The Virus and Us – School Closures

The Virus and Us – School Closures

As I expected the government announced school closures this week. I think this announcement came on Wednesday night. The day I posted about all of the cancellations that have happened so far because of the virus. There was confusion around the announcement at first. Many families were trying to work out who was classed as a key worker. But there was also an unexpected curveball about children with EHCP’s.

the virus and us school closures

School Closures For Children with EHCPs

Ethan has an EHCP. They used to be called statements. I had to battle to get him the correct statement to get him a place at his SEN school. From the government’s announcement, it sounded like he would still be allowed to attend school.

His school has been very good with the government’s announcements. All of the vulnerable children and adults were sent home on Tuesday for the suggested 12 weeks. Ethan’s school was already looking very different. We had kept him in school to keep his routine. Ethan does have three official diagnoses but as far as we are aware he has no underlying health conditions.

As of this point, Ethan will be attending school on Monday. I know other parents have decided this isn’t the option for them and I respect their decision. I hope they also respect ours.

If Ethan doesn’t go to school he doesn’t sleep. Not that he sleeps very well anyway but we are talking 24 hours awake. If he is awake one of us has to be awake. We already run on less sleep than we would like. This would put such a strain on us as a family.

Ethan is also no good if his routine changes or having to stay in for long periods of time. His throwing habit started when he moved into the junior side of his school. Being trapped in because of the beast from the east also enhanced this habit. For our own mental health, we need to keep him active during this as we possibly can.

Children Whose Parents Are Key Workers

When the government announced the school closures they also made us aware that children of key workers would still be able to go to school. The list of key workers wasn’t announced until very early on Friday morning. We suspected that Darren’s job would be classed as a key worker and the list confirmed it.

We did initially think that we would want to keep Little E in school. In the learning environment that would help her progress in her education. But I work from home. The advice from our school is that if you can keep your children at home, you must. They will have enough on their plate making sure the children they have to look after has enough support. They don’t need us to add another child into the mix. The school environment will also look very different during this time. Little E is very sensitive to her environment. I didn’t want this experience to knock her confidence.

This means as I write this post, we all know how things can change so quickly, we will have one child at school on Monday and one at home. Next week is Darren’s holiday week. No Disneyland Paris trip now! So he will be playing the teacher this week. We have had work sent from home and tomorrow I will be using the internet to add to Little E’s pile of activities.

I have always said that I would do a terrible job at home educating. Juggling work and helping Little E will be hard work. Normally this is where the iPad is my friend. But I want to limit her iPad time on school days. I don’t want her to loose how far she has come at school during this time of uncertainty. This period of school closures will be a very interesting time but we are all in this together!

1 thought on “The Virus and Us – School Closures”

  1. You are only doing what’s best for your family and sending Ethan to school will help keep his routine.
    I am sure you will find a new normal over the next few weeks. Sending love and hugs x

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