Delaying sending DC back to school due to covid - thoughts?

[bubblesaway]

Just that really. Thinking of not sending DC (4) back to school this week and waiting until we know more about the data re Omicron post Christmas. Not sure if I can legally do it but as she's under 5 and only in reception thinking it may be okay but also not sure if I should. Wondering if any other people thinking of doing the same.?

My personal thoughts re my own children (Y4 and Y1 so they’ve missed a lot!) are that they have a minuscule chance of being badly affected by covid (Y1 DC had it in Oct asymptomatically). But I feel like they have a 100% chance of being negatively affected if they miss any more school/education/time with peers 😢
Children have given up the most in these past two years whilst suffering the least from the virus!

@Lacedwithgrace

DD is staying home. Her teachers support our decision and few other children will be off too. We'll probably end up homeschooling her for a couple of years if this keeps going the way it seems to be. It works for us, it can work for you too.

But...why??

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints

Keep her off, she is tiny, what will she miss...playing in the sand.

Honestly she is so small, many countries don't start formal education until 6. We have all been brainwashed, the only benefit of sending them so young is so mothers (main carer) can work. The guilt you will get on here is emotional bullshit, posted to justify why they sent their children

How nice to see such a respect for education.

Do you really think that or are you just being a dick?

OP, I suspect from what you're written that schools will never feel safe enough for you. However if you want your child to keep up with her peers, send her to school. Yes she might catch Omicron, but she might catch it at the supermarket or soft play or from her friends. Unless, you're planning on completely isolating her, but surely no one would be as irrational as that?

@lacedwithgrace
A child doesn't come into school, being withheld of their right of education and socialising with their peers,
It's is highly possible the school would be obliged to put one in.
Unless the parents have decided to keep the child in home schooling full time, as other posters have said you can't just pick and choose when your child recieves education.

@Lacedwithgrace

DD is staying home. Her teachers support our decision and few other children will be off too. We'll probably end up homeschooling her for a couple of years if this keeps going the way it seems to be. It works for us, it can work for you too.

How can you be sure that there will be a school space for her in a couple of years (or sooner if homeschooling doesn't work out)? She could end up being given a place in a not great school..

Considering weve had quite a busy christmas it would be massively hypocritical to keep the children off school so no theyll be going in
Both cant wait to see their friends

@OliveTree75

Keep her off, she is tiny, what will she miss...playing in the sand

Yes I did a 3 year early years teaching degree to play in the sand

And herein lies the problem. It doesn't detract from your ability, nor do I think that you are without skill however you have swallowed the lie. Move a young child to another country, and the majority agree that they will quickly pick up another language, make new friends and cope fine. If a poster wants to move house, the majority agree that children cope fine in a new school and new friends. But dare say that they can miss the school they attend and pitchforks come out.

It will be towards the end of Jan that the numbers will tell if we need to ramp things up. Are you willing to let your child miss 3 weeks or so of school. If there’s no health reason to keep them off I wouldn’t

Children come out of reception reading and writing- in my ( not a teacher) opinion this is like some sort of miracle, I’ve been amazed at what they achieve at school. It’s shocking and wrong to call that ‘playing in the sand’.

It sounds like you are prioritizing helping those other family members who are isolating over your child’s needs - something I can’t understand as a parent, as I think your child should come first

Send her in. They learn so much in reception, you’d be doing her a disservice by not sending her.

The point isn’t that she’s only four and and the impact on her education isn’t going to affect her gcse grades, it’s that she’s only four and it’s not fair make her do extra work to catch up in relation to her classmates when she gets back to school. She is not responsible for paying the price of your anxieties.

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints totally false equivalency. Moving a child to another school and having them IN SCHOOL will give them the best outcome as they will be learning with their peers, and teachers can put extra effort into helping a child with ESL.

Randomly missing a few weeks here and there, putting them out of step with the class learning, may not ruin their life overnight. But the building blocks being missed will have an impact that will follow them when they get to the more in depth learning. Being totally certain and fluent in number bonds to 10 feeds into the next block - adding/subtracting. If the child has missed bonds to 10 in the three weeks off, they start the next concept at a disadvantage to their peers. Schools do their best but catching children up with random lost learning is really hard.

