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.

just checked guidance on a dfe.gov site sorry op are you in Scotland? irrelevant if so I guess, but here
When being taught remotely, your child’s school is expected to set meaningful and ambitious work each day in several different subjects. Schools are expected to provide remote education that includes either recorded or live direct teaching and should be of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school. As a minimum that is:

3 hours a day for Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2 when pupils are aged between 5 and 7)
4 hours a day for KS2 (years 3-6 when children are aged between 7 and 11)

@mynameisigglepiggle you've never tried teaching, have you?!

@GuyFawkesDay no I haven't and hats off to you if you are a teacher. You've more patience than me.
It seems to work with my DC school though so that's why I genuinely asked.

@mynameisigglepiggle that is exactly how we taught at my college before this latest lockdown: half the students were in class and half were at home but logging in remotely. It was tiring but possible and in my book, easier than producing two separate lessons/ sets of resources.

[quote lightand]@MissClarke86
I appreciate this doesn’t suit you, but it does have to suit the best interests of the school -

And there we have it.[/quote]
Sorry? You know full well I meant suit the best interests of the majority of children and families in the school.

But If that doesn’t suit your lazy teacher narrative I apologise.

I was under the impression that DFE guidelines were for there to be three hours of 'live' teaching per day?

@ChloeDecker *Your school started today yet you have been complaining about only getting worksheets and PowerPoints before today, on lots of these types of threads. Your schools have been doing extra before they were required to.

Technically it’s only been a day with full remote not expected until the 18th.

It’s not reasonable to compare that with the guidance that has been set in England since last week*

Are you a MN stalker? Am
I supposed to remember you?

We got told a few days ago what the plans were so yes, like many others, I have expressed my frustration and anger about that.

Is there some kind of rule to keep quiet until the 18th?

Our schools are not doing anything extra. This is the plan. It's not going to change. This is it.

You are being a bit weird about my posts.

We aren't doing live lessons at my primary school because many parents don't have enough devices for one per child and one for each parent who is working from home. If parents are tied to a timetable that can also make doing their own work difficult. A lot of our parents have said that they prefer the flexibility of prerecorded videos which they can watch at a time that suits them.

I had 17 children in class today and spent most of the day teaching them. My TA covered the class for an hour so that I could video lessons for tomorrow.

That gave me lunchtime to mark some of the books from the morning lessons and to give feedback to some of the children working at home.

After school, I adapted some PowerPoints that I've made for class because children working at home need more questions and explanations so that the PowerPoints will make sense without a teacher; uploaded the videos to YouTube (it's turned out that each video takes quite a while to upload); uploaded each of tomorrow's lessons onto our learning platform (each lesson needs an explanation, video link, PowerPoint, pdf for those who can't open PowerPoint and sometimes extra resources to help) and then marked all the work that children working at home submitted. That took until almost 7 o'clock at which time I decided to call it a day and leave work.

I've got 2 sets of books that I didn't have time to mark (children who were in school) but I'm planning on getting into school at 7 tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have time to get set up for the day and to get up to date with that marking before children start to arrive at 8.30.

I honestly get how hard it is for parents . I know that so many are finding it exhausting and stressful, and I thank my lucky stars that my own dd is old enough to be left to get on with it herself. But we teachers are doing our best. I'm completely knackered too (about to head for bed) and really don't think I can do any more.

duckme
From the DfE:
When being taught remotely, your child’s school is expected to set meaningful and ambitious work each day in several different subjects. Schools are expected to provide remote education that includes either recorded or live direct teaching and should be of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school. As a minimum that is:

3 hours a day for Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2 when pupils are aged between 5 and 7)
4 hours a day for KS2 (years 3-6 when children are aged between 7 and 11)
5 hours a day for KS3 and KS4 (secondary school up to age 16)
Those hours include both direct teaching and time for pupils to complete tasks or assignments independently.

Oak Academy is recorded direct teaching.

@duckme

I was under the impression that DFE guidelines were for there to be three hours of 'live' teaching per day?

No. The guidelines are for 3 hours of work set at KS1 and 4 hours at KS2 (this is bonkers) and 5 hours at secondary.

Some of this should include explanations using high quality resources which could be pre-recorded videos by teachers, live lessons or links to Oak Academy/bitesize etc.

There is no mandate for live lessons at all.

My year 5 dc is having 3 live sessions per day and it has been a godsend. During lockdown1 the provision was truly rubbish - they made no contact with the children at all, not even a phone call and received many complaints... Luckily, things have been sorted out this time and my dc has an hour of maths and then an hour of English in the morning and a session in the afternoon. Parents are sent the plan and work to print ready for the lessons. We also have to submit completed work (on purple mash) and feedback is being given.

op's issue is that her year 6 dc isn't getting anything like what the dfe say

Why then can't teachers teach online and the key worker class at the same time.

In my school and in my DC's school the key worker classes are bubbles of two year groups mixed together.

