year 6 class not getting any remote teacher support - what are the teachers doing all day

[anyname147]

My ds is in year 6 and has been at home, like most of his peers, these last few weeks. The (state) school has not offered much in the way of remote learning assistance to the kids or parents who are helping them, other than a few links on a page on their website which has remained static for several weeks. In spite of having to work full time, I am not a teacher, but have managed to cobble together some learning stuff for ds to do at home, but this is with zero help from the school. I understand some teachers are still working at school because of the key worker children etc, but surely the vast majority of staff are at home? What are they doing all day if they are still on the payroll? Surely a 10 or 11 year old can be sent homework tasks - that's actually marked - or weekly links to relevant year group content? I understand the kids don't all have laptops, but virtually all households have email and at least one computer or smart phone or tablet. I just find it hard to believe that his school staff haven't risen to the challenge of continuing their pupils' learning and instead have literally abandoned them because they cant go into school. I have, on the other, risen very much to the challenge and look forward to helping my ds learn new things, but this has come (time-wise) at the expense of my job.

Rolling around in tax payers money is one of my favourite hobbies

I bet the OP's child has heard the comments about taxes and is quite ready to pass it on to his teachers.

Another teacher bashing thread. Yawn. The irony of teachers paying their own wages through the tax they pay. Thanks for highlighting this.

@TellMeWhoTheVilliansAre - An excellent post. You summed everything up brilliantly, thank you 🤜🏻🤛🏻

OP - Parents like you ( and words fail me which is probably a good thing on this occasion ) are the very reason why I salute and respect teachers immensely.

Thank you to all the teachers out there ... I can’t begin to imagine how frustrated you must feel sometimes ..

My y6 child has had nothing other than rock star maths. They've had extra tuition (paid for by us) for the last two years to get through their sats. I've ended up paying for an online learning course so that they can keep some level of learning up. Obvs it's the holidays at the moment so we are mainly in the garden but I don't think they'll have anything set afterwards.

Ok so some people say that the kids and teachers needed a two week break before the Easter holidays? Why? No one else gets a free break. I need and my DS needs structure in the day, and a sense of normality during the school term which means spending some time each day doing some school work. Having an extra two week holiday is extremely counterproductive for all parties. And when I say spend some time - I mean an hour or two. Then they can spend the rest of the day doing whatever hobby or activity they so chose. Yes I know there's all manner of links/resources out there to tutor kids - but these take up a lot of my time - planning the content, marking work etc. My maths is not strong so I would value a teacher's input in this area. I am glad to hear that there are some schools out there that are taking their roles seriously. And for the record, in addition to my full time job, I have 3 DCs to care for as a single parent, and an elderly parent. We are all busy with extra stuff, not just teachers. Lastly - the comment that teachers need time to prepare all the lesson content for those kids at home - isn't this a straightforward exercise of putting the off-line stuff up online? Surely all the lesson planning should have been done in the holidays or at some point prior to the lessons happening? I would imagine most of the material is in the form of online links/worksheets etc which could rapidly be put up on their website or emailed out. Lots of other schools have managed to do this so I find it hard to accept any excuses on this front. The private schools have largely managed to sort all this out but then that's because they are run like businesses and have to justify parent's fee costs (to good effect largely). I cant speak for all state schools, but I do feel let down by my DS's.

I’ve got no idea what the teachers at dds primary are doing because they haven’t communicated with me at all. A couple of maths worksheets appeared on the school website on the first day school was closed (worksheets lifted straight from Twinkl) and nothing since.

Dd2s secondary on the other hand, have been brilliant. I’m not understanding why some schools are managing it and some aren’t to be honest. I think there needs to be some kind of blanket policy so that we all know where we are.

Teachers pay taxes too

I wouldn’t teach in schools if the choice was that or work in a chicken intestine factory. I couldn’t deal with bell 🔔 ends like the op.

I’m a teacher (SEN, so in as normal) and although a bit surprised at the fact we had only one email with links to Twinkl and sumdog, am hopeful that more will be sent after Easter. My DS is staying with his dad while I am at work and this is ongoing - his dad has a very busy WFH job anyway so I think the fact not much is required is probably a good thing. Like a PP said, most kids will be coming back at the same stage unless they have a very dedicated teacher type SAHP to oversee the work. 2-3 hours a day max (including things like Scratch or baking or PE) is a realistic target when working 1:1 with a child. It’s not home school, it’s a diet version.

