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When schools officially “shut” except for the kids of key workers, I imagined that the only ones who’d still be attending were.... those of key workers, additional needs and vulnerable children. Much like the first lockdown of last year.
My wife and I have been busting a gut to home school. She’s been working til 11 some nights to catch-up. I’ve been told that I still have to do my hours- maybe do a 6-9am slot before schooling or work weekends to cover any hours that I miss when helping with maths.
So... it boils my piss to find that probably 50% of the kids are still in school. I’ll caveat this by saying I don’t know everyone’s personal circumstances but it seems that there’s a good few that are flexing the “rules” to get whatever outcome they choose.
There’s kids with furloughed parents attending. There’s kids who’s parents both work from home. There’s kids who’s parents just seem to want to get them from under their feet.
Technically my job falls into the key worker definitions. Financial services and payment facilitation. But I can do it from home so it never occurred to me that o should/could send my lad to school.
A few weeks down the line and with a big chunk of his class in- he’s the one getting a questionable teaching standard, tetchy parents and no social interaction.
Are we doing the right thing or are we the fools!?
Fwiw- I certainly had covid last March, so assume we all did. Probably not “bursting with antibodies” any more though. We have no support bubble at all. We see nobody other than for my wife shopping and me grabbing a takeaway coffee from time to time.
I’m more and more starting to think that we should just do what everyone else seems to be doing. My wife on the other hand is convinced we are doing the right thing.
Where do stw stand on this!?
No, both at home, wife is at work, in a school, and would agree with your assessment that there are many kids in school on the flimsiest of reasons. Government guidelines are as usual vague and difficult to enforce.
Before this degenerates into the same mess the other schools threads do, please remember that this varies enormously from school to school. Primaries seem hardest hit in terms of kids in school - my school though (a small secondary with about 900 on roll) has less than 20 kids on site each day.
From a teacher's PoV, generally all in or all out is preferable to some in and some remote learning, which can be a logistical and workload nightmare, and is currently breaking quite a few teachers...
Is be interested to see some data on the demographics of this TBH.
As you probably already know, your wife's right.
Mine only go if both of us are working (Cat 1 and Cat 2 keyworkers), and when my shifts mean we only need them in half a day, they only go in for half the day.
@thegreatape where are key worker categorised?
My son is at home. My wife has had to close down her business so can do the home schooling. She is volunteering with vaccine rollout - waiting on some forms before she can start but even when she goes in for that I will keep him with me (I am a key worker who works from home! - I don’t really see that as a key worker in a pandemic).
It might be difficult at times but I see no point in having the risk of him being in school when we can all stay safe at home.
Other families have qualified in one key worker who works from home (accounts for a care home) and the dad isn’t at work they just don’t want them at home.
Continue doing the right thing. You can't control what others are doing but you can control what you do.
FWIW both my kids are at home and technically my wife and I meet the 'key worker' definition (financial services and essential manufacturing). It didn't even occur to us to try to take advantage of the key worker definition.
Wife's a key worker (community occupational therapist), in the office a couple of days a week, the rest at home. So we could get him to school if we wanted, but pretty sure the in school stuff is pretty just child care here, so he's wfh like me and doing the work set.
I guess part of the problem is that one of the possible criteria for being allowed to send your kids to school during lockdown is being a vile scummer so... if push came to shove some people would be able to legally send their kids to school in lockdown just by being vile. 🙁
I hasten to add that this is if course only one of the myriad reasons, and there are numerous valid reasons that dont.
My wife is a Dr and works in ICU, so on the front line. In lockdown 1 the kids went to school / nursery, this time around they are at home. I’m wfh at the moment, so I have to make up the time when my wife is at work, and when she’s not at work, I do my job and as much overtime as I can be bothered with.
It’s a pain for both of us with the kids being at home, but if this is as bad as a pandemic gets in terms of my personal sacrifice, then it is hardly that big a deal.
being a vile scummer
Mrs Owg works in a primary school. They have about a quarter of their pupils in, split fairly evenly between key workers and 'vulnerable' children.
Don't sink to the level of those parents/people who abuse every situation possible, do the right thing and listen to your wife!
How old are your kids?
Two things to consider.
Firstly, if they are primary school age its probably not worth busting a gut during the day to 'school' them. They'll be fine even if they don't do hours of work every day.
