This is a quick guide to some of your recent questions about concerns due to the recent national lockdown.
To access more detailed information, please use the buttons below:
FAQs
Can my children go to school?
Going to school or college
Colleges, primary (reception onwards) and secondary schools will remain open for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers. All other children will learn remotely until February half term.
Vulnerable children and young people include those who:
- are assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, including children and young people who have a child in need plan, a child protection plan or who are a looked-after child
- have an education, health and care (EHC) plan
- have been identified as otherwise vulnerable by educational providers or local authorities (including children’s social care services), and who could therefore benefit from continued full-time attendance, this might include:
- adopted children or children on a special guardianship order.
I’m really struggling with ‘home schooling’, what can I do?
Make use of all the resources available to you, from the BBC Schools programmes for primary and secondary-age children:
Did you know?
Children can access Google Classroom on an Xbox or PlayStation!
Here’s how you can do it [information source]:
Xbox: click to reveal instructions
- Plug a keyboard into the X box USB slot
- Go into my games and apps
- Find Microsoft Edge and select
- Type in your school log-in details and login as you would in school
- You can then access your work through one drive and use key packages including:
- Word
- Teams
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- Your emails
- To move around use the x box control or plug in a mouse
Playstation: click to reveal instructions
- Identify the internet browser icon (it is WWW with dots around it)
- Press the PS4 logo on the controller
- Go to the library and find options for games and applications
- Go into applications and you will find the internet browser
- Type your school log-in details into the browser and log in as you would in school
- You can then access your work through one drive and use key packages including:
- Word
- Teams
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- Your emails
Other useful resources
Oak National Academy
Online Classroom
Nearly 10,000 free video lessons, resources and activities, covering most subjects, from Reception to Year 11
UCL Centre for Educational Leadership
Online learning resources
Free resources that may be helpful for teachers, school leaders, parents/carers and young people.
Where can I get a laptop from?
From January 2021, the Department for Education will increase the help available through its get help with technology programme. Disadvantaged children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are included within this offer.
Parents, carers, and pupils cannot apply for digital devices or internet access through this scheme themselves. They should contact their school to discuss requirements for accessing remote education.
However, if specialist support and equipment are required – help may be available through the Family Fund.
Many local charities are also providing laptops for families and carers, so you can check locally to see if there is a scheme in your area.
Local Assistance Scheme/Local Welfare Fund
Each local authority administers its own local social fund with its own rules. There are no national guidelines. Payments from local welfare funds come from a fixed local budget and there is no automatic right to help. To find out about the provision where you live you should contact your local council.
In Wales, please see: the Welsh government’s discretionary assistance fund page.
Can I get any help with paying for internet/broadband?
The Department for Education is providing a range of support through its get help with technology programme.
This scheme temporarily increases data allowances for mobile phone users on certain networks. This is so that children and young people can access remote education if their face-to-face education is disrupted.
Schools, trusts and local authorities can request mobile data increases for children and young people.
Children with access to a mobile phone on one of the following networks might be able to benefit:
- Three
- Smarty
- Virgin Mobile
- EE
- Tesco Mobile
- Sky Mobile
Other providers may join the scheme at a later stage.
The Department for Education is also giving schools, trusts and local authorities 4G wireless routers that they can lend to disadvantaged children in the event of disruption to education.
Please contact your school to ask for help with all technology queries.
I’m finding my child’s behaviour difficult to deal with. Where can I get help?
If you’re finding that children’s behaviour is more difficult to manage during the lockdown, please talk to someone. You can contact the child’s school for advice, as they may be able to offer some time ‘in school’ for more vulnerable children. We have some useful links and guidelines surrounding therapeutic parenting, coping with trauma, anxiety and much more click here.
Looking after Yourselves and Getting Support
Support Bubbles and Childcare Bubbles
You have to meet certain eligibility rules to form a support or childcare bubble. This means not everyone will be able to form a bubble.
There is separate guidance for support bubbles and childcare bubbles.
Contact
The government guidance regarding contact with birth parents has not changed since the beginning of lockdown. People can continue existing arrangements for contact between parents and children where they live apart. This means that contact arrangements can continue if the carer thinks it is safe to do so.
Please click here for more detailed information.
Travelling during Lockdown: For the latest information click here.
Keeping Active!
Joe Wicks is coming back to BBC. Get up and join in!
Fun Activities for all ages
Book Trust HomeTime: Looking for something fun as a family? Enjoy storytime with free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters. For our Welsh carers’, click here.
Woodland Trust: Get involved with Nature! Even though there are restrictions on leaving home, we can all go out for an hour’s exercise, local to where we live. Check out the ideas for exploring nature from the Woodland Trust. You don’t even have to go outside for some of these as there are lots of nature-related indoor activities too.
40 Fun Things to Do: More resources from Wales – but we can all share them!
