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?

Does that mean they get paid a childminders salary then?
That might be a good idea. A childminder gets what £50 a day per child? So that's £200 a day for the day the teacher is in school if they work in a school where there's only 4 pupils. What about secondary schools with more than that? And then what would you pay for the days the teacher works at home, possibly teaching / caring for their own child(ren)? Would you pay extra for the hours in the evening? How about the weekends?

Or how about accept that teachers haven't orchestrated this? That maybe schools are doing their best and that everyone is finding this difficult?

I wanted to start a thread about this. So do keyworkers need to home school their children as well? Children in schools are obviously not keeping up with the curriculum so would have to spend all day in school then all evening catching up on work which is a horrifically long day for them.

I'm not teacher bashing, they are heros who have my utmost (upmost?) respect. Just wondered how people are managing.

At our school we supervise the work set by the class teacher, so OP has a point. It's probably not done brilliantly as the children are all different ages and you are spinning plates, but it's something at least. To be honest most of the schoolwork now is just revision and ticking over. It's very hard to remotely deliver a new concept or technique, especially with younger children. OP have you emailed school to ask? Remember for every person like you there will be someone else who is vehemently against any teaching going on in school if their child can't be a part of it, so it's about having a louder voice than them in your particular school community.

Wow there are no words for some people. How about some gratitude for people putting themselves at risk looking after your children so you can go to work. Your children are not at a disadvantage as no children are being taught in the traditional sense at the moment. Schools are there to provide childcare not education. They are dealing with shortages of staff and also juggling their own children at the same time.

Teach how though?
They are meant to keep 6 feet away from the children. They shouldn’t be near the kids, they have ZERO ppe and lots of the children are from families at a higher risk.
They have mixed groups of random ages.
They can hardly stand at the front and teach a 5 year old algebra can they?
How are they meant to know the ability of children they haven’t met or taught before. How are they meant to know what to teach each individual child?

Teachers are following the instructions of their employers. That means instead of teaching full classes in school they are childminding a small number of children in school and remote teaching their actual classes. If you have a problem with that, take it up with the employer. Individual teachers have no more say over school policy than individual shop workers. Blaming them for something outside their control most certainly is teacher bashing.

Part of the reasoning that the teachers in school are not educating is that they didn’t want people who didn’t need the childcare to take it up because they feared they were missing out on learning.
In our school, teachers in school have a mix of ages (4-11 on my last day in) - often children they have never taught before (I’d taught 1 of six and that was over 2 years ago) and we are attempting to social distance.
We supervise some worksheets (not exactly the same as sent home - we don’t send worksheets incase of no printing facilities & we don’t replicate as the children in school May be doing some of the work from home oh different days).
I supported those struggling - as a parent would do - but attempted to do this while socially distancing and supporting children with vastly different needs. We did this for about 1.5h across the morning - the rest of the day was pe and play based with lots of time outdoors (luckily due to the weather).

It is not a case of we don’t want to teach, more that the situation is that we can’t teach in this context. The home learning is our focus right now as that is where the majority of our children are receiving their education.

You sound exhausted op

I've found it damn frustrating too. Whilst I understand that they are there in a supervisory nature, not to 'teach' I find my school is taking it too far. Kids are expected to do the same work as a child at home- but at home I am explaining principles when necessary. They are refusing even to do that. This is not a teacher bashing comment- I understand why many teachers have their backs up and feel set upon- especially in forums. But when there are very few children at the school when they are asking for clarification of tasks this should be done. Not a full lesson, but an explanation of the task. I I the bare minimum that should be expected and it's not being done in many schools.

I missed the childminder pay comment. How rude! I am working really hard at the moment with less than ideal conditions. But as a pp said, maybe an idea?
I used to pay my childminder £5 per child (I had 2 there) per hour. So on my working days she had them 8-5. £90 a day for just 2 kids. She had other kids there too.
Pay me per child per hour if you like. Seems like a logistical nightmare though.

So do keyworkers need to home school their children as well?

Why not? If they're at home they should be expected to do whatever all parents are expected to do. I have my job to do every day and I'm still expected to at least try to do some school work with my child. Why would it be different for any worker?

Not sure about other schools but our hub is covered by support staff sometimes so not teachers.

OP i don't think you are teacher bashing.

A teacher with only 4 kids should be able to as a minimum supervise and provide some support for your children doing the standard work their school is setting for them. This may not be the same in other schools where there are more children etc

I would contact that school and just say you like it if whoever is on that day can supervise your kids doing some of whatever it is they have from their normal teacher, so that they aren't falling behind peers who are doing it at home.

