How full are primary schools???

[mids2019]

My partner and I have 2 primary school children and though keyworkers took the decision to keep our children out of school to limit COVID transmission.

We are now aware half the school is back in and we are worried that we have compromised our childrens education as with such high numbers in school it seems inevitable some kind of teaching will be happening there (as opposed to the first lockdown where it was childcare essentially)

How full is your school and do you think there is a difference between online learning and in school?

(I am a little frustrated by this as we envisaged schools would be used sparingly as really what was the point of shutting them)

5 in my DDs class out of 32. We live in area where people are very community minded. I think that makes a big difference. Lots of keyworkers / full.time workers but people only using it that have absolutely no other choice.

2/3. 400 out of 600. Teaching a class of 20 (a normal sized class in some schools) plus organising the home learning tasks is extremely hard.
Same work but we do get through the work quicker at school than those at home.
Your kids will be fine. The teachers won't be teaching in the same way they would normally so they won't be missing out.

Just saw this www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/english-schools-struggle-with-demand-for-key-worker-places

Pretty disgusted with the guidance from DfE there. I'm a civil servant wfh. Job is busy. DH also working at home. I'm a key worker according to work. He's not. I could therefore send them in but will not be, we can cope with them at home and it's bonkers to say my job is absolutely critical.

2 kids in the keyworker provision at my kids school today!!

It isn't just workers who are critical to the COVID response, it's workers who are critical to the running of the country. The world doesn't begin & end with COVID.

A lot of judgement here about keyworkers using the provision provided. What are we meant to do if we aren't WFH and have no alternative childcare?

We are both keyworkers for the Prison Service. Nothing to do with COVID but shall we just shut the prisons? Release all the prisoners?

25% of the school are currently in. Numbers increasing daily.

We have about 30 in out of 220ish

I’m a teacher and all of our teachers are doing the online lessons, planning etc - TAs are working with the key worker children, and they are accessing the same online learning.

(As an aside I know some see this as unfair, but if teachers were in with key workers the online video provision for home learners wouldn’t happen at all so at least we’re trying to cater for all children.)

I'd estimate there were 20 children max (several were sibling sets) in DCs school today. School seem to have done an amazing job with their home learning so all the children are doing the exact same things whether they're in school or at home bar lunch and break time. Lessons are being run by their normal teachers and TA's.

I am a TA. I am supervising a class of 20. They are doing exactly the same online work as those at home. Those at home probably get more individual attention and are definitely at less risk of COVID - I am scared at work.

You are obviously capable of keeping them at home if you both came to that decision. Perhaps others have not felt like that so have sent their children in. You've done nothing wrong, they've done nothing wrong.

@Mnusernc

There are no prizes for keeping your children home when they're legally entitled to a place. You can argue it's ethical to stop the spread but I would argue that it's unethical to keep children from accessing education. The government have other choices that they haven't made- many industries are working as normal. They let people mix over Christmas, people were at the theatre in London in December. They don't care about your children, you need to advocate for them.

I would argue that it's a lot worse to put people's lives at risk and continue to spread the virus putting more pressure on the already overwhelmed NHS. No one is stopping children accessing education- it's just being done in a different way and a different place. Education gaps can be recovered. Death can't.

Many more children have died because of the school closures. It's not a benign choice, it's an immoral one. All kids should be in school.

We were all encouraged to go to restaurants in the summer, now we're told sending our kids to school is selfish and risks lives.

There are no prizes for keeping your children home when they're legally entitled to a place

This so shortsighted. Clearly the prize is an earlier end to lockdown.

It is so infuriating having to share a country with self-defeating people. I want to split the country, get half of it covid free, leave the 'I did a personal risk assesment' types to just catch it.

@Mnusernc

We were all encouraged to go to restaurants in the summer, now we're told sending our kids to school is selfish and risks lives.

Yes, it was stupid that we were encouraged to go to restaurants.

But having schools open as normal does risk lives.

About 20% but being taught by TAs / midday supervisors. Even when I taught KW children last time, my teaching was nowhere near as good as it is normally. It's almost impossible to meaningfully help 10 children all with perhaps 5 different tasks to do set by different teachers, so no I don't think children in school are getting a superior or normal experience.

I'm doing a mix of written explanations, video explanations and live lessons as well as live help sessions and stories. Live lessons are a bit of a token gesture I think, they aren't much more meaningful than prerecorded videos as I can't go round helping children which is how they make progress in school normally. Already uptake of some sessions is low - mumsnet sometimes gives the impression schools are doing little whilst parents are crying out for content but this time and last I'd say a good proportion of families are choosing not to engage (and yes, for some this is a choice, others I completely understand why).

10 out of 90 in y2 and 20 out of 90 in yr4 (according to my DC). Mine could go in everyday but as requested by the school we are trying to use it sparingly and only where we really need it; contrast to certain others who are stretching the key worker definition for all its worth and sending their children in on days where the other parent is around, the keyworker is off etc - yes I know it has only been 2 days but a) children talk amongst each other and b) some parents over share on the WhatsApp groups.

Many more children have died because of the school closures

Eh, really?
Reporting of child death is a huge process involving the local authority. No child deaths in my LA, a child death is rare. Have you the data @Mnusernc ... if not you are making a false claim to scaremonger.

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I think the government need to look to vaccinate teachers ASAP can’t see how they can open more fully without it.

Why do (on the whole) fit and healthy adults
that are unlikely to die from covid, need immunising before the vulnerable and/or older adults that are more likely to die if they do catch covid?

There's a reason why immunisation programmes are set the.way they are. On the whole fit and healthy adults don't get given the flu jab as routine... because they are likely to survive the virus. But 73 year old Sarah who has asthma is probably not...

Are you assuming that all teachers are young, fit and have no underlying health issues?

Around 40 kids in.360 usually.

My kids are in a smallish primary one class per year.
My nephew in year 2 has 7/30, niece in reception has 9/30.
We have been told lessons as normal and are to take in pe kits, reading books etc.

We’re in Scotland and need two key worker parents to qualify. (Or one single parent.)