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.

@Pieceofpurplesky which ones do you think are ridiculous? I'm not sure about the marking one myself, but I didn't think any others were unreasonable

Son at secondary and work been set regularly and also letter sent out explaining what they intend to do after Easter hols re: home learning but then secondary lot of homework is put online already but many primary's don't have same set up although at that age mine did do maths online so maybe they will take a little longer to adjust & get things in place

YBVU I am afraid. Teachers are not exactly sitting at home at the moment. Our school is only providing an outline of works for nursery to KS2. Not for the higher levels. I am a parent governor and have spoken to our head teacher about the possibility of setting up an online learning portal for the children. Setting up that up takes time and effort and they don't have the resources for that atm. Another problem is that yes many people have smart phones but most of them are unable to support their kids in their education. Younger children need someone to give an input to their work but that would mean them navigating an online system which they don't know how to use and their parents would be of no help either. Yes you can support your child but there are many who can't. And school has to consider them too. As for older children, they have directed them to the resources they can use online and are trusting them that they can be self motivated to utilise them. Not much they can do unfortunately.

I know education is important but I would also consider spending this time teaching my child life skills which would be more relevant to them in their future life along. Remember, we can either make this time stressful for everyone or just enjoy and relax. Spend time with family. Whenever is this going to happen when you all are at home and life outside is at standstill? Make most of it whist you can.

as a side, do check khan academy and brainpop for maths. Brainpop has good explanation of the concepts and khan academy has good practice tests.

Carol Voderman's website "the maths factor" is free at the moment

"Following the Government’s decision to implement widespread school closures across the UK to minimise the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). We will be making The Maths Factor FREE for everyone (usually about £2 per week) to support childrens’ continued learning at home for the duration of the UK Schools closure period. We want to help you and your child as much as we can."

I don't know what it's like but must be worth a look. It says for ages 4-12 years

OP what is your job? Probably something that requires little training and thought. Now think about how you’d do that job if you were suddenly expected to do it online, with software that you haven’t used, your email in box swamped with more demands than normal, and the hundreds of other things people have already posted about on this thread. You already complained how challenging you are finding your own situation at home, fgs try and think just a little bit.

Marking and feedback are different things : those guidelines were written early on when unions were concerned about bulk submission of large volumes of assessments and exams (and coursework) being encouraged by SLT as if to ' fill teachers' time'. It is perfectly OK to use self marked programmes online in the context of subjects and age groups where this can be easily done, as it offers instant feedback, after all. At one point , my school was suggesting marking work as normal (albeit electronically which was anew skill for most) attempting moderation, entering data to track pupils, as if every pupil was running at the same home advantage or disadvantage.

The bit about planning special in school lessons also makes sense.

As PP pointed out this is all entirely new to teachers, some of whom do not have huge technology available to themselves at home either.

Just to raise a point OP you made early on in the thread re access to tech - yes a lot of homes will have a PC in the house, others just a phone. Now think about that - if only 1 PC then if more than 1 child in the house it has to be shared which limits amount of work that can be done. If only a phone then not all will have the capability to run/open work.

Just to put this into more context - I teach a vocational qualification with my KS4 & 5 groups and at present we still don't know what is happening with those (the Ofqual announcement last week only covered GCSE and A Level) so I have yr11 and yr13 trying to complete coursework with at least 1 student with only access to a phone...she needs to complete a very large report - think about the challenge she is facing)

And some teachers are having to do all their work on a phone. Most schools do not provide laptops for their teachers.

My teacher husband is constantly replying to emails from his students and trying to get them to understand how Google classroom works, he's worrying about his kids results, he's dealing with panicky children and keeping them calm, he's going in work and keeping happy the children in school, they're distributing food bags to people. He's also looking after our own son because I'm also a key worker as a one to one carer and my hours have gone up because it's not safe for her family to go in too.

Why is it some people seem to think teachers have nothing else going on in their lives? Lazy useless, good for nothings that they are!

Every single day I come home from work and he has something to tell me about his work or the children - and it's school holidays!

Maybe, just maybe your child's school hasn't been the best at dealing with it - I don't know, but to blanket throw them all to the wolves......really?

Still, at least you now know what job to do when you grow up. Apply to be a teacher, it's a walk in the park!

@cricketballs3 clearly there will be exceptions but the vast majority are able to use technology adequately enough.

@finn1020 I will ignore your stupid insult, but clearly problem solving' or communication' doesn't feature at all in your job. If you are overwhelmed or in a crisis, you communicate to people around you. People will be understanding and try to help. It's that simple. In my job, if I come across a problem, I try and solve it.

@Pieceofpurplesky Agree. The part about dropping everything because of COVID is ridiculous. There should be a qualification in there to say where practicable there should be some remote engagement with pupils or similar

@biwinoone Why is there such a gulf of difference between the online capability of secondary schools and primary? What happens if pupils are off sick and they need to catch up? Surely, whilst virtual learning can't always replace the face to face classroom experience, there can be something a bit more than some primary schools seem to offer at the moment? I get the impression that using the Internet/computers is a radically new and strange concept from some of you. Schools have been using new technology for decades - this is not a new concept. And if there are some staff/pupils who cant use technology for whatever reason, then the postal service is still running. Yes, I agree, parents cant always support their child's learning which is precisely why the schools need to step up. Yes, as I have said loads of times I am providing life skills/maths/curriculum topics/even squeezing in lots of other quality activities, but I don't have the time to devote to this for an endless number of weeks and in the meantime I am still left wondering why his school has left him in the lurch hence the question of this thread. If one of his teachers could just check in with him and his class - even for just a minute a week with an email addressed to the whole class (not to him personally), this would massively help. Even just words of encouragement rather than lesson tasks, would be a step in the right direction.