Secondly, school at the moment may not be great place to be. We sent our kids in to keyworker school during first lockdown. Wife is GP and although I now WFH, I was really poorly post covid and was working long hours on COVID response work in Social Care. After a few weeks of keyworker school we took them out. This is going to sound really snobby but here goes. The school had very few keyworker kids and lots of vulnerable kids. We live in a quite a sheltered area and my kids are not really street wise. The dynamic of their school changed with these kids coming in from other areas. Their school needs to be their safe space and it no longer felt like that. It was also hard for them to do any actual work there. We decided poor quality home schooling was a better option than a bad experience in school.
It is hard, no doubt about it. I'm now doing busy job, at home, three kids schooling. But I'm not sending them back in to keyworker school.
Yes, one is in school and the other is in nursery 2 days a week only.
We are both on the key worker list and cannot wfh. My wife is a pharmacist and I work on defence contracts where information cannot be accessed off site.
Continue doing the right thing. You can’t control what others are doing but you can control what you do.
Very much this.
We are both technically keyworkers - local and central government. Both working from home, but luckily teenage kids are old enough to sort themselves out for home schooling.
We've been told by our director to do whatever we need to do around homeschooling/childcare, and then do what work we can around that. Helps that she has two primary age kids homeschooling.
Solarider Jnr attends a fee paying Independent school. Unlike last time, the schools have charged full fees for homeschooling, which obviously makes my piss boil.
When we complained they offered us a place in school. Neither of us are key workers, and we are keen to do the right thing to get us all out of this ASAP.
We respectfully declined the offer, but it does highlight the lack of consistency in the adherence to what I thought were clear rules for the good of everybody.
Mrs D and I are both key workers however we're keeping finleybgoode home and doing what we can schooling-wise.
Not comfortable stuff with him going, he won't be in his normal class and most of his friends won't be there. It's tough getting him to do his work but we're just about getting enough done and probably more than he'd get at school.
Yes there are some people taking the piss however I think the majority are doing what they can.
@thegreatape where are key worker categorised?
It might just be a Highland Council thing. Cat 1 is frontline healthcare (eg. nurse), Cat 2 is other emergency services (eg. fire, police), can’t remember what 3 is. First time round the HC position was that unless you are both Cat 1 your kids couldn’t go in. They relented in the end but it was a bit of a fight. Then it was at a ‘hub’ ie. one school open for the area, so it was an hour round trip twice a day on the days we were both working. This time it’s the local school thankfully.
Y1 daughter is at home. Could probably fit the key worker thing (wife is NHS albeit back office / managerial so can easily WFH for now) but I’m mostly juggling work and getting her to do the worksheets set. From the daily zoom calls about half the class is there.
Son is in the nursery / preschool, which is part of the same primary school. I’m not entirely sure it’s a great idea but at least it’s a small group with the same staff each day, and I’d really struggle with work and homeschooling if he was around 9-3 each day.
Year 1 boy at home, both of us classed as kerry workers due to being involved in vaccines/medicines work.
But we were not happy about doing it, very relieved when the decision was taken for us at the end of the teacher training day
Yes, Mrs works with dementia and mental health patients on NHS wards and im a firefighter, last time we home schooled but with both of us having both got covid quite bad after i got it at work they didn't get much done, this time we decided it would be more beneficial for them and us for them to be in school despite initial protests they actually admit that its better for them to learn and have some social interaction
Both at home, son has a couple if hrs online stuff- he’s SEN so needs some help from Mrs FB to do so and some assistance throughout the day.
Daughter in yr7 and the school had got virtual lessons sorted. She was reluctant at start but knuckles down to it- got a call from school Friday praising her for 100% attendance online.
We’re “lucky” that Mrs FB gave up work when it became clear that jnr was struggling in mainstream. The different hrs at the SEN school didn’t fit with her part time hrs & breakfast/after school clubs. So at least we haven’t got the pressure on time to work & homeschool & desk spaces most have.
Given we got Covid from one of the kids pre Xmas, I’d say keep them away from school. Others may be taking the mick but they’re running the risk.
Nope kids sure home. I'm a key worker but WFH so schools here don't take them anyway, but I reckon they would soon be home again and isolating if in school, and they wouldn't be doing any work/learning if in either. So they are home. We are all getting grumpy.
I’m more and more starting to think that we should just do what everyone else seems to be doing. My wife on the other hand is convinced we are doing the right thing.
Where do stw stand on this!?