My dc's teacher is teaching the class online and the key worker kids at the same time. It's working really well so far.

DS is Year 2 and we aren't getting enough work and its not differentiated enough, and no attempt to make it possible for them to do any task independently. Its hard work. Its hard for the teachers too as they are teaching a full day in school as they have so many kids in, but it will create a big gap between those in school and those not. For my son, not such a big deal as he was meeting agreed related expectations anyway. For the kids already struggling its really bad.

My DCs school is recording the lesson being given in school for English and subjects such as RE, Geography, French, so 2-3 are put up everyday. At the end, the teachers set the work and he gets on with it. Some videos last 20 minutes, other nearer 50. In addition, we get White Rose Maths to do everyday, and worksheets for art and PE. We are also still getting ‘homework’ in the form of a half termly project, spellings, times table practice and a skills sheets. We are expected to test the spellings and submit the result. He is Yr3 easily working for 3-4 hours per day.

For my Reception age child, we have a topic-based activities grid and a key skills sheet to choose an activity from each day. His teacher then a recorded video of the phonics and Maths lessons each day (15-20 mins each), together with a task to complete, and recordings of the daily story. We are also supposed to get them to read daily and to play a phonics game from a pack we were given. In total, this probably takes 2 hours.

I think teachers really are in a rock and a hard place for primary. A lot will depend on resources, demographics, number of key workers, size of school etc. Our offering is I think very good but it is intense and no live lessons.

I’ve got a reception aged child and I’ve compared with my friends and the provision is very different.

School 1 quite deep learning of new material, no live lessons but recorded inputs. Curriculum being followed but high degree of parental input required.

School 2: expecting 6h school day to be followed with lots of activities and online games but not much actual teaching of new concepts.

School 3: 4 challenges a day with a challenge being something like read a book, what a white rose video.

All of those arrangements, school 3’s feels much easier to manage but school 1 will probably get the kids to a more advanced stage. I’d find school 2’s approach impossible.

@Tiquismiquis

You are so right, teachers are between a rock and a hard place and it’s bloody exhausting. I’ve been recording 3 x 20 minute or so inputs (phonics, maths, something else) of new learning for my year one class every day along with optional extras. It roughly amounts to the DFE expectation of 3 hours a day. Feedback I’m getting from lots of parents is it’s too much. I obviously tell them what to focus on and not to worry about the rest but still have to fulfil my obligation to provide 3 hours which our school are insisting on.

It’s causing pointless hours of work which could be better directed to high quality feedback/well-being calls etc.

All this has been caused by the government’s complete and utter resistance to work with schools to make a plan. Instead a shitty and impractical plan is imposed on schools at 10pm to be implemented the next day (not joking here).

@ElizabethP141 the way teachers have been treated is beyond a joke.
I've found out today that there's so much process involved in learingin, its not just "write a poem" or do a worksheet any more is it. lots of parental input required for my year 6, lots of jargon unfamiliar learning words for me and lots of stages to an end result. sigh. I must do better.

my point is that now teachers are having to use parents as their conduit it adds a whole new level of difficulty for teachers.

Feedback I’m getting from lots of parents is it’s too much.

Same, KS1. I record an English video of about 15-20 minutes which they can pause to do the activities. Probably takes about 45 minutes overall. Then they have a maths video which is usually about 10 minutes but with the activity will take 45 minutes all in all. I add a topic lesson which will take about half an hour, then I try to fill the rest with online activities, reading, PE activities, project ideas etc.

Most of the families are saying they can only manage the English and Maths. Even my most dedicated parent says she completes the 3 main activities in just over 2 hours and that is more than enough for her.

Full days of live learning would be just awful from my perspective as a primary teacher and parent. I had a day working from home yesterday instead of at school. I did school work from about 7-10 am, then spent around 2 hours with my own DC helping them with their work, during which time we got most of the set work done. DC1 had a 30 minute Teams lesson too. Then I had the whole afternoon and early evening to complete my work, so it was manageable for me and them. The Teams was not great for us. DH teaches off Teams and it would only work if both he and DC1 had their cameras turned off. We (supposedly) have super-fast broadband too. I feel sorry for families with multiple kids doing live lessons all day.

I should add, I finished my own work in the evening after the DC were in bed. It is impossible to pre-record lessons with them around as there is no telling when an argument will break out!

Well for all of you who think that teachers are doing not very much I have been working all day and am now just off to bed. Online is far, far harder than a room filled with 30 kids.

@doctorhamster

Ours isn't either. The reason they've given is safeguarding. Other schools seem to be managing though so I'm not sure I buy that!

Safeguarding?! Wth?! I can't even get my head even slightly round that one

@Hardchoices

Shocked at some of these schools. Scotland state primary here. Every class, including the p1s are getting at least 2 one hour live lessons a day.

Gosh, I wish! My DD is in Year 1 (almost 6 years old) and gets two 10 min sessions per day and that's only if someone sees your request to join the call and allows you in!