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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.
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.
In fairness, maintaining (nuclear?) subs does sound reasonably important.
I think the assessment of what is "critical" depends a bit on timescales.
If we're talking say a few months last year, then obviously you want to keep the lights on, keep food arriving, keep healthcare services going sufficiently to stop people dropping dead, ensure the bins get emptied and waste water gets treated. Maybe you can put back scheduled maintenance on subs, or whatever.
But now we're in Lockdown Three, I imagine there are all sorts of less-obvious jobs which are becoming increasingly critical lest various more-or-less Important Things start failing (or failing to materialise when required).
I'm not suggesting that there are not some people taking the piss, but I reckon there will be many more people in increasingly critical-looking roles simply because we're on the bones of our collective arse somewhat from the past year or so of cutting/reducing everything we can.
FWIW, my kids are at home 😐
but I’m an academic with a research lab and do need to be in a few times a week to provide support.
Do you? Do you really. I think there are a lot of people who are saying things like this (my wife's just gone to site for similar arguments), and some employers (and government services) who are lacking imagination about how it might be possible to deliver services remotely - I know of a GP who goes to the surgery for a day of purely video calls, courts which can do civil work remotely but criminal work is in person - even when the accused doesn't need to be there, and within our business accountants and project managers who gravitate towards the office because its easier to see whats going on. Which bits of your support cannot be provided by video call?
I know of a GP who goes to the surgery for a day of purely video calls
if my video calls get interrupted by my son/wife/cat its no real biggy.
I can see that video consultations with a GP might require a little more privacy. if they are in a room on their own at the surgery with access to all the information they require, whats the problem?
2 primary kids at home. i dunno whether were doing it wrong or the school are particularly adept but we dont find home schooling difficult at all.
Just for clarity this is the government's list of who is a key worker. If you are on the list it doesn't really matter if other people don't think your role is critical or not. If you are not on the list and come up with creative reasons why your kids should be in school (other than vulnerable kids) you are gaming the system:
As an example someone apparently claimed they were a key worker as they were a dog worker and many of their clients were nurses so they had to carry on working also...
My son isnt at the moment as we are pix ridden, once we rejoin the clean world he will be going in as we both have to do in school work and our respective schools dont want to plan in advance enough for us both to ensure we are not in at the same time so another school gets more work. Sons school have said they want him in full time if he is in...
This week is a little different as I'm shielding before an Op on Weds.
Youngest (6) is in school most of the time though, Eldest (15) is home and supposedly doing school work, but is struggling with motivation. The rules in here are are stricter than most areas, we had to complete a couple of forms, have a telephone 'interview' and our bosses had to confirm our role etc. Less than 10% of the school is currently in, it's about 20 kids spread into 2 groups. I don't know what the spread between Essential Workers kids and Vunerable Kids is, and I can't imagine how anyone outside of the school / council would know.
Mrs is a Community Nurse, and will be vaccinating at the weekends, as soon as she's got through all the paperwork etc.
I qualify as an essential worker in Wales as we're IT support, our work allows around 2500 people to WFH who couldn't before. I don't know if I'd qualify in England.
I can WFH, but it's hard and I'm really limited on what I can do, I have to pass a lot of tasks onto my Boss as he's the only other person in the office and things start to get strained and go wrong. So I work from the office (when I'm not shielding).
I don't envy anyone who's trying to juggle WFH with Home Schooling and the decision to send our youngest into school was a hard one to make, especially given the 'English Strain', but I refuse to feel guilt for it, and I don't think it's fair to make parents who have sent their kids to school the latest Covid whipping boy.
Mine aren't in at the moment but the young one (age 11) will be in this week once the school reopens post-snow.
We have been keeping him off just to be on the safe side as my father passed away and I really didn't want to be told to self isolate before the funeral.
He is officially "vulnerable" as he has an EHCP due to his Autism and the school have been pestering us to send him in. He struggles with home schooling and needs the routine of school or his mental health suffers.
I have mixed feeling about him going in but apparently there are only 6 other kids in his class at the moment so it's not too bad.
My eldest (13) is just getting on with his schoolwork.
Yes, as we’re both essential workers they are both going this time, my eldest has her A levels year so is working hard on those. My youngest found not being at school difficult last time towards the end.
We have 4 kids, I'm doing the 3 youngest - primary
My wife's dealing with older 2, luckily? She's out of work
I start work at 2pm
So feels like I'm doing 13 hr days + 2hrs of comuting
Its hell but, I know there's other kids who's parents for various reasons can't do what we are doing, I'd rather those ones were in school
Wife is a Dr, I'm "Critical Worker" doing WFH. Two kids in nursery - if I had them at home I'd be starting work when Wife gets home from work at 6.
If we felt like we needed to keep them home, I'd probably have to try and negotiate to drop some hours.
