Is anyone finding the continual recording and uploading of primary school kids work stressful

[whatthefuckishappening]

The continual recording of young children's work is really frustrating for us. To try to get an uninterrupted video of young children doing their "work" to send to school is driving me insane and is sucking any enjoyment out of activities. Anyone else? I'd rather school just stopped and we focused on reading and writing activities that we chose for our "work" without having to send and record everything. It is dong my head in asking them to repeat stuff they've done and shushing other kids, moving mess out of the way, stopping to upload onto slow portals etc, constantly trying to recapture the moment. I'm hating that part. Think I just needed to rant!

Yes, me too although I’m torn, I think seeing the work uploaded makes me feel like the day has been a success and not the stress fest it feels like.

I wish I could either just focus on my job or the children’s education, I hate the guilt of dipping between the two.

Say what?

Two kids primary age here - we send stuff in if we fancy it - otherwise just confirm it was done.

That sounds very tedious. Aren't they getting assignments to complete and submit online? The only videos we are submitting are for PE and Games which we're doing outside.

I feel the same way OP. We were getting along fine with worksheets from school. Now the teacher has started using Google classroom, the volume of work and the additional pressure of sending it in to be marked is getting a bit much.

I sympathise with the teacher though, what suits one family probably doesn't suit another and she's probably had another parent tell her the worksheets aren't enough.

Just don't do it.
Tell them your microphone is broken, or if your ethics won't allow white lies tell them the truth and say it is too time consuming.

I have a ds with some aspergers traits and he absolutely refuses to record or film himself, so I either email the teacher to confirm he has done it (eg PE) or make him do a written version, eg right now he is supposed to be recording a radio advert for computing so I told him to just write a script.

Totally agree that it is stressful. I am a teacher so am having to set activities at the same time as trying to supervise my own children and upload their work. Feel like I am failing at both.

Not really no but then I'm furloughed and only have one child. I imagine it would be stressful if you have to work and have more kids. We only have to submit one piece of work a day plus some topic stuff. Teacher gives positive feedback which my ds thrives on so it's worth the few minutes it takes for us.

I’m a secondary teacher. I have work sent in from a couple of kids a week. I’m not chasing anyone up or expecting anything to get done.

I have a 6 and a 4 year old. I’m doing a bit of work with6 year old- but mostly trying to trick him into reading things. Not doing anything formal or sending to teacher.

I refuse to put that pressure on myself. Because inevitably I get stressed and it rubs off on my kids. Health and well being is so much more important than falling behind educationally for a few months.

We haven’t been asked for this at all. The teachers send a timetable once a week and sent a huge list of website we could use when lockdown first commenced. Every so often they send a message on dojo to check in and make sure we know they’re available if we need them plus they might give us a link to a website they have discovered which could help.

You’re allowed to put copies of your child’s work in their portfolio on Dojo if you want but not expected to by any means. I added a few photos on Sunday and only one teacher acknowledged it so probably won’t bother again!

Oh gosh, I feel for you. 2 primary age dc here and we have to upload work or photos of their work if we can. I’m finding it’s good to because they’re taking pride in filling their online space with work. But we didn’t do all the assignments last week and I doubt we’ll manage them all this week - we’re not under pressure. I imagine having to do videos is a nightmare!

I've fucking had it today to be honest. Three children with three different teachers, three different sets of expectations, three different methods of submitting work, widely different workloads, poorly designed instructions, endless printing (despite teachers being told not to set activities that require printing), activities requiring too much supervision while we are both trying to work ft from home. The lesson plans from two of the three teachers are shit and quite frankly there is no way that they represent anything close to the amount of preparation that they would be putting in for regular classes. And I know it isn't because the have young children or dependants themselves (they don't). There. I said it. I am thoroughly sick of it all.

I sympathise with the teacher though, what suits one family probably doesn't suit another and she's probably had another parent tell her the worksheets aren't enough.

This is exactly the problem.

I'm a teacher, we post daily work online and mark/respond to every piece that's sent back to us. Plus we send personal video messages responding to work done but we don't pressure anyone to do it they just can if they like.
We also send paper packs home if people want them.
We set individual work if children find it too easy or too hard.

My own child's school sets daily work but has zero interest in marking or responding to it. There's no contact at all.

The problem is, no matter what School’s do some of the parents will complain that it's too hard, too easy, too much, not enough, feel harassed by the level of contact, don't get enough support and so on.

I realise that this is just the frustration and stress of the parents talking but it means that School’s are running round like headless chickens trying to invent a system that keeps everybody happy.

Op can you just contact the school and tell them that uploading videos isn't working for you and say you'll complete and submit a weekly diary of work completed? That does sound very stressful and time consuming.

The problem is there’s such a discrepancy between schools. I’ve been frustrated with ours for not using online lessons or google classroom but to be honest at least we have no pressure to send anything in to be marked.

We get a few sheets of activities and resources per week. We choose how much to do. Expectation is we do most of it and there’s a quiz at the end of the week to check learning but that’s it.

I do worry a bit we’re not doing enough and the kids are falling behind but we do what we can around my work.

