So, why is there a discrepancy with how schools are managing lock down?

[PuttingoutthefirewithGasoline]

Not intended to be teacher bashing I suspect its the SLT and Head.
NOt the teachers

But in my area we have private and grammar schools who just carried on as normal but on line and we have some secondary providing some lessons on line and a mix, then we have some churning out power points, patchy marking? NO contact with the students verbally?

I myself work in an educating setting as support staff, I have 2 small dc - and I have also been at work - virtually every day?

I totally get that KS1 dc may not be able to access on line stuff but again - our school pointed us to websites with no pinned down help whereas other primaries have given out weekly work?

EG - a theme - space - spellings on space - small comprehension - and some maths?

How come some schools have managed this so well - and others have almost been willfully resistant to the most basic support?

I just find it ironic that I am here, interacting and talking to students every day, assisting them with work on line - through typing and the occasional virtual meeting, when I am simultaneously trying to navigate my way around KS1, to find out what my daughter should be learning - hampered by the fact she is also on the SEN register and is behind but its not been made clear to me on what....because the argument is - her school teachers also have children at home

So I am helping my students but also trying to help my own when I only want basic guidance and for the secondary child I want more live in put and opportunity for live questions and feed back?

Do the teachers at grammar and private not face the same issues as us all - who are working with children?

Access to technology mainly
Both pupils and teachers
Lots of LAs have said no zoom but independent schools still using it

I don’t know why there isn’t a national online scheme with lessons, activities and resources available for all.

There is
www.thenational.academy

So all the parents complaining about variations in provision for home school learning are just not bothering to use the available online resources?

I think people need to give very careful thought to the demographics of different school populations before drawing comparisons.

This. I make video lessons for my class (using my own equipment as my school laptop doesn't have a working webcam) and we have an existing online platform that all the pupils are familiar with. I upload the videos as unlisted YouTube videos as I know from conversations before lockdown that pretty much all my pupil watch YouTube. You can see how many views each video gets - they range between 1 and 5. 6-8 children maximum per week are logging on to the learning platform. Is it really worth me continuing to make the effort to make videos if only one pupil watches them? This is a pupil with good technology access and very engaged parents - they would work just as well by using Oak Academy.

Would it be right for a school like mine to do online classes daily with 5 children logging in? What would you teach those 5 children when you know they will be back with another 25 children next year who haven't accessed those classes (or indeed much, if any, learning at all)?

Developing a sense of what 'good' provision is, that would be possible for all schools to actually deliver, would require a lot of work and time, if it were ever possible.

School curriculums and guidance about whatbis outstanding, good etc take years to develop so that they are workable.

Everything at the moment is on the hoof, so there is a wide disparity. Schools are providing very different things. The other thing that is mentioned far less and perhaps isn't so easy to compare is the very variable input of parents. There is no getting away from the fact that in an time of remote learning, parental input at all levels is required for really good progress to be achieved. As well as getting different input from schools, parental input varies hugely. There are lots of reasons for this, such as parents working, varying interest levels in engaging, varying abilities to engage, varying other pressures in the home at the moment.....

I'd say that in the end, whether the children have made good progress over this period or not, will be determined by a number of factors, but the home will be the key one as always. Regardless of school, children in homes where parents have engaged fully - and that means doing whatever it is that school has provided, having children spend a decent amount of time per day on learning activities, valuing learning and being willing and able to go the extra mile, will be making progress.

People will say, well it's not fair and they can't fully engage because they are working or their children are resistant or what school does isn't enough....but whatever the cause, those children find themselves in a less good position.

Schools can never fully compensate for home differences and fully plug the gaps of opportunity. At the moment with children at home even more, differences are magnified and schools can try, but they are even more unable to plug the gap fully and honestly can't be expected to be the answer to inequalities. Parents who have taken on additional responsibilities for engaging with home learning see their children making progress, regardless of school, in the same way that is always the case when they are at school too.

user1497207191 Thu 21-May-20 16:01:39

Yes agree - good point

"Keystage 1 need more support"

"It depends on lots of things but for us, the priority was supporting the large proportion of families who really rely on school to keep safe and well, so academic progress took a back seat behind the very extensive safeguarding work."

I appreciate for Primary children this would be a massive issue but I still don't understand how it would preclude - giving us the work the teachers were going to do?

