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Covid

If secondary schools are part time next academic year...

48 replies

mostwonderfultime · 28/06/2020 19:49

How will teachers be able to do the home learning as well as being in school teaching certain year groups? I assume all teachers will be needed back in secondary school from September, so I cannot see how the 'blended learning' would work. Getting more concerned now as I have a year 10 doing GCSEs next year plus a year 8 I don't want falling further behind. I realise we're all in the same boat but can't help feeling concerned.

OP posts:
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ginforall · 28/06/2020 20:05

As a teacher I am concerned about this also. I'm assuming part time would not reduce my teaching hours, as I would just have half a class at a time rather than a full class. It would depend on how it worked, but if for example one week on one week off I would most likely do a lot of teaching in the lessons in school and send home a lot of practice for them to do in the week at home. But this obviously varies by subject and I would have to wait to be directed by my school (or government guidelines?) as to what would be expected.

Someone will probably come along and suggest that teachers just film the lessons they are doing and stream them live for those at home. This would not work for so many reasons.

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mostwonderfultime · 28/06/2020 20:14

@ginforall I think that makes a lot of sense and dc would likely be motivated to do the work well as they'd be seeing you the following week.

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Popfan · 28/06/2020 20:22

I really hope secondary schools are open properly. My Y7 DS has engaged well with his actual online lessons but he has struggled with the work by himself. As a primary school teacher I'm likely to be in school all week and I don't want him at home by himself for multiple days at a time. He is doing that at the moment for a couple of days (school not open at all - even for keyworkers and husband taking time off for some of the week) and it's not fair on him. He needs to be at school.

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PumpkinPie2016 · 28/06/2020 20:27

As a secondary teacher, I honestly don't know how it would work Sad I feel so sorry for the children.

Boris Johnson does seem to be sticking to his 'all pupils back to full education in September' plan at the moment. At least that's what he told the mail on Sunday (sorry,I normally don't quote the daily fail but it was there).

Cases are coming down -we have been below a 1000 quite a few days this week. Even on the 2 we were above 1000,there were still less cases than the same day the previous week. 7 day average is below 1000 this week. Deaths are coming down slowly as well. So,fingers crossed that trend continues and we can go back normally in September.

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cptartapp · 28/06/2020 20:34

All current year 10's arent in the same boat. I have one. Some have had far far more input/interactive learning/teaching from schools during all this than others. Unless this year group is back full time in September (with other years as and when) I don't know how they can sit exams on anything like a level playing field, whatever concessions are made.
I also have a year 12. Nightmare.

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Qasd · 28/06/2020 20:56

My assumption was it was more going to be gone work on steroids! So go to school for a week lots of teaching content not much time to practice it, lots of practice it tasks given, go home do those, hand in electronically. Next week they are in teacher picks up what went well what needs work maybe differentiates next weeks home learning tasks accordingly and off we go.

It would not be great but a lot better than what we have now as teachers could hopefully pick up on students who just do not get it and offer different home learning on the basis of that rather than have kids struggling on at home trying to master stuff totally independently.

And For info I have a ks3 child so I also wonder if this approach may work better for that age group than the gcse years.

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Duckfinger · 28/06/2020 21:01

I just really hope 10s 11s 12s and 13s can return fulltime. I will have a yr10 so vested interest, but I have felt the same this year, mine wasn't and shouldn't have been a priority him missing half of yr9 won't have as big an impact on his future as someone missing 6 months of yr10.

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lljkk · 28/06/2020 21:02

I wondered if they might do 1 intense week/month.
So yr7-10s could all come in for 1 week of the month & get an intense curriculum for that week treating themselves as one extended bubble. Only someone with symptoms has to isolate not the whole year if someone tests positive. Home learning the other 3 weeks of the month. Yr11s would be in every day, though. Would look like this

week1: yr7 & yr11
week2: yr8 & yr11
week 3: yr9 & yr11
week 4: yr10 & yr11

(restart next month). Obviously 1 month is > 4 weeks, so there would be some schedule jiggling, probably to the benefit of yr10s getting some extra whole weeks.

Makes sense to me.
Teachers can do some 'live' zoom lessons for their year groups not currently in, but their 'teaching' would be mostly recorded 10 minutes lectures, that kind of thing for the home-learning.

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itsgettingweird · 28/06/2020 21:03

Well they need to make a decision.

Because blended learning means they need to make sure all pupils can access lessons from home.

Ds starts college. They have said blended learning until 2021 whatever government says. Ds has EHCP that states laptop required (had scribe in school). College have said he can only have use of it in college. And he can only have support if he books a slot in the learning support - which are limited.

I can totally get these are unprecedented times. But it seems they are already ignoring the greater gaps that will appear between different groups with a blended learning approach.

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lljkk · 28/06/2020 21:03

ps: our schools stop at yr11 so I am just ignoring the yr12 & 13 problem for schools with those yrs to accommodate. Our 6th forms could alternate yr12s & 13s for lessons, probably.

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Popfan · 28/06/2020 21:07

@lljkk being in school only 1 week a month would be awful!

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Uhoh2020 · 28/06/2020 21:12

@lljkk I week schooling per month is simply not good enough they have missed out on so much already. My ds gets 2 online lessons a day it's not enough now never mind long term. I don't know what the solution is but thats not a viable 1 for a quality education.

