With UK schools closed to all but children of key workers and vulnerable youngsters during lockdown, parents across the country appear to be at breaking point.
Some are so fed up after the first week of homeschooling that they’re taking desperate measures to keep their kids in school.
And that includes lying about their key worker status so that their kids can still go to school.
Parents lying to keep kids in school
One school in Liverpool said it was “overwhelmed” with requests for key worker places. They were inundated after Boris Johnson announced the third lockdown last weekend.
Read more: Police vow to get tough with COVID rule breakers as fines are issued and arrests made
Our Lady’s Bishop Eton School then started to receive a “large number of complaints” from other parents who were enduring homeschooling.
It’s said to have happened when parents joined an online class and could see the children who were in the classroom.
The school said it did ask for as much information for the key worker forms as possible. It also consulted the local authority.
However, it appears some might have slipped through the net.
UK schools ‘can do no more’
The school said: “We can do no more. Particularly when parents making such allegations will not provide the school with the information necessary to investigate them further.”
A woman in Scotland also complained on Mumsnet that her friend had lied to get her child a nursery place.
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She wrote: “So my friend and her husband work but aren’t key workers.
“Here in Scotland after Christmas nurseries and schools closed unless key workers.
“She says she’s been told she can still send child to nursery so the nursery is lying for her and claiming she’s a key worker to get a place.”
Who are key workers?
The group that make up the nation’s key workers is vast.
Health care workers such as doctors and nurses and NHS staff are on the list. As are people who work for charities that are vital to supporting the community.
Supermarket staff are also included on the list. Teachers, journalists, pharmacists, the police and those who keep the nation’s transport networks running are too.
Thousands of jobs at the Ministry of Defence are also covered, as are professions including but not limited to farming, refuse collection and funeral directors.
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