How many secondary schools are offering a full timetable of lessons?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

I want to get an idea of what other schools are doing.

Dd's school offered no teaching during the summer.

Now they seem to be doing a mix of live lessons and 'non contact' lessons. These non contact lessons consist of work being set for students to complete.

They say they need to strike a balance between live lessons and non contact lessons but I'm not sure why. Can any teachers explain please?

DS is 11 and in a state Grammar School. He’s meant to get 50% live teaching and 50% activities but seems to be getting more live teaching at the moment. Attendance and handing in the activities are compulsory.

I don't think full timetable of live lessons is good. They shouldn't be in front of screens with the teacher all the time. Pre recorded presentations, links to you tube videos and work done off line gives a better mix. They need breaks.

Y11 state grammar. Full day of live lessons.

I think the other years are getting mix, with the aim that all pupils also get a full day of live lessons.

Bless the teachers, in their suits with their kids running round.

As said above we are lucky as all three kids have their own chromebook/laptop, in addition to both parents having a computer for work but must be a nightmare for families where kids/parents have to share.
Our secondary school has a policy of everyone having a chromebook (even before Covid) and the few kids that can't afford one get loaned one from school.

Full live timetable here, state school. Like others it tends to be intro, tasks to complete, Q&As.

I'm teaching a full live timetable - but my lessons are an hour 40 each which is too long for anyone to stare at a screen. I'm getting them offline for at least 20 minutes to do book work which they then submit to me.

My ds's secondary school is doing 4 days a week on Teams with a (different) catch up/homework day for each year.

Usually live, with some 'here's some work' message me if you're stuck, so a good balance.

I imagine the 'day off' is to balance the demands of the time table and the other jobs that teachers have, esp as there are a lot of children who don't have devices etc at home.

Seems fine to me.

Full day of online lessons, following the timings as if they were at school.

Lincolnshire grammar.

A mix of live lessons and set work. Live lessons tend to be 30-40 mins and they are then set tasks. My teen DC is just about coping.

Seriously, for anyone who is unhappy with anything less than a full timetable of lessons, can you explain why?

I can't think of anything worse for a teen/pre-teen to have to be online from 9 - 3.30 in full time lessons. It's exhausting - far more so than being in school. And how do you manage if you've several children and no devices?

My secondary school is unable to offer online lessons as they have said the many of the pupils don't have access to a laptop or even reliable broadband. They are setting Google classroom and having weekly calls. It's not ideal as my son is year 11 and would benefit from some online interaction and structured lessons

100% live in my department, following our normal schemes of learning with PPTs. Other departments are using OAK but are there live to help. Done departments use loom to record their teaching and then kids watch that and then teacher is there live to help. All have their positives and negatives for both students and staff.

Live lessons 8.15 - 4

DS has had anything from zero Zoom lessons up to 3 lessons via Zoom per day. The rest of the lessons are set on Google classroom to be done independently. But he does have work set for his full timetable every day... sometimes too much

My DS is a teacher. Not only is he teaching a full normal timetable live, he is also still doing the extra after school lessons.

We did not do any live lessons last lockdown but what we did have was a very organised online platform and lots of contact with the kids and home. Very simple system where work was set Monday mornings , and due in Friday mornings. Work was marked and feedback given by the end of Friday. Home was contacted if work was missing. We were available all week as the students could message us via our online platform or via email. We added videos of ourselves to PowerPoints, we sent voice notes etc. It worked really well ~ and I say that as a mum as well as a teacher, as my kids are at our school. It felt busy and a bit relentless but productive and doable .

