AIBU that DS's school is not doing enough during these away from school days?

[Ohlife2020]

Honestly, I would not have thought to complain about it until into week 6 of the lockdown.

School has sent a pack of worksheet back home before the lockdown started - about 100 pages including writing topics, maths and some grammar learning. Then started from wk1, work/learning is sent through via Google Classroom every Mon, Wed, Fri. It covers maths, literacy, science, PE (with Joe Wicks), Computing (only once) and some other small subjects.

We initially found it overwhelming to keep up. But by wk6, it's getting clear that the school doesn't expect everyone to keep on track. They kept sending weekly emails to parents reassuring us that they understand homeschooling is stressful so take it easy. But when we hand in any work online, there's no feedback whatsoever. I've also heard other school having teachers ringing pupils to check progress or to have ZOOM calls to keep in touch with the children. His school has no intention to do either. They say "it might upset certain children"...

So literally, we are left alone to fend ourselves. The homeschooling has been going downhill, as his concentration and motivation are both suffering. I battled with him nearly everyday on nearly every single subject - he either didn't want to do anything else other than what he likes (e.g. reading non-fiction) or he felt too frustrated /hurt when I told him his work needed improvement. I realised I might have taken this too seriously, but he's not a self-motivated type. If you let him, he would be happy just do the minimal. So our relationship has suffered quite a bit. This makes me feel angry that the school has been doing so little.

Am I being unreasonable? They are teachers and it's their responsibility to keep the children on track or at least care about it?

Being disconnected from their teacher/school for such a long time and with no end to be seen in near future, I can't imagine what impact this gave to him underneath the surface.

I realised this is a bit long, probably most for a rant purely...as I feel I'm reaching the limit and cannot carry on like this. Exhausted and hurt...

I'm not sure what you expect. Do you want a teacher to move in with you?

He's your child. Your responsibility. Do your job. The teachers have set the work, you need to ensure he does it.

@MsTSwift

Yet anothrr reason why teachers are struggling to do live lessons, they have children at home too.

Another teacher bashing thread.
Yawn.
Take responsibility for your own child like we take responsibility for our own.

Our primary school does zoom calls, zoom lessons, and provides feedback on most work send in (not all, but key pieces).
i would be severely pissed off if the feedback wouldn’t happen!

When this started the first thing I did was sit down with my child and work out a timetable, which I got them to agree to.
There’s a mix of structured and unstructured learning, play time, screen time, meals etc.
Since doing this, the structured learning from school has increased a lot, but I haven’t shifted the timetable. My child is doing school work on Saturday and Sunday to keep the ratio of unstructured and screen time we originally agreed (we’ve got nothing else to do at the weekend).
We are a bit behind, but she’s happy and I’m not concerned.
In your shoes I’d move your focus from the school to your child. If you are concerned about their motivation and find yourself nagging, you could look at agreeing a time table, implementing rewards or consequences etc .if you believe it might work.
It’s not the end of the world if you don’t manage to do all the work the school have set. Him being happy at home is more important imo.

I’m not “bashing”. I have never gone to school and hassled teachers about my dc. Most of my family are teachers! Just abit surprised at limited provision at dd2 primary. I assume they have their reasons I guess. What myself above describes sounds great.

Your ds is Y3. Y3 fgs. He has oodles of time to catch up if there is any catching up to do. Because unless you have forgotten the curriculum has been suspended And he likes reading non fiction to boot. Wow, just wow if you cannot see what an advantage he is at if he doesn’t want to just play video games all day. Let the boy read. He will learn so much from this. Not just knowledge on specialist subjects. It helps with spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, attention span, reading speed and probably much more.

Bottom line, you have incredibly high expectations on the poor child and on the school. Stop making life a battle ground. Give your ds a few days off and come up with a more realistic plan. If he doesn’t want to do the school work, would he write a review about what he’s read or make a leaflet advertising his favourite book? Get creative yourself. Find some online teaching resources. Do a bit of maths. Maybe do some fun scientific experiments with things around the home. Have a google.

What I think you don’t realise is that these teachers have commitments of their own, children, babies, parents, battling with shopping, trying to set classes and may also have or be getting over Coronavirus. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. If you haven’t had it yet, you may not appreciate it can make you very very ill and even if not hospitalised take well a month or two to get over.

Teachers, I’m not one, but I stand with you.

I might be missing something here, but can you not mark his work? If he is in year 3, I would imagine you would know if he has got things correct? If he was doing a level further maths I would understand why you might be expecting feedback, but honestly at that age I would have been super excited for my mum to mark it and let me know how I did. As for keeping him motivated, use some imagination. If he has worksheets but he is bored of them, look at the content of them and improvise. If he is enjoying reading (which by the way is great), then let him read, but if it's a science non fiction book, for example, ask him to explain after an element of it. If it's his fiction book, ask him to write about a character or a different final page with what he would have wanted to happen. With a child willing to read there is loads you can do, and it might even be fun. Yes, children will be behind on the curriculum but they're all in the same boat. Ask him what he usually does in class and whether he would find a timetable useful, plenty you can do.