3 dc here also cheese ks1, ks2, ks3.
I had a phone call yesterday from DC3 (age 5) teacher asking why we hadn’t logged on online to do the activities. The school sent home worksheets, which are duplicates of the online stuff, so given that he’s only 5, I’ve prioritised the laptop for the 11 & 13 year olds. So I’ve had to go online today and try to encourage DC3 to redo the stuff he’s done on paper again online.🤷🏻‍♀️ Just so they have a record we’ve done it.
I’m on furlough, and this is a full time task for me, helping between the three of them. I have no idea how any of you are doing it and still working! DH is WFH as he’s NHS management. He’s working looong hours, plus having to log on at weekends too. There’s no way he’d also be able to fit the schooling in.

What's the point of uploading the videos? Are the teachers expected to watch them all and respond?

My ds's school has put up daily maths, English and theme tasks to do every day and there's no checking up that they have been done whatsoever. Which is good, as autistic DS with ADD is mostly lolling about on the floor, scattering all schoolwork and stationery, asking what time is PlayStation time.

If I had to capture videos of him doing that and send in his work I'd feel even worse about it.

I think you should draw the line at videos. That's ridiculous.

What's the point of uploading the videos? Are the teachers expected to watch them all and respond?

Am giggling to myself at the thought of a class teacher watching videos of 30 children practise a chest pass and thinking of suitable comments to respond to it with.... do people really video their PE lessons?

Our school just adds "oh and don't forget to do Joe Wick's" at the end of each day's planning.

We have to submit work on the school's online learning platform as well as some written work and worksheets they set on dojo. We understand the work, we're getting on with it as much as possible and I'm supporting where I can as well as leaving them to do it independently. We haven't got any problems with the type of level of work being set or with handing it in but we are struggling with the amount coming in. I'm getting to the point where I don't want to check because there's even more to do. The thing is, I'm a teacher myself (I'm a supply teacher though so I'm not working) so I should know how much they have to do and we should be able to get through it all within normal school hours.

I have 2 dc in 2 different key stages though and they're doing very different things so I can't do both at the same time. Dc 1 has adhd as well so getting him to work and concentrate when he's at home and doesn't want to is difficult: I don't want to force him because I don't want him to turn away from learning. Because of this, we're actually only managing the basics and I feel like we're failing when the list of things to do is getting longer and longer.

To add to our problems, my dad, who is a frail alcoholic with mobility, mental health and hearing issues, has been "groomed" by someone who has now stolen a load of his money and precious possessions so we're trying to organise some safeguarding and care for him even though he doesn't feel like he needs it.

Absolutely. Close to tears here today. DS1 (year 1) can't concentrate on anything for more than about 10 seconds, he is more than averagely able but only gets through work with me refocusing him about every 30 seconds. He is constantly and i mean constantly lolling about/climbing on the furniture/screeching and asks for tablet time about every 10 minutes, totally ignores that I've said it's not happening till after school work done. DD (3) goes round destroying the house. Meanwhile DS2 (5 months) spends his days screaming at me. I'm trying to trim and paste and scan the work of the older 2, the house is a bombsite. We do well in terms of what we submit but we are all stressed beyond belief and spend the whole day screaming at each other.

@FraterculaArctica oh gosh, sympathy, this sounds absolutely horrible and I wonder sometimes if School’s are aware of how much pressure they're putting people under. I know in our school we set work with the expectation that people will pick and choose the bits they feel able to do. If somebody attempted to plough through every bit every day I'd be quite surprised.
Have you spoken to school about how much pressure you're under?

Christ. No way am I uploading work to the school. Life is too short. It’s hard enough to get the damn work printed out and get them to complete it without requiring assistance every 3 seconds.

We do 8-9 every morning as concerted proper schoolwork period, jo wicks as a family and then the rest of the day is optional art/baking/finish a task alone/solo reading. And I have childcare! But if I struggle to get my August born bolshy 4yo to do 15 mins of phonics then there is no way my dyslexic mum will be able to manage!

I am aware that my kids are young and bright and NT enough that this is a nice break from the routine for them and they won’t really suffer long term.

I know schools can’t do right for doing wrong but it would be nice if there was some sort of pragmatic standard for this period that we all could work towards. It all feels bitty and the primary colours and comic sans on the website do not make it easy to work out what to do. It’s the parents doing all this for primary kids - they can’t do it alone so maybe have a thought for our eyesight each morning (although the nice personal message each day from one teacher is very sweet and thoughtful)

We are doing the work but not uploading it. It’s all sent to a no return email address anyway so seems a bit pointless. I have sent an email when the kids have really struggled with something or I have been particularly impressed by something but sheets and sheets of grammar answers? No.

We use class dojo and I'm just taking photos of their work and adding it to their journal. I'd draw the line at having to upload videos unless it was optional. It would be funny though for their teachers to see them learning in their home environment with the tears and tantrums - especially DS2 shrieking that he doesn't normally work at the same table as DD2 and that's why he can't do anything (twins, same class, different learning levels). Yesterday's trick was telling them they wouldn't speak to their teachers the way they spoke to me so I am now 'Mrs Minisoks' during learning time and they have to ask to leave the table for a drink or toilet. It's the only way I have been able to get anything done with the 2 sen kids. We seem to revisit how we do things on a weekly basis.