That was against the guidelines to be fair which expected about four hours teaching a day. Some schools had kids in school but taught them remotely so in computers watching teachers at home (supervised by tas) but nothing and expecting parents to do it in the evening wasn’t really allowed to be fair if you were following the guidelines - I am surprised that you offered your children so little!

@Dghgcotcitc

Wow *@jumpbounce* did you not offer any education in tha January lockdown at all? That was against the guidelines to be fair which expected about four hours teaching a day. Some schools had kids in school but taught them remotely so in computers watching teachers at home (supervised by tas) but nothing and expecting parents to do it in the evening wasn’t really allowed to be fair if you were following the guidelines - I am surprised that you offered your children so little!

Oh perhaps there will be teaching in England then if there is requirements for that. Where I am there wasn't and in any case it would have been virtually impossible for it to have taken place so I'm not quite sure how it would be implemented if that was a requirement in any future lockdown which hopefully their won't be

There not their

We wouldn't have the ability for all children to access a computer or tablet for remote learning. Not even close and obviously the TA can't teach a wide range of ages, abilities and needs all in together.

@bookworm14

If that is on the cards, they will limit school places to the bare minimum: both parents working; both parents NHS, I would suspect

In this scenario, who ensures we still have food, heating, light, gas supply, policing, rubbish collection, postal services, banking services, public transport, a functioning court system, prison services and social care?

I doubt that would happen. Also the NHS is one of the few public services that has reduced its service and not had to increase it during Covid. Arguably they need less staff currently not more to sustain their current provision (don't think it is right but it is what is happening) They haven't had routine appointments for example. However the same crimes are being committed, record numbers of people are being sent to prison, more people are staying home so more deliveries are needed from supermarkets, more pressure on phone networks and utilities to support WFH, the army seem to be called for everything. If we were going to do a hierarchy of key workers the back office NHS staff would be someways down

Oh well, you’ve got me bang to rights. If your husband hasn’t experienced it, it can’t be true. I’ll let my sick colleagues know.

It’s not just “what DH says” - that was an anecdote in response to an anecdote. But what you’ve described is something hugely out of kilter with rates of long covid and multiple reinfections across the rest of the population. I hope UKHSA are studying you carefully. So which is it? You’re statistical anomalies in which case not representative of anything that’s likely to happen in the vast majority of schools…or you’re exaggerating.

@jumpbounce

Keyworker provision in my school won't involve teaching so everyone sending their kids in because they want face to face teaching and don't have time to homeschool may end up disappointed. The keyworker provision is purely childcare and if previous lockdowns are to go by it will not be staffed by teachers as they will be working from home on remote teaching in a bid to minimise the amount of people in the building. The keyworker care is mixed year groups especially in the younger years so therefore cannot cater for teaching all the children and parents will therefore still have to do some homeschooling despite the children being in school. Potentially different at older ages as they will be able to access the remote learning in school and work independently but that won't be happening in the younger years.

I can promise you working flat out I will be doing no homeschooling in the evenings if it is just childcare. I will be using it, and the school will have to catch my children up afterwards.

One vulnerable child in. One vulnerable child at home. One only works in school.

My son has additional needs as well as my self being a key worker. I didn't send him in 1st lockdown as schools didn't teach they were more like childcare. I did send him after that tho as he needs support and risks falling behind.

@Stylinson

I work in a school - first lockdown we had 27 children in, second lockdown it was in the hundreds. I would imagine a third lockdown would be pretty much everyone as the definition of keyworker is so wide now

I think that’s the point now - the number of kids who would actually be home schooled is so small it simply disadvantages them. No criticism of individuals looking to utilise their key worker status but it’s far too broad. Wfh looking at peoples investment possibilities is a world away from what I’m sure the intention is

@jumpbounce

Keyworker provision in my school won't involve teaching so everyone sending their kids in because they want face to face teaching and don't have time to homeschool may end up disappointed. The keyworker provision is purely childcare and if previous lockdowns are to go by it will not be staffed by teachers as they will be working from home on remote teaching in a bid to minimise the amount of people in the building. The keyworker care is mixed year groups especially in the younger years so therefore cannot cater for teaching all the children and parents will therefore still have to do some homeschooling despite the children being in school. Potentially different at older ages as they will be able to access the remote learning in school and work independently but that won't be happening in the younger years.

