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.

@MrsTSwift

I think a lot of accusations of teacher bashing come from generalisations. I actually don't see any on (what I've read of) this thread. Just parents comparing their experiences, which is understandable to want.

But some people leap instantly from "my child's teacher isn't engaging with my child's learning", through "therefore my child's teacher is sat at home with her feet up" to "therefore all teachers are sat at home with their feet up".

This is particularly problematic as some teachers are still working 14 hour days. So they are understandably annoyed by these generalisations.

Our provision has been beyond useless.

NOTHING sent home on the last day of school or during the 2 weeks before Easter.

After Easter, they started photocopying pages from Abacus books and dumping them on a google classroom with no word of explanation. You can’t even read the pages properly as the photocopying is so bad.

No other contact at all.

And this from a school in an affluent area which normally receives good inspection ratings.

Can’t help thinking the leadership coming from the headteacher is a big part of the problem. She is new to the school, lives 30 miles away, and is now happily home-schooling her own two primary aged children.

Year 10 and 12 parent here. School sent some work in the first few weeks nothing since. State school, a massive disappointment. This has affected my dc mental health as they are worried about missing so much going into exam year. There has been zero pastoral care ie phone calls or emails checking on welfare. All we get from the school is don't worry allowances will be made for exams. But that's not the point, the point is children need an education and if this situation is likely to continue schools must find a way to provide at least semi decent provision. It's completely unacceptable that kids are going with education for months on end, all whilst staff are on full pay without worries about jobs and money.

I'm wfh full time, trying to help the kids, worried about staff furloughed, and cannot see any way out of this mess.

Yr 3 and 5 here too. They both have a weekly timetable and daily emails.

Very different content though. Yr 3 is jam packed with ideas, loads of feedback, lots of activities etc. This teacher is on the rota for key workers.

Yr 5 is a series of web links and a 'email me during normal school hours if you have a problem'. This teacher hasn't been in since before lockdown as is asthmatic, but is also the head's partner. Parents are complaining to me as I work there too but tbh don't think it is worth saying anything to the school as the staff are all so close that it wouldn't be well received.

I'm not nervous about it per se as the whole class will be in the same boat.

Private school.

Full online school from 8.30 - 4.30, including PE where you need to provide evidence on Strava or similar photo evidence. Tutor meeting once a week, assembly 3 times a week (too often IMO), teachers live and available in every lesson. Homework marked very quickly, sometimes the same day. Debating society thriving online. Plenty of extra challenges and fun stuff that you can take or leave.

Dd3 prefers it to normal school.

Ive been very happy with y DCs (Y5) school. They are using seesaw. She gets a timetable every evening with the next days work. There are am and pm activities that can usually be condensed into a couple of hours but the actual timetable helps me easily find relevant resources on Twinkl, bitesize etc so DD gets to do a bit extra. There's usually 4 tasks to be done via Seesaw and then a few optionals. The work uploaded on Seesaw can be 'liked' by her teacher (a bit like IG) and if there are things wrong with it/ or is really good the teacher will comment. The teacher uploads a few maths and English videos a week especially if it's something new and if anyone doesn't understand it she asks the DC to contact her for help. They have a class noticeboard that they can put messages on- just to keep in touch really which is quite sweet. Class are carrying on what would have been their usual topic and at least one piece of work a day is related back to it.

We get a phone call once a week, an email from the head, a weekly class video message from the teacher or TA and my DD can use Seesaw to message her teacher herself at any point.

I feel very lucky after reading some of these because the interaction between DC and the teachers has been invaluable for keeping the link to school.

... My DC1 is at secondary and also getting plenty of work set, support, teams meetings and marked very quickly. If DC emails her teachers with questions she usually gets a response within the hour. We've been very impressed.

Well, the difference between state and private is clear for all to see. And so the attainment gap grows bigger.

Remember all that propaganda we used to receive from schools about absenteeism?

2 days off and we’d have a note home about how 2 days a year is equal to so many hours missed over their school education....blah blah blah..... Children who miss over 5 days a year of school achieve significantly lower outcomes than those who don’t....blah blah

All that, bollocks now, is it?