We are in a similar boat to grahamt - we could send them if we wanted but we choose not to because we can avoid it. We do have the slight advantage that the eldest is definitely old enough to look after himself and the youngest whilst needing some support isn't a constant focus. Why don't we just send them? Other than for the sake of the country - because:
1. The other kids who are still going are in my opinion the ones most likely to be infectious. (They either have parents who are going out to work with people or even deal with covid, or they are children in vulnerable groups who maybe higher risk anyway).
2. That means its more likely that they will be get the virus (or be forced into isolation due to positive contact) and therefore we will be stuck in the house for two weeks. Thats not an experience I want to repeat.
3. In my opinion its easier to be strict with them about only meeting 1 friend outside etc, if they haven't spent 7 hours trapped in a box with a dozen people.
I might be deluded but I think the way the trend is going locally we'll see a partial return by end of Feb, and full return after easter...
I am a teacher working from home, my wife is also. We could send our Primary age kids into school, but then they'd be potentially exposed to covid and potentially bring it home.
I am also shielding, so we have no contact with anyone. Home schooling is hard, being a teacher remotely is also hard. Doing both at the same time results in a working day that starts at 8:30am and regularly sees a finish between 11am and midnight.
We are doing our pans in and my wife has felt pressure from her line manager to send our kids into their Primary School. "If you can't perform your duties as a teacher to an acceptable standard with your own children in the house, you should send them into school."
Fc*k that.
EDIT: And apparently a lot of her colleagues are all working in the school when they could work from home as they feel under pressure to be in the building.
No. And both me and my partner are keyworkers. Difficult though.
Like the first reply, rule number one is "Your wife is right".
Unless you are up for the long haul, which IMO has to done sometimes, but pick your time very wisely. Also be very very very aware that what your child will get at school is (if secondary) monitored screen time. No actual teaching.
Good luck, there is no perfect answer.
send our kids into their Primary School. “If you can’t perform your duties as a teacher to an acceptable standard with your own children in the house, you should send them into school.”
They cant do shit, just do your best and leave it at that
As someone mentioned above, secondary kids aren't having actual lessons in school. They are in computer rooms (in year bubbles) doing live lessons and set work, while being monitored by a member of staff.
Some SEN kids will have an LSA helping them.
I'm teaching from home 2-3 days a week. In school watching CW&V pupils the other days.
My wife works in a preschool 2 days a week, so our yr2 daughter is in school for the 2 days we can't look after her.
We could have sent her in full-time, but decided to minimise the time she was in school as much as possible.
Also be very very very aware that what your child will get at school is (if secondary) monitored screen time. No actual teaching.
Doing work set online/ live lessons.
Also be very very very aware that what your child will get at school is (if secondary) monitored screen time. No actual teaching.
Incorrect. In some (many? most?) Places they'll be doing live lessons
Incorrect. In some (many? most?) Places they’ll be doing live lessons
What do you mean by live lessons?
Also be very very very aware that what your child will get at school is (if secondary) monitored screen time. No actual teaching.
Incorrect. In some (many? most?) Places they’ll be doing live lessons
I think people are talking at cross purposes a bit.
Live lessons = online lesson with teacher talking & setting tasks, etc.
In school they will be accessing these (or not) but no direct teacher interaction.
The staff in school are monitoring, but they are not forcing kids to join in the live lessons or do the set work. We can't! We can chivvy them on a bit and tell them not to play games online, etc. But they are meant to be working independently.
In many cases these kids could (and probably should) be doing this from home. It really doesn't make much difference.
If you are sending your secondary age kids to school in the hope of them getting 'proper', teacher-led, classroom based lessons, then you've got the wrong end of the stick.
Primary, however, is different. They will be in a class with a teacher doing lessons (of a sort).
Something has to give sadly, in my experience nobody seems to be making any concessions for parents stuck at home with children, employers still expect you to put the hours in, clients aren't budging on deadlines, and lord knows my poor wife has had to fight to get back into the jobs market post-maternity so she can't simply drop out again to become housewife.
'Flexible working' has become the catchphrase, e.g. do your work in whatever hours you can grab which in my case is pre-7am, post 7pm (unless I'm doing bath time) and hard fought weekend half-days (in lieu of getting out on my bike) and 2hr chunks during the day. Not conducive to turning out big chunks of detailed engineering design and reports...
Net result, clients are getting shitty quality work on the cheap (I'm on JSS but expected to pretty much deliver and be available as per normal) as I'm trying to deliver work whilst juggling tantrums, exasperated and demoralised wife, constant toddler/cat clawings, childcare cover whilst wife is on calls etc. I can't imagine if home-schooling would be worse or would actually give us something for him to do!