Because then the children at home will be behind all of the children going to school, teachers want all of the children to be on a roughly equal footing when they eventually go back. The children have the opportunity to do work that's been sent home - but they cant do any actual teaching. It's not a choice that the actual teachers have made, it's an instruction that they have been given to not teach, my mother is a teacher and finds it very frustrating that she cant do the job that she loves doing. She also has two vulnerable people living at home with her and is terrified of taking the virus home with her. It's a rubbish situation for everyone involved, and everyone - including teachers - are trying to do the best they can in a very surreal situation. Your children wont be disadvantaged, when schools go back teachers will make sure all children get the support they need to be where they need to be ag educationally speaking.

At my local primary school the staff there looking after the children are mostly TAs with a mix of the people who normally run the breakfast/after school care. The school appears to be open 12 hours a day.

I don't think they should be teaching. That would be a massive advantage over children at home at the moment, and might encourage exploitation. My kids are getting on with the work emailed completely independently. We have one computer so one works am and the other pm. I'm working from home so can't help. Are your children not being allowed to get on with the work sent then at school?

You do sound stressed OP, which is understandable considering the work you are doing. But I'm not sure how attacking another profession (who have suffered similarly from years of pay freezes and budget cuts) is going to serve you?

You've admitted you don't really have the mental energy right now. So how will you engage with the PP who have taken the time to answer your questions?

And you're right, you are coming across quite badly, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. We're all stressed, but everyone is doing their best.

Take care

Can you not let your 12 year old stay at home and he can complete his work there? I'm sure he can just get on with it at school too but tbh high school pupils don't need to be at school IMO. It's just raising the risk for extra people. (Disclaimer apart from vulnerable children of course)

Thank you for the job that you do too.

What is happening varies from school to school. The main directive from the government is that we don't have to teach the National Curriculum.

I'm a primary school teacher and on rota to go into school. Each week, we plan the "at home" learning and the "in school" learning for the following week. 3 form entry so we can discuss as a year group and then go off and each do some of the actual plans. For children at home, we try to minimise the printing and try to be aware of the resources that children are likely to have at home. Apart from that, the learning intentions and activities are similar for both groups.

When I'm in school, I'm teaching a mixed age class but only 2 year groups (I've had between 7 and 12 children each day out of the 180 in those 2 years). I am teaching but it's more low key than usual and most subjects aren't being taught at all.

The one thing I do find frustrating is that there are a couple of bright children who I would like to challenge (and I know that they would like to be stretched) but I've been told that I can't because it would disadvantage those children not coming into school.

That might be a good idea. A childminder gets what £50 a day per child? So that's £200 a day for the day the teacher is in school if they work in a school where there's only 4 pupils.

I wouldn’t say no to that - we’ve usually got 10 pupils

In your position I would be thoroughly pissed off about it too OP. It would have been nice to feel as though your children’s education was being sorted in your absence instead of it being something else you’re meant to be doing on top of everything else.

Are they given the opportunity to log on at school to have access to the same plans and lessons that have been set to everyone? If them being in school means that they can't access the work set then yes, there should be something else in place to make sure they aren't at a disadvantage. If they can access it, they are in the same position as many people, as few parents actually have time at the moment to teach as well as working from home. It's easy to see why you are getting stressed about it though with work etc.

If the children in school were being taught by teachers, the other parents would be furious at those children having an advantage. And suddenly everyone and his dog would be finding ways to send their kids in too. Consequently the risk to all school staff (not just the teachers) would be increased by a huge magnitude.

Presumably the kids in school have access to computers if they want to do the work that the kids at home are doing? But they won't get 'taught'.

I'm not a teacher but a ta, I'm working the next 3 days. We have different children in everyday and from different age groups. It would be impossible to teach them all. I'm sure school work sent home could be brought into school so they are being taught the right level.
My children, me and my DH have worked our socks of doing their home schooling the past two days to get them ahead so they have less to do with one parent whilst I'm at work.
It's difficult for everyone. The teachers at my school are working from home doing the weekly planning and also planning for the future as no one has a clue what is going to happen.
Everyone is doing their best.

At my kids school the key worker kids are mainly being 'taught' by the TA's- they are being supported to complete the same work on Google classroom that the kids at home are doing, and then either playing in the playground or doing non screen based creative stuff/reading when that is finished. I think thats good set up, so everyone has access to the same materials and nobody is advantaged/disadvantaged but the key worker kids are actually doing at least some work. If yours are being given no work at all then they are being disadvantaged because you need to work!