Would / will you send kids back to nursery / school?

Savvy_Sue

I'm glad, like many of the others, not to have this problem, because mine are all Proper Grown Ups now. and I'm even gladder that I haven't had to juggle work and home education at the same time. 

However, it has irritated me enormously to hear government spokespeople pontificating about how important children's education is, and how we therefore need to get them back in school. 

I want to shout at the radio "EDUCATION CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE, YOU NUMBSKULL, NOT JUST IN SCHOOL." 

onwards&upwards

Savvy_Sue said:

I'm glad, like many of the others, not to have this problem, because mine are all Proper Grown Ups now. and I'm even gladder that I haven't had to juggle work and home education at the same time. 

However, it has irritated me enormously to hear government spokespeople pontificating about how important children's education is, and how we therefore need to get them back in school. 

I want to shout at the radio "EDUCATION CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE, YOU NUMBSKULL, NOT JUST IN SCHOOL." 

It can, but an awful lot of it happens in schools, so they are pretty important. 

Resurrect

Sue what would you do if yours were school age?

Mrsn

I work in a school so have been working throughout lockdown but as my husband could work from home my kids didn’t return until June 1st. 

It has benefited them both massively by being back in school mostly for their mental health. They are much happier and confident in themselves again, also they needed the space away from each other. Their school was very reassuring with the measures they had put in place to keep the children as safe as possible and I know they have been well looked after. 

Schools have worked really hard with the very confusing guidance they were given to reopen. The amount of cleaning and sanitising that is done throughout the day is unreal. Social distancing is practised as much as possible but it is accepted that at times this isn’t possible. 

Spendless

Mine is 17 so will be returning to college as she should go into Higher education next year. Her commute is 40 miles away. Her journey involves at least one train and one bus each way and that's only if I can drop off/pick up from the town's station, otherwise it will involve a 3rd train/bus each way. Her college has over 8,000 students (that's not a typo) mostly spread over the two sixth form years (it offers degrees too). She has struggled not being in the company of people her own age, only meeting up with a friend on two occassions since mid-March.     

Marvel1

The schools are open, now the pubs, so attending school on the allocated day should be mandatory.

Savvy_Sue

Resurrect said:

Sue what would you do if yours were school age?

Honestly, I don't know, it depends on so many things. 

maman

Savvy_Sue said:

Resurrect said:

Sue what would you do if yours were school age?

Honestly, I don't know, it depends on so many things. 

It seems that Plan B is to leave it to local authorities to lockdown towns or individual schools if there's a flare up. That's the government 'whack a mole' strategy. What's interesting is that academies are responsible directly to government and don't come under local authority control for education although they may do for public health
. It was reported today that academies are having a problem getting insurance as they are considered risky because proposed safety standards in schools are so much lower than any other section of society either private or public. 

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue said:

Resurrect said:

Sue what would you do if yours were school age?

Honestly, I don't know, it depends on so many things. 

I thought it might be helpful if I elaborated ... 

Mine and 2 and 3 school years apart, so when DS3 was in year 1, DS2 was in year 3 and DS1 was in year 6. 

I suspect the younger they were, the more likely I'd be to send them back. This is because I am probably not a 'natural' mother: I thought I would want to stay home, but soon found that for my own sanity and their healthy development, I wanted to go back to work, very part-time, but definitely out of the house without them for one or two days each week. And I wondered if I would like two year olds any better if I didn't have a baby at the same time: turns out I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I love them to bits, but two year olds and me are not a good fit. Especially not MY two year olds, who delighted in treating pedantry as an art form. 

Also I'm not sure how well mine would have taken to any attempts at home education. I asked a colleague how theirs were getting on, and they said "one of them could probably home school successfully from now on, the other ... not so much." I suspect that DS1 would have settled down to tackle any task I presented with a bit of grumbling; DS2 would have tackled anything quite eagerly although he would probably have wanted to do DS1's work as well (and would have managed it); and DS3 would have argued, refused, disappeared to play, and stared blankly at anything put in front of him other than a TV screen, with a blank refusal to put pen to paper. This would have led to DS1 saying it wasn't fair that he had to work if DS3 didn't, DS2 complaining that they were disturbing his work, and me ending up in despair. 

And if I'd been attempting to work at the same time, it would end in tears. DH might have been able to get better results. 

But another factor I'd take into account would be what DH and I do for work. He's now semi-retired, but when we were both working in organisations where the clients have very poor health, we might have felt that we should limit our family's bubble and kept the boys home - for their protection, and for our protection, and for the protection of our clients. 

Another would be shielding, and whether we were supporting anyone else who was shielding. Three of my siblings have had to think about this (and one of them does have offspring in 6th form). DH has asthma, it's controlled, but my risk assessment is that if one of us needs to use public transport, that should be me not him. (He disagrees with my risk assessment, but the situation hasn't yet arisen.) 

So as I said, I don't KNOW what I'd do, and I'm actually not great at answering hypothetical questions. I can only say what factors would influence my thinking in reaching a decision. 

Spendless

maman said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Resurrect said:

Sue what would you do if yours were school age?

Honestly, I don't know, it depends on so many things. 

It seems that Plan B is to leave it to local authorities to lockdown towns or individual schools if there's a flare up. That's the government 'whack a mole' strategy. What's interesting is that academies are responsible directly to government and don't come under local authority control for education although they may do for public health
. It was reported today that academies are having a problem getting insurance as they are considered risky because proposed safety standards in schools are so much lower than any other section of society either private or public. 

Is the Government allowing Academy schools to have little to no accountability about to bite them in the bum I wonder?
out of curiousilty what safety standards are they proposing that's lower than other schools? I suspect whatever it is is to do with funding and begs the question what have acadamies done with their money compared to other types of schools?