I hear all you teachers out there who have been incredbibly busy and diligent - that's great. But I have not had any such diligence from my DS's school coming our way. I am not - repeat not - `bashing teachers'. That's completely absurd. And no I dont expect my DS to be a rockets scientist by the end of the week - that's ridiculous. What I do expect is some remote teacher input in his life as for all I have had back and know from his school - all the staff are alive and well and still working, but we have seen no evidence of this.

anyname147

Surely all the lesson planning should have been done in the holidays or at some point prior to the lessons happening?

The unpaid holidays?

Perhaps you should contact the school and tell them you're paying the teachers with your taxes and they're not giving you value for money.

but surely the vast majority of staff are at home?

Teachers in most schools are taking it in shifts, planning, making it accessible for all children, and you know looking after and teaching their own child... like you.

My maths is not strong

So it would be no good sending you my lesson to ‘teach’ your child from as you have just admitted yourself you’re incapable of doing so.

I love your idea that lessons are just worksheets and things that can simply be uploaded. Lessons are all planned to include teacher input, peer group work or partner work which is often practical using mathematical resources for example, before they get on to actually recording anything. It's not as simple as just uploading what you would have handed out in the classroom, OFSTED don't look favourably on lessons like that.

My year 6 DC has had the same experience OP. The link to the year 6 resources consisted of 'finish the SATs workbooks' and 'think of some topics to explore'.

I had assumed that year 6 pupils had covered most of the curriculum at this stage and that the next few weeks was to focus mainly on revision. I have been considering looking at the year 7 curriculum to see if my DC can start some reading. I'm not sure what else to do really .

There seems to be a a big gap between what some schools are offering year 6 pupils in the way of guidance/ online teaching.

Y6 - inner London state primary school.

We had a pack of workbooks to take home just before schools closed, then we get an email every morning with a video, a maths exercise, and English exercise and one other subject a day. Plus links to videos and online resources. All work to be photographed/scanned and emailed back for marking and comments - which arrive back very promptly.

Throughout Easter, there is a daily email with a different member of staff setting fun optional projects on a different subject and links to good lectures and videos by museums, musicians, artists etc.

Also had an email to say a new pack of workbooks will be sent out next week for after the holidays.

The school has also made all their resources available to any other school who is struggling to set work.

Can't fault the teachers or the school - unfortunately DD is not quite as enthusiastic as the staff

I should also say my DC only had a couple of pages to complete in the workbooks which took an hour.

Crikey. Thank goodness you’re not a parent in my school. I’m afraid you come across as extremely entitled with little understanding of the enormous impact that the last few weeks had on schools. I’m sure your child’s school are preparing for the new term and will be in touch when term starts. Believe me, catering for home learning is a little more complex than just emailing what the teacher had planned for anyway, for goodness sake.

I’m a teacher- been to the hairdressers, manicure/pedicure, clothes shopping, lovely meals out and just had all my family and friends over for.a BBQ. All paid for with your taxes

Not really I’ve been in school during my Easter hols looking after key worker kids, whilst caring for my own children and setting lots of work ready for next week.

If it helps anything your Y6 cherub will be doing right now he will be re-doing in Y7 and prob Y8 too.

My school is open all Easter. The teachers could be voluntarily working on site all Easter.

For those who are lucky enough not to be needed on site- It’s not a free break, a break; Yes, other than home preparation that might be done. A free break? Nope we don’t get paid for Easter.

I would imagine most of the material is in the form of online links/worksheets which could rapidly be put up on their website

Eh?! You would imagine wrong. I'd be given my P45 in a flash if 'most' of the work I set my pupils was an online link or a worksheet. Pretty much none of it is. Lessons are interactive, collaborative, pupil-led, based on current pedagogy and best practice. In other words, completely incompatible with online distance learning and certainly not something that could simply be converted to an email attachment with 2 days notice, which is all we had before the schools closed.

Schools need time to get organised. Granted some are doing it faster than other, particularly (as you pointed out) in the private schools. Maybe something to do with the fact that all pupils are required to have a personal laptop or tablet and they already have online platforms for setting work?

Please relax.

Putting a worksheet online isn’t going to help children to learn new stuff- it needs to be taught, somehow. It’s this bit that takes ages. It took me 4 hours to prepare and upload a 1 hour lesson the other day (including making a different version for children with additional needs), as trying to teach Shakespeare without children in front of me is a real challenge.