We would love to stick him back in nursery, we see his class out in the playpark occasionally and it looks like he's the only one not there!
Multiply this ^ little microcosm over hundreds of other households and it's maybe not a surprise that people are choosing to be 'flexible' with their interpretation of whether they are key workers or not. Sucks that teachers end up at risk because of it.
Thank god this has been asked. Boils my piss. I have worked all the way through and other than 6 weeks furlough my wife has too. I have documentation saying I am keyworker from work etc but tbh I don’t regard myself as that so I couldn’t live with myself asking the school to look after my kids whilst this is on.
My kids are 18 & 13 and they have done everything they can to be home schooled.
Last week my daughter mentioned a neighbours girl. Same age as my daughter and also has an older 19yr old sister. Mother works at B&Q, father owns/drives a wagon. Turns out she hasn’t missed a day at school. Now we are hearing she has caught Covid from her parents and guess what, taken the entire class and teacher down with her. All because the parents want childcare.
I used to think teachers were picking and choosing but if the country is in lockdown, in my eyes this is taking the piss
What do you mean by live lessons?
As you will be aware this is quite a loose definition. But in general terms as far as I can work out. A teacher on teams etc teaching a lesson with activities or a recorded lesson of activities with a teacher online to provide support. Both of these to a time table.
My son is in. Mum GP, me teaching live lessons online. Wouldn't work if he wasn't at school and I know on effect for others kids (and thus parents) would be massive. Feel guilty every day but that emotion is my modus operandi anyway so I'm used to it.
Arvensis. Fair point. I used the term because someone else did. But lazy as it is very ambiguous.
I think people are talking at cross purposes a bit.
Live lessons = online lesson with teacher talking & setting tasks, etc.
In school they will be accessing these (or not) but no direct teacher interaction.
This
Our youngest is in nursery 3 days a week and the eldest us in reception 3 days a week. Wife is a social worker and although she doesn't do home visits unless it's an emergency there's no way she could work at home with kids that ages as her work is constant video meetings. In the first lock down I did 8am to midnight in order to look after the kids (the eldest was still at nursery then). Work is my own business that now involves manufacturing, I just can't do that from home.
There's a big difference in trying to homeschool or even just look after young kids and WFH than it is secondary schoolers.
This has been a bit divisive in our case.
[rant]
We have both of ours at home (aged 5 and 8). I can work from home much of the time, but I’m an academic with a research lab and do need to be in a few times a week to provide support. My wife can work from home so she does. Once the kids are in bed we need to work on into the evening. My wife has a job share, so her role is split. Her job share’s OH is also an academic. They have their kids “in school” (same ages/school as ours). I say “in school” because they only send them in for 3 days a week, and then for the other 2 complain on Facebook about how hard home schooling is. When they’re in school they post pictures of their joint lunchtime runs on Instagram.
[\rant]
Both at home here too. Youngest is three and was at home anyway before Covid. Eldest is six with Mrs F teaching him and me picking up bits when I get in from work. Mrs F is a stay at home mum with the littlest and I’m working from my office. The only one in there which is quite odd.
The two in primary are in school while the eldest is at home.
Mine (age 10 and 13) have been in 4 days per week but we're cutting down to 3 days per week from this week.
My wife is the SENCo + a Science teacher in the secondary which my oldest daughter attends.
She had been in work everyday until this week (head being an arse and insisting everyone comes in) but from this week she's WFH 1-2 days per week.
I'm a Project Manager for a company who builds and maintains equipment for Navy ships and the entire UK Submarine fleet.
I've been going into work 2-3 days per week as needed as i'm managing a lot of critical work in our build facility.
As for the Schools - my youngest (YR5) is in a 'bubble' with 10-12 other kids from her year - out of the normal 62.
Some of the other Year groups have larger numbers and there are parents who are abusing the system.
My Daughter and her mate (who's mum is also a teacher) thought it would be fun early last week to go around the class and ask everyone what their parents did for a job. Apparently the Teacher was taking notes and a couple of the kids have not been seen since.
There are generally 60-70 kids out of 1400 at my eldest's school.
I’m a Project Manager for a company who builds and maintains equipment for Navy ships and the entire UK Submarine fleet.
I’ve been going into work 2-3 days per week as needed as i’m managing a lot of critical work in our build facility.
this is a great example of how we ended up with so many kids in school. Everyone thinks their role is 'critical' yet in reality few are.
There are some absolute piss takers at my kids school this time, no idea how they can send them in with a clear conscience.