Schools reopening - Right to decide as a parent

[DocMia]

Boris Johnson : Parents should have the right whether to send their children back to school in September. - Sign the Petition! chng.it/N76dqb4y via @UKChange

I don't want your child's results dragging my data down if you're going to be in and out of school as you see fit

Yep. I dislike a lot of testing, I dislike performance related pay based on cohort test results, I dislike that schools are judged on data, but if I'm accountable for a child's progress, then I want them in school as much as possible.

Use Oak, supplement with some proper internet schooling (payment required for that), done.

I'm wondering if posters think that all extremely clinically vulnerable students should just deregister and give up their school place stat or whether the govt should be persuaded to make allowances for them rather than force them back to school?

My thoughts in this are those children should be in a bubble of their own where it’s known parents are taking all precautions and not going to pubs etc

It would massively reduce the risk

@BluebellsGreenbells

I'm wondering if posters think that all extremely clinically vulnerable students should just deregister and give up their school place stat or whether the govt should be persuaded to make allowances for them rather than force them back to school?

My thoughts in this are those children should be in a bubble of their own where it’s known parents are taking all precautions and not going to pubs etc

It would massively reduce the risk

But schools don’t have spare staff or classrooms for this. Even if it was one or two children per year group who fall into this category, you would have huge variations in age and ability to cater for. We have every teacher teaching a class and the few TAs we have are linked to EHCP funding so they need to be with specific children. There would be no adult and no classroom for such a group-now would they plan and administer such a wide range of work even if we did! It’s not like we could give them all their own computer even.

How, not now.

Nope. You do have a choice, you can choose to homeschool.
And you can chose not to send them back but you will face fines and your child will probably lose their space.

@Barbie222

I don't want your child's results dragging my data down if you're going to be in and out of school as you see fit, I'm afraid. Data driven performance management and all that.

Deregister and home ed. This petition does nothing to further safety in schools for the majority of children this September.

And this is the problem with uk education. Ypu would rather a child becomes ill, dies or loses a relative than your school risk sliding down a stupid league table. Hell while we are at it why dont we only accept pupils who will drive us up tje league tables. Kick out those pesky kids with health problems or learning difficulties pronto

@Barbie222

If extremely clinically vulnerable children become very unwell, or if teachers become unwell. or if parents are very unwell, this will affect children's performance and so drag their results down. Living through a resurgence twice as bad as the episode in March/ April would also adversely affect results.

Of course, if there were any deaths of students, that would remove them from the record, and also if your results are comparative to other schools, and everyone is living through the same upswing in illness, then it wouldn't reflect badly on you in particular.

It would be kinder on everyone however, not to mention potentially life-saving, if we could plan together for a properly safe return to schools, or blended learning if this isn't possible. With support for and from teachers/

What do you do if you have one very vulnerable, previously shielded child, and one NT that needs to go back?

I haven't read this petition so not commenting on it itself, but to the person concerned about results. You realise that children deregistered who later return will be just as likely to end up dragging down your results eventually, when they come back? Consider whether forcing people down that extreme route is really the best option educationally, or indeed financially for schools.

The current plans make it harder for local communities to respond flexibly to temporary increases in local infection rates, via parents who can, temporarily keeping their children at home - an action that could help the community keep a brake on local transmission. As it is, they'll have to wait until cases get bad enough for an official closing of schools locally, at which point they might then need to be closed for longer than they would have done if people who could had kept their children off for a bit from as soon as cases started to creep up. From an infection control point of view, this doesn't seem like a good plan.

I agree - deregister and home educate (or use something like Inter High if you can afford it). You can't have it both ways - holding onto a school place that someone else could use.

I am so pleased there is another school thread. I was really starting to feel like there wasn't enough Ha ha, almost as many as the mask threads.

Ypu would rather a child becomes ill, dies or loses a relative than your school risk sliding down a stupid league table.

No one said that. Don't be absurd.

Teachers don't care about league tables because they don't affect us but we are all given performance-related targets linked to our pay each year. Would you like your performance management and pay to be linked to someone who wasn't even under your care?

Don't shoot the messenger on how schools and teachers are judged in this country, no one likes it.

@PrivateD00r

I think people don't want to deregister because they still want the school to be responsible for their DC education, like before. Ie providing home learning. But how on earth can schools be expected to provide that on top of full time teaching? Yes, if there are teachers having to work from home maybe they could, but I am not convinced as many fall into this category as MN would have you believe! If parents don't want to send their DC to school then realistically they will have to deregister and take responsibility for their DC education.

