Homeschooling the Government

[WhatK8DidNext]

Anyone else sick of feeling like a “teacher”, not a parent? That the governments expectations are too much?!? It’s not the schools fault as they are under pressure too.

My kids are 6 & 7 (7 yr old has dyslexia & dyscalculia) and they both need support to do the work set - I don’t want to parent to a curriculum anymore 😢

I'm taking part in the Women's Equality Party's action this Saturday to get this Goverment homeschooled on the realities of Covid childcare - making videos, taking pictures, drawings etc with our individual messages on them all this week and posting them at the same time - 3pm this Saturday, 30th Jan to Rishi Sunak's social media using #Homeschooled. All details on the below link.

www.womensequality.org.uk/home_schooled_action

I commented yesterday on virtually identical post on a different board on MN but got no reply asking the same thing as I am asking now @WhatK8DidNext what are the aims of this campaign? What are the outcome you want? Your post suggests you just want the government to know how hard it is - is that all your after?

@Thatwentbadly

I commented yesterday on virtually identical post on a different board on MN but got no reply asking the same thing as I am asking now *@WhatK8DidNext* what are the aims of this campaign? What are the outcome you want? Your post suggests you just want the government to know how hard it is - is that all your after?

For me it’s about the level of expectations from the government this time - first lockdown we just had to survive. This time we are expected to actually teach and full curriculum... they need to know it’s just not possible. I’m trying to work too and I’m drowning this time.

Aside from my own struggle above, This is the official answer:

-A legal right to shared furlough or guaranteed Self-Employment Income Support for all parents. Currently, parents only have the right to request furloughing and 75% have been refused.

• Early Years and school staff to be prioritised in the next round of vaccines so that they can reopen safely as soon as possible.

-Increase child benefits to £50 per child and maintain the £20-a-week uplift in universal credit. With children at home, household bills are mounting and forcing families into poverty.

• Ten days extra paid annual leave for all parents and 20 days for single parents to help them manage caring responsibilities without the risk of redundancy.
• A bailout for nurseries to stop them closing permanently.

I believe maintaining early years care is essential to our economy. It was completely overlooked in March '20 and is not working now for many families. So many homes have 1x key worker + 1 FT private worker, but no place at school. Managing early years + schooling + work alone is a nightmare for those who have to do it. Many families have 2x children

I agree with all of it except extra leave for parents. Some people might be caring for spouses or elderly relatives, managing siblings’ mental health or disability, or a million other things. If parents get two extra workweeks paid their colleagues will have to pick up the slack and plan their own leave around parents. And unlike parenting many of those things were not their direct or indirect choice to undertake. I have young children but I can still see that’s not fair. Everyone has responsibilities and if there’s going to be more paid leave it should be for everyone. (How employers would manage so much missed work is anyone’s guess. Many many businesses are barely staying afloat these days.) There is virtually no chance of that provision going through so if I were you I would focus on the other ones.

Everyone can just focus on the bits that matter to them - as I said that’s the official bit, but personally I just want them to know the expectations are too high.

I’ve written a couple of poems to send on Sat as I just needed to get my feelings down - this is just too hard 😢

Everyone can just focus on the bits that matter to them - as I said that’s the official bit, but that is not how it works. If you join this political campaign you are publicly pledging your support for all of it.

Schools aren’t closed due to the risk of teachers catching covid 19. It’s due to the risk of community transmission, mostly spread through the children so just vaccinating school staff won’t lead to schools been reopened. That will happen when community rates of
Covid 19 are lower and hospitals can cope with the number of patients are they looking after. At the moment hospitals do not have safe staffing levels.

People should look at the overall aims of a political party before they start supporting them. I personally don’t want to support a political party who wants to get rid of GCSEs that’s not something I agree with.

Sorry thats not what I meant - I meant my poems focus on my personal experience and the bit that resonates with me ... I am too tired to argue, ironically because of having to homeschool & work. I fully support WEP.

I just wanted to let people know about the campaign who may want to join in, you don’t have to if it’s not for you 😊

@ThatWentBadly I'm don't think I agree with this point: "If you join this political campaign you are publicly pledging your support for all of it."

The beauty of a social media campaign like this is that you can make a post on a point you do agree with - let's say, the benefits increase but not the extra annual leave - and post that. You'd probably use the hashtag (or your post may not go far!) but you don't have to link to the larger list of asks. Everyone joining an action like this will have their own reasons for doing so and may not agree with the entire WEP roster of asks, but can come together to make the larger point - in this case: "Look at this situation; it's terrible; please do something!" - nonetheless.

I don't think I've ever supported any party whose aims I agree with 100%. There are, of course, areas of policy that are dealbreakers, and everyone has to draw those lines for themselves. But if we only supported parties or policies or actions that were 100% in line with our own beliefs, we'd have hundreds of thousand of parties in the country, all with three members each!

I say this not to try and persuade you to join, only because it's an interesting point and worth debating. Especially when you got into thinking, talking and learning about politics as late as I did and are now playing catch up!

Really nice to see issues like these getting some mainstream attention, I look forward to contributing (although not sure when I'm going to find the headspace to come up with something creative, hehe!!)

@Ge0rgia me too! Think I'll just take a photo of my peak chaos - my mess is my message?!

@AlmostStace thanks for giving this perspective re. 100% agreement. I am also relatively newly engaged in politics and finding it interesting to ask myself about my beliefs and what I will truly stand behind. The way I see it is about alignment. I can get behind enough of what's being asked, and therefore approve it with my voice if it aligns to the bigger direction I want for my wider community. Like you say, the whole may not totally represent me, because it's intended to reach many not a few. But I can still speak to what I have experienced.