To think school could get in touch with pupils at least once during lockdown?

[buckeejit]

Has your school been in touch with children by phone or zoom at all?

We've had no direct contact from school, just worksheets to print out from the website. I've emailed the head to request zoom or a phone call, he has said they've checked and zoom is inappropriate due to child safeguarding.

AIBU in thinking a quick phone call from teacher to pupils would boost morale?

[AlwaysCheddar]

Nope nothing. I’m afraid the school is doing an Appalling job. No online lessons, remote learning if any kind aside from emailing a few work sheets.

[Norabird]

Our school have been phoning but in the process have found quite a lot of people haven't kept their contact details up to date. One parent came in ranting about the lack of phone calls and then handed over their new number that we didn't have...

[concernedforthefuture]

Nothing for the kids. I've had one phone call from each child's teacher about 4 weeks ago to 'see how we're getting on' and that's it. No emails from the teacher (to parents or kids), no video lessons (live or prerecorded). It's shit.

[buckeejit]

I'm not a ranty parent at all, and more or less told another mum to wind her neck in at the start when she was complaining about lack of support.

From a pastoral care pov, it doesn't show that they care.

[Luaa]

Nothing at all. And the learning provided is as others, just work uploaded to do. Dd1 hasnt even logged on to check what's there for over a month (a whole other issue) and school don't seem to have realised.

We are going to be putting together a letter to then at the weekend about what they are going to do to improve and part of it will be about safeguarding actually. For a school to not have noticed a child hasn't been present for over a month is pretty poor. I know it's just because I'm battling with her to do anything because she's bored of covering the same thing for 10 weeks, bit they don't know that. If she hadn't been at school for over a month I'm sure they'd be raising some alarms.

[CoRhona]

Originally fortnightly phone call (Year 7) now weekly Microsoft Team meeting.

School hoping to add more lessons online too.

[WatchingFromTheWings]

Our school have phoned twice during lockdown. Spoken to myself and DS both times. We are free to call or email at anytime we need to too.

[nancy75]

Dd’s school have phoned once a week every week (secondary school with over 1600 pupils)
She has been having lessons where she can hear but not see the teacher & also form time on teams (teacher is visible, kids are not)
They have been doing ‘pub quizzes’ & sing alongs on the school Instagram & are planning a virtual sports day. I really can’t fault the school & the effort they have been putting in.

[SqidgeBum]

I am a secondary teacher so I havent rang anyone. I teach over 300 students. But, we email regularly, I leave feedback on every bit of work they submit online, I leave messages for them on our work platform (showbie) and the school have kept them in the loop through email and social media throughout. We are starting zoom Q&As next week (we had major problems with safeguarding as we cant have one to one chats with the kids, if they are in bed if they join the zoom, we had to put behaviour policies in for what happens if we are made into a meme or put on tiktok etc). We have a school of over 2000 students. Phone isnt really an option.

BUT, you should have had regular contact. Its easy for a teacher to keep in touch with students and parents.

[CrocodileFrock]

No phone calls from the secondary school, but DD1 has been in touch with various teachers via email to ask answer questions about the work that's been set. DD has said that some of her friends have had calls home if they weren't accessing the work.

The primary school have phoned a couple of times and spoken with DD2. They also ask parents if they would like someone to call them about any issues they may be having.

[flumposie]

I've emailed pupils and parents. Have a teams chat for my form which we register on. Next step is a phone call . We are trying.

[Holymolymackerel]

Zoom isn't inappropriate because it can be easily hacked.

We have you tube assembly every day from the head, Google classroom work each day and feed back from each child's class teacher. Phone call from each teacher fortnightly, phone call from wellbeing manager fortnightly. Email address to queries and request call back.

Our school have been absolutely fantastic.

[listsandbudgets]

Two live class sessions via google classrooms a week during which the teacher aims to have a quick chat with all the child. Also between 9 and 12 theres a teacher available on Google meets for indiviual questions and queries from pupils. DS is in year 3 and year 3 and 4 teachers staff it on a rota for both years
Parents are encouraged to use email or class dojo if we need to contact school

DDs school answer emails from parents and pupils, run full timetable via Microsoft teams and have 3 class sessions a week

[SkinnywannabeKBH]

1 phonecall about 3wks ago, teacher spoke to child and also parent. Was lovely to let the kids chat. We've also been wmaing their teachers to let them know what they've been getting up to, sending photos etc... The teachers have been replying back.

We did a zoom call with just the class too.