I wouldn't want to deregister my kid as he still has 4 more years there and this disruption is hopefully just for one year. There's another level to this dilemma. I'm happy to take responsibility for his education and could do it. BUT... in a year, when let's say we have a vaccine, he would hugely benefit from attending one of the best schools in the country and by deregistering I'd take that chance away from him. On the other hand, the school is opening fully, no news on any online provisions so I'm stuck with this impossible decision.

There are currently 8 children on the waiting list for my DDs year at school. If there are no medical issues, how is it right that another parent can chose not to use their place for an extended period while others are travelling some distance to an alternative school.

Medically vulnerable children or those with a close family member with medical issues should be treated differently.

You do. De-register and homeschool if you feel it’s not safe.

@Danglingmod

I'm wondering if posters think that all extremely clinically vulnerable students should just deregister and give up their school place stat or whether the govt should be persuaded to make allowances for them rather than force them back to school?

I know that our students with cancer diagnoses and heart conditions will be facing this exact dilemma (or their parents will) and I absolutely don't mind spending extra time catching them up where possible (as, obviously, we do I'm normal times).

Students in this category are being supported to home learn by schools. Parents who choose to keep their child off who don’t fall into this category would need to homeschool instead.

Why should I? Why should I register my child from an education that I want them to have just because the current plans for return are homicidally unsafe for clinically vulnerable people & families? That would just abnegate the responsibility of the Government and the schools to provide properly funded and supported arrangements, Better for everyone if they arrange things properly

I'm not signing the petition.

However I am pissed off with being told I can just de register my child.

It's taken 6 years to get a good EHCP which specifies the right support for my ds.
We have been shielding him since the middle of March until now due to his medical vulnerabilities and complex needs.
We are expected to send him back full time in September, to a full class of children who all struggle with social distancing (resource base in a mainstream school)

I do not think we should have to Deregister. I do not think we should be threatened with fines.

I have had to sort out most of his distance learning throughout lockdown, as school has provided a minimal amount for children with SEN.

I think medically vulnerable children have been forgotten about in this situation.

@SlipperSwan

Ypu would rather a child becomes ill, dies or loses a relative than your school risk sliding down a stupid league table.

No one said that. Don't be absurd.

Teachers don't care about league tables because they don't affect us but we are all given performance-related targets linked to our pay each year. Would you like your performance management and pay to be linked to someone who wasn't even under your care?

No not directly but that was the jist of the messaged I responded to. The reality is through if children deregister for 12 months and return then, or lose a family member or have serious health problems through covid, schools have to close due to increased spread, or even children are in and out due to 14 day isolation several times this yr these will also impact league tables and thus effect your pay increase.

This isn't normal times, we cant bury our heads and push on with old standards on the hope that the virus will disappear.

and yes saying put your child in school so i can get my pay rise isnt at all reassuring that my child will be safe in this environment at this time.

Our school also has a long waiting list. If parents prefer to home school their children, they can and should do so.

No child has been admitted to hospital for COVID since June. One teacher has died and they didn’t get the virus at school. Three teachers have received hospital care and recovered.

Stop trying to fuck with your children’s life without being able to comprehend the minuscule risks

I know a child locally who is being homeschooled because there’s no place for him. They would love a place.
You can’t homeschool and keep the school place ‘just in case’. Sadly it’s not fair.
None of this is fair. No point looking for a way to make it fair I’m afraid.
Homeschool or school. Piss or get off the pot.

@Shallowsubmarine

No child has been admitted to hospital for COVID since June. One teacher has died and they didn’t get the virus at school. Three teachers have received hospital care and recovered.

Stop trying to fuck with your children’s life without being able to comprehend the minuscule risks

miniscule risks?

can you explain to me how the risk is now minimal when in the last week we have had move covid related deaths in the UK and in the week of the 20th March when schools were closed and the country put into lockdown?

Stop trying to fuck with your children’s life without being able to comprehend the minuscule risks
I'm trying hard to make the right decisions for my child, who was deemed to be at risk enough to shield for nearly 5 months. It's not easy.

No child has been admitted to hospital for COVID since June.
Perhaps something do with the fact that high risk and shielding children have been, well, shielding? How's that going to work out for them in September, when they are being forced to attend school, or be fined?

What do you do if you have one very vulnerable, previously shielded child, and one NT that needs to go back?
@puzzledpiece - am in the same situation. It's difficult. Do you know what you will do?