WTF is this nonsense- teacher setting tasks like 'Make a meal' or 'Explore your garden with your five senses'

[ChillyColdBottle]

A) No, they are not 'making a meal' as we are in a take it or leave it situation due to not being able to leave the house

B) WTF?

Is it considered unacceptable to ask for some actual academic stuff that they can do silently?!

Ah, two ff in daffodil, just like in the Ofsted song.

Today we had:

German: 135 minutes

-Read aloud for ten minutes from a story by Baron von Munchhausen (fine)
-Look through the pack if "Tall Stories" by Baron von Munchhausen and identify
--Typical opening sentences
--Typical sentence beginnings
--Which tense he is using (answer - Prateritum)
--Typical building blocks of a sentence
--How does he create suspense?

-Redraft the "Tall story" you wrote yesterday in the style of Baron von Munchhausen. Pay attention to the points above.

Learn list 3 (verb conjugations in various tenses)

Maths: 90 minutes
Page x in the red work book (division)
Print any level 15 sheet from the sikorie website and complete (mixed subtraction, multiplcation and division)
Page Y in the small Text Problems book.

Project: 90 minutes
watch short 14 minute film on computer

Write a description of how cats eyes are different to people's

Do a quiz on how blind people "see" (yesterday's video)

Read a dense 3 side text about Louis Braille and answer questions in writing

Sport: 45 minutes go slack-lining in your garden and send photos! (We have a garden but no slack line - do most people have a slack line?)

Except in the Ofsted song its one f in Ofsted.

I knew stockpiling wine was risky.

I don't even know what a slack line is let alone have one!!
Cooking a meal is a life skill that many adults lack, definitely valuable education time.

I think they are nice and importantly appropriate suggestions.
Why can't they make a meal?
Why can't they explore the garden with their five senses.
What do you think happens at primary?
If you think it's all or even 20% academIa you're very wrong.
I am a secondary teacher.
Primary is not KS3 or even the relative stricture of a gcse course. You're being harsh, unrealistic and you have no idea of appropriate educational age guidelines.

Viques- well she will be as soon as she is able - just delayed a little

I agree with OP that I have no idea where to start on Twinkl. One or two simple worksheets issued each week would give an idea of what we need to look for. I’m also home working so don’t have time to trawl through education sites. At my kids school there are less than 20 in out of usual 240 so there must be someone who can send an occasional worksheet to those staying at home.

My 8 year old and I are only getting through about 65% of each day's set work in the span of his usual school day. He's in a difficult class behavior wise and I struggle to believe they get through work this fast - and properly - in the classroom... His teacher's emails are full of doom and gloom about the consequences of not keeping up though...

OP we home school till year 4. I say homeschooled loosely as we just let them enjoy being kids. One wanted to learn piano, one was interested in maths. The only thing we did regularly was reading which hopefully is an enjoyable thing to do. They slotted into year 4 just fine. Try not to worry, there is usually educational stuff on TV, read some books with them, get them to do some colouring.

People used to say to me, "Oh they will never catch up." I would reply, "Vietnamese refugee kids arrived here at 10 or 11 not even speaking English and ended up at top universities, they will be fine." and they were.

Teachers and TAs were teaching up to the bitter end on Friday with the schools still open and most of the children there. FFS. Give them a break. Longest week of my life last week. Seriously.

I can almost guarantee that home learning will be ready to go 'properly' as you no doubt view it after the Easter Holidays.

The teachers at my DCs secondary school have been doing an absolutely amazing job, DS has had age appropriate work and good feedback to any questions he's asked.

Cakes galore will be delivered to the staff room once they are back.

Mine helped cook dinner, I fail to see why that isn't an acceptable task to have been set.

Don't worry about taking a photo of your child and posting it for all the other judgy pants parents to look at. Just use the things as an opportunity to talk about food and ingredients, batch cooking, why we use the freezer.

The garden and 5 senses is very helpful for when they write stories, lots of children just reference what they can see and maybe what they hear but need to be taught to include feel, taste and smell. It is good to get them to close their eyes and think about what they can hear or smell.

This is like the baby stage where we worry and stress about everything, you will look back on this one day, sadly the only way out, is through.

And trust me, teachers know when a child has made something or the parent has because that child cannot replicate it in school!.

The most important thing to be doing with your children in this mad time is having some sort of fun. Yes a bit of maths, some reading, ask questions about the book (year 3 child) to make sure they understand what they are reading about. That's it really. Not all parents are teachers, you are not expected to be.

Teachers and TAs were teaching up to the bitter end on Friday with the schools still open and most of the children there.