I work in Y3 and my school (Academy) is using Google Classroom and Google Meets to offer:

Twice daily year group meets where work is presented by teachers
Once daily small group meets with TA
Continuous teacher support meet throughout day 10-3.30 (teachers work on rota so always someone online)
Additional meets for EAL/lower attainers

Online maths set daily
English tasks daily building over week to main writing task
Topic tasks daily on a weekly theme
Comprehension daily (based on chapter book which TA is reading aloud)
Creative and wellbeing activities suggested weekly

Work marked daily, children/parents contacted if not engaging

We started prepping 2 weeks before closure so every child had an account set up and had used GC & GM. Children/staff who needed one have been loaned a chromebook.

yes I understand what CPD is for - I’m a doctor, we do it to. But now is not the time for self improvement, when parents are desperate for help educating their kids. As GPs, we have all suspended our personal professional development for the past 2 months to focus on dealing with this crisis. How would people feel if , whilst our doors are largely closed to face-to-face consultations, we ignored the many telephone calls, and instead focused on CPD?

This. It feels like there’s a fire raging outside and instead of grabbing a hose, our school are telling us how proficient they’re getting at origami skills.

@Whatafustercluck true! most private schools have not suspended the curriculum in the slightest (well, ours have dropped spanish and replaced it by more french). many state schools seem to have suspended the curriculum (as suggested above), so the gap is getting bigger by one term’s learning at least (plus, after having done little for 6 months, kids will have forgotten a lot, so it’s probably closer to 2 terms for many kids). what a diseaster!

@madamegazelle

I'd appreciate if you'd read my reply at the bottom of the last page. And Cpd is certainly not origami skills.

And have you considered that teachers might be practising origami in their own time? We've suddenly got a lot more evenings at home to fill, just like the rest of the country. I believe the "look what the teachers are up to" is probably a misguided attempt to connect with the children. I can see how it has led to frustration, especially if it seems like there is no meaningful connection going on from your schools. I apologise for that. Meanwhile, I can either fill my gained time with cpd, or watch TV. So I'll do the one that might benefit the children I will work hard to catch up in September (our families have not engaged very much, so I am sure a lot of catch up will be needed)

We've suddenly got a lot more evenings at home to fill, just like the rest of the country.
hollow laughter. my evenings at home are filled with work, work, some more work. training etc has been shelved, we are struggling to get done what absolutely needs to be done.

I have been very disappointed with our school. I haven't posted about it before for fear of teacher bashing accusations but I believe it is down to senior management and not the teachers.

We have almost no contact from the school. There have been a few general messages on the communication platform the whole time - also telling us how the teachers are spending all their free time. No direct emails. Certainly no phone calls. No way of contacting teachers.

Very little work has been set so I have ended up having to put a lot of time in myself. We shouldn't have to do this. If the teachers were able to provide details of what activities to complete rather than a general link to a website it would help parents out. To know that other teachers and schools are working hard to support their pupils while ours does nothing is frustrating.

@SallyAlly2020 that is an insightful post. I can see what you say about SLT reflected in my child’s school eg a cut n paste of the same statement about unprecedented times and ‘don’t have to teach’ on every year group page. I also smiled at your comment about for every parent saying ‘x’ there is one saying ‘y’.

This comment concerns me though ‘avoid widening the gap between more and less privileged children as we cannot guarantee the same level of access or support available to them at home’. You say this in relation to new material but it’s a point I’ve heard made about supplying tailored and more structured work generally too (appreciate this isn’t quite what you say here but your phrasing reminded me). As a parent, I’m looking at what I can do for my own child. If a child is young for year, SN or just a bit ‘behind’ for whatever reason, it’s a bit galling to be told that material and help won’t be provided because that might disadvantage someone else’s child.

I think schools set themselves up badly for parental feedback as they often present their way as definitive. A case in point is staggered reception starts. Every school maintains that their way is absolutely essential to ensure settling, question it and you are denying your child the perfect start,yet every school does different!

DS (year 6) gets a timetable on Monday and the tasks are put onto google classroom each morning. DS’s teacher comments on the stream all day and children submit their work and the teacher comments on most of it. She sends out the maths answers the next day for children/ parents to mark their maths. There’s a different subject each afternoon, art on Mondays, history on Tuesdays, music on Wednesdays, Science on Thursdays and something different each Friday. He’s also able to access purple mash, times table rockstars and read theory. His teacher has recorded herself reading the class book and posts the pages so children can read along. I wouldn’t want him to have Zoom lessons as it’s be too intrusive and less flexible.

If children don’t post their work, it’s followed up and if this continues then his teacher has rung some parents to see if she can help I think.