Such a lot of nasty comments to op . Op do what’s right for you and your family . Any one who thinks schools are going to be running smoothly through January are mistaken .
Kids are going to be off isolating everywhere especially when we have a small set of parents who think mask wearing and testing is child abuse and children are still sent in school with positive case in household.
My sister is law who’s manager of a supermarket on 24 hr call now struggling to keep some stores open moving staff around different stores . Teacher absence will be as much of a problem as student absence .

What percentage of 4 year olds get long covid? How long are you planning to keep her off? 1 week, 1 month, 2 years?
This is a mad suggestion.

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints you literally said that a reception child would only miss out on playing in the sand. You clearly have no idea what goes on in reception and the huge amount of learning that goes on very quickly.
Also your point about other countries is not relevant because we aren't in another country. We are here where our reception children learn to read and write, and whether or not that is right or wrong is irrelevant because the OPs dd lives.

Lives here*

I have a 4 year old who loves school and is desperate to get back. Her class teacher had covid and a few classmates. The school went on as normal we were all fine. I also work in a school so it's risky however I would not think of keeping her back.

Sounds like you’ve made up your mind anyway

I wouldn’t but it’s not really relevant if you’re set on it

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints

Keep her off, she is tiny, what will she miss...playing in the sand.

Honestly she is so small, many countries don't start formal education until 6. We have all been brainwashed, the only benefit of sending them so young is so mothers (main carer) can work. The guilt you will get on here is emotional bullshit, posted to justify why they sent their children

Someone always spouts this. Other countries that start formal schooling later actually have very good preschool programmes that are similar in content and form to our Reception classes. Plus all of her peers will be in school, and they won’t just be finger painting or playing in sand pits - do you want to get behind the rest of her class, even if she’d still beat home if you lived in another country? My DS was in reception in 2020 and missed so much learning and socialising because of the schools closing, can’t believe anyone would be stupid enough to inflict that on their child voluntarily.

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints

Keep her off, she is tiny, what will she miss...playing in the sand.

Honestly she is so small, many countries don't start formal education until 6. We have all been brainwashed, the only benefit of sending them so young is so mothers (main carer) can work. The guilt you will get on here is emotional bullshit, posted to justify why they sent their children

Some countries don’t, but the UK do. If she misses weeks now she will be falling behind her peers.

My son is in reception, it’s some play, but also a lot of learning. He is reading well, writing sentences and doing arithmetic with numbers to 20 and learning his 2 times table. This wouldn’t be happening if he wasn’t there.

@Teateaandmoretea

Don’t be so silly OP

This

@Borland Thank you for your concern but we've got it sorted. She'll either have a place at one of the 3 good schools near us or she'll stay homeschooled until one is available.

@summertimerolls but... why not? We don't want her in school in a pandemic and as we know we can keep her healthy, happy and educated at home, we've chosen to.

@Blubells Exactly, and her school has a system of sharing work with home anyway so no teachers will be negatively impacted. It is a shame that some who want to home-ed can't.

It is always the same on here, I don't expect those that have fully subscribed to get it yet.
I have great respect for education, but the child is 4.

For every child that leaves reception being able to write their name, one leaves unable to do so. Plenty of parents have been scared about their child's perceived lack of achievement in the early years only to realise as the years pass that the benchmarks of primary mean nothing at secondary. The concern about handwriting, getting a 'Pen certificate' etc are meaningless when they start secondary.
Yes, some children need to be in school, but these children, already without parental support are already absent. The average child with concerned parents is not going to fail because they have January off.

She may have already had it.

This wouldn't cross my mind as an option.

@MrsRobinsonsHandprints

It is always the same on here, I don't expect those that have fully subscribed to get it yet. I have great respect for education, but the child is 4.

For every child that leaves reception being able to write their name, one leaves unable to do so. Plenty of parents have been scared about their child's perceived lack of achievement in the early years only to realise as the years pass that the benchmarks of primary mean nothing at secondary. The concern about handwriting, getting a 'Pen certificate' etc are meaningless when they start secondary.
Yes, some children need to be in school, but these children, already without parental support are already absent. The average child with concerned parents is not going to fail because they have January off.

But unless your children has a specific vulnerability, why would you keep them off specifically for this illness?