To wonder why teachers are not teaching my child?

[Nickynackienoo]

I am a nurse redeployed to itu. Doing 13 hour days and stressed up to the eyeballs at the moment. My children (12 and 8) go to school on my work days and on my days off i keep them at home with me according to the government guidance. As far as I can tell, the teachers at school are just childminding and not teaching anything. How is it that they can have just 4 kids in the school and not manage to get them to do at least some work? How can I possibly do the job of a teacher on my days off? They have send so many links via email that I can’t make sense of, it’s so overly complicated. Surely as key workers they should be doing the job they are being paid to do? I must be missing something, can someone fill me in?

Presumably it’s the same set of children there each day

Nope. Not even close. The turnover and change is huge, a lot of key workers don’t work full time and their kids are only in two or three days a week, sometimes only one. They don’t always work the same days each week either. We generally have around 10 children in, sometimes as few as 8, but one day it was 14. None of the children I have worked with have been there everyday. One group of siblings came in during one week, and now the parent is working weekends again and we don’t see them anymore. I completely appreciate that people might question what is happening in schools and want more information, but to criticise and suggesting what you think would be better based on completely incorrect presumptions like above is quite frustrating.

In both cases, you are being paid to do your respective jobs. His job is harder than usual, yours is possibly easier

And that’s not teacher bashing!?

They are putting themselves at risk to care for your children

And putting our own children at risk. My asthmatic Ds's are at higher risk because of my job. They are also at home alone when I am at work, they are of an age to be allowed to but they hate it and worry what would happen if they had an asthma attack.

I find it really hard to understand that some teachers are unable to understand what is happening in their school isn’t happening everywhere. My DC have had zero direct contact from their school, there’s just work on the website and the odd video of a teacher reading. I’m worried about this and have every right to be.

Some clearly are working their arses off to the point of breakdown, and others are doing little and there are lots in the middle (which is what it should be like)

I think that’s strange too OP, I thought the schools were just meant to be not following the curriculum that isn’t the same as not being allowed to teach anything.

@StraightAndNarrow, you are setting some work to an 8yo with ADHD and letting them get on with it for the morning and it works????
Can you explain how you do it beause, I jave to say I AM impressed (I am doing that my two teens and still stuff still doesnt always get done.... That's from children who self motivated and mature)

I note that some teachers are on mumsnet during school hours. I don’t think that happened before lockdown? Without stating the obvious, that doesn’t help the cause.

So we also know your profession has some down time every day too. Or you wouldn't be able to join in the discussion because you'd be working SO hard.

I am in once a week at a hub school. We have split children into groups, keeping family groups together. I usually have 12-15 in my group and they are not all in every day. The ages range from Reception to Year 6 as we are keeping siblings together. The staff are me and one TA. 5 laptops available. It's a hub school so the children from the different schools are being set different work. It is impossible to teach 12+ children from 6 different age groups each with different work to do.

It should be a bit more manageable if there are only 4 children but it still won't be the same as just sitting with the child and going through each day's work. Even with my own two DC at home I find if I try to sit with one child the other is constantly interrupting me! Another complication is that the rota changes every week, there are teachers in from different schools and you don't know what the teacher the previous day has done until you get to school in the morning.

As PP have said, I try to do some revision of key skills with the different age groups and get them to go through some of the BBC or Oak Academy online stuff, then do mixed age project or craft activities.

Try not to worry too much. I am aware that most of the children in my class are not doing the work set. Hardly any are even accessing the online activities so your child is very unlikely to be missing out on anything. At least they are getting some social contact and they will be doing a variety of different activities. Between working at school and managing work for my class remotely, I am only spending about an hour or two a day doing stuff with my own DC, and I'm a teacher so you'd think it would be easier for me. They don't listen to anything I say though!

I don't see why, if there are a small number of children in school, the teacher could not supervise them doing the work they are being set by their usual teacher on Google classroom or whatever.
Just the same amount of support that the average parent would be able to give.
In fact I know this is possible because it is what is being offered to my son by his high school.
The year 7 and 8s share a classroom and a teacher supports them to go through their work from their normal teacher. Doesn't teach, but does encourage them to get on with the work and helps with problems like, I can't open this link etc.

However the number of children and number of teachers available to support will be a factor, and the behaviour of the children in the group, so not possible everywhere.

We need to be able to question what schools are offering without it being taken as individual criticism of teachers, it is certainly not what I'm about.

