Aibu to think private school provision at home can be done in state schools too?

[Namechangedforthisreply7]

Just that. Private schools are doing active live teaching via zoom, FaceTime and Skype. Full school days. Teaching via video link, then sending kids off to do work which they send back and gets marked, then another lesson. full school days of work. Even pe online! Parents don’t need to do anything and can get on with work.

State sector get home learning packs. No info about how to do bus stop division or similar technical stuff. Not heard from anyone at school since Friday, no information at all bar work timetable on website. Where are the teachers? Why are can state sector teachers not actively teach online and stay in touch with the kids? Why not more engagement? We are all having to work at home alongside our kids, why aren’t teachers doing this too?

[stayingaliveisawayoflife]

I have been in the last two days with key worker's children. Monday I isolated then sent home the child sat next to me and his sister with a strange cough and high temp. Yesterday we had two siblings also from my group not turn up. They are in self isolation showing symptoms. If they were a family member I would be now self isolating for 14 days but no I am back in.

We have not been doing online live teaching because we have been doing 30 reports for the children who did not get a parents evening this half term, we marked all their assessments and updated our tracking system so we could do this. I have not stopped and am at breaking point. But don't worry I have checked to see if any of my children have sent me work and posted a message up so they know I am thinking of them whilst trying not to think of all the exposure I am getting.

[ChloeDecker]

My husband is a teacher, as am I. He teaches is a private school, I’m in a stare school.
I’m teaching online lessons. My husband isn’t.
Do behave OP.

[Burplecutter]

My dd is in a state school. Year 1, we have been set full days of activities so far. Starts with YouTube pe, Joe wicks or similar, with links given. Then some pages from workbooks we've been provided. Activities to complete literacy and numeracy online tasks. Lots of other activities. It really is a full day of work. Very hard to keep up with while I'm working full time from home. But we are getting through it. The bus stop method isn't hard and if parents struggle with it then Google it. There's plenty of YouTube videos for all maths techniques. Get kids to Skype a friend to ask them how to do it.
It's a very hard time for teacher and my daughter's teacher certainly isn't sitting doing nothing. Developing these full day plans of activities will definitely be taking her a couple of hours to make sure it's all appropriate, plus she has her own children too, and she's in school looking after key workers children.
It's 3-12 weeks of their lives. The teachers will battle like mad go catch children back up after all of this is over. Cut them some slack and if not enough work is provided them parents can easily set some for their kids, there's plenty of ideas on the internet.
Get them to research something historical and film themselves presenting it to you, then you watch it. Work doesn't have to be marked by a teacher for children to learn.

[grumpypug]

What have teachers been doing? I'm a teacher, I'll tell you what I've been doing. We found out late on Thursday that school would be closing, the key worker list was released during the night on Thursday. All day Friday was spent ringing round parents, finding out their situations. Schools don't hold any of that information (parents jobs). We've sorted out over 200 free school meals, put food parcels together and delivered them to vulnerable families. We've delivered over 300 learning packs to homes, along with children's medication incase they need it if there's a shortage. We've deep cleaned the school and cleaned all toys the children will come into contact with and have put a plan in place to make sure they're kept clean. We've got a really robust rota in place which means key worker children should be able to be cared for even if half the school staff contract covid-19. We've worked all weekend planning activities for the key worker children to do whilst in school. We've listened to parents and children's fears and worries and tried as best we can to help. We've checked in with vulnerable families who don't meet the criteria for having a place (and we don't have the capacity anyway). We've tried to make as much info available on school websites, Twitter, instagram and other social media platforms. Teachers have made 'paid for' materials and websites free for parents and school staff to use. We've listened to shit from others who want to nitpick and suggest that teachers aren't pulling their weight. It has been less than a week since we found out schools were closing and we are trying to cater for every type of parent and family out there.

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

you just need an iPad/laptop and zoom - all our classes have those. No excuse?

& you wonder why some people comment you sound entitled??
If a state school is aware that not all pupils have access to wifi/laptop there is little point in doing stuff on zoom; whatever they have in the class, children at home need to be able to interact with it.
The percentage of private school pupils who do not have access to wifi and laptops/pcs/tablets at home is probably far less than state schools.