Only one case been round our (small and well run) nursery back in August. It's an affluent area so there's a mix of Doctors (risky) and other WFH professionals (safer?) so we're sticking with it. However a nearby nursery is completely shut down after ALL their staff tested +ve.
We accept there is some risk. If there's a route for Covid in to our household, it's through nursery and while I really don't want Covid, I'm mostly doing what I'm told - either by the Gvt. or by the Wife.
Well played to everyone who's making it work and doing their damndest to keep going. Gladly buy you all a pint when I can.
Critical workers are;
Parents whose work is critical to COVID-19 and EU transition response
Health and social care
Education and childcare
Key public services
Local and national government
Food and other necessary goods
Public safety and national security
Transport and border
Utilities, communication and financial services
Basically EVERYONE! I work in HR but for a utilities and finance company. So I'm critical right?
Oh and my kids way to old for school but grandchildren are going 2-3 days a week based on their mum and dads shifts at the hospital.
My two are both at home - they're Y10 and Y13 so more than capable of getting their work done without any help and sorting their own lunch out too.
We're both teachers (wife is a primary teacher and in school 50 hours a week as usual, but I'm teaching sixth formers from home). I'm in awe of those with younger kids managing at home.
We have an Amazon fulfilment centre in town, so lots of the kids in school have parent(s) working there. I'd question how much of what's being shipped through them is essential...
We have 4 kids, I’m doing the 3 youngest – primary
My wife’s dealing with older 2, luckily? She’s out of work
i hope she does the maths lessons
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.
Well, i'm impressed you have such an insight into my job considering most of it is pretty sensitive.
I have a letter from the Secretary of State for Defence confirming i am a key worker in case i'm asked for evidence..
There are some absolute piss takers at my kids school this time, no idea how they can send them in with a clear conscience.
Agreed - same situation at my youngest daughters school..
Anyhow - the Government are to blame for this - if kids who either don't have a Desk at home or who's Broadband is a bit slow are allowed into School i'm happy to send mine in with a clean conscience.
My eldest is off today. Called and told not to come in. He's a Graduate Classroom Assistant and has been taking lessons (on his own as teachers are WFH preparing materials) for the children. One parent called in to say their son has tested positive. And Boom! Bubble down. School closed today. He's had a test this morning.
WE have 2, one is 10 and we keep him at home his school this time around have been great and have almost a full day of on line lessons.
The youngest (6) does go in as he is autistic and need the structure, last year we could not get him to do anything at home, but now with the smaller class size (they only have 15 per year group even when fully open) he has come on leaps and bounds.
We could send both in as the wife is a key worker but it just does not feel right
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.
@sgn23 Actually the government has explicitly defined this as a critical role so wind your neck in.
This is the relevant bit:
"identified as a Critical (Key) Worker under the “Public Safety and
National Security” category as their work is critical to the delivery of key defence outputs."
The threat to national security hasn't gone away (just the opposite in fact as regularly reported in the news) just because there is a pandemic on which is why there is absolutely no slip in delivering defence contracts.
I do exactly the same as @freeagent but on the technical design/delivery side and therefore the majority of time cannot work from home as we need access to information that is forbidden (under law) to be removed from site.
I guarantee you that social distancing rules that we apply outside the school context are not being following inside at some time or another. Not the fault of the staff and some of the students. Rhetoric that schools are safe has not changed so I cant see this improving. I havent seen any updated RA from schools regarding the new version of the virus despite the the scientific evidence.
Bubbles dont protect the kids or the staff. Sorry for the rant, fed up having seen 6 out of 11 teaching staff infected due to one infected member of staff came in. A result of insisting all staff should come in.
Sure send your kids to school, your kids, your choice. Mine? Happy at home with laptops.
Do you? Do you really.
Yes. I have to train researchers to use equipment and conduct their work safely whilst providing safety oversight. When I’m not there, a colleague provides safety cover. When I am, I provide the cover for my colleague. You cannot use covid-19 as a reason to abrogate safety responsibilities so that you end up with labs full of inexperienced researchers handling potentially dangerous equipment and chemicals etc with no checks and balances. The only reason I wouldn’t need to be there would be if the labs were closed. But they’re not - research is continuing, in my institution as it is in most. Oh, yes, and as I said, my kids are at home... So I’m not claiming critical worker status.
Which bits of your support cannot be provided by video call?
We have to have a minimum number of experienced staff on-site in order to be compliant with our emergency planning and health and safety policies, which includes sufficient numbers of fire wardens, first aiders, and staff competent to deal with emergencies arising from laboratory accidents. I can, and do, deal with many routine queries by video call, but ultimately I’m the most competent person when it comes to the equipment in my lab.
