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.

Our school didn't do a huge amount before the holidays but I think they probably needed those two weeks to work out what to do after Easter. If all your lesson planning is based on face to face it is probably a huge job to redo it for distance learning especially if you don't really have any experience of teaching that way.

I don't think a few weeks off is a disaster, let them start again after Easter properly rested.

I would imagine most of the material is in the form of online links/worksheets etc

Yeah, that's exactly what lesson planning involves!

To turn a taught lesson in an online lesson isn't quite as easier has just binging some worksheets online. It will need explaining, new concepts taught etc. And most teachers will have never done remote teaching before so it takes longer than planned.

To do a video lesson or a screen grab recording and put it all together takes time.

It's the Easter holidays now, as has been pointed out. If your child's teacher hasn't provided work for the 2 weeks since schools closed that is something to discuss with the school, not to start a thread wondering what teachers are doing all day.

@Smellbellina @Itstheprinciple worksheets/an actual teacher marking work etc would at least be better than what's currently happening=zero. Even some relevant links to other websites would have been a start.

@FrippEnos `unpaid holidays' - I dont follow you - I thought teachers planned lessons in advance - whether in the holidays (and I didn't mean the teacher holidays) or not. This is what I meant.

@babbi `words fail me...salute & respect teachers' - Well that's a massive assumption that I dont respect teachers. I have issues with my DS's school, not the individual teachers whom I have no problem with. My DS has had no input from his school for weeks and isn't likely to for the forseeable - why is that such a crime to be upset about? Kids - at this time - need to be engaged in learning/routine for their sake and their parents. I dont believe it's unreasonable to enquire why there's so many schools out there that haven't literally closed down to all but key workers' kids overnight, especialy as everyone has access to the Internet.

Judging by the comments from other parents - I am obviously not the only one in this situation.

Since you have "risen to the challenge" so admirably, have you thought about homeschooling when the lock down is over. I bet your kid's teachers would very supportive

all the teachers are alive and well

Death would be an excuse then. Charming.

I thought teachers planned lessons in advance - whether in the holidays (and I didn't mean the teacher holidays) or not.

not sure what you think the difference is between holidays and teacher holidays?

The 2 weeks that schools were closed, I worked 8 = 5.30 every day setting work, responding to any queries on Google Classroom, ignoring my own children. At the weekend I planned ahead for my Departments classes so that not too much was 'taught' and I reshuffled Schemes of Work to enable us to revisit and teach in September. And since then I've been on holiday. I'm in a vulnerable group, so I couldn't go in during closure but I've more than made up my hours. I'll start planning again next week, thought I'd just take the one week off this holiday.
OP, the school will have been co-ordinating their approach and trying really hard not to overload pupils with work to do at home. Some can't access it.

anyname147

You are unhappy about teachers allegedly not working whilst being paid and quite happy for them to work when they are not.

Can you not see the hypocrisy?

Well, I’m a yr6 teacher. I have deliberately set very little for the Easter holiday. I expect my class to keep reading, keep on with their maths online stuff and relax. We were working incredibly hard with SATs as our goal- work set during Christmas and half term, regular work all year. Now there will be no SATs so the poor little toads May as well have an Easter break (certainly not what I’d planned back in February).
As for me, I’m sewing scrubs for my local NHS workers, cooking meals for my family and researching for the hell I’m going to prepare my class for transition to secondary school, finish the science curriculum and hand over all the information needed by the new schools.
Is it ok that I do that: given I’m actually on holiday?

I'm a teacher and I think the work you have been given sounds pretty poor - it might improve after the holidays. Of course you don't know if any members of staff are themselves sick. I think expecting marking at primary level is unreasonable. Secondary dc are more likely to have their own devices for communicating with teachers so online work is easier.

Well it's not as simple as putting lesson plans online. I don't know about your school but where I work we are heavily discouraged from using textbooks/worksheets and mainly create resources that only really make sense in the context of the lesson. One lesson might only require a timer on the board, for example, which is no help whatsoever to anyone else. So teachers could well be creating resources from scratch. Also, while I am on mat leave currently, I know that my school has told teachers to avoid pressuring parents with too much work being set and to keep contact on parental terms so only responding if the parent gets in touch first. It seems very difficult to strike a balance between parents who want enough work to fill 6 hours a day and those who are panicking because their children are struggling to engage at home. Perhaps email the class teacher directly with your concerns/queries? They may have resources but have been told to hold back.

