Is your prep school providing online teaching?

[artichokehearts]

Our has sent a homework pack home, that’s it, but I am hearing about other schools where they will be teaching online?

[BillieEyeFish]

They might do in the longer term. Everyone is just finding their feet.

[Savvyblonde]

Yes. Lots. Up to 4 hours a day with the teacher online to supervise and give feedback and tell the kids to have breaks or change activities. But we are international and pretty well set up for this. They use Seesaw to communicate it all through but dip into different apps.

[LondonGirl83]

Yes, in our area. Dulwich College, JAGs and Alleyns will implement school wide remote learning.

[After8itsgrownuptime]

Yes. We are south west London. Online Assembly this morning and then lessons on line

[underneaththeash]

Not yet (if fact the stuff they've sent home so far is very lacking), but they are meant to be breaking up from school on Thursday afternoon anyway and would have spent the majority of they week rehearsing for the school production anyway.

[vinoandbrie]

Yes, and lots of it. They are doing their absolute best.

[MutteringDarkly]

Yes. Registration by 8.45 and then more logins than I know what to do with! Core subjects every day, plus subject-specific that follows the usual timetable (Mon: languages, Tues: computing, etc)

We've got a week to try it out before they would be breaking up anyway. Then we'll possibly follow a similar structure in a self-guided way during some of the hols, as I think it will help keep DC busy so
I can get some work done.

[laburnumtree]

Yes, this week online teaching through google classroom, dc expected to register with form teachers at usual time and then follow the usual timetable with work being provided in the google classroom at the time of each lesson with that subject teacher being available for online chat support. From next term it will be video lessons on zoom we were told. No idea if it will work or how to get yr3 dc to actually focus

[Pollyputthepizzaon]

Not for the next 2 weeks but probably after Easter if schools stay shut (not U.K. but close)

[iwillnevereatspaghetti]

3 south west London schools - prep and senior all have full timetables for the last few day's of term. I've been blown away by how organised they are. Google classroom some direct teaching, projects to do and submitting worksheets

[HasaDigaEebowai]

Yes in the same way others have described. Whether it will work or not is a different matter of course.

[waterbottle12]

Kids at two private through schools. 4h or so of work per day released in the morning and to be uploaded by the end of the day

[littlebauxpeep]

No online learning at our pre-prep - but the prep has 'some', though there have been daily problems with access to the site.

With pre-prep age kids I can't see how a full timetable of online provision would work...but I don't really know what my fees are paying for as so far we've received a folder of twinkl printouts and about 15 books. No feedback on how children have got on with the reading/handouts. No request for submitting anything for review. I

t is so lacking in provision that I am speaking to the bursar (again) to see what they have planned for after Easter. I expect them to attempt to charge full fees (because they are like that) - but the service provided has (understandably) dropped off a cliff - but they have done zero mitigation or attempt to find solutions to the problems facing every school.

What school have provided with their folder bears no relation to the expected provision of service and requires an adult at home to conduct all the teaching - not merely supervise/watch over.

This situation has really shown the true colours of schools - some have been proactive and looked for ways to make it work in this 'brave new world', others seem to be in a serious state of denial - but a strong desire to enforce full fees...

[Yurona]

Yes, but mainly reassuring/fun in the moment (year 2, there is probably more in higher years).
Lots of fun projects going on though

[LadyJessica]

Ours is using Google Classroom. Children are still confused about how to submit work and where to enter answers. It's also not interactive, e.g. live classes on video, but hopefully there will be more of this as everyone learns how to use the technology.

[SilverOtter]

Not this week but I think after Easter they are planning to

[Reginabambina]

We only had a week left so we’re given a pack to do for now. We’ve been given materials for next term ‘if necessary’ which I assume would involve some element of online stuff but realistically there’s only so much you can do online for year 1.

[NellyBarney]

Full day face to face teaching via video conference, adopted most of the normal schedule, apart from PE and games of course. My dd likes it more than 'normal' school. They continue with choir practice and individual music lessons via zoom, too.

[morethanmeetstheeye]

Reading through all of this, I think parents need to stop and think about the fact that teachers are very often parents too. What, precisely, are they meant to do with their own children (especially if they are quite young) in order to facilitate this live online learning that private school parents seem to think is their child's right.
I'm a private school teacher and yes, I understand that you're paying fees. However my 18 month old and 4 year old are not going to entertain themselves quietly whilst I provide live lessons for your children. Add into the mix my 8 year old who has ADD and being assessed for autism, plus the fact I am separated and it's impossible and quite frankly a joke. I do not have the usual nursery/school to send them to in order to teach others and the keyworker places were only offered to state school teachers.
I really think people need to think

[WhyCantIThinkOfAGoodOne]

They're not doing online classes but during term time they're sending work and marking it and they're also available to answer questions about it. I don't really want my DC online all day on a zoom lesson. I think those on really work when you have class sizes of 5 or less anyway.

[dyscalculicgal96]

No I do not use zoom or Skype. I'm a tutor, instead of online classes I contact each parent by email. I say I can answer questions if needed and am happy to recommend resources and pass on links too. My children are more important but I am happy to stop for a hour at lunch and do a short lesson on Facebook only, I think it is safer.

[Zoe1417]

There are lots of online teaching resources:

Whiterose lessons for maths
Joe wicks workouts for pe
Lots on phonics but one I’ve found really interactive that’s started -youtu.be/Nw6_
Twinkl has tons of resources
Play is also great for fine motor skills and creativity/problem solving!

[Zoe1417]

There are lots of online teaching resources:

Whiterose lessons for maths
Joe wicks workouts for pe
Lots on phonics but one I’ve found really interactive -
Twinkl has tons of resources
Play is also great for fine motor skills and creativity/problem solving!

[Goldenretrievergirl]

I’m a prep school teacher and we’ve spent ages working out what will work best for our families. Sadly, there is not one size that fits all. We are aware every family is different:
some have one child, others have four
some only have children at our school whilst others are coping with 2/3/4 different schools remote teaching provision
some have one device whilst others have several
some have printers, others don’t
some have parents working at home
some have dodgy internet access.

It’s endless. We are also very concerned that children don’t spend all day in front of a screen, and we have many families that don’t want their children doing that. We can’t expect a young child to concentrate for long in front of a screen; it’s a totally different environment to being in a classroom. Some families have asked for worksheets only but that is not how we teach and we would be doing our pupils a great disservice if that is all we do.

We opted to ensure all children get at least one live session a day. That means parents aren’t struggling to timetable several in each day for multiple children. If we agree to do 3/4 a day, for families of 3/4 children that would be 9-16 a day! Impossible for families to cope with! We are also offering recorded sessions.

Work is a mixture of online assignments, activities using various online platforms, apps etc and a few worksheets. We are very aware we can’t please every family but are trying to offer a mixture so we cover most expectations. We are setting from 2-4 hours work a day depending on age. If you actually calculate teaching time during a school day, it amounts to around 5 hours a day so we aren’t offering much less for our older ones.

When we’re not doing live sessions, we’re planning and preparing next week’s work, marking, answering numerous queries on email/chat. We are not idle. Many of spend all day on our computers from early morning to evening with little break to ensure we are on hand for parents and pupils and we’re ready for the following week. Opticians are going to rake it in when we go back to school as many teachers will need their eyes checking! We don’t want that for our pupils too.

[Windowboxgardener]

Our prep is doing on average 80% of sessions live by Zoom every day. Rest are independent work. It’s exhausting - a 6.5 hour day with 20 mins for morning break and an hour for lunch. Got told off today because DC was still swallowing last mouthfuls of lunch when lessons kicked off again at 1pm.