Lessons

[diavlo]

Just wondering what how lessons are being delivered to your Secondary children?
My dd is in yr 10 and currently her lessons are emailed to her before school in the morning and she then works through them at her own pace. This is fine short time, but my ds is at 6th form and has lessons via zoom, which seems much better.
DD’s school isn’t planning to move to interactive online lessons and just wondered what other schools were doing? She’s starting to worry that she’ll be at a disadvantage over pupils who do have access to this come next summer.
Thanks

[NuffSaidSam]

DC1 is having all lessons via Zoom (private school).

DC2 and 3 are having lessons set on Google classroom or similar, work is being marked and feedback given, the teachers are quick to reply to emails/queries. No phone/zoom contact at all. No video lessons. (Two different state schools).

They all seem to be doing ok, but DC1 doesn't like the Zoom lessons. She says they waste time like at school and if they just gave the work out she'd be able to do it in half the time.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

My y10's school are posting work up on google classroom, no live lessons.

If she is doing the work set she will be way ahead of many who aren't engaging in all subjects.

[diavlo]

Thanks both, it’s reassuring to know that her school isn’t the only one not doing live lessons.
She is getting some feedback, but none from any of her science teachers. She’s doing triple which is quite workload heavy, so I might need to deal with that.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

I would imagine that within the state system live lessons over zoom are in the minority due to

• safeguarding
  
• lack of tech in homes
  
• lack of flexibility for teachers working from home who may also be looking after their own kids
  
• requirement for kids to all be there at the same time which means any sharing tech can't do it
  

(I really like that DDs lessons aren't live as she isn't well at the moment so she can dip into things as she feels up to it, and when she recovers all the info will be there fore her to catch up with.)

[MsAwesomeDragon]

I can't do live lessons as the kids in my classes can't all access the right tech at specific times. I record examples and send the example video and a worksheet every morning. The pupils then email me specific answers once they have managed to do the work. I am available to answer questions all day, and lots of pupils do ask me about how to do things. It seems to be working well for my pupils in my subject. They can do the work around their siblings who need to share the tech equipment

[Pythonesque]

My year 10 is getting about 50/50 live lessons and work set to the timetable. Additional homework is not being set for his yeargroup (theoretically). He also prefers just getting on with the work to the live sessions. My year 12 is getting a mix of live and "teacher available" for questions, I think it's more up to the teacher how often they are online. Both are at schools where they all had to have laptops from year 9 so the tech side was much more predictable than for many.

[SJaneS48]

DD (Year 7, State) has been told to follow the school timetable. All work has been set via EduLink and stretches into the next 2 weeks. Each piece of work has a ‘to be completed by’ date. Some of the teachers want work uploaded daily onto to Sharepoint or Onedrive, others want completed work emailed to them and for small handful of subjects, neither. Looking up where it all needs to go is a faff and feedback is pretty minimal. They are however chasing both DD and ourselves for any work not completed (fair enough, happy with that) and all the teachers are available on Outlook for questions and queries.

No lessons are Online but all work relies on students having access to tech and quite often a printer. I get that logistically as it’s a large girls school that scheduling zoom classes could be problematic but I would imagine a very large proportion of the children would have access to their own tech as it’s an affluent area with far fewer pupils on pupil premium than there are nationally. Personally, I’d like to see more online teaching from DDs school.

[TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross]

DS is in Yr 12 and following his timetable - live lessons taught via Google Classrooms and homework set as normal. I am very relieved because it means he is making progress with the curriculum in all his subjects and will be on track when teaching can move back into the classroom.

The school are continuing with UCAS stuff as well, so he's written the first draft of his personal statement, for example.

[diavlo]

Thanks everyone. It seems like there is a real mix of approaches.
I do think that my dd would benefit from the occasional live lesson, so hopefully this will become available if they don’t make it back into school before September.

[KoalasandRabbit]

Y8 and Y9 at state comp, no live lessons due to safeguarding. Originally was based on old school timetable then they sent out a reduced timetable with 3 subjects per day.

Now most of it is like watch this 5 minute video, open Word answer these questions, send it to me via SMHW, open and read this news article, do this quiz, print out this, photograph it and send it to me. Very little feedback and a lot of different instructions to follow. DD in year 9 is fine with it. DS in year 8 is ASD and can't cope with all the different instructions so I do all with him. When he completely can't manage it I do alternatives. We are managing equivalent of at school and we wouldn't want live as DD is nocturnal and our rural internet would crash plus DS hates teacher videos. I have to spend 3 hours or so a day helping DS but it works which is just as well as school have just said won't be back for either child in medium term. Both mine love being home at least.

Not sure what engagement levels are like - think in top set it's close to 100% with most of it but do wonder how lower ability children or those with SN could manage the work especially if they don't have a parent to help. SENCO said engagement of SN kids is very low and DS is unusual in engagement level.

[hilarybella]

This is really interesting. I am frustrated by lack of online interactive classes for my son - year 7, state school. It's all Google Classroom, assignments set, often requiring them to be printed, photogaphed, returned then marked. My son is not self-motivated, and it is difficult to get him to focus unless i am sitting with him - tricky as I am still working and have a year 3 who needs complete home schooling - again through Google Classroom. I think its very hard for kids to sit on their own working through assignments.
His sister is at an independent school which live lessons most of day on Microsoft Teams, which includes group work which helps so much in avoiding isolation. It also includes taking the register in form time at 8.45 every day. The difference is huge, and I really worry about the gulf in learning that will result. It's keeping me awake at night!

Like a poster noted above, my son's state school is in an affluent area with far fewer pupils on pupil premium than there are nationally and it would be a minority who don't have access to any tech. Could the schools not lend their Chromebooks to those really in need? My son has one due to physical issues and we had to sign all manner of contracts about potential damage, but he does have it.

Another nice touch has been an individual 'catch up' every few weeks with head of year/upper school to see how DD is feeling about things, and similarly every few weeks- my year 3's primary school teacher has done the same with my son.

[memberof5]

My year 7 is at an independent school. All lessons (including pe) are live. 4 proper lessons a day plus self study time for completion of work arising from
the lesson. She's shut away in her room all day poor thing. She tends to have camera off and on mute and only switches on when she needs to speak.
Lots of homework set on top. It took them until after Easter to sort out their online service (endless sheets before then which frankly isn't teaching) but it's been pretty streamlined since then. Children have been put in bigger classes to enable the delivery to work whilst acknowledging the additional workload for teachers (and the difficulties of juggling their own home lives).


I think it's outrageous that a similar provision isn't available in all state schools to be honest and the government should have prioritised implementation of infrastructure to enable this to have happened. Some
Schools
Are managing it
Of
Course. Measures could then be put in place to give more focused support to the very vulnerable who are not able to access this sort of provision whilst the majority carry on with the new normal. Just like school if you are disruptive you should be removed from the online lesson and alternative appropriate support provided.

My friend is in Japan and her experience was that even primary aged children switched to online lessons within a week of lockdown. I'm in an affluent area and our local well regarded state school is the same, reems of sheets that need to be printed at home and are only completed by the self motivated with minimal feedback. It's not good enough.

My children's state primary has just introduced once a week zoom circle time for the class. We are all using an online portal to upload work and the class teachers have been amazing. I don't think primary school children need online lessons but they do need to see their teacher in a short video daily explaining what they need to do. We don't always manage to do everything but it's much more motivating for children (and gives stability) if they feel like they are having daily contact with their teachers. I hate just being given sheets to complete - I could download those off of
Twinkle myself.