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?

The childminder thing is a joke.

We know full well childminders are amazing and earn every penny of their money.

Us teachers, well we are all slackers aren't we

Hilarious.

I don't hear us childminders laughing, though - because it's insulting, you were told it was insulting and still you carried on.

Nope, no one said that, just defending our jobs which are often made to seem as second rate, and the fact that a lot of us are finding it hard to be able to afford to continue, it's not really a joke at the moment. It makes no sense, people get super arsey about anything negative towards teachers but it's fine to joke about others.

Exactly @Tanith.

Yes @Tanith

It's absolutely fine to have "wtf are teachers doing" threads multiple times a day as well.

The point is simply that most people have no clue what teachers are doing, but they judge all the same. And make huge, insulting assumptions along the way.

Sucks, doesn't it?

*Yes, is your husband told daily he's shit at his job and doing nothing?

Thought not.*

Oh come off it. I was bloody defending teachers. This isn't a misery competition but if it is then you should be damn lucky you are still getting full pay and your job is stable and secure.

Please forgive teachers collective sense of humour loss.

Many of us are just so tired of the same old shite being trotted out, day after day after day.

Tanith

Why aren't you having a go at the OP for bringing childminders in to this in the first place?

@GreytExpectations

I totally agree. I'm hugely grateful.

I'd also like to not be told I'm useless by a lot of randomers daily.

I'm bloody good at my job. I'm working damned hard trying to help the kids, sort my department for going back, write resources to help kids without internet etc etc

@Aesopfable that’s EXACTLY what Ms Bloggs is doing on her ‘days off’ during lockdown. Providing lessons from her own home, using her own electricity and resources paid for out of her own purse (as she probably has been doing since the day she started).

@Tanith yes I am presuming that all the places are filled, that’s what Ms Bloggs has told me. The point is that Childminder’s are paid PER CHILD PER HOUR, which is what would be required if Ms Bloggs was ‘childminding’ each of the students in her class. And even minus tax, NI, food shopping and resources it would STILL be more than an NQT earns before tax.

Have another

Just see it as school of life - the whole community and people working together to keep the country going during a global pandemic.

Thank you for what you do op, and thank you also to all other workers keeping the country going.

If you don't understand the work that's been set, could you email and ask for some clarification? As a teacher, that's what I'd expect someone to do if they didn't understand.

@Silenceisnotgolden just stop. People have said it's insulting, it's kind of like being back in the playground ironically- I don't like people mocking teachers so I am going to do it to someone else. Which of the childminders on here have said teachers aren't working hard?

Fwiw I can't work because DH is vulnerable, and won't receive a penny until June. Even then it won't be much as I only started just over a year ago, so fuck off with how much we are all making, the fact that teachers are underpaid isn't anything to do with us.

@piemash This is NOT a childminding bashing. The OP seems to be under the impression that teachers are massively overpaid and should have their handsome (not envy) salaries ‘cut’ to a childminding wage.
As was highlighted above, you can’t easily compare ‘apples and oranges’. They’re not the same thing. But thank you for your input and valiant attempt to defend your profession. Now let me get on and defend mine

So today I went to work and supervised 15 kids of different ages and abilities attempting to subjects I don't teach. I made sure they remembered their social distancing and I tried my best to support them with their work while maintaining my 2m distance. I did this without PPE and then came home to my family and did my best to support their work. Do my paperwork and make my safeguarding calls.

Then I come on here and another keyworker is on here giving my colleagues a hard time. Fucking marvellous. Excuse me if I don't clap for you on Thursday.

I know some schools are allowing children to access laptops during the day to get on with the work set by teachers that they would usually access at home. They’re not being taught any new content as such, but are being given the time and opportunity to get some of the work they have been set completed. I suppose it depends on how many staff/children in a setting and their ability to complete the work set independently. I can see the reasons why key workers would want this to happen so that their children are getting something done during the day, as they would not have much time/energy to facilitate this on an evening. So, not “teaching” just supervised independent learning.

What are they doing at the moment? Whilst on full pay I might add.

Probably none of your fuckingbusiness. Between them and their employers, I should think.

@TutorWoes

Did you ask about the full pay as well or just about providing work?

Do you know, I was feeling really pleased today that, in spite of not moving from my seat, I’d helped support parents and kids all day; making sure that they had logins; planning lessons; recording myself in two audio formats so that kids could listen to a text on different devices; recording differentiated instructions for kids with a variety of abilities; answering questions from a kid who clearly just needed a chat (kept emailing pics of her cat as she has no one else to talk to); raising a welfare concern about one or two; written umpteen lessons and marked work online just because I want to help. Reading the bile aimed at teachers here, I feel very sad.

