My child’s primary school is not doing any online teaching

[Yandle]

My dd is in year 6. There are no online lessons with her teachers. We are sent links to the Oak National Academy website with tasks put on a very old fashioned database called “purple mash”.
After all my friends who have children at other local schools in my area, told me about their children having online lessons daily, I contacted the head at my dd’s school and asked if they would be doing online teaching.
The answer was a firm no.
The reason given was that the school has a large number of children who do not speak English as a first language.
I don’t think this is an acceptable excuse and I feel very annoyed that the school is using this as a reason. Surely the school should be doing MORE for these children?
My dd has been watching the videos & doing the very small amount of work set but I feel she is missing out (along with her peers) when my friends children are having live interactive teaching on Microsoft teams.
Is there anything I can do? I know I can’t make them teach online lessons but I can’t help thinking that other schools in my area who also have pupils who do not have English as a first language, manage to teach online. They obviously care more about their pupils.

@SansaSnark

Given the number of people complaining on here about online teaching, it feels a bit like schools are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

Exactly. Our school have had people complaining that they where expecting too much just with videos and tasks throughout the day!

Schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place and all they can do is work around what will work for their pupils best

Our primary isn't either

They've said hey can't facilitate owing to such high numbers of keyworker Children meaning all staff are going to be occupied with them.

We are keyworkers and send them in 3 days a week when we need to but I don't worry about the other 2 days to be honest

Ours isn't

No live lessons here either but that’s fine with me. Many families have 2 or more kids so do they all have access to a device to watch lessons on at the same time? Maybe not. Much easier for them to have work set which they can do when they are able, working round sharing devices or parental help etc

I think at a minimum schools that aren’t doing any live learning should at least be doing weekly class catch ups so the children have some interaction. They should definitely also be marking the work. It does seem some schools are really taking the piss, it doesn’t take the full set of staff to supervise key worker children and set a few worksheets designed by someone else...

Oak National is online teaching, and is specifically mentioned in the DfE guidance to schools as an example of it. The expectation is that some lessons are video lessons, and not necessarily live.

Ofsted have published a report today that live lessons are not necessarily the best way for a school to approach remote learning, and it should be led by the context of the school.

Oh and op, I don’t think it’s reasonable to say that those other schools care more about their pupils. This is a v difficult situation for all and I think schools are doing their best.

I asked the head today how many children were in school, the answer was 6 children.
The fact that some schools are providing interactive lessons and others aren’t means the gulf between poorer and better off children is widening.
My dd had no contact with her teacher last week. When I raised the no contact with the head I was told the teachers are very busy. But busy doing what? No online teaching, only looking after 6 children in school and just signposting all their pupils to Oak National Academy.
I know most teachers are working incredibly hard but I do wonder how some are getting away with very little. I am still expected to do my job full time from home and home school.

Scotland state primary here- nothing online either live or pre recorded. Just tasks set via teams and some email interaction.

Oak Academy is online teaching

You might be complaining about no live lessons, but Amelia’s mum doesn’t want live lessons because she has three kids and two devices. And Jack’s mum is moaning all over Facebook that the videos and tasks are too much and completely overwhelming.

I’ve literally just read a thread complaining about live lessons and asking why school can’t just email tasks.

Who should the school please?

Our school isn't and i support them in their decision. I've got 3 dcs and work full time, as does my dh. From what i can gather staff is reduced due to covid and the ones that are in are busy looking after far higher than expected up -take of key worker places.

Right now we can pick and choose, in between gaps in our work schedules, when to spend time doing one of the lessons with the kids. If it moved to live teaching there'd be no flexibility and 2 of mine are an age where they can't sort it out themselves, one of us would have to be free to supervise and give them our work laptops as none of our other devices support microphones.

Whatever they do they'll be vilified for it. That's how it seems.