The poster above that said national TV has been used for lessons - that sounds a good idea.

[mistyrains]

I think the above highlight the issue(s) really.

Schools are doing things very differently. One of my friends is a teacher, has been told not to respond to any emails, to upload some work in the morning and essentially leave the children to it.

I don’t know what the answers are ... maybe the answer is just that home can’t replicate what goes on in schools. Personally I think project based work coupled with a lot of reading might be best.

[mistyrains]

To be fair every, most do.

[ChloeDecker]

All closed European schools are homeschooling online.

A lot of those countries are way poorer than the UK.
Not all of them are, no. Just like here. More bollocks being sprouted.

[ChloeDecker]

As in, not all European countries are homeschooling online ‘lessons’.

[FlamingoAndJohn]

To be fair, I’m not entirely sure that every state school is filled with starving children of heartless parents, and if they are, education is the best way out of it.

No. But every private school can assume that their children have access to a laptop or tablet.

We decided as a school not to go down online lesson route because we teach in an area of extreme poverty and the last thing we wanted to do at a time like this was to add to the stress of our parents that they needed a tablet or laptop.

[ChloeDecker]

we have even been told not to email/contact teachers or send in any work

Sensible in some cases. It’s currently just me in my Secondary department as the rest are sick. I couldn’t field 1600+ emails and mark work from other teachers’ classes, although I am still setting work for every single one of them, responding to those who are emailing despite the request, to fix their issues and often read what they have sent. I am also doing online classes through Teams to all the 10s and 12s (even the ones I don’t normally teach).

I am also attending school on a rota basis from today (have already been in all day Mon and Tues)

People (Parents) often never look at the bigger picture but very quick to have a dig/moan/bash.

Do you want your teachers to keep being a teacher when this is all over? Serious question.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

the teachers seem to have put the rest of the term's work online and disappeared (we have even been told not to email/contact teachers or send in any work). I am working my backside off for my work at home yet it feels as though teachers (apart from the few on rota to run the school for key workers' children) are now on holiday (or earning extra cash tutoring kids no longer at school. Ye fucking gods! They are at school, providing free child care for the children of key workers. Thats why they can't talk to you, reply to emails etc. Those packs were put together over a couple of days and nights, whilst still teaching your ever more panicked kids, with very little information on how long theu needed to cover for or what they would be doing the next day.

They did all of that whilst you were worrying about how you would work from home with your own kids...

They will be doing that without a break from now until whenever...

SOME Indy school teachers are doing all of that interactive stuff because they don't have key worker kids in, but many do!

Get a fucking grip!

[Italiandreams]

I think some of these comment demonstrate a lack of understanding of how teaching works. Particularly further down the school, I don’t talk at my class for 10 mins, send them off and they just complete the work. With a toddler I can reply to emails but I can imagine the complaints if I ( prob incompetently due to being distracted ) tried to teach live with him popping up! I do my work in the evenings when he is in bed. Working flexibly as directed by my head! Teachers are in unknown territory and trying to do their best, knowing the children and their home lives .

[Cherryade8]

I hope schools resume after Easter as planned. At the moment I'm trying to work and look after my kids, some teachers are tutoring OP, see if you can book one (bit immoral but most arent needed in schools so will come and teach kids if you pay).

[Italiandreams]

Luckily for me all parents that have contacted me have been fab! There is an all in this together attitude , and an understanding we are all in the same situation, working and parenting and juggling to do our best.

[Goatinthegarden]

I’ve been creating lots of online content this week, and actually, yes, I have been working at a slower pace than normal.....but, last week I sent home huge packs that I started cobbling together at 3pm last Wed...I continued working until 10 that night. Unable to sleep, I got up at 3am on the Thursday to keep going. I was simultaneously teaching that day and gathering things to go in the packs. Friday, we had to be out of our classrooms, not to return, so it was another whirlwind of teaching, admin and sorting. Then, I had a 7 year old child breaking his heart and sobbing because the reality of indefinite time at home for him is frightening. I haven’t slept properly since for worrying about him.

