If schools get closed how to teach subjects from home

Admittedly DD(yr8)'s school is academic but we have just had an email about how it is going to work.

The school will continue to follow the timetable with work being set, marked and discussed using (microsoft?) Teams and their teacher and other pupils available for the lesson via group chat.

Luckily we are awash with laptops and computers, but I think it might be tricky for some families.

Thank goodness it is nearly the end of term!

My y10 DD is ill at the moment but when recovered we will I think be following timetable too and then using spaces to play catch-up over what she has missed for the last couple of weeks.
Easter holidays will be spent as school with an aim to be caught up when term starts again. Luckily we have a shed load of revision guides already.

We have put the school timetable up where did cab see it an we are ticking off the subjects. We are doing alternatives. We did gardening instead of badminton for pe for instance.

I am worried, my dc was quite happy that school was closed suddenly, and saying it's a holiday. I made sure it's not, that they still need to be doing daily work. Unfortunately, our school didn't plan it at all, they have least communication with parents. Not much work assigned to do at home.

It would be great if any secondary teacher can give us parents any clue what we should be doing.

Yes, in each school district the curriculum might be slightly different (bearing in mind that national exams like SAT and ACT - canceled for the foreseeable - test the same skills that students arrive at from different vantage points and after different meanderings through the material) and in fact across a single English department in my local high school each teacher has a different approach, a different focus when it comes to the modern American novel, for instance. But the teachers and the tech people were able to get all of this up and running in a day. The teachers are providing pretty much the school experience, even down to the students' wearing of pajamas to 'class' as before.

The curriculum is the one they would have been studying in school.

Which is different at each school.

I’m imagining that the secondary kids could be set up with a laptop and access to school wifi so that they can do whatever their own school has set them.

@noblegiraffe, my local elementary and high school districts have online classes up and running for all students including those with IEPs. They had one day to set it all up but there were contingency plans in place that needed tweaking.

The curriculum is the one they would have been studying in school.

High school and middle school students all have school issued Chromebooks for schoolwork anyway, and the schools are using Google classroom. Students in middle and high school do the usual school day, with teachers conducting class from home and reachable by email for questions.

If the students were to be in school they could use the Chromebooks there too, with someone supervising.

Younger students have paper packs to work through as well as online content on Zoom with teachers checking in three or four times per day.

No parental involvement necessary.

This is what happens when you underfund infrastructure and schools and allow a massive gap to develop between the haves and have nots in society

This may well be the UK's Hurricane Katrina moment.

Even if I could see their assessment data, how would I know what it meant? I don’t teach at their school.

These dc don’t have assessment data? They do. Never mind. The ones who need an education simply won’t get much will they?

He said there wouldn’t be school work.

Their schools would be setting them work, same as for their other kids. You demanded that we teach them. This isn’t feasible.

I’ll remind you again that this will be a mixed ability, mixed age group of kids from random schools. Assessment data from what? What am I supposed to teach them?

Your expectations are just laughably unrealistic.

That’s not what the guy on the radio said. He said there wouldn’t be school work. Just minding the children. However the children we have in our schools at the moment are a generation that’s never been so tested and assessed. Teachers know more about the current generation of DC than any generation before. The idea that their assessment data cannot be accessed, the children asked about what they would like to have explained to them or revision set according to their needs seems like it’s back to the dark ages. I absolutely do recognise that some teachers will go all out to do their best and help the children, especially ones where there is a need to close the gap and have parents who are less able to help. They are truly losing out.

bubbles the teachers will be sorting out workpacks and answering queries, marking or whatever. They can supervise children who are in in the same way parents can supervise, but not actually teach.

Bubbles the experts are telling you it can’t be done. Personalised education? Ffs we don’t know these kids.

Well as the expert, I expect you to sort out what can be taught. It could even be revision! It is morally wrong to accept full salary and just babysit. Everyone has to pull their weight and do their best. Not just turn up and do the minimum for decent pay when millions of others are not being paid at all! Try personalised education! Good God! So entitled!

To hear a Head say they will not be taught and teachers will only babysit is just wrong, in my view.

Great. Then you can explain how to design a curriculum for a daily changing and large selection of children aged from 4-13, some vulnerable or with EHCPs, in a hub school that is staffed on a rota.

I’ll await your expert response.

The ones who will suffer in all of this is always going to be the children with no-one to teach them at home and no one with a reasonable level of education in the family to help out. It is true to say there are very many families like this. So the attainment gap gets bigger!

I heard a Headteacher yesterday on the radio say they were not intending to teach the DC that had to go into school because their parent(s) were key workers. I was astounded I have to say. He said that, as others would not be taught at home, it was not fair to teach the ones who were in school! Unbelievable! These may well be the DC who really need help as their parents are invaluable in fighting this. To hear a Head say they will not be taught and teachers will only babysit is just wrong, in my view. The teachers are getting paid and should do a reasonable job for the DC in their care even in these tough times. Everyone else is expected to. Can you imagine a Doctor saying this? That they will turn up for work, get paid, but do the work of a care assistant!

The prospect of closure of schools here fills my son with delight (not). I will have three adult children at a loose end (universities closed) standing ready to tutor their younger brother intensively. All he likes is computing. But he’s about to get intensive tuition from specialists in English, languages and maths .... and the x box is broken....

My friend in Spain is teaching via Google Classrom and says it's going ok (don't know how its broadband compares).

Thanks for the links.

One thing that also worries me is the amount of screen time over possibly months, day in day out.

Hi KoalasandRabbit
In the event your child works at home, I suggest you also buy question practice books (CGP, Letts, Collins etc). Mine pretend to read, and get flummoxed when I try and get them to do questions - which means they were dissing or reading poorly. Question practice is a good way of building confidence. If internet is slow, trying buying question practice books from your local booksellers, or Amazon.