My brain can't comprehend no school until September.

[Whatsername177]

I'm a secondary teacher and HOY. I'm not arguing about the reasons why schools are closed - they are closed to save lives and I agree. I realise I am lucky and safe. I am very grateful to those on the front line. But, I'm struggling with the fact that I can't do my job properly. Im struggling accept that this is it until September. I feel so low about it all.
I teach a practical subject, but I can't teach it online. Because Ireland closed their schools first, we had a bit of warning that it would happen here so I cobbled together a theory booklet that would last two weeks until the Easter holidays. At that point, I thought we'd go back. Now that we aren't, I've spent the last week creating a project I can deliver via google classroom for after Easter, which should hopefully be fun as well as educational and doesn't rely on resources they might not have. I've created video explanations as well as written instructions to help parents and pupils with SEN. I've developed a way to assess it and make it meaningful. I'm not allowed to teach 'live'. Not all kids can have the family computer for the whole day so it needs to be pre recorded so that they can access it when convenient. There have been a range of complaints from worried parents, some who have declared the work too easy and some who feel their kids have been inundated. I'm trying to find a balance, but it is hard to keep it simple enough to follow but also allow brighter kids to be stretched. It is also way more time consuming than teaching properly.
My lovely GCSE lot have been thrown into turmoil and missing 3 months for my yr 10s will have a massive impact. I rang my key kids yesterday and they all sounded so bewildered and are already missing their friends and fed up of sitting at a computer. Usually, I could put something into place to help these kids when they struggle, but all I could do was tell them to hang in there. I miss my colleagues and I miss my job.
And this is it, until September. Except for the few days I am allowed to go in to teach key workers kids. Teaching through a screen. But not really teaching my subject, just a variation of it.
I have two children of my own and I'm grateful that I get to keep them home and safe. I know this post seems silly. I will never wish for a snow day again.

Theres my pathetic moan. I've got it out. Please feel free to virtually slap me. I just needed to get it out somewhere and have no one to talk to in rl. My parents are both super high risk and have letters from the government. My dh isnt a teacher anymore and doesnt get it.

Let go

Let go?
I'm not allowed. I'm working from home - we have to set work, mark work, plan a catch up curriculum etc. I can't just stop. I'd get sacked. Emotionally, maybe I could think 'sod it' and try not to be bothered by it, but I'm clearly not very good at that. I love my job, its frustrating that I can't do it.

To a Teacher from a Parent, thank you for caring so much. I reckon they'll be back May to late for any cramming.
It is up to the Parent to educate for a few months, I think most parents are realising how hard teaching is.

Promise you they will be very behind the private schools that are still providing almost full time teach provision via VLEs. It won’t be everyone in the same boat. Also for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds where expectations are low and parents have low levels of education - Where they might be struggling to eat properly - they will be extra impacted as they always are.

To the poster who suggested home educating. I’ve 3 secondary school kids - partner is NHS and is moving to work in critical area so not likely to be home for several weeks now and I’m working full time from home. So when am I doing this exactly?

It's not pathetic. You're a teacher, educating children is what you do. Now you can't do that you miss it and you're worried about the education of your charges. Seems like a totally logical response to me actually.

If pathetic is caring about the kids and feeling upset at losing that connection and worrying for them... you're in exactly the right profession for being "pathetic" and the fact that you care is really really appreciated.

DD1's teacher is really doing her best to engage the kids with just random chit-chat and photos of the class pets and commenting on the drivel they all come out with on google classroom and it's probably the little touch of normality that DD1 needs right now. She doesn't need reams of worksheets - she needs her network of friends and adored teacher and those connections. From a teacher I really didn't like at the start of the year (not that it matters to the kids which teachers I personally like or dislike) - she's shot right up in my opinion with how she's kept the emotional side of being a teacher up at long-distance with a shitty internet connection.

Indeed for the school in the area that's viewed as being the "crap" one (it doesn't pressure cook the kids to cram through SATs so gets lesser results than the very loud academy chain) - it's done fantastic keeping the kids out of school engaged with those IN school as part of a community.

I’m not saying you should stop but the world won’t end because you aren’t teaching them for four months. That’s all.

According to our local council they seem to think it won’t be September.......or at at least according to the transportation division when I asked about a refund on the bloody expensive travel pass that I forked out for last August for the whole year instead of buying per term which although was more expensive would probably have worked out cheaper.......

