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.

Unfortunately, not all teachers are tech-savvy and even those that are have to follow guidance from SLT: "You can't use x software", "We don't have the technology/money for y software", "We need to make sure there's equality between the classes so some can't have loads and some none, so we need to wait until everyone's in a position to do z".

I know you're frustrated there's little work from school, I know I would be too (I'm going to have to try not to be "THAT parent who's a teacher" when DS starts school!), but reminding teachers that you pay their salaries through tax isn't helping anyone! It does feel a little like teacher-bashing, although I appreciate you didn't mean it like that.

Heads and SLT are the ones to direct your frustration towards, specifically those at your school if no work is forthcoming the whole time your son is off. I'd expect SOMETHING next term.

I am an A Level teacher in a college. For teachers we have been asked to literally overnight change the way we work to put it online. Lots of teachers use discussion, group work etc and that can't necessarily be done effectively at a distance. Our planning has to be changed and it takes time to transition. If teaching was meant to be online then there would be no need for kids to go to school. Our whole way of working has been flipped upside down and it takes time to adapt to that. I for one have been working flat out since the closures.

I'm not saying it's right that your child hasn't got work, but what I am saying is to cut the teachers some slack. It's hard enough knowing that our students won't have the opportunity to sit the exams we have worked so hard to prep them for and we now have to predict their grades and put them in a ranking order for their grades to be awarded.

My year 13s (and your year 6 child) have undoubtedly worked so hard this whole year to have the end of this academic chapter ripped away from them. No goodbyes to friends, no proms, no exams, no signed shirts..and that realisation is difficult.

On another note, with your child being year 6 it is likely that the teachers will be asking the high schools for 'bridging' work - work for them to do to prepare them for starting their new school. I have to prep some work for the year 11s (to become year 12 in September) so that they are better prepared when they start their A Levels. It is likely your child's school will be in communication with the high schools for this work. Remember it does need to be planned and then passed on and unexpected things like this take time to create meaningful and challenging work for different ability groups.

Its not holidays everywhere. Ours dont start until friday!
Son's group has only just been sent work. Not sure if they expect him to do it over easter.

@Beebie2 ok I am sorry for any offence caused. As I have clearly stated I am not a teacher - I dont know how schools work - probably in common with most parents. Happy to have stuff explained to me as you have done. I just wish my DS's school had done the same. Schools shouldn't assume parents know all of what you have just explained.

Excellent post by @arethereanyleftatall at the bottom of P4.

OP - I'm not sure why you think there is only a choice between 'teachers setting a full day's work for every pupil' and 'sitting doing nothing in front of You Tube all day'

There has been MASSES of stuff all over social media. Links to resources, links to websites, links to all sorts of help and ideas. There is BBC. There are links to museums and zoos, theatres, ballet. There is PE to do (admittedly on You Tube - but still really useful).

People have been sharing art stuff, science stuff, technology stuff. Downloads of audio books as well as books to read. I've seen all this without going out and looking for it (my dc re a different age group), whilst working from home, so it really isn't something you need to go searching for.

Sounds to me like you just wanted to be goady, without any concept whatsoever of what teachers have been doing.

@SallyLovesCheese ok fair point and sorry for any offence caused. I know you all work hard and really dont envy your job - I know I would be terrible at it. So please excuse my prior assumptions

I’ve had zero contact from school. DD (year 6) was sent home with a small pack of work (which many of her friends have completed). There is an online system but little has been added to it and what is on there is very basic.
What they have done is sent out the links to every single online resource there is, which is not that helpful (and to be honest, our school is not one where most of the parents would be able to use them effectively with no guidance).

I struggle to motivate DD to do any work (especially as she is aware chances are she won’t be going back). I think a small amount of contact, a phone call or a message would go an enormous way.
Our school is shit though.

Schools shouldn't assume parents know all of what you have just explained.

oh come on! You can't in the same paragraph state that you are struggling because you are not a teacher, and then play ignorance about the hard work to put things together!

The school job is not to babysit the parents. Instead of wasting time explaining the who, what and how, they are much better off preparing to teach and help the children.