The unions were complaining that 1 in 5 teachers were self-isolating a week ago.

The senses thing to to help with their writing

Kids alway write he said she said

They don’t write there was a cold breeze, the flowers smelt fresh the trees swayed etc

It’s good for their learning

Cooking and washing up

There are kids who have no idea how to use scales stir a pan or even what flour or pepper are !! Teach them.

I see that you’ve said you won’t be back op, but if you do see this, just take a step back. Worksheets don’t teach your child anything, they are just doing what they’ve already learned. Nothing wrong with that, but I’d imagine you want your children to learn over the next few weeks and months.

Enjoy your time with them. Read to them, listen to audio books together, set them challenges on things to make from Lego or play doh. Watch documentaries on YouTube, nextflix, the new Disney plus, etc. Let them help in the kitchen, yes you’ve said it’s a pain, but how will they learn? Paint with them, send them to your garden with a cup of water each and a paintbrush, they can ‘paint’ on the fence, paths, brick walls etc.

I’d imagine most children are feeling a little stressed and anxious, their world and routine of school has been turned upside down. Be kind to them and to yourself.

If you want worksheets, as others have said you can print them out. You will know what kind of level your children are working at, print some math things, reading things, handwriting practice etc. If you don’t have a printer, just get yourself some paper and copy things out for them, like sims or ask them to write a sentence or two about a topic you give them.

What's wrong with making a meal as a learning task? Presumably it doesn't ask them to plan and shop for a full-on masterchef experience!
Here's a starter: make a list of how many different ways you could cook this potato. Age-dependent, they could learn how to peel and chop it, do some reading research, make something they've never had before.
Or simply help you with whatever you have planned to eat.
The best learning is fun.

4.5 hours a day academia is more than any secondary would have them do. Ridiculous and counterproductive primary age.

Secondary day:
Registration - Important socialising promoted in order that they are able to communicate at work / uni, and notices.
5 hours of lessons which will either be academic or practical or PE.
Academic pattern:
10 mins entry and settling, once all pupils get there from various locations around a big school.
20 minutes watching a teacher present a ppt (she has made these herself - there is no bank of these. 5 a day. 25 a week) Some questions and answers to some pupils, not all, possibly writing answers on white board and holding them up. Anything you can write in 30 seconds btw.
Then 25 minutes of independent learning. (Pupils sitting quietly working.)
5 mins packing away.

One lesson out of the 5 will be PE.
Three will be academic.
One will be practical - art / music / dt etc. It will follow the above lesson pattern but with slightly more pupil working time. Poss 30 mins.

There may be a 20 min private music lesson which would be 15 mins pupil working time.

Daily:
75 mins pupil working on academia quietly.
60 mins watching adult teaching them something. Not watching very closely or engaged. There are 31 people in the room remember, it's easy to coast, with one to one it will be far more taxing on them. Please remember they are children.
30 mins practical
30 mins sport 15 mins start and end for 30 kids to change clothes.

That is max for ages 11 to 16 as that is what they had at secondary school.

Primary have far more time on play and their hour of numeracy/ literacy includes teaching time and settling the class time and giving out books to 30 kids and packing away 30 kids so would be about 30 mins pupil activity.

To be honest the main thing that DD1's school have been doing that I really appreciate more than sending academic work home is that they've been keeping in contact with the kids via twitter and google classroom - just little comments like "Miss X has just been doing PE with Joe and needs a lie down now" or the like to make the kids still feel part of things. Lots of them are really upset and missing their friends and struggling with the idea of it all now - it's small fry in the grand scheme of things - but in their world it's huge. They've needed that interaction and level of "normal" chit chat and engagement from the staff more than a sheet of sums really.

It's the one thing I think DD2's school have dropped the ball on a bit as of yet - I've no doubt they'll rise to it after Easter and it's just short term survival mode at the moment.

I for one am immensely grateful to all of the teachers who are potentially putting themselves at risk to work through this.

Stop bloody complaining and source some work online yourself if their efforts aren’t exacting enough for you.

Clavinova

And you have been moaning about teachers for years.

I’m still in school.

Do shut up.

PhoneTwattery

Thank you, so much 💐

And you have been moaning about teachers for years.

Not at all - I wasn't doing the moaning;

"Up to one-in-five teachers are self-isolating and the figure is rapidly rising in response to the coronavirus emergency, school leaders have said."

"Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that typically between 10 and 20 per cent of teachers are self-isolating in response to the outbreak."

"He warned that this, coupled with falling pupil attendance–which he said was currently around 70 to 80 per cent–meant it was increasingly difficult to keep schools open."