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Thinking of moving DD from her school at end of year 7 due to poor handling of closure period - anyone else in the same boat

152 replies

fancymcfancypants · 10/07/2020 10:42

That's it really. We've been really, really disappointed with provision from the school during the closure:

  • nothing whatsoever in the way of 'live' teaching
  • not a single call from the school, pastoral or otherwise, until 2 weeks ago when a teacher that DD had never spoken to before called to check in on her (as if she'd be comfortable sharing any concerns with someone she doesn't know from adam)
  • virtually no effort at all put into lesson planning (sample maths lesson 'here are the answers to Tuesday's worksheet, go over anything you got wrong')
  • in instances where children have fallen behind by a long way e.g. one of DD's friends who didn't submit work for two weeks, no contact from the school at all

Complained to HOY (as have many other parents) and was told they were going to try and do more live teaching but some of the teachers 'aren't comfortable' online.

She likes the school generally. It's viewed very highly in the part of London that we're in, very sought-after etc and before Covid we were fairly happy with it. But what she's getting just isn't anywhere close to proper schooling and the thought of it all dragging on into next year is really dispiriting.

They are now saying they aren't sure KS3 will be back at school in September and I'm thinking of doing whatever it takes to somewhere else for her. We recently moved and are now in the catchment for a local academy that seems (according to other parents) to be handling this stuff better so was wondering about going to ask them to put her on a waiting list for an occasional place (which I'm told do come up). Alternatively, we can afford to pay private school fees but wanted DC to go to state schools. But now I feel we'd be letting DD down if we don't explore other options that are available to us.

I suppose I'm just putting this out there to see if anyone else has been massively disappointed with how their DC's school have handled the past few months and is also considering moving.

OP posts:
FredaFrogspawn · 10/07/2020 10:49

What was your impression of the school prior to closure? How does your daughter feel about a move? If it was already disappointing and she would like to move then go for it. Although I’d be loathe to judge the school just on closure, I would be disappointed at no calls from her tutor or challenging work. The live lessons not so much - there is little evidence that live lessons online have been very successful generally.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 10/07/2020 10:46

Schools were acting on government instructions. We were meant to set work based on what they had already done.

I did live lessons. No one attended.

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