I’m a primary teacher, teaching remotely at the moment. AMA.

[LemonsLemonsLemonsLemons]

AMA...about teaching, teaching remotely, suggestions for remote learning with your own children, my favourite kind of coffee...

KindKylie - you’re raising loads of important points, and I absolutely hear these. It’s so difficult. I suppose all I would say is that I’m following the school’s policy, and I trust the safeguarding team to have made an appropriate judgement.

What I would say is that I think the social connection of all the children seeing each other in the morning is keeping morale up, and reminding them that they are part of a community beyond their home. They don’t have to turn on their camera if they don’t want to. Lots of them have fun using the Zoom backgrounds, cue lots of ‘oh, hello Jimmy! You’re on the moon today!’ Which is sweet, and maybe gets round the strange feeling some children might experience of people being in their home, as you say?

We’ve been asked as teachers to only video call from a neutral or blurred background. The smaller, recorded group calls automatically upload to the school server’s cloud, and are deleted after 24hrs unless there have been any safeguarding concerns during the meeting.

I agree though. It’s a huge topic, unchartered territory, and a lot to think about.

BessMarvin - I’m a Key Stage 2 teacher, so don’t know a huge amount about what’s being done for Reception starters. What I will say is that children are adaptable, and I think will get used to the structure of school again as quickly as can be expected.

In Reception, there is always a transition/ settling in period anyway at the start of the year, as some children haven’t gone to Nursery before, so are starting formal education for the first time in Reception anyway. This is important to remember. And again, this year everyone will be in the same boat. Please don’t worry!

BeMoreZen - thank you! It’s been tiring, but I do feel like what we’re providing is worthwhile, so that helps!

Thank you Lemons

@MarthasGinYard why have teachers been furloughed? Surely they are needed just as much as ever? All the parents (that I know) who send their children to private schools are still paying full school fees?
Hope HMRC gets tough with companies who have done this and get back the money after this is all over.

Thanks.
My DD is secondary and coping very well. She's enjoying being at home and is well motivated, but it is still early days really. School are sending work and whilst it's a bit variable, I've been very impressed with how well such a big school have geared up to a totally different way of working.
I think my DD would love to be home schooled but I can't do that - I know my limitations!
She's quite introverted but has benefitted from social contact - some of her clubs (outside school) have been innovative and gone online.