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?

I don't even know where to start with this one.

Teachers are working really fucking hard.

Rather than be paid 'childminder fees' they could take the 80% furlough and do nothing. Like the non key workers out there.

Instead they are setting and marking work remotely (which takes a long time). Managing their own children at home while their other halves may also be key workers and working on a rota to provide skeleton staff for children like yours.

Different children in each day, different staff in each day, no PPE, putting there own families at risk...

Be grateful that they are providing childcare during this difficult situation when everyone is trying to do there best.

How do you know what's happening at school? Is this based on what your DC tell you? I would have thought if possible with social distancing and other constraints most teachers are giving some help to students present but their main focus is online lessons, forward planning, assessment etc It's very different, challenging and not what anyone wants. Contact the school if possible but adjust your expectations.

@Nickynackienoo it would not be fair to whole swathes of children if only key workers‘ children were being educated at this time. Also they are often being sat in mixed tear groups, have you tried teaching normally? Differentiation is hard at the best of times let alone when you’ve got children in three or four different years.

No longer a teacher btw.

Can you imagine the fuss if keyworkers kids were getting taught in small classes or even 1 to 1? There are people on another thread begruding the families of dead keyworkers kids £60k and even a 10% discount somewhere, if they thought their kids were getting an advantage in their education there would probably be riots.

Do remember OP, one can moan on MN about all sorts of minutiae but the moment you ask a question about teaching it is de trop.

Teachers do a great job in stressful circumstances, suggesting that they are above criticism or puerile stifling of debate is rather mindless.

The curriculum has been suspended. It cannot be taught to 4 in a class appropriately when the others are doing bits at home. This is difficult for everyone. Why are you so angry at teachers?

OP - you have specifically said that your 12 year old does have access to a computer whilst in school. Therefore the 12 year old id accessing exactly the same education being provided to his classmates.

As people have already pointed out the provision to keyworkers being able to send their kids into school is to provide the care element whilst you are working.

If your 8 year old is also being set work either online or by way of worksheets etc they too will be able to do that whilst in school.

At most schools teachers are rotaed to come in to cover the care elements. The other teachers are wfh dealing with planning, setting, marking work, carrying out zoom or 1 to 1 sessions. Your children can still access what their classmates can.

On the days you have them at home with you, you do the same as other parents do. In fact on the days you have them home with you it is because it is your day off. Some parents are wfh all week at the same time as supervising their kids accessing their education or indeed merely looking after them if nothing being provided. So you are better off than many.

Hope that has clarified matters.

To all the teachers out there - keep up the good work and know that many of us are very grateful for all you are doing in difficult circumstances.

We support the children doing the work set by their teachers. Absolutely we help them if they’re stuck. I’d personally rather do that than nothing.

At home, I’m working many hours after spending the day teaching my own kids. It’s not just the setting and marking work (which takes more time than you probably think), but all the other things too. I’m probably working closer to my contracted hours now.

Speak to the school OP and see if your children can do the set work.

It's actually really important that the children allowed a place to be supervised in school aren't receiving something educationally that thr rest of the population are missing out on. The provision must be the same, so it's unfair for your kids to have access to something that someone else's can't have right now.

The government actually said the national curriculum and formal education in the normal way would cease. Most teachers are, however, providing as close to what they normally do as they can, for their own pupils.

@Staticelle however we’re all having to fit teaching around our work. The amount of work DS has had is not full days. He can get it done in an hour or two with minimal input from me. I log him into the computer and upload any handwritten work, he does the rest. He is 8.

What do the daffodils mean?

It’s not teacher bashing

It is.

I’m sure this is coming across badly.

It is.

I’m extremely tired and stressed and just don’t have the mental energy to deal with this.

And yet, here you are, moaning about teachers and making shitty comments about them being paid a childminders wage. It’s not the teachers fault that this has happened. Everyone is struggling. Support your children as much as you can but you can only do so much in your circumstances. At 12 and 8 your children should be able to work reasonably independently if you set them a couple of tasks.

