If you think the key worker guidance should tighten up for school attendance please sign this petition

[swooby]

I can see from other threads that people are just as infuriated as I am about the current key worker guidance leading to schools being half full whilst the other half of kids get excluded.

So I made this petition. It basically suggest that:

1.If there is a non key worker parent at home then that family cannot send their children in to school

1. The keyworker definition needs to be tightened. It is currently far too broad and open to abuse.

I just can't get my head around how a non key worker has to home school kids UNLESS they happen to have a key worker partner.

If you feel the same please sign this petition at change.org on the link below:

chng.it/g4Zjg792Gn

Please share the link too

It is tough to wfh and have young dc home

But that’s the case if you are not a KW too

So I know why people take it

But so relieved re school policy to cut back hugely

It's also to irony that teachers working at home, and key workers, who can and do send their kids to school! They should be made to teach other children, whilst looking after their children. I'm sure they would soon kick up a fuss.

Not sure I completely understand what you mean @rhowton but if you’re referring to teachers who send DC to school whilst teaching from home, this only really happens when the DC are very young or have additional needs (which you may not know about). As I said upthread, my DC are in school when I’m teaching a keyworker group all day but if I’m home they are. Many teachers do live lessons with DC in the corner doing work! It’s really quite stressful but I haven’t “kicked up a fuss” at all.

@clto2021

It's a difficult one. I am a keyworker and therefore my children are in school. My husband is a construction worker and therefore is not officially a keyworker (he's a critical worker) but cannot work from home and is self employed. If he needed to stay at home we would lose our house because he is the main bread winner. However I also see it from the other point of view. I work in a school and often have children telling me that they have a parent at home but are in school because mummy/daddy is a keyworker. In the first lockdown we had 16 children in total at school,this time we have 105 so people are definitely pushing the boundaries this time round.

The critical worker list is more comprehensive now, it's not about parents pushing boundaries (though some might be doing this). The government need to ensure the country does't grind to a halt in the same way it did in spring 2020. Critical workers help keep the most important things ticking along! It's up to the school to check proof of critical worker status and decide whether they will give a child a place.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm on mums net or toddlers net. The general tone is "it's not fair" because people just look at the situation in terms of how it benefits them personally rather than looking at the bigger picture.

@BabyJi I agree 100% about critical workers. That was my point... There is no way my husband would be able to wfh if there was a rule put in place to insist in two key worker parents. His job is essential and can't be done at home. However my experience of being in a classroom is that there has been a marked increase in numbers at school and this includes children who openly state that they have a parent at home.

"My child isn't in school and I think it's unfair! Make the other kids stop going to school too!"

Seems a bit pathetic. Surely your best argument would be to argue for the opening of schools? Hope this petition bombs

[quote clto2021]@BabyJi I agree 100% about critical workers. That was my point... There is no way my husband would be able to wfh if there was a rule put in place to insist in two key worker parents. His job is essential and can't be done at home. However my experience of being in a classroom is that there has been a marked increase in numbers at school and this includes children who openly state that they have a parent at home. [/quote]
But WFH doesn't mean you are able to support home schooling. Many parents are not able to coordinate their kids live teaching and providing guidance and support to younger dc while managing their own conference calls. This is a problem when both parents WFH full-time and have busy jobs with many meetings and responsibilities, whether they are critical workers or not. The only reason why critical workers are able to send their dc to school is that the government has decided specific jobs are needed to support the country during lockdown. It's not a perk, it's for the greater good of the country.

take a PR professional who works for a team that develops campaigns for promoting vaccine uptake then they are deemed a critical worker. Another PR professional who works for the same agency on a campaign promoting chocolate Easter eggs is not a critical worker.

Perhaps some people abuse the system but it's up the the schools to make sure they don't.

@swooby

No-one I know who is homeschooling and works has taken time off work. They're all struggling along doing both. Either kids in front of TV whilst they work. Or doing the 12 hour day shift of childcare and homeschooling then an evening shift at home to get the work done.

So I guess I don't follow the argument that the covid nurse would have to stop work to homeschool when there's higher paid partner at home. Why wouldn't the partner suck it up? It's hard, I get it, but it's what everyone else has to do if they aren't married to a key worker.

In the example I gave of the nurse and barrister, the answer is because the courts won’t schedule criminal hearings for the evening to accommodate home schooling in the day.l, but there are any number of reasons why the partner might not “suck it up”.

I’m astonished you think all jobs can be done outside of office hours.

I’m astonished you think all jobs can be done outside of office hours.

I can't believe the number of people who think this.

Surely it would be better to campaign to expand help rather than to restrict it? Otherwise it seems rather petty and like you wish that more people were having a shit time.

[quote Countdowntonothing]@fridget - just to add

And just because there is a non-keyworker parent, doesn't mean they can work from home. In my friendship groups we have:

Teacher + electrician
Nurse + electrician
Carer + TFL worker (not train driver but tbh not sure what he does)

None of them can wfh so if schools restricted places to 2 kw parents, it would be the lower paid kw that would quit/take unpaid leave.[/quote]
Not sure I understand this because all those in your example are keyworkers?

Agree that one keyworker for a school place though, for the reasons given already.

I’m astonished you think all jobs can be done outside of office hours

Me neither, it is just ridiculous!