Dh is expecting it to be September as the peak where we are is thought to hit in April. His school (primary) are doing planning regardless but trying to make it possible to do both online and in class. They're doing things like working with the local library to put together on line stage level reading group accounts. Chrome books have been given to kids without the kit . They've set up FaceTime groups and individual chats. He's worried about his vulnerable kids but there's only so much they can do.

I teach and assess BTEC full time science in an FE college. Exams have been cancelled but we have yet to find out how sampling of learners' work will happen or not this year for certification. Only completed units can be sampled. There are none. We focused on mandatory exams for January sitting. Therefore we have 5 incomplete units which could have been sampled but can complete none via distance learning. Think " carry out titrations, DNA profiling, genetic crosses using Drosophila" . No guidance yet from Pearson and we are trying to complete theory without the accompanying pracs online. I feel completely overwhelmed.

I think it's possible they will move GCSEs and A levels to July for the next 2 years to give an extra couple of months study - would that make sense?

I teach a practical BTEC and even though we have competed units how can they sample them? Their folders are in college, which is closed and the buildings locked, while the teachers are at home with their own children! Plus there’s completed video work on the college system which we can’t access from home and it definitely didn’t all get uploaded to the right folders before we left because they never do it right!

I'm so glad you have posted this. I'm really struggling with ds and everything you have written is how I'm feeling. He needs the learning support assistant. He's already only likely to get GCSE grades 1-3 and this long gap will be catastrophic for him. His friends are working independently and at good speed but he's literally only done a few pieces of work and clearly doesn't understand what he was doing

Can I ask secondary teachers, will you be bothered if the kids come back having not done the work you’ve set?

My oldest is Year 7 and a lower achiever. The work he’s come home with is not differentiated - some of it is to be done by all students Year 7 to 9. There’s no way he could do it without a lot of input from me and I have 2 other kids to deal with. My life is so much easier when I can plan the same work for him and his brother to do. So we have been doing loads of work but none is set from school. I’ve got it from Twinkl or made my own worksheets. How is this likely to go down with his school?

Michaelbaubles

Ditto. Lots of hand drawn graphs etc are still in college in their files. There seems to be some clarity with GCSEs but BTEC is not clear at all. We have second years with university places and no way of completing their units at all and no clue as to how to award their grades to claim certificates. They don't do A levels alongside their BTEC as its the extended diploma.

@Kitsandkids I wont be bothered in Yr 7,8,9 take a relaxed approach or don't do it. Yr 10 I will.

I know a PP commented that all children will be in the same situation but they won't. Those at private school are getting full lessons albeit differently, those with motivated parents with access to technology and a high speed broad band connection whose parents are either capable of assisting with school work or know where to go to for help will achieve lots of what they should have learnt at school at home. Those children whose parents cannot afford the right tech and/or who don't care about their childrens education and/or have mental health problems and/or have a difficult home situation and/or have other reasons for not being able to help or supervise their children will do little or nothing and will come back very behind. It is not a level playing field!

I totally get how you are feeling OP- And I get why you have said September- our HoD has told us to plan for a full term's worth of work being done at home. If we go back sooner, that will be great!

I teach science, so they are missing out on practicals- they can catch up on the required practicals, but the practicals that we do to teach skills or because they're interesting probably won't get done, and that does make me sad, as the students tend to be more engaged with practical work and it's often what gets people to love the subject.

I had just set up a science club last term as well and had about 20 keen Y7s and 8s coming after school, and all of that is lost and I really miss the students enthusiasm. We were going to do a dissection this week which I know so many of them were looking forward to.

I miss my Y11s (I had a Y11 tutor group as well). They'd often make me laugh in the mornings, or laugh at me. I'm in touch with some of them via email, but there's also some I am worried about. I will be really upset if there is no chance to say a proper goodbye to them.

Most of my Y10s seem to be working really hard at home. A lot of them seem to "get it" that they cannot take a term off at this stage- but I am worried about how this will impact them long term. And there's about 15% of them who are doing nothing, and this does really worry me.

I wish we had had more warning from the government- instead of a massive U turn in a week. It would have been more time to prepare the kids emotionally, and more time to set up online learning for them.

I think it's really normal to feel this way when your whole daily routine has changed, and when you've gone from interacting with 100s of people a day to