Schools are not above criticism. Teachers are not schools. Schools are the institution, schools should be open to questioning.

We all have interests of children at heart. Let's work together and support each other.

Teachers have been re-deployed, just as you have.
So, should we be asking why you're not also working your previous role, as well as your re-deployed one in ICU?

Does that mean they get paid a childminders salary then?

I'd be delighted to be, I'd get as much in one week as I get in a month.

The alternative is that teachers all work from home and strictly don’t their job’ ie. teach. Then you’d have no childcare. Thankfully, in the same way ward nurses and allied health professionals are moving over to covid patients and ICU, teachers are stepping in as childminders. Needs must. I wish more people would show gratitude during these times, rather than the entitled whining that seems so prevalent on these boards lately.

strictly DO their job

My ds and dil are key workers so my dgs goes to school. He’s mostly playing and calls it club.
We’re all just pleased that he’s happy and hopefully safe each day.
Education for all children this year has to take a back seat.
If a child had a year off school with a serious illness then education would be the last thing a parent would worry about so why is this any different?
The world is totally different this year, we have to bend with the times.

The worry

NHS staff: There's a very small chance, probably less than 1% that coronavirus will kill me.

The schools are not teaching my kids

I'm tired

Everyone else: How will I pay my mortgage?

Will I lose my job?

What do I do with my kids while I'm trying to work from home?

When will my kids ever see another child again and be able to socialise?

What if I catch coronavirus and die and don't have death in service, what will my family do?

We might not have money for food in a months time due to furlough/redundancy.

The way I see it, keyworkers are still getting full pay, the use of schools and to he honest, a shit load of free stuff too. Well I say keyworkers but it's really NHS staff. If I could trade having the fear that this virus could kill me, the very small chance that it would and be tired and have time to slate teachers over worrying about redundancy, how the mortgage will be paid, when my DS will ever get to socialise again etc, I would do it. The NHS is turning into a martyr system and it's getting so fucking boring now

I note that some teachers are on mumsnet during school hours. I don’t think that happened before lockdown? Without stating the obvious, that doesn’t help the cause.

It did happen before lockdown.Plenty of us work part time.

Nobody signs up for a pandemic. My contract said for the needs of the service, nobody mentioned highly infectious life threatening illness, with limited protection.

WHY don’t you just read the guidelines instead of teacher bashing? They are looking after mixed ages, not their normal teachers, won’t know what they have studied, yes can supervise if computers are available

This is why I won’t send my DC back. They’ve asked numerous times for them to return due to an ECHP, but I don’t see the point if there not there to learn.
The teachers are just doing what’s asked of them though, I doubt they expect you to home school your child as well it’s probably emails they’re sending to everyone.

OP as a teacher we aren't able to 'teach' on direction of the SLT, but if a parent was struggling I would be happy to try and send the work in a different format to make it more accessible; if you are struggling with the links than others more than likely are too. Unfortunately despite being highly stressed you aren't allowed to ask questions around teaching or critique what you feel is unfair without hating all teachers on here. Thankfully not everyone thinks this way, do you have a contact at the school? They can likely provide some reassurance that whatever you manage to do in terms of structured learning is okay at the moment, we know there will be huge changes up ahead, and that many will need gaps in knowledge filling etc and are planning along these lines.

If I could trade having the fear that this virus could kill me, the very small chance that it would and be tired and have time to slate teachers over worrying about redundancy, how the mortgage will be paid,

There are plenty of care homes recruiting, and will continue to do so if you are happy to work there with little to no PPE, increasing the risk to your family as well- but you would know how to pay the mortgage (if you can live off of min wage that is). But come and join us key workers if it's so great, a lot of hospitals are recruiting HCAs etc at the moment too.

YappityYapYap
You'd trade being a front line NHS worker for getting a bit of flack!!
That's astonishing and shows a lack of insight into what's going on in hospitals.

It's not just the risk of death, it's the horrendous working conditions and the trauma of witnessing people experiencing traumatic deaths at a greater rate than they would ever need to.

Actually how dare you!! How dare you say that!!

When was the last time you worked in an ICU? Or a covid positive ward at a hospital? Or a care home??

Yappity you win. I doubt anyone else could sink any lower.

Vile.

spend the 1-2 hours on zoom normally offered

Which schools are these? Ours certainly don’t do that. Had first videoconferencing call on Monday - half an hour game to catch up.