So, I’m going to take the couple of days of slow-paced respite that I’ve had, because from tomorrow, I will continue this work of putting resources out but will also be going to volunteer with key workers and vulnerable children. We will be voluntarily working through what we had expected would be our holidays. We don’t get paid for holidays.

Only 6 out of 27 children have been engaging with the online content and the majority of my kids are not impoverished. The average 7 year old does not have enough tech available to them to be consistently online. The parents also do not want their kids to be sat in front of a screen all day.

[schoolsoutforever]

I am doing more or less this at a state college. I don't want to use video because I have my own kids at home but I am live teaching via chat plus videos etc and feedback for every piece of work (plus helping my own children)

[Sceptre86]

State school kids will quite often not have the same resources as private school kids eg. a computer or laptop, or a quite place to study. My nephew is 5 and his state school have set up a timetable of work released online everyday. His mum is homeschooling and taking it all very serious. My dd is 3 nearly 4 and her preschool have just sent a link to some free websites. We are doing five to ten minutes of phonics a day, painting and playing whilst trying to keep her off the tablet on my days off. All schools are handling this differently.

[ittakes2]

I have one at private and one at grammar and I would agree. And it’s not to do with computer access - infact it’s the other way around. My grammar school child has a required laptop for school and my private school child usually uses school computers at school. Private school child has had two completedly full days including homework, while grammar school child not much. First day he was instructed to use this to organise his files! He’s in year 8 - not much filing needed.

[Guacamole]

My DS is in a state primary. He’s being set work, and it is being marked on google classroom. I’m quite proud of his school and the teachers and how they have responded to this. He came home with blank exercise books and a school pencil case. A list of usernames and passwords for various online learning activities.

[Angel2702]

That wouldn’t work in the majority of homes at the moment. There are five of us all trying to work from home, do school work etc and we do not have a computer or laptop per person. The internet would not support 4 or five people live streaming at the same time.

Our school is setting work on Google classroom which can be done online or on paper and sent via photo. Teachers are online all the time and you can see when they are looking at your work. They are sending messages to students and parents during the day and answering students questions straight away.

My 13yr old has paper packs and work set online. His TA has been emailing during the day and some of his teachers have called me. Definitely not just set work and disappeared.

[ChloeDecker]

ittakes2

Not to disbelieve you but are you sure? There isn’t something like a folder in the school shared area or VLE where the work has been set for all subjects but your DS hasn’t seen it? It’s just that there have been a few Facebook moans locally from parents saying this exact issue and then it turns out, from a parent also at their school (and this includes a Grammar, I’m in Kent) that work has been set, just not individually to each child via email or suchlike and the child has either not passed that on to the parent or didn’t know where it was.
In your situation, I would very much email your DS’s Grammar school and ask where the work is. There has to be work for him in some form or other, no question.

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

1/3 rd of my class (leafy village) have not logged to go on anything I have set online yet.
I'm spending my day setting work and responding to questions then giving feedback. We know that many of our parents discourage screen time while others don't have individual ones to allow full access.

[TwoleftUggs]

I have dc in years 7 and 10. Most of the 1500 students have iPads purchased through school and the iPads are fully loaded with useful school apps and ways to contact their teachers.
Both children are struggling this week. Each teacher seems to have just loaded the entire summer curriculum onto their subject page. It’s not broken down into any meaningful bitesize chunks and some of their teachers are not responding to any emails. So my children just see an absolute mountain of content and feel overwhelmed and stressed.
I know it’s the first week so hoping it will all be ironed out as the time goes on and their teachers start to organise it all. I imagine how stressful it must be for them trying to set work this way so for now am just trying to reassure kids that it will sort itself out.

Does anyone think or hope that there will be some adjustment made to next years GCSEs with current year 10s having to effectively teach a whole term to themselves. My dd is struggling most with the type of subject that benefits from discussion, like RE and English literature.

[IndecentFeminist]

Our local private school isn't doing that. But I would guess that the contract that paying parents have with the school might mean the school feels more impetus perhaps.

Also, I know that many of our pupils (state) barely have a pot to piss in let alone a high speed internet connection, laptop etc.