Just for the record my other two DCs's school have been the polar opposite - their school are fully engaging in pupil's learning online and I have been very impressed with the school's efforts.

So, eventually you say this! Notably didn't start a thread to praise them.

Anyway, the younger children are , the harder it is to engage them with learning via remote technology. They need far more adult intervention and assistance with reading, understanding, manipulating and lots of supervision online.

In case you hadn't noticed, education is underfunded. the IT networks, training and capability in many primary schools are amateur at best. Are you not finding aspects of WFH challenging? Well, obviously you are as this is part of your grievance.

Remote learning cannot be about leaving a young child to get on with it somewhere : that is why it is so difficult and had not become a normal way of doing things.

FWIW, I am setting regular work to my older students. It does not mean they all understand it, can all access it (either electronically or academically) and the submission rate for me to check it runs at about 60%. But I am not going to tar all students with the same brush because of the 40%.

Your beef is with one school, so please take it up with them. You cannot now move your position : you said what are teachers doing all day/ : not what specifically are the year 6 teachers of my own DC doing when the teachers of my other DCs are working so effectively?

Nothing is normal at the moment : acknowledge the learning curve.

I don’t know why all the excellent, hard-working teachers on here find it so hard to accept that not all teachers are like them?

Some are shit. Such is life, surely?

clearly there will be exceptions but the vast majority are able to use technology adequately enough

This statement highlights how naive a lot of people are about the reality faced by schools and families outside of their little bubble.

There are schools in areas of extreme poverty, there are families in "nice schools" whom have no/limited access to tech.

So, yes access to tech is a huge issue for a large number of children up and down the country.

Name and shame OP - if it’s true. Your son is Yr 6 so he won’t be going back there- you’ve nothing to lose

Those are not the complete union guidelines, and nowhere does it say to drop everything.

They are being paid with our taxes OP? - Them and every one else on furlough at the moment. But I'm not banging on the door of Topshop demanding to be let in now because I'm paying for them, am I?!

And equal mirth that OP thinks that lesson plans for in-school activities will simply translate to online lessons with no time, resources, planning or tweaking.

That's actually what I said chocolate.

Very rare to start a thread about the majority who work very hard though.

What have the teachers doing if not spoonfeeding/babysitting OP's little darling?
As pointed out above, as child is Yr6, so unlikely to be returning to the school.
They are busy having an online party, celebrating the fact they won't have to deal with entitled goady OP anymore.

Look op just spend your time doing a quick bit of research. Maths factor is free right now, as is Readingeggs/express. There's maths and English sorted for you. You're welcome!

What is the school usually like? Are you rural or city? All the schools I know are sending kids daily work via Google classroom, setting projects for Easter, calling parents of vulnerable families, delivering food parcels/ work packs etc.

OP, I teach a class of 32 (primary) I have one laptop in my classroom. I also have access to 12 iPads twice a week.

How do you propose I teach the children how to use Google Classroom and then have them complete tasks on it?

I set a task for my kids to complete a couple of months ago. Not an online task but they required the internet to do find an answer (would take approx 10 mins). Do you know how many I had returned? 7/32.

Your post smacks of assumption about what people can do and access to technology for educational means. Generally a phone won't suffice and often iPads need to be fairly fresh to be compatible with platforms like Google Classroom.

The OP is being jumped on here. I think the issue is the difference in what is being provided by different schools.

As several have said on here, they are setting, marking, grading, responding to emails, working in school on rota. Great.

However the OP's school/year teachers don't appear to be doing the setting/marking/responding to emails part at least. Neither have my dc's year 6 teachers.

Maybe they have been in school with the key worker kids, maybe they have been ill, maybe they have been planning for the work they will set after Easter. Maybe they have been rolling around in piles.of taxpayers money drinking g&t's.

The thing is that the OP doesn't know because the school haven't communicated (same as my dc's school). Which leaves her lost and unsure how to support her DC. Should she be seeking out resources to plan and support their learning? She's (presumably) not trained for that. Should she leave the DC to play video games? Or encourage them to learn something that interests them?

It's really hard not knowing what is the best thing to do, amid trying to quell their anxieties, do your own work, support your own family.

A bit of communication from the school about their plans would help.

I now this was over hours ago, but it is a pet peeve of mine.

Teachers do get paid annual leave. 28 days, which must be taken during periods of school closure. Obviously we cannot be expected to work during them, or the additional 37 unpaid days.

People not knowing this means that teachers on maternity leave don't realise they can accrue annual leave / pay just like everyone else. It seems HR is not obliged to tell you.

Also, back to the OP thinking we plan during holidays/ pre school time. It's a fair assumption for someone who is not a teacher, but it is impossible to plan a whole block of lessons if you are planning properly. Each week we have at least 2hrs planning time, during which we are expected to update and adapt the other 20-25hrs of lessons in order to best suit the needs of our students, based on our observations of them during the week.

*know