We were told yesterday that because of government announcements we are all going to need to do live lessons from Monday- not every lesson but to touch base with each class in some live way once a week minimum . I don’t have an issue with this in principle but to have it dropped on us without warning - my stress levels bounced up through the roof, and I’m normally fairly calm . The frantic meetings we’ve been in so far today have covered :
None of us are trained on Teams- online training tomorrow (main stress which I hope will reduce as I get the hang of it)
SLT want the pupils to have cameras on for engagement but that throws up safeguarding issues so we all need a second teacher on all of our calls which is hugely complicated from a timetable point of view and means we are stuck in colleague’s lessons at times we would otherwise be planning and marking work
Some of us with kids at home have bandwidth problems / limited number of device problems
Several of my department are in a couple where the partner is a teacher and there is an issue scheduling the team calls.
Some of our department are in a couple with another teacher and have small children at home
Some of the pupils have bandwidth or device issues if they are expected to be online at a specific time
Live lessons are not like real lessons- I teach science and I obviously don’t have the same resources at home - or a way to film demos easily in a live way. My students are much better served with a pre recorded video, notes, questions and then feedback, than me wittering away at them for extended periods of time. I am planning to use my time to triple shoot homework and be around for Q and A. The main bulk of my teaching will carry on as before meaning this is going to end up as an extra .
My own kids are going to hate it as it will force them to be in front of the computer at certain times and means they can’t plan their week themselves- but to be fair it’s not aimed at them really.

I think the issue is if a school is not supporting education properly then mandating that they have this sort of contact doesn’t seem unreasonable - but live learning is not necessarily the best option in many cases, for teachers, parents or the pupils. From my perspective it feels like yet one more decision I have no control over that has been thrown at me without warning and I’m struggling a bit this week to stay positive.
The fact that our Head is very firm that the live content is a complement to rather than a replacement of other ways of teaching online does help. I think a genuine mix is probably best for everyone.

Full timetable here (yr9 twins). Lessons all live on Zoom 8am-2pm.
Last lockdown they were just set homework online and they could do it at their own pace. Not sure which I prefer to be honest.

50% live here.

All day on teams is mind numbing.
They don't normally get 'teacher input' 100% of the time anyway.

I suppose we could do 100% live but then not spend 100% of each lesson actually 'live', but I think SLT must have decided this way works better for pupils with shared devices at home, and probably for teachers for planning and marking and so on - because prepping and setting and marking this stuff does take longer than the usual methods.

My DCs are at two local secondaries. One is following the usual timetable with all lessons on Teams, so the keyworker kids are in the class and the at home ones are on Teams at the same time. It seems to be working well and is way way better than March-July, endless list of homework tasks.
The other is Y11 in different school but still only has one or two webinars per day and other tasks set but not followed up on, not following normal timetable. Not so good, especially for Y11s whose GCSEs have just been cancelled so are lacking motivation anyway.

I remember back in the summer on threads on here the teachers saying it was impossible to do live online lessons due to safeguarding, lack of devices etc etc. Now it seems many are managing to do it.

DS has a full day of lessons on teams (except PE which they just send excerises for).
School I'm support at have a couple of live lessons a week. Most kids are sharing devices, and many are using mobile data.
Live lessons require wifi and devices for all in the house (schooling and working).
Yes, I know the guidance about government laptops, free wifi and this struggling with devices can come into school....

state - normal timetable. Mostly live lessons with the odd independent task to give the students some time away from the screen - we remain available for help/questions during that time.

DS (year 7) has all day live lessons and is finding it awful, not helped by various technical issues. Last year his primary did a mix of pre-recorded videos and independent tasks, which was brilliant.

Dd secondary full timetable of live lessons.

She woke up this morning and then fell back asleep and missed registration.

DD Y12 is full time table including a cross fit session for PE/wednesday games.

Ours is a mix, they explained it gets boring having just live lessons so they mix it up- there is a plan behind it

@Boonlark

Some children can't cope with all day online live lessons. There's a known psychological issue with all day meetings etc online where the brain can see and hear people but also realise they aren't in the same room, bodily, and it causes additional stress. Having a mixture is actually a good thing and less tiring for everyone

Thank you for mentioning this. DS is now on a reduced timetable as he simply couldn’t cope with back to back live lessons.