To ask how much support your KS2 children are getting from school?

[concernedforthefuture]

DCs are yrs 3 & 5 (age 8 & 10). Since the beginning of lockdown, work has been sent weekly from school in the format of a series of links to where we can download various worksheets and watch online videos (all of which are available to the public such as Twinkl / White Rose Maths / BBC Bitesize, rather than something the teacher has produced). These are not to be returned for marking, there is no supplementary online teaching by their class teachers (either live or pre-recorded videos) and no real contact from the school apart from a weekly email to remind us to visit the class pages on the school website to see this week's recommended learning links.
I was more than happy with this for the first few weeks but with a real chance that they might not return to school this term, I'm really feeling that our children are being let down by not really getting an education at the moment. They're bored of the work - each day is quite different to the day before in terms of content and there's no obvious progression from one week to the next. Not having any feedback is leaving them wondering why they should bother at all and it's getting difficult to motivate them. We do other stuff too, but I do worry for the children whose parents aren't able to offer anything extra.

I wonder how this compares to others' experiences? Are all families just being left to get on with it ? I see a lot of posts about online teaching and class zoom meetings (with the teacher). I just don't understand what the teachers are doing. It's a big school (450+ pupils) and most days they only have around 10-15 key worker children so they can't all be in school everyday. To be clear, I'm not expecting online school from 9-3 for 5 days a week, but a few lessons a week tailored to the class would be welcome, together with some kind of interaction between the teachers and pupils to see how they're doing.
If it makes a difference, the (state) school is currently rated Outstandjng by Ofsted.

I am a teacher and I'm sure someone will have already said this but if anyone is unhappy with the level of work their child is receiving, they need to contact the head of school directly.Teachers are being directed by their senior leaders so real issue is with those higher up in the school who are not directing their staff or have decided that their lockdown curriculum is what you are currently receiving.

Government guidance doesn't say schools HAVE to provide a certain type of education at this time and they have introduced BBC and Oak Academy to support learning from home, however, I can understand why some parents and carers would be upset. The updated guidance says:

Schools and colleges should use best endeavours to support pupils attending school as well as those remaining at home, making use of the available remote education supportt_.

This is why there is such a difference in provision at the moment. My school is working their asses off so it's not all of us. If parents or carers complain to the head and don't get anywhere, or the reply is tough luck, it might be time to consider moving school?

I honestly think this pandemic will show some schools in an amazing light and others will leave a lot to be desired.

Interesting. I will talk to Ds2's teacher when she next rings.

BertNErnie I completely agree. Our school has a fb page that some days as over 15 posts, so many you miss most of them, about what parents are doing with kids then whole weeks of nothing. A new deputy head seems to have been appointed at this time too, possibly something I missed with the bi daily COVID "update" letters in the first couple of weeks. Other schools locally had dojo already and have been more than fine, but even the ones who didn't have more provisions than us (live meetings, timetables for work, marking, using Teams, recorded lessons and assemblies) and dd's school is one of the more "snobby"in the area.

It also annoys me seeing the papers declaring "poor children are doing less school work" and somehow trying to make it about the parents SES, rather than the difference in provisions from Private to State Primary.

Ds class teacher (year 4), uploads work weekly or fortnightly, they're set daily online maths and literacy tasks to do, plus daily maths and literacy worksheets via pdf, sometimes as much as 4-6 pages per subject, but sometimes just one, depending on the difficulty (and sometimes a lot of it is reading). Plus weekly times tables revision, daily spellings (6-8 words a day), and they get some science or history links to follow and a "challenge" once a week, around 10-12 short books are uploaded via bug club a week/fortnight (this varies from week to week), and they're asked to do two extra "challenges" (fun stuff) a week for maths and literacy if possible, and are asked to do an online maths course if possible too, and are encouraged to look through the bitesize and other links provided, and to give scratch for coding etc a go if they want.

The maths is relevant from one day to the next, (there's usually a theme for the week such as revising money, time, etc). On Mondays they do comprehension (usually reading a news article or similar then answering questions), Tuesdays grammar, Wednesdays they follow a link to youtube, to an audio book of the novel they were reading as a class, a chapter or two at a time, then answer some questions about it, Thursdays spellings (crosswords, putting the words in a sentence etc), Fridays they have a writing task, usually relevant to the history/science work. Parents mark, and are asked to send pics of certain pieces of work (the writing task and challenges usually). They've now started doing class conferences once a week, the teacher, classroom assistant and kids can meet for an hour or so a week, and chat about how they're getting on with the lockdown/catch up with each other (they don't discuss work at all, very informal).

The teacher seems to be really on the ball, so I have no complaints! I'd expected much less tbh, and am quite happy with the amount being set. This is in Northern Ireland.

When schools go back all staff will be needed in class so parents need to prepare for less not more support. That is why the government have signposted the online support. Teachers cannot be in class teaching full time with the returning year groups, which are being split, and provide detailed online learning with videos etc. It isn't possible. But it's understandable that parents will
be worried about the long term implications of this. Having said that, children will all be in the same boat and teachers will work really hard upon their return to ensure they catch up. Key subjects will be prioritised to plug gaps.

I forgot to mention, there are 4 groups for math and literacy depending on ability, and the work for each is different, so that's 40 lots of work a week for the teacher to put together/upload, then sourcing all the relevant online links (sometimes videos explaining a new concept, sometimes games etc), then reviewing 120 pieces of submited work, around 90 of which are probably vastly different from kid to kid and week to werk (for the challenges, they have a topic grid of about 15 to choose from), plus he reviews the online maths course work, monitors bug club (and which kids are using it and which aren't), and his replies are always very long and detailed.

*50 lots of work, d'oh

50 40 was right fs. Oh to be able to sleep 😴

My ks2 child gets a list of activities posted posted on the school website weekly with instructions such as:
Log on to MyMaths and do one of the tasks
Log on to a Purple Mash and do one of the tasks
That's it. We have had no phone call in the entire time we have been away from school.
A few parents have emailed a few times to ask for more communication and had no reply to any emails. I am very disappointed and reluctant to send my child back after this tbh.

Not in the UK but would just add that most of my friends back home are very impressed with their schools' provision. A minority have been unimpressed (Twinkl worksheets and random links dumped on them, no feedback) but this is not a large number. I think most teachers are working very hard right now.