[flamingochill]

Mine are at secondary and get a weekly email where it's considered fine to reply with a smiley face or thumbs up to say all is well.

If mine were primary age they'd be reassured by a video message from their teacher because they'd probably worry that she was unwell. The message could just be something generic sent to everyone where she shared a song, poem or funny story.

[AmbitiousHalibut]

We've had a call from each of their teachers, and one of them (year 6) regularly interacts with them on a times table challenge app, accepting challenges, setting them individual ones etc, and answers any email queries etc.

[flamingochill]

The primaries round here have pre recorded YouTube assemblies uploaded to the school website. My kids in secondary watch assemblies streamed live but there's only been 2 so far.

[ScubaSteven]

I'm a secondary teacher and we have phoned each child twice over the lockdown period. We are doing it in 6 week blocks which doesn't sound like a lot but it is time consuming and afterwards we are chasing up answers to the many queries that parents and students have. I'm trying my best but I've been berated quite a lot for 'lack of contact' which annoys me when a) unions have advised against it and b) not all schools do it.

My primary children haven't heard from their teachers once, we have generic work set though a website which is neither interesting or challenging. They're working though and then I'm paying for online tuition for the oldest one (age 7).

There is such difference with this from school to school. I think it is necessary though even though I don't like doing it. I think it's providing some support for my students but for some parents this will never be enough in some schools.

[Idroppedthescrewinthetuna]

My 2 Children's Primary school checks in every fortnight. They will mainly chat to me but will have a chat to the children aged 4 and 6. They like to say Hello to whoever is calling.

My 12 year olds senior school calls weekly. It is a mental health teacher. She will talk to me to see how DD is doing and then will have a private chat with DD to make sure she is doing ok. If DD has any worries or is lacking motivation then the lady will help her.

The primary school class teachers also post on twitter and you tube little videos of themselves reading a story and set fun mini challenges.

[Toomanycats99]

My youngest I have had a couple of calls from her teacher checking all is ok and they interact on google classroom. As well as the work they have a sort of news page where they post messages and also the children post comments and stuff as well. They can also put personal comments / emails re work which are replied to in good time. Oldest is y8 and I get a weekly email saying doing well keep up good work etc. I emailed once as I wasn't sure she had been working and I got a quick reply. They also did a parent workshop

[buckeejit]

There seems to be a real range. Both my dc are primary & ds is P6, which is considered a 'big' year as they are set to do the transfer test in November, which he wants to do.

We can email work in but aren't obliged to. I'm just disappointed for dc as I think it feels like they've been a bit abandoned. Thank God we finish up at the end of June & not sure we'll bother much in the next couple of weeks as I am not making much impact in motivating them any longer. I really hope they up their game for September mind you.

The head put up a video reading a story this week. Dc are much closer to their teacher though

[cptartapp]

DS year 10. ' Outstanding' school. A handful of zoom lessons from two teachers. The rest is worksheets, making notes, watching videos and revision. Very little marked. 'Tidy your file this week' for one subject.
No telephone contact, only emails from the head before half term and bank holidays to remind us not to bother the teachers during these times as they're tired.
Still not back next week either.

[Neighneigh]

I wrote to our school this week to ask what their plans for speaking to the children were, seeing as we're five weeks off the end of the school year and my son hasn't spoken to a teacher since the 20-something of March. To give him credit, the headmaster rang me after school hours and we had a good chat. I pointed out that our year 5 loves school, the feedback and engagement he got there, and having nothing back except a few Seesaw 'likes' is starting to dent his motivation.

I was very pleased to hear that they will be writing to parents this week where we can opt in for the kids getting a phone call.

So it is worth engaging with your school to ask wtf they are planning. It's just a shame that some have left it so long in to the school year.

[RememberTheSunnierDays]

This is disappointing. I’ve been so impressed with my sons school. We use an online system so messages from his teacher can be shared and responded to. They even made a little video saying how much they were missing the kids (he is in reception, but the comma is good and would guess this is across the board). The head also writes regularly to update parents and then has a sentence “please read this to your child” and it’s always a lovely message, reminder to wash hands, appreciation it’s difficult and that they can’t wait to see them again.

I guess we are lucky - it’s a state school in Greater Manchester and just fab.

[georgeggg]

We have had 1 phone call but our school are phoning every student over the next couple of weeks. We also have had a lot of work uploaded online and have a space children can go and interact during "break time" tutors do put video messages on there and also tasks and fun things to do.