I know all schools are different, but surely by the time your child reaches year 6, you had enough school reunions and teachers meetings to have a very vague understanding of the way schools work!

You make it sound like your child started school last month and it's all a brand new world. I know circumstances are exceptional, but seriously.

Our primary school has been shit too.

A list of links to random educational websites. I could have googled that myself.

Absolutely useless.

The Secondary school however, has perfectly followed the normal timetable and maintained delivery of all teaching. My older dd has had video lessons from each subject teacher during all of their usual timetabled lesson slots.

After half term just contact the school and tell them your concerns....

If there is something you don't understand or you need help with.. Just contact them..There's got to be a way to email or telephone someone..

@MamaBearOnLockdown - How the hell am I expected to know the best way to teach a child? How on Earth would I magically know the school's procedures and way of working around COVID-19? Parents evenings (which last only a few minutes) do not go into how lessons are taught.

@ChocolateCard sorry for your situation but it's good to know there are others who feel like me too. It really seems that secondary schools are way more geared up for virtual learning (thankfully).

When schools were closed in England, the expectation for them to provide teaching was suspended and they were repurposed for childcare, at least until the Easter break was over. Although very many schools have provided some sort of work, there is currently no requirement for them to do so.

Secondary teachers are currently spending what would be the Easter holiday working out what grades their Y11 and Y13 students should be put forward with (which involves more than just picking a random number or submitting their mock result). Meanwhile they're trying to ensure their Y10 and Y12 students will get some input to cover the massive amount of material in the GCSE courses all the while trying to work out which families need the school to provide laptops and/or wifi, food, childcare and even white goods. There's a fair amount of testing of different online platforms, video conferencing etc to see what works best for safeguarding students and teachers whilst also recognising that many teachers will have caring responsibilities at home so can't deliver lessons as usual and many students may not be in homes that make sitting in front of an online maths lesson for 90 minutes feasible.

Primary teachers don't have to assess the GCSE and sixth form work, obviously, but have the same issues in terms of laptop/wifi provision, food, safeguarding etc. as well as the added complication that most primary children are taught by the same person all day so there's little scope for recycling any content. Primary teachers are also trying to work out how best to deliver teaching to the younger and less independent children - we don't expect them to sit, listen and work independently for 90 minutes at school but realise that at home there may well not be someone on hand that can prioritise number bonds or phonics over the phone call their parent needs to make in an effort to salvage the family business. We also use a lot more in the way of physical resources in primary teaching but can't very well expect children to magic up unifix cubes, dice, sugar paper, whiteboards etc. in their homes.

After Easter, more of this will have been ironed out by schools and I expect the DfE will be clear about what it expects schools to provide. If you'd like your DS to have something more structured before then/as a back up, you could set him up with something such as Seneca for science (there's more too), Duolingo for the languages he'll do in Y7, look at the Literacy Shed and the Literacy Tree for English resources and order a copy of the book Maths for Mums and Dads to help you understand how we teach maths these days. CGP produce study books (avoid the SATs booster titles) and workbooks which might be useful for maths but I'd also recommend Maths on Target Y6 as each skill has worked examples at the top of the page.

@WotnoPasta yes sounds like you have the same problem then too. I completely agree - some form of teacher contact - even just weekly - would go such a long way.

@SE13Mummy thanks - that's very useful

Thank you to SE13Mummy for such a useful post.

Some excellent primary suggestions there that I’d not heard of before. Will look then out

What a bizarre thread.
OP you've said yourself that your DC has been given work for the last fortnight of term, you're just not happy with the quality of it (we can presume because you're comparing to different schools with different staffing and different cohorts).

The summer term hasn't even started yet so there's no grounds to be complaining or feeling disgruntled.

Maybe step back for a second and consider the school might actually be planning next term in a way that's best for their students.
Have you considered that whilst you're wanting Google classroom and others are talking about full online remote learning there are families who have to choose between food and electricity so having 4-5 hours of online schooling per child isn't doable?

