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?

Live at KS4 for all, recorded and uploaded. One live (recorded and uploaded) and the rest recorded for KS3. This is so houses with one device can access lessons at different times .

The govt guidelines do not insist on live lessons. They have to have some sort of clear direction, could be recorded, could be Oak, could be BBC Bitesize at least once every 4 lessons. A meaningful assignment/piece if work has to be set and fed back on once every 4 lessons.

So schools have interpreted that differently. Research shows that live lessons are not massively effective with whole classes. Small targeted groups (easier in private) or small GCSE groups they can be.
We are setting lessons as per the timetable. Our students will have 4 hours of lessons set per day. Some withbuse educational platforms such as Mathswatch and Educake. Many will have a teacher working through a PowerPoint as a recorded lesson. We are asked to be avakalablenon e mail/teams throughout the day to respond to any questions/issues. We can also organise group meets on Teams.
My DC are having live lessons for key lessons and I can't see that it is any more beneficial than what my school are offering. They're all on mute and asked to message any questions in. The teacher I'd often busy presenting so can't respond immediately anyway.

@bendmeoverbackwards I’m a teacher doing exactly what your school is doing. We are doing exactly 50% live teaching.

Partly this is because many of our students can’t stick to a timetable of full teaching because they will be sharing a PC/laptop etc with other brothers and sisters and in some cases parents. In addition I have to completely re-jig what and how I teach which takes preparation a d the government gave very little notice for this. Finally my children aged 4 and 6 are at home and as my husband is not a key worker (but is working full time and is the ‘breadwinner’) I have them with me so 6 hours of teaching ignoring my kids just doesn’t work. So I’m doing 3 hours per day live and then when my kids are in bed I prep for the next day and mark work that has come in. I’ve had to trike a balance.

Yep. Doing a great job.

Ds: y7 in a new school (only years 7-9 at moment) full timetable 5 x live lessons a day

Dd: y8 in large state secondary. One live lesson a day. Rest is tasks set on Google classroom. She's really struggling to be honest. Takes so much self regulation to manage. I think maybe exam years are getting prioritised. I love her school in every other respect - hope it gets better.

Dh: teacher in private secondary. All chn have school ipads and have had full timetable of live lessons since start of last lockdown.

State comp (single sex if that's of any relevance). Full timetable of lessons, nearly all live, but some with a task to complete at the end with teacher still there, peripetetic music on Teams as it would be in school, some after school clubs on teams (debate, D of E etc), assembly on teams and I had a call from one dd's tutor this morning to find out how she was getting on. This is a completely different experience from lockdown one in every way - my main worry is that they'll all burn out (staff and students) but the care and work that's gone into it is hugely impressive.

My DD’s PE lessons are live too which I think is great ☺️

@formerbabe

State secondary...full day of online live lessons following the normal timetable they'd have if in school.

Same here

Ours has scheduled lessons on line as per the timetable but I do know that they have struggled with some teachers who have their own children being sent home to isolate etc. So I guess it can be a bit of a nightmare!

Both at same state school, Y10 and Y7, having a full timetable as usual. Often it's the teacher introduces the topic, group discussion, go off do some work, back together for plenary at end of lesson.
They're both shattered!
They're doing their instrument lessons online too, and their teachers have been v flexible indeed to fit lessons outside the school day instead of during as they do in school.
My school is doing the same tbh.
We've had so many emails, texts etc from parents praising our offer, so we're happy, even if we're shattered.

@cathpot work was set Monday mornings , and due in Friday mornings. Work was marked and feedback given by the end of Friday
The issue with this is that it is not teaching anything new. For a week or two it's fine as revision but the children are not being taught. Government rules on what was acceptable as remote learning were changed in October so your school should have had 3 months to prepare a contingency plan.

Y11 and Y9 here, different schools. Both have live-ish lessons following timetable. ie the teacher turns up and is available.

They each both have facetime or houseparty running simultaneously with friends from the class. Which makes it tolerable for them apparently but means not much bandwidth left for anyone else.

PE is not live. LOL. great though.

State secondary here, both DCs have a full timetable of Teams meetings. All the kids have their microphone and camera off though which makes it easier for them, they use chat to talk to their teacher. Last time they started with workbooks which was dull, then moved to project based tasks which was stressful for a conscientious y7 (she did too much) then started having weekly calls with each teacher which was good to get her back on track. Both DC seem to be enjoying the Teams meetings, lets see how long they feel like that.

Does mean we've had to buy another computer for the DC since we have a DC at primary as well. Not a problem for us (got a MacBook Air in theJohn Lewis sale) but obviously much harder for other families. And even with headphones they all want to be in different rooms .

Yr11 DD has full teaching every lesson, following usual timetable.
Yr8 DD (different school) following full timetable. Every lesson starts with teacher introduction, some are teaching the whole lesson some are setting work to be done independently away from the screen. Both types of teaching require work to be uploaded to their school platform for marking / feedback. Haven’t had a lot of feedback yet but I think that’s fair considering they’re finding their feet with it. Didn’t have this in the first lockdown.

Seems to be as close to the timetable as they can get it.

I'm relieved, dd really suffered from the total lack of contact and regular stimulation from the first lock down.
She's much happier having a full day, seeing the teachers, learning, working, interaction with friends.

Research ftom the EEF shows that Pre prepared (Voice over PowerPoint for example) lessons with teacher presence for questions is more desirable. Firstly, I can think more about exactly what I want to get across and secondly students can pause and go back as many times as they like. Better for SEN, better for those with shared devices and less demanding of broadband in many homes. Online learning doesn't mean live.

phlicker we absolutely were carrying on through the syllabus. It was pretty laborious to prepare the materials so it was properly explained but my triple sets came through it remarkably unscathed and up to speed. Lower ability sets got through far less but actually our big drop off academically with the less keen kids was during this term. Huge problems with unexplained absence and a sort of learned helplessness in the face of any attempt at catch up. Year 9 were particularly listless.

Sorry that should be last term. As a school we had very few kids isolate but lots just not coming in.

www.tes.com/news/how-do-remote-learning-well-ofsteds-7-top-tips

educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/best-evidence-on-supporting-students-to-learn-remotely/

Sorry, that was laborious, but I kn ew I'd be asked for evidence!

Just worksheets, some PowerPoint, YouTube videos.

No live lessons
No pre recorded lessons
No check ins
No human interaction

Ours are doing full class live but no pictures on. So PowerPoint/ voiceover/ q& a and instant messaging.

I would find it hard I need to be in the room I get distracted on work meetings where it's just PowerPoint and listening and I'm not having to contribute.

This style of learning is better than nothing obviously but still suit some children more than others.

Sorry but "dumped on us without warning", "none of are trained on Teams". You've had months to know this could have been coming.

Your school and your attitude is seriously lacking.

About 2/3 live, 1/3 work set via homework platform.

It seems about right. Live lessons all day long are exhausting for everyone and teachers will have to look after critical worker / vulnerables in school too so 100% live seems unrealistic.