Do you? Do you really. I think there are a lot of people who are saying things like this (my wife’s just gone to site for similar arguments), and some employers (and government services) who are lacking imagination about how it might be possible to deliver services remotely
a research lab is work that cannot be done at home, unless you think you can have microbiology cabinets or Genomics equipment in your home office
I do exactly the same as @freeagent but on the technical design/delivery side and therefore the majority of time cannot work from home as we need access to information that is forbidden (under law) to be removed from site.
Yeah, Cyber Essentials has made remote access a bit difficult..
As suggested above - the Defence Industry has not closed down over COVID-19 - the stuff we Design/Build/Test needs to go into a ship/Submarine/Module before they weld the lid onto a compartment - no parts of this can be done from home.
a research lab is work that cannot be done at home
Most people do work that can't be done at home. Should most kids be in school?
Without reading through all the froth and boiled piss comments, I'm starting to feel like the topic of kids going back to school is being set up as the next "Divisive issue" by the Press and some MPs.
Really getting kids back in school is not the driving issue, the driving issue (IMO) is still Vaccination, and minimising the likelihood of infections, deaths and subsequent stress on the Health service.
No home schooling isn't ideal, but Schools are unfortunately an excellent vector for infection to spread throughout the wider community...
The question now is essentially the same as the one had almost a year ago; are we as a nation willing to put productivity ahead of public health?
Additionally the fact that the Government are talking about pushing the timescales for 2nd shots out seems to be getting missed, those most vulnerable still aren't fully vaccinated yet, and the timeline for them to be sounds like it's getting longer.
Plus those of us in the categories 3/4/5, under 50s, "parenting age" types are still quite susceptible to infection...
The discussion seems to be getting steered back towards angry "when will everything be 'normal' again" rants rather than, what are the potential consequences if we relax measures and resume schooling too soon? Those consequences are still potentially quite serious IMO...
I don't think we'll be sending our kids back after half term whatever the Government says.
And I'm not personally expecting to be fully vaccinated before May myself...
My mate is governor of the local school.
He confirms they are at their wits end and have a good number of parents taking the piss: he mentioned a family where the mum works part-time and the dad is furloughed at home but they still send their kids to school!
On the flip side: he said some people are going too far the other way, citing a local family where both parents are frontline doctors but are frantically coordinating shifts and clinics so one of them can stay home with the kids.
In Newcastle there are 21 times as many kids in schools as during the first lockdown - https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/21-times-more-newcastle-children-19697906
Got to wonder at the frothing and self righteous comments from the people above saying they are key workers...
From what I can see, apart from the obvious shop & hospitality exceptions, a huge number of people are deemed critical. I know me and the missus are, but we wouldn't dream of sending our kids to school at present.
Got to wonder at the frothing and self righteous comments from the people above saying they are key workers .... but how wonderful they are for having the opportunity and good fortune to be able to keep their kids at home full time and their implied criticism of those who can't due to their working circumstances and are deemed critical workers by the Government.
In Newcastle there are 21 times as many kids in schools as during the first lockdown
Yeah I'm just outside Newcastle so that fits with what my mate was saying.
We've had letters from both first school and middle school saying they are at 50% attendance 😲 and struggling for bubbled-space so please review guidance and only send kids if you absolutely have to.
My wife and i are both key workers. I am in defence and she is in food retail. Kids 2 and 4 normally nursery + childminder and wife normally works afternoons, so both home at night.
I work 0730 to 1630 from home, wife leaves for evening shift at 1700 and half day on a saturday. This is obviously not ideal as we barely see each other and have virtually 0 free time bar a Sunday which is family day.
I have a letter saying my kids can go to nursery but the local one has a firm policy if either parent can wfh then no thank you.
I am fine with this for now but cannot do forever. I support it fully but it is definetly sucky and finding my stress levels and waist circumference are growing in equal measures!
The nursery is now closed after 5 workers have tested positive. With the youngest at home we can't work from home and we don't want to put others at risk if the youngest has passed it on to her sister who was going to school so she's being homeschooled. Back to 18 hour days for us.
Nope.....
Daughter could be as we are both key workers, however because wife is in most vulnerable cat. We decided to take a hit and she is home schooling the daughter while I work longer hours.
Got both mine at home (6 & 8). I am working from home, have been since March. Not ideal as I have a mechanical engineering development role so building and testing of prototypes has to be communicated to others where I would prefer to be more hands on.
My wife is a nurse full time, normal day hours so we did have the option of Key Worker club.
I decided to keep them at home as I feel the Key Worker club privilege is being abused a little. Also, if you have 30 or so kids whose parents are actual front line key workers, they are more at risk no? If they transmit the Corona to their kids unwittingly, who then take into school you effectively have 30 key worker families forced to self isolate. It must be a firkin Petrie dish in there!! Fortunately the company is very understanding and see my point of view. There are some very hard and challenging days though, particularly this time of year.