At secondary level and beyond where we are has a huge amount of Vulnerable dc and having them in classes on line has been vital for their mental health, they have been occupied and busy and also when they have not turned up to classes or on the rare time we have seen them and they look sad or something we can follow that up with various people to make sure they are OK. So keeping them occupied and on line has been a massive help in safe guarding.
Every single student has a smart phone - even the most vulnerable and they have followed classes on that and worked on lap tops where they can and the place has also provided lap taps on loan -etc. Everyone has managed to get on and get work in.

Goodness yes my KS1 child needs a hell of a lot of support and I am managing in small doses whilst also giving massive amounts of help due to my job to other students. Thats because I was not given any basic structure to give to my KS1 child.

Seeing what other KS1 children have received - which isn't much but is "something" to keep them going and give the parents a really good idea of what level to pitch things at and what sort of work to do - is a hell of a lot more than I had. I am almost up to speed now - but its an extra huge project I have had to undertake - whilst ironically supporting other students - in my job .

So all the parents complaining about variations in provision for home school learning are just not bothering to use the available online resources?

^ at first we had no guidance at all on what to look for - what had been covered - we had missed the PE due to covid. Being pointed to bite size or twinkle wasn't good enough. I asked for more information and I was spoken too like it was a big secret.

Yet on my road - the dc were given small but very helpful little learning packs each week.
A few pieces of paper with a little topic to keep them moving forward.

Surely you can see that's so much more helpful than merely saying - look on twinkle - which is a vast resources with a hundred ways of doing each thing?

Oak Academy and BBC bitesize are both doing daily lessons. I dont think Oak Academy has been promoted enough, but BBC bitesize has received wide publicity. Oak Academy is better IMO because it doesn't direct you to any resources other than paper and a pencil but some at can be a bit challenging. My Y2 DD has enjoyed using it though.

Just some reasons off the top of my head.

Education sectors:- Private, indie, academies, state + SEND
Different management:- Private, Business, LEA, and indie for want of a better word.
Money
Technology
Cohort size, PAN and Class.
Type of Cohort
Area
Amount of PPG, FSM, LAC.
Type of school:- religious, Forest, Academic etc.

When people ask, why couldn't schools simply give parents what they were going to do in the classroom, I think they miss several key points;

• learning doesn't just happen via a resource - it's all about the explanation, discussion, Q and A, doing activity etc etc. The printed resource might be a tiny part of the learning.
• teachers know how to do the above stuff. It can't be repeated by parents after a 5 point list - so it will never be the same. It just can't.
• to adapt resources or lesson plans for use online and at home, instead of in the classroom, isn't just a case of sending stuff out - lots of adaptation is needed for them to be used in a different context. Whole areas of learning might need to be fully re-written or abandoned for the time being. A new way of delivering with quality resources would take many months to fully develop.
• schools were not told to do the above. They were told to provide for vulnerable children and key workers and that was about it really.

It seems the gov has wanted schools to become some kind of social workers - providing childcare (not education) for the above groups and that beyond that, they have felt it is not possible or advisable to say they should do anything else. They want to involve schools in keeping children safe, but education itself is on hold. But that wasn't clearly communicated to parents, who still expected as close to possible school,

So that is the government position and schools have then had to react to it as they see fit - they have looked at their individual cohorts, taken advice from unions and advised their teachers about what to do and not do. None is an expert in responding to home learning in about 10 days. None is an expert in developing a new curriculum - they are used to delivering a rigidly determined curriculum within very set parameters for achievement measurement and quality assessment. None of that remains. They are on their own. And some leadership teams are very much 'do what government has told you' and lack many resources to do much more anyway. Many are risk averse and fear doing the wrong thing by taking initiative. Some are more dynamic and flexible....but they don't usually have to be. Some schools such as the private sector have an economic incentive to innovate to secure their future....that's lacking in the state sector. And in all schools huge amounts of behind the scenes work is going on,mplanning and re-planning the next stages whilst in receipt of only sketchy info about what will be required and timescales. So planning and then tearing that up and starting again, over and over. Much of the job isn't dealing directly with children.

And some parents feel let down. They think there haven't been any live or recorded lessons which would make it feel more like real school. But schools haven't been told to do that and there are all kinds of potential issues surrounding delivering them,neven if some schools have chosen to. Some parents feel they have some resources but don't know what to do with them, or it's hard work to get the children to engage..well that's because they aren't teachers, and to be honest, schools can't turn parents into fully trained teachers. Most adults with a decent amount of native wit and willingness to engage will manage something that enables some progress, but it won't replicate the classroom and teacher.

I don't think we can expect normal. Things aren't normal. Schools haven't been told to aim for normal in any sense.

Great post Wombat