Support thread for parents of teenagers

136 watchers

Lorraine May 2020 7:50pm, 28 May 2020 1,507 posts	0 Lorraine We are paying rent for both of them. Tbh we have been used to paying school fees, it’s actually cheaper. Teen 2 works in the summer ( hopefully she will be able to start that again ) and DD1 ( not a teen ) has up until February been working for 18 months. She has paid rent but saved what she would have paid in rent. They are both really good with money so even on the minimum maintenance we won’t have to top them up. I do pack them off with full cupboards/fridge/freezers each term.
WA May 2020 9:13pm, 28 May 2020 6,919 posts	0 WA Got a very giddy SweetPea here as she's just found out she can meet up with her friends next week.
CStar Jun 2020 11:21am, 2 Jun 2020 7,734 posts	0 CStar Have just been told that the muppets at DfE in their infinite wisdom have decided that only 25% of a year group can go back to school at any one time for years 10 & 12. So for a school of 1000 students in Years 7-11, only 60 can be on site and that's before subtracting those whose parents choose not to send them in. DS2 who has GCSE's next year, will get one day a week for 5 weeks. That's it. GCSE's next year will be a complete shambles as a result. Teachers are stressed, students are either stressed or completely disengaged. It's a complete farce. There is absolute minimal risk to the children and their education is being trashed. It's pathetic frankly.
ThorntonRunner Jun 2020 11:50am, 2 Jun 2020 3,358 posts	0 ThorntonRunner It's not absolute minimal risk to the teaching staff though. When the rest of the community is being told to social distance, bringing all students back in would mean that staff (who being older are at greater risk) would be spending 6 hours a day in an enclosed space with up to 30 children, non-socially-distanced, and that's a big ask. My wife's a Teaching Assistant at a primary school. She's in her mid-50s and overweight. She's worried, but is back in (I say back in, she's been in 2-days a week for the last two months with key worker children), with significantly reduced numbers and social distancing (as understood be primary age children!). To have the whole school back would be a serious concern for her. I honestly don't know what the solution is, as I agree that we need to get children back into education. The only thing I would say with regards to next year's GCSEs is that it's affecting nearly everyone, so it's still as level a playing field as it was before for that year group.
DocM Jun 2020 12:30pm, 2 Jun 2020 34,809 posts	0 DocM the trouble with the year 10s and 12s is it is not a level playing field. Around here the amount and quality of input that they are having currently varies massively depending on the school (and on the childrens ability to engage with the online teaching methods)
ThorntonRunner Jun 2020 12:43pm, 2 Jun 2020 3,359 posts	0 ThorntonRunner True.
LindsD Jun 2020 12:49pm, 2 Jun 2020 37,369 posts	0 LindsD Yup. LittleD has totally disengaged.
Bazoaxe Jun 2020 12:49pm, 2 Jun 2020 16,573 posts	0 Bazoaxe The problem is that there are some roles where it’s nigh on impossible to reduce the risk. Nhs being a very good example. You could argue shop workers also at a higher risk. Thing is these jobs need done and we can’t shut up shop completely. I realise that’s easy for me to say when my job is in the wfh category and I sound feel different no doubt if I or one of my family had to go out to a higher risk role. I am not sure what the answer is.
Dr PhFleecyD Jun 2020 1:50pm, 2 Jun 2020 50,106 posts	0 Dr PhFleecyD It’s not a level playing field, private schools will be giving the kids plenty of online teaching because they have the capacity to cope plus smaller classes (so will possibly manage more face to face too) So even more skewed towards the rich than it was before, and that was already pretty fucking skewed We haven’t heard anything from school yet
Serendippily Jun 2020 2:03pm, 2 Jun 2020 17,910 posts	0 Serendippily Indeed baxoaxe but nothing made me angrier than the news reports suggesting teachers should be “heroes”. No. Everyone who has to be in person should be facilitated to SD where possible and protected where not as a right. No one should be expected to take unnecessary risks as part of the job. Pretty much everyone accepts that some risk is unavoidable and some risk is negligible. That is not the same as being gung-ho about not bothering to reduce risk where you can “because some risk is unavoidable”