Really I think you need to calm down, lose the silly comments about holidays/my taxes/what are they doing all day/fine I'm clearly wrong for caring about education / I shall sit him in front of the telly in future etc and pause for a minute.
Your child is 10/11 years old. They have spent most of this year drilling for SATs. They will have a whole range of interests they can pursue. If you're interested in genuine education then promote that curiosity, encourage wider reading and research, have them reading a story for reading time every day. As a teacher the last thing I'd be doing if I was a little disappointed with the remote learning in the middle of a pandemic is searching for material to teach topics I think should be covered. I'd be promoting a wider love of learning.

On the other side of the coin, sone teachers spend hours preparing content (differentiated at least three ways), upload it and have just 5-6 out of a class of 30 actually log in. Some obviously lacking access others not being bothered.

The 'I pay their wages from my taxes' comment was a bit shit. Do you say the same to doctors, bin men etc? Technically in that case our taxes also go towards funding your child's education.

I’ve been setting enough work for each of my classes every day - I’m a secondary teacher. I have classes from Y9-13 and teach about 150 kids in total. I have heard back from about 10 of them!! Thankfully I have been told not to set any more until after the holidays.

I don't think you're being unreasonable, OP. People here are so defensive.

Of course there are lots of schools where the teachers have been hard at work either teaching or preparing lessons and/or resources. But there will also be some schools where this has not be done.

I have a good friend who is a school business manager in a primary school. She has been appalled at the lack of effort by teachers in her school. TAs are supervising the very few children of key workers, and will continue to do so over Easter, the office staff have been working every day, either remotely or in school. The teachers appear to have achieved very little at home: no tailored resources for each class or year group, no set work, no packs sent home, no contact with parents. A couple of links were put up on the school website, to free resources elsewhere. But that's it. It sounds very similar to the OP's school.

I'm sure those schools are not typical, but it does no one any favours to pretend that they don't exist.

@Fifthtimelucky - thanks - exactly my point

@Saoirse7 it's a valid question and I am sorry you don't like it. If the bin didn't turn up I would be complaining to the council. If my child doesn't get any schooling then at the very least I would like some communication coming from the school. Sorry if my comments have offended - they weren't meant to. But from the parents' no-knowledge of school procedures or teaching side of the fence, if we dont know something, then assumptions start to be made - whether they are unfair or not. But as I said earlier, I suspect it's down to poor school leadership - not the teaching staff.

@LolaSmiles No he has not been given any work. A few links on Google and a static page or two which could be done in 5 minutes with no communication from any teacher. The head teacher has not said anything will change in the Summer term. I never said I needed 4 or 5 hours of Google Classroom. Just SOME work would have been great - like up to an hour a day. And yes I spend a great deal of time promoting wider learning - mainly because I cant teach maths. His maths is not great and it's his maths that will suffer. But he's well up on tons of wider learning which I am pleased about.

Get him on hit the button for maths times tables. Very important for high school.
Give him a protractor to measure angles round the house.

Free stuff on white rose.

Do the have My Maths accounts? It’s learning or google classroom he should be accessing?

Twinkl have free resources for home learning I think there’s a months free lessons

Look out for the BBC learning and record them.

Ask him to research a topic

Safe Vikings who they were where they went what they ate or wore what their beliefs were what they traded - lots of angles and questions to discover

Get him to grow something in the garden taking pictures

Learn to cook, let him lose on Tesco to price up a meal, work out portions, check calories and food groups.

Download audiobooks. Amazon do these by age.

Read.

Physical exercise is also important.

Handwriting is available online same as spelling sessions.

Look at Kahoot educational quizzes, lots of topics.

As an aside, many of the staff at our Primary School are posting on social media all the ‘activities’ they’re up to because they’re so bored at home.

Lots of jigsaws, cross-stitch and even TikToks going on.

Lots of jokes about how clean & tidy all their homes will be after this, and how thank goodness the weather’s been great so they can spend they’re days in the garden.

The union has put out specific guidelines that my school (I'm a teacher), my sons and all the ones I know of are ignoring. I am working many hours prepping and marking but am thankful to be able to and do what I can to support the rota at school.

Here are the guidelines (personally think some of they are ridiculous)