The day the schools shut, the children were sent home with 2 exercise books, CGP books for maths and English (ordered by the school especially very quickly!), a class novel and even 2 pencils!

I don’t think we could ask for more than that tbh. It should be SATs week this week, so I’d rather he was working at home than wasting a week on tests and filler activities.

On the other hand, his old school has set a few worksheets and told them to just look after their well-being and they’ll catch up eventually. My sister is having to provide her own curriculum for her girls who still go there.

I’m so glad DS moves to his current school!

Remember all that propaganda we used to receive from schools about absenteeism?

Yes apparently that doesn't matter now. On another thread people are saying "oh its only 6 weeks its fine. How dare you suggest private school kids are getting a better education and will be further ahead".

I realise I am immensely privileged to be able to privately educate my kids but state secondary parents should be worried. And pushing for more.

Weren't us private school parents always being told how it would be great if private schools were abolished, because we would then have to state educate and we would be the kind of parents who would push for improvement in state schools?

Well, this is the kind of thing we'd have fought for and clearly the unions and teachers absolutely refuse to even entertain providing a better service.

@myself2020 to be honest I'm considering a private English tutor, if any are still operating - perhaps online - for 9yo ds. Unlike maths, it doesn't come easily to him and he was slightly behind in his written English even before all this started. I'm doing my best with him but wfh and there's more work due to COVID than ever before so I get no breaks during the day to help him. Likewise with dh (he's not very good at English anyway so tends to help with maths instead). I feel like I'm doing neither parenting/ teaching nor my job particularly well at present and I really worry about his future if this continues much longer.

I think the reason state schools have suspended the curriculum is because they've had to continue taking key workers' children. I don't know but I'm guessing not many key workers' children are in private education to begin with.

We have just had a sheet with links each week - totally pointless. We found the sheet of links so pointless, we have been following bbc bitesize daily lessons instead.
I'm a teacher myself and still can't understand the lack of initiative from our school when it comes to setting decent work for the children to do. My child has had no phone call from any member of staff although has had occasional emails from her teacher. In the end I emailed them to explain that my child is really missing the interaction with school - since then they have started doing things - took 7 weeks and some nudging though, so I'm not impressed 😔

@whatafustercluck there are some keyworker kids at our (very small) school, but none where both parents are key workers. otherwise all private schools around have teamed up so the workload of looking after the keyworker kids is minimal per teacher (1 day every 2-3 weeks) and mostly put on PE teachers etc who don’t do much online teaching.

I'm also disappointed - minimal interaction. When I complained I was told the teachers have young kids at home and it's difficult to do live lessons. I however can't say to my boss sorry I can't joint the teams call because I have to look after x,y,z. The teachers should be doing their job and if they can't they should be furloughed like the rest of the population. I am so frustrated at the lack of support and interaction. No marking and no contact since lockdown began. There is no way the teachers at my kids school are doing anywhere near a days work. Some of the schools on here sound fabulous. I might call the school again on the back of this

Loads of key workers children in private education, especially those of doctors. DS's private school ( 30 per year) has about 25 children a day possibly more

Yr 4 and Yr 7 in private school. Full online live teaching from 9am to 4pm, possibly more breaks then they would get normally but to be honest they need it given how long they are sat at their laptops. Wellbeing sessions twice a week. Form time every day. Fees reduced by 80% but they are well and truly justified by the time and effort the teachers are putting in.

I work in state secondary, and over the last two days have hosted or supported live lessons for each Yr group, at two different times a day in case there are other family demands. Work is set online for every student and I respond to every piece of work I am sent, with a mark and a comment. This takes a massive amount of time. We are also sending home paper work packs for students who don't have IT access. I do miss the students and its good to make a connection through the live lessons.

I do get annoyed when I see the provision from other schools. Locally, non of my friends children in the same year groups have been getting any on line provision, and to be honest some of the work they have been given has been shocking. I don't know what their teachers are doing with their time.

I do get that there are going to be gaps when we go back and a those who haven't engaged will be behind but we'll do our very best to get them caught up. And my biggest concern at the moment is that the majority of parents won't be sending their Yr10s in once we open up the school provision for them.

Loads of key workers children in private education, especially those of doctors. DS's private school ( 30 per year) has about 25 children a day possibly more

Same here, in fact they are also working with local state schools to offer activities to the key workers children educated in the state sector as well.