Stop being bitter about teachers apparently doing nothing whilst you’re doing everything. You’ll find life will improve if you stop comparing yourself to others.

Teachers have been TOLD not to teach. This isn’t teachers just not bothering.

I’m answer to a few of the above, whilst I’m posting here my youngest is having a break after he has done some spellings and maths on the laptop. The eldest is doing self directed study. The youngest has ADHD, so getting him to anything is hugely challenging.
It’s really not teacher bashing, it’s the stressed outpouring of a completely frazzled person and I apologise for the way this has come across. Not the greatest idea to vent on aibu in hindsight. I worked 50 hours last week in PPE, doing a job I’m not adequately prepared to do. I’m going to ignore the school stuff which is badly organised and confusing and stick with bbc bitesize and workbooks from Amazon. I do agree with the above poster though who said that it’s a bit much to expect our kids to do the same amount of work at home as the ones who are at home all day. I also agree that people would take advantage if the school were teaching there would be too many children. You just hope people will do the right I suppose.

I am a teacher and a parent. I start work at 8am and finish planning, marking and dealing with parent emails around 7 at night. I am also having to teach my own children who are highly resistant to leaving their Xbox to produce quality work. It is not easy and I really do feel for you. Having said that, your 12 year old should be able to see what he has to learn and crack on with it. If you were to email his school teachers I am sure they could give you some help too.

MarieQueenofScots

Ah yes, the "can't moan about teachers on MN" Trope.

You either can't have been here long or are someone that is guilty of stifling "debate" by trotting out this old trope.

The daffodils were decided upon in a thread on The Staffroom to be used as a response when a teacher bashing thread is started. Because they’re actually really bloody upsetting threads, so we want to give flowers to each other.

If you had posted saying you were struggling and asking for help, plenty of teachers would have commented with lots of ideas for things your kids could do, either when they get home or on your days off. We want to help, but being told we should put more effort in isn’t nice. We have been instructed not to teach children in school, wasn’t our decision.

nickynackienoo I’m sorry you’re feeling so stressed and exhausted. And It must be so depressing to read some of these responses.

I wonder if parents could do some sort of volunteer team homeschooling support for each other. Buddying up for example. I’m working ft and have found homeschooling very overwhelming - but when I think about others who may not have the advantages that we have (Parents at home, good WiFi, sufficient IT, printing) it makes me feel could I do something to help - although don’t know what?! . Maybe someone in your parent group might be able to help in some way?

I don’t know - none of this is ideal is it?! Sending a big virtual hug x

I’m a teacher wfh and struggling to get my child’s school work done with him too, but like everyone else we will do what we can.

I don’t normally post on these threads but I’m fed up of hearing how little we are apparently doing.

It’s not a competition and we are all doing what we are being required to do under the circumstances.

Yep, no one on here is seemingly allowed to have a less than positive opinion on teachers. Our school (DD6) has set no work, the teacher writes one letter a week and puts it on the website. Hardly knocking herself out IMO.

I'm a support person in our local secondary school. We have about 100 key worker children in our school at the moment. They range from reception through to final years in secondary school.

The teachers who are in are working a rota system. The children are doing exactly the same work as those working from home. The only difference is the venue.

Why should my year 8 child be disadvantage by the fact that, with his parents being able to work from home, those key worker children are getting actual lessons?

Your 12 year old should be getting what my 12 year old is just in a different setting. If they aren't being told to get on with the set work then you should speak to the school. If your DC is getting the same work as their friends and are doing it, then they are all at the same level and you have nothing to worry about.

I'm lucky if I understand most of the work my DS is set. My 'job' in this time is to make sure he's doing it, give him help if he's stuck and that's it. Your DC should be getting the same - no more, no less.

I'm child minding my son, the school is child minding your children. That's the way of the world right now so the 'do the job they're paid to do' comment is unfair and uncalled for. Maybe you should have a word with the school.