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hedgehogger1 · 28/06/2020 21:13

I'm really hoping (perhaps unrealistically) that everything is back to normal. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate. What I don't want is everyone else being told it's essential to socially distant while I'm crammed into a room of 30 17-18 year olds (I'm a sixth form tutor and teacher at my school). I'm asthmatic and every little cold goes straight to my chest. Been hospitalised with pneumonia in the past

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Duckfinger · 28/06/2020 21:14

@lljkk

I wondered if they might do 1 intense week/month.
So yr7-10s could all come in for 1 week of the month & get an intense curriculum for that week treating themselves as one extended bubble. Only someone with symptoms has to isolate not the whole year if someone tests positive. Home learning the other 3 weeks of the month. Yr11s would be in every day, though. Would look like this

week1: yr7 & yr11
week2: yr8 & yr11
week 3: yr9 & yr11
week 4: yr10 & yr11

(restart next month). Obviously 1 month is > 4 weeks, so there would be some schedule jiggling, probably to the benefit of yr10s getting some extra whole weeks.

Makes sense to me.
Teachers can do some 'live' zoom lessons for their year groups not currently in, but their 'teaching' would be mostly recorded 10 minutes lectures, that kind of thing for the home-learning.

Well I suppose that would be better than nothing but in all honesty my son wouldn't do more than the bare minimum when he isn't in school with nobody home to supervise, so would lose 3/4 of year 10. Not great for his future, so I really hope they don't go with that.
I suppose I could go with the old take the xbox controllers to work method of making him work.
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OddBoots · 28/06/2020 21:16

DD's sixth form think that instead of the on site 3x90 minute lessons per week for each A Level they usually have it will be a 1x90 minutes lesson per week per subject on site with the other 2 lessons done remotely and this may be the case until March.

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Flagsfiend · 28/06/2020 21:21

I want to be able to teach my normal timetable with all the students there, but I'm not sure how realistic this will be in September. Hopefully the guidance will come out soon and then we will know what we are aiming for. Also hopefully cases won't start going up as things reopen.

If we did have to do blended learning I'd imagine it being activities that support the learning done in school. So practise exam questions, making revision resources, online quizzes, maybe some projects for KS3.

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Splattherat · 28/06/2020 21:22

OP i have a current year 10 and a current year 11. The year 11 is absolutely fine. The year 10 has had a dreadful experience and she feels really let down by lockdown, her school her teachers etc. It has had a massive impact on her MH. She is back now for three whole hours a week!!! Its been dreadful.

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destinasia · 28/06/2020 21:24

They've got to start getting back to normal or they will really suffer. DD is going into Y10, and if they carry on with the current levels of revising something they've already done for an hour or so a day, with zero feedback, she won't be doing very well in exams in two years time. And she's a highly intelligent, well motivated learner.

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TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 28/06/2020 21:27

Because we've been teaching live lessons from home to our normal timetable throughout lockdown, I'm hoping that if we don't go back to full classes full time, we'll be able to continue some version of that - teaching the lessons in our classrooms with a rota of some kids there and the rest accessing the lesson remotely.

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WhyNotMe40 · 28/06/2020 21:27

Actually if prefer to do it the other way - flipped, as I want to be there when they practice to pick up misconceptions. So "prep" work is set - read BBC Bitesize / textbooks / oak academy on theory of topic, in the week at home. Back in school - right show me what you have learned, check understanding, extend or support as appropriate, exam questions etc.

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Jamielynn · 28/06/2020 21:27

I’m a secondary teacher and we’re being asked to start planning our digital curriculum for September. This includes us making videos, preparing PowerPoints with narrations and lots of practice worksheets. We’ve had no guidance from the gvt yet but we want to be prepared just in case we still need to provide home learning while also teaching our classes.

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lljkk · 28/06/2020 21:29

in all honesty my son wouldn't do more than the bare minimum when he isn't in school with nobody home to supervise,

my (will be) yr12 DS will be exactly the same.

What I listed is actually (something not nothing thus would be) a huge amount more tuition than DS has had for last 3.5 months, so would be wild improvement on where we are now. I wonder if I've had a stroke of genius (or madness, maybe).

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CKBJ · 28/06/2020 21:32

Secondary schools have a 2 week timetable (well the ones around here do) if the unfortunate happens infection rate increases etc and they can’t all return surely they could return 1 week in school,1week home learning and split it so about half school is in at anytime eg half of yr 7, yr9,yr11 in one week the other half of yr7,yr8,yr10 work online then vice verse. The teachers would all still have a two week timetable enabling them to do live online lessons with the classes on a week they are at home. Hopefully all can return to normal in September but important for plan bs to be out there.

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KittyMcKitty · 28/06/2020 21:33

My children’s school are having year 10 in next week (a third each day) to trial blended learning.

They’ve also obtained marquee’s for field for Sept.

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JustMeG · 28/06/2020 21:40

Our Primary School have sent us consent forms this week to sign for a new platform for blended learning in September.
Our Secondary School have really dropped the ball. No communication at all since the beginning of May.
(Wales)

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