I have to say, I’ve been so impressed with my school. All staff are in, very spaced. We have on average about 5 children in each class. Lessons are live (no cameras) from 9-12 then 1-2.30 everyday with maths/literacy/topic etc. All of these are recorded for those sharing devices. We have about 20/22 logging on every day- including the children in school who do the same lesson on a laptop.
It’s incredibly structured- our deputy head is obsessed with google classroom and it’s worked out well. We have had a lot of compliments.

[quote Fivemoreminutes1]**@H1978 KS2 Sats were cancelled last week.[/quote]
😳 must have missed this news, too busy worrying about dd2’s GCSEs. I’m glad to hear this.

I would suggest getting yourself an account with twinkl and downloading the relevant modules. It will have so much to keep her busy. I'm shocked that they are not offering anything but hopefully this would help you to ensure she is keeping up with her peers.

"In my school we looked at families and which year groups clashed with siblings in other year groups. In order to ensure each class had an hours live lesson would have meant that some teachers would be teaching at 5 o’clock at night!
We have 2 Teams meetings each day per class for catch ups. Everything else is online so children can access it at their convenience. This suits WFH parents much better."

While I appreciate your explanation, I don't think you understand the problems of WFH parents. A live lesson would give us something we could actually park kids in front of and maybe get half an hour uninterrupted. That's why we are in need of them.

Saying "This suits WFH parents much better." is frankly, a bit upsetting. I don't expect teachers to be teaching at night. Maybe live lessons aren't possible, but in that case I don't understand how some schools are managing to do it.
But don't tell me something suits me, or the other desperate parents in my WhatsApp group, better, when it doesn't.

That is totally shit. I would contact the governors etc. Our school wasn’t great first lock down. Massive improvement this time around. We also have kids with English as a second language. They are all participating. That’s very insulting of your school to make assumptions on their inability to learn over zoom.

Primary is doing some video content which is created by teacher and links to found content

No live

A lot of the day is Ds doing work on paper or screen

New concepts have to be taught - not sure what proportion should be this - but I prefer not to have live class room

Even one live interactive lesson with my dd’s teacher a day would help. It would give me one hour a day where I can actually get some work done. It’s impossible right now. I will admit to feeling very upset that me and my DH are both working full time from home and trying to teach our dd, while friends who are stay at home parents get to stick their kids in front of a laptop for three (and often more) hours a day with their teachers! This would save my mental health which at the moment is on the brink trying to hold down a job and home school!

We don't have any live lessons either, and I'm quite happy about it as I think it would be tricky to fit it in around mine and dp's work. We do have Oak Academy lessons - they are quite good I think.

You're all mad. There is NO gov. expectation for live teaching. None. My school isn't doing it.

Anything could be done with videos of teachers, anyone could record and abuse it.

@tinierclanger

"In my school we looked at families and which year groups clashed with siblings in other year groups. In order to ensure each class had an hours live lesson would have meant that some teachers would be teaching at 5 o’clock at night! We have 2 Teams meetings each day per class for catch ups. Everything else is online so children can access it at their convenience. This suits WFH parents much better."

While I appreciate your explanation, I don't think you understand the problems of WFH parents. A live lesson would give us something we could actually park kids in front of and maybe get half an hour uninterrupted. That's why we are in need of them.

Saying "This suits WFH parents much better." is frankly, a bit upsetting. I don't expect teachers to be teaching at night. Maybe live lessons aren't possible, but in that case I don't understand how some schools are managing to do it.
But don't tell me something suits me, or the other desperate parents in my WhatsApp group, better, when it doesn't.

There's no way I can "park" my child in front of a live lesson! He needs an adult sitting with him to keep him involved.

@Yandle I'd imagine most primary school teachers having their hands full babysitting key worker kids in school or their own if their WFH... Tell me how they're also meant to provide live lessons?

Sorry, what’s wrong with Oak National Academy?

It is the only place this government have actually funnelled money into when it comes to Education and I’m glad it’s getting some use.

I would absolutely hate live lessons for my primary aged child. Can’t work from home and do both.