You do realise that taking school holidays into account your child has only been away from formal learning for THREE WEEKS?

Chill and take this opportunity to do the type of learning that all those people say they do with their child if they take s term time holiday. You really dont need more than that anyway

I'm afraid that it's your job to keep him on track now op. That's the nature of home schooling. They are providing resources, they are telling you to only do what is manageable, and the rest is up to you.

If he's lacking motivation, you need to motivate him.

It's a steep learning curve for everyone this global emergency.

Another example of why so many don’t realise that bringing children into the world is hard work.

Stop whining op

My sons school seems to have it spot on , they use the seesaw app and post about 6-8 pieces of work a day. U then take a photo/video/notes of the work and one of the teachers will have commented by the next day. I let my ds6 choose 3 he wants to do a day I know some parents are doing all 8 everyday and getting stressed about it, which imo is ridiculous. A child can learn in other ways it doesn't have to be sit down at a desk learning.

We are the same as @pumpkinpie01 . Teacher sets things on seesaw each day. We upload work and the teacher comments. I totally agree it's our job to motivate and guide our children, I do think it helps to have some feedback from the teacher.

Another teacher bashing thread and the OP hasn’t bothered to return

If he's lacking motivation, you need to motivate him.

Please, please tell me how! Easy to say but extremely difficult to do in some children.

Teachers who are always slagged off manage to motivate 30 odd children, I am sure people can figure out a way to motivate their own child, who presumably they know loads about (additional needs aside).

🌼💐🏵

My DCs secondary schools seem to be prioritising year groups. The school newsletter talks about all the work they are sending home and what a great job all the staff are doing. My y11 and y13 get nothing at all. My y8 gets very little. And yes, I have checked that this is correct!

My friends y8 dd is at a private school, and like others, she has to be in uniform at her laptop every day from 8.45am, and she is having all her normal lessons online. They are even still doing house competitions.

Don’t destroy your relationship with your child over this.

Teachers who are always slagged off manage to motivate 30 odd children, I am sure people can figure out a way to motivate their own child, who presumably they know loads about (additional needs aside).

Except that children are generally much better in school, they behave better for other people and they have their friends and familiar routine to keep them on track so it's not the same at all.

I'm at home teaching my ds at the moment, he's an easy child and understands the work and even so I find myself saying, at least once a day "30 are easier than this!!"

I have a lot of sympathy with teachers and find some of the threads on here complaining about them ridiculous. However, the pile on to any poster who is struggling with what their school is doing during lockdown is getting a bit silly. It's also going to make people even less sympathetic to teachers not more so.

I used to childmind and nothing got my back up more than people bashing childminders on here for no reason. However, I didn't read every single thread from someone with a problem with their childminder as 'childminder bashing'.

The op seems a bit lost with what should be expected of her and what she should expect from the school. She's not criticising all schools and all teachers. I've had no contact from my youngest's primary school either and it is discombobulating. Perhaps a bit of help or reassurance would be better and do more to help people manage their expectations of their child's school.

I understand OP. My kids' school seems to have completely washed their hands of any responsibility to educate them. They set work but we've been told not to send it to them. We've had no contact from anyone bar generic whole school emails from the admin email. I'm trying my best to teach my kids, but I don't know what I'm doing! And I'm lucky enough to have bright kids who want to learn.

I know teaching is bloody hard work - I have several teachers in my family, and I have resisted several well-attempts from them over the years to persuade me to "go into teaching" because I know I'm fundamentally unsuited to it. I have huge respect for what they do and I'm really struggling to step into the breach.

What I can't seem to get them understand is that I need a bit more support from them to help the kids through this - and that, fundamentally, it will make their jobs easier when schools do go back if everyone hasn't fallen massively behind.

It sounds like you’re putting too much pressure on the two of you. You mention finding it overwhelming to keep up in the beginning and are now frustrated that it’s not as easy to motivate and support your DS as you expected.

From the other side teachers are disconnected from their pupils. Teaching isn’t like lecturing, it’s reactive to the pupils sitting in front of you. If the school have said no zoom calls all the teachers at the school need to follow that.

What’s wrong with your DS doing the things he enjoys? Give him some choice in what you do each day. I suggest you read the attached photo. Right now the best thing you can do for him is prioritise his emotional wellbeing and do fun stuff together.

Please, please tell me how

Generally schools get kids to do work with routines (so the kids know what to expect - set up a visual timetable), rewards (e.g. when you finish your schoolwork you can go on your X-box, stickers on completed work, praise), and sanctions (if you don’t finish your schoolwork you don’t get to go on your x-box or for every time you piss about we deduct 10 minutes x-box time).

You have a year 3 boy who likes reading non-fiction.

Just encourage that. Frankly at that age letting them read whatever they want is the best way to encourage their intellectual curiosity. Bung in a few maths worksheets now and then if you must. He won't fall behind at all and in fact will be ahead of most.