I’ve nhs staff all through my family (we tend to be nurses or teachers) so I’m aware of the knackered sadness many nurses are feeling. My colleagues are doing our level best to overcome the barriers to learning kids face through no fault of their own, something we will continue to do when we get back. I was feeling pretty good that I’d volunteered throughout the holiday and prepped stuff for kids to do to break up the monotony for secondary kids. I’ve gritted my teeth when I’ve had emails with just a sentence in the subject line from parents saying x doesn’t get it. I’ve explained again - it’s a good and well used ploy by many to stay on the console they’re on (I teach secondary). I’ve only had one irate message from a parent who told me that her son had a breakdown when I asked him to write a story opening and that I should have known he would (no previous communication from them at all to say anything was untoward). I’m going to carry on doing the best job I can.

However, some of you can just do one, frankly. I’ve had enough of the open hostility and the outright lie that we are all workshy - do you really think we don’t care? That we are not terrified for the future educational outcomes of the kids we care about? Come on! You can make a lot more money in other fields if this isn’t a vocation as a career - I should know; I took a big pay cut to train.

I’ve got money worries, health worries and worries about my own kids’ education that are rightly on the back burner when I’m working, but clearly enough people have time on their hands to come on here and use their verbal brick bats here. I get that hubs are not brilliantly organised or that they don’t suit the needs of every kid - they were never going to. We are doing our best in a shit situation, just like everyone else.

Really12345: "Some schools are not."
Yes, which was covered by the fact that I referred to "the majority." That covers the fact that "some" are not.

But as for that twat of a Head Teacher posting about his down-time on Twitter! That's all the profession needs!

When we are in school, the morning is spent helping children to work through packs of work that each teacher has created for their classes. We only have a maximum of 10 children in school, age 6-10, and two members of staff so this is manageable. If we had more children, wider age ranges, SEN children, less staff or any other manner of variables it would be very hard due to them all working on different things.

To reassure you that we are “working”, today I have set work online, responded to/marked work online, checked in with vulnerable families, updated documents about who I’ve had contact with for safeguarding purposes, created a new unit of English work, written some reports, worked on some topic medium term plans, created my work packs for next week and filmed myself teaching short lessons ready for next week.

Oh, and I’ve got a 3 year old.

@tudorwoes What's annoyed me is, my daughter has got an EHCP but she's not in school because her autism centre ( which is attached to the mainstream school) has closed, so no kids with EHCPs can attend. Not one member of staff has contacted me in the past 5 or 6 weeks or so to see how she's getting on. My son's teacher, bless her, has been asking after her but none of the teachers who are directly involved in her education have. What are they doing at the moment? Whilst on full pay I might add.

I think that your dd's experience is terrible. Why has she not been offered a place, either there or another local place that can better support her? It's scandalous that nobody has checked up on her. As a school governor I get weekly updates on numbers attending, how many children on CP or EHCP's etc. Not all families who could access the provision have accepted but you should've been offered something.

There are a lot of people saying 'I tried to help a mixed age group with the work set why are you having a go at me'. We're not! We're having a go at the schools where key worker's children are getting no support and aren't allowed to access their school work and the people defending this policy. Obviously there aren't going to be a full cohort of staff members in school to teach their speciality subjects but the idea you can't even give any support at all - help the child access the worksheets, give some guidance if they're stuck etc as you would do at home (even if we're also working) is silly.

There is also a lack of consistency so some teachers are working flat out delivering online support etc at home while also caring for their own kids but other schools have not provided this so their staff are basically at a loose end and parents are naturally concerned about their children being disadvantaged.

*I'd also like to not be told I'm useless by a lot of randomers daily.

I'm bloody good at my job. I'm working damned hard trying to help the kids, sort my department for going back, write resources to help kids without internet etc etc*

@GuyFawkesDay yes and I understand how difficult that must be for you to deal with. But was it nessesary for you to dismiss and belittle my post to make that point? No, it wasn't. I am extremely worried about our finances long term and whether or not my husband has a job to go back to. You responded to my post mocking my situation because you have to deal with insults. I am sorry that you are dealing with bad attitudes in your secure and full paid job but you misdirected your anger at me in a hurtful way.