This is what happens at my DC’s school. The KW children are supervised by TAs and teachers are at home delivering remote learning.

Surely the TAs will have time set out during the day for them to sit the kids down and get them to work through the same schoolwork packets as the kids at home? Otherwise you are forcing exhausted parents to work with their kids in the evening or all weekend, OR you are letting the KW kids fall behind the kids at home.

@jumpbounce

Keyworker provision in my school won't involve teaching so everyone sending their kids in because they want face to face teaching and don't have time to homeschool may end up disappointed. The keyworker provision is purely childcare and if previous lockdowns are to go by it will not be staffed by teachers as they will be working from home on remote teaching in a bid to minimise the amount of people in the building. The keyworker care is mixed year groups especially in the younger years so therefore cannot cater for teaching all the children and parents will therefore still have to do some homeschooling despite the children being in school. Potentially different at older ages as they will be able to access the remote learning in school and work independently but that won't be happening in the younger years.

That's very poor. DS was taught properly when he was in on a KW place. The 2 teachers in his year group did alternate weeks with one in school one week teaching the KW kids, the other at home teaching online.

@MsJaneAusten

I’m confused by parents of Year 11 students saying they’d send their children in for face to face teaching. In all the schools I know, teachers were setting work online (so not able to also teach face to face) and pupils who went in for KW places were simply on a computer in the library or other large shared space, accessing the same online learning they’d have had from home.

This in my child's reception class too. They did the same work via teaching on the screen. They were supervised by TA's. The work they sent home was appalling. They weren't in their class groups but they did get to play with others and have the routine.

So I'm not sure, If I will send this time. As hard as it is my DS would probably do better academically being home schooled, but it's not all about that age 5 and I have a terrible toddler too and a full time job.

My DC's school it was definitely teaching for those who were in. Teachers were in as normal for the 50% of the kids who were in. There was AM and PM zoom registration for those at home and they were sent work packs. Those in school had the full teaching staff and teaching. The difference was fairly stark.

Locally also the school is part of a big group of schools and they all did the same approach.

If people aren’t ill. Only about ten of my colleagues (out of approximately fifty who had Covid) have felt back to normal after ten days of isolation. Two ended up in hospital. Several others have been off since October (with Covid complications).

That sounds almost unbelievable. Hopefully the omicron variant is much less severe so that such serious illness and disruption won't happen again!

That sounds almost unbelievable.

Totally believable.

@Kokeshi123

Surely the TAs will have time set out during the day for them to sit the kids down and get them to work through the same schoolwork packets as the kids at home? Otherwise you are forcing exhausted parents to work with their kids in the evening or all weekend, OR you are letting the KW kids fall behind the kids at home.

Have you ever worked in a school? It all sounds ideal but in reality when you have a class full of 4-7 year olds with various abilities and needs and no qualified teacher able to actually teach them, 1 TA cannot explain and help every individual child with all their individual work. Given the fact that lots of the children at home never actually accessed the remote learning during the previous lockdowns and a significant minority were fully engaged I wouldn't say KW children are particularly at risk of falling behind the others rather all children are at risk of falling behind.

This is what happens at my DC’s school. The KW children are supervised by TAs and teachers are at home delivering remote learning.

That is what we did too, with a timetable for in school so the KW children followed the same lessons the teacher was delivering to the children at home, with TAs in loco parentis to support the children in school. At the end of sessions, TAs uploaded KW work so teachers could mark it alongside that of children at home.

Children who were at home and didn't engage after significant support were given school places. Luckily we had relatively few of these - we'd already identified most issues after first lockdown and gave those children places as a priority, classing them as vulnerable.

Children at home had much more direct teacher contact - they were 'live' in the online lessons (tech difficulties meant that in school they were delivered non-interactively to whiteboard screen), and had an afternoon 'social / catch up / support session that the in-school children didn't, so both groups had fairly similar levels of 'education' - there was no systematic difference between the two groups post lockdown from all our summer term data.

Wfh looking at peoples investment possibilities is a world away from what I’m sure the intention is

But the whole concept of 'key workers' only made sense as an extremely short term emergency measure. Everyone's job is important in some way.

Those looking at people's investment possibilities are keeping a roof over their own families heads, probably creating jobs for others in their business and also generating revenue for the tax office.

Them not being able to work has significant consequences for everyone.

I notice that no one ever suggested that the tax people like this are generating is 'inessential'.