I'm secondary but...
In the couple of days notice we had that schools we're going to close we threw together a worksheet of general tasks for our subject area, one for KS3 and one for KS4.

That was meant to tide them over for the TWO WEEKS they have missed so far.

They are just now staring to be assessed on it. I imagine a lot of schools will not be doing this now as it is the holidays and will wait to assess until after Easter.

In the time since we have planned work for after Easter, which we have given them access to now. Again, I imagine some schools will wait until after the holidays.

You say the website hasn't been updated for weeks, which implies that they set some initial tasks/links/suggestions at the start of school closure and haven't set more since - exactly what we have done.

Work and assessment is a cycle, they do the work, they get assessed, they get feedback. In school we normally work on a three week cycle for in depth feedback, but we've shortened to two for this situation.

So in essence your problem is that they have not set enough work? Or that the feedback cycle is too long for your liking? They have only missed two weeks of school so far. One and a half in schools that started Easter earlier.

We all knew closure was imminent so made sure all of our year 6s had G suite accounts set up and introduced them to Google Classroom. For the two weeks before the holidays they were set daily maths, reading and English work which they submitted and received feedback on from their teachers, as well as weekly topic work. Being on Classroom means they are able to ask questions or comment about the work, and either teachers or their classmates can reply to help them out. Each class also held a weekly meet on Google Hangout.

As a teacher and a parent I can see your point. Some schools (state and independent) seem to have provided more opportunities for home learning than others. There could be many reasons for this - which online platforms the school were already using, teacher health, how many key worker children the school has to set up a centre for etc.
I was delighted with the educational provision from my daughters state school as she received daily tasks on google classroom which had to be submitted and were returned marked. This meant that I could focus on my job for a great deal of the day, supporting children in the school I work in. I hope that after the holidays all schools manage to set up an appropriate way of educating their pupils. It is no easy task as some of the other comments have explained, education is not about worksheets. Without a teacher to ‘teach’ and without pupils asking questions and learning from each other it is a challenging task. Also not all children have access to IT at home so we have had to try and identify them and create packs of work which we sent home.
My school have made it clear that the holidays are the holidays and no work will be set. I think this is important for the pupils as well as the staff.
I do appreciate your frustration but probably the best place to enquire is the school or your LA.

My sons school have just given us links to various educational sites. I was a little disappointed I’ll be honest, but I’m being extremely proactive myself now with home schooling so I’ve decided to just crack on regardless.

My daughters y6 teacher is in school all week looking after vulnerable and key workers children.

@tiredanddangerous that was part of the problem. There was no blanket policy and very little guidance from the government. We were told Thursday (I think it was) that schools were closing. We didn't find out who key workers were going to be until Friday and we were expected to have organised ourselves, staff, children, home learning by the following Monday. That's without thinking about FSM, wrap around care etc etc. The school I work in has a large, strong management team who were all present but I imagine if one or two of us had to self isolate or I taught in a much smaller school then things would have been very different.

Wow! Maybe you should become a teacher given how much better you clearly are. Or maybe accept that this is an unprecedented time, unless you know exactly what issues they are facing suck it up and stop sounding like a self-entitled child. Lots of us pay taxes and I loathe people who use that crap as a dig. Well done for paying, bravo. Let your son be a child and see what is on the school website when they are back. Stop complaining, your son is healthy.

Maybe they're, you know, helping out with those key worker children.... it's an unprecedented situation cut them some slack!

Yeah but she said she can’t be a teacher as, well she kinda implied that she’s not very bright. It’s probably frustration that’s why she’s so angry.

"They are all being paid with our taxes"

Why don't you phone the head and ask for their performance management documents so you can adequately assess the teacher.

I really really hope that teachers are having a well earned extra break. I know they won't be, but it would be lovely if they were.

Op - I don't want my y6 to do any extra school work. She's done far too much already. In the two extra weeks we've had, she's done loads of cooking, gardening, we've been on bike rides, walks, played board games. I haven't looked at the school work sent, sorry teachers.

If you want your kid to do work then it really wouldn't be difficult to find it.

Yab a complete bellend.

I’m another that’s been completed abandoned. I’m not a teacher I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. I’m not knocking them, it’s shitty and unprecedented. But the lack of any contact or work has shocked me. I’ve looked online and I’ve struggled to find relevant English stuff.

My year 6 child’s is struggling about the lack of work, they want to get up and do what’s set. But they did it in about 3 days.
I’ve not told them no ones goingto Mark it so what’s the bloody point.

It’s all really bloody difficult