Classroom Lessons via Zoom

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AIBU to expect the teachers at my daughter’s rs primary school to offer at least some lessons via Zoom? The feedback I have been given is that that they aren’t offering it due to a) safeguarding issues, and b) it would add to the teachers workload. Well, surely if we parents consent for our child to sign in for these lessons then no safeguarding issue. Plus, at present, we parents are doing at least 60% of the teachers work for them via homeschooling. (I appreciate that they are setting work for the children, but this is part of the planning they would do anyway).

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Dear OP I ha e seen some particularly offensive edited and doctored online recordings of lessons put up on Instagram mocking teachers. They have been taken down but they probably are up somewhere. Does that answer your point. I suspect the students are now excluded.

I find it funny that my eldest child's independent school has managed Teams lessons from day 1. No issues at all, but at state schools the unions are blocking it.

Could someone explain the safeguarding issues please? I have asked the school if the could deliver some 'live' meetings - mainly for the emotional and mental well-being of the kids, I'm not expecting 9-3 online lessons. They have given a number of reasons why they can't, including safeguarding. However, they haven't explained exactly what that entails.

Thanks very much

I understood it to mean protecting anyone taking part, since screens and audio can be recorded easily with a quick google and download of simple software. In a social world of editing (intagram, tiktok, youtube etc) there is no guarantee that someone won't use your face and voice in a mocking way, or potentially destructive.

I think this prospect must be very worrying for pupils who have in the past been victims of bullying, and teachers who simply don't want to become 'memes'.

@Sultanarama I think the difference is, the government very clearly said, "Whatever we need to throw at the NHS, we will do." Problems with PPE etc in the NHS seem down more to procurement incompetency, rather than an unwillingness to spend the funds.

For teaching, I think they are definitely expecting schools to do all this on existing budgets. As far as I am aware, there is no support for teachers who don't have sufficient resources. I know a few who are trying to share out a single laptop between themselves and three children. It's pretty horrible that they are being asked to ration out education for their own children so they can provide it to others.

After half term this won't be possible anyway, as all teachers other than those shielding will be teaching 'bubbles' of YR, 1, 6 and keyworkers full time.

@Lifeisgenerallyfun that effort to research is exactly what I've done. That doesn't mean that I'm doing as good as a professional teacher would do.

@BladeOGrass thanks for the explanation. Do others know of other reasons, or is that the only one?

Also, is it Union or DoE-led and centralised, or individual school policy? If so, why can private primaries do live lessons, but not state?

Thanks!

(Can you tell I'm fed up and wanting to understand what the obstacles are?)

Why are you wasting your energy Ringsender2 when it's not something that can happen after half term anyway?

I've heard from a colleague that in their school two pupils have now been excluded because they've edited a video of two teachers faces (that they recorded during an online lesson before the guidance not to do so came out) and superimposed them onto seriously inappropriate footage. Apparently both colleagues have children in the school. This type of behaviour is why teachers cannot do zoom online lessons.

This type of behaviour is why teachers cannot do zoom online lessons.

Plenty are though, particularly in the private sector. What’s the difference for them?

There are tons of schools all over the country doing live lessons. My Y3 child has a full live timetable every day. She's at an independent school. No security issues. It's on Teams, all lessons are recorded and crucially all children know what is and isn't acceptable on that medium. They have to do it because they have to justify the fees.

My Y1 child who is at a state school has a fantastic provision as well. It's not live but is everything but that. Structured every day with instant feedback when emailed to his teacher, and a mixture every day of Maths, Phonics, handwriting and co curricular. Forest school challenges and other daily fun challenges coming separately from the class TA. His teacher records videos explaining the different tasks so not a million miles away from my daughters live lessons. A weekly blog posted with pictures of everything the class has sent in that week. His school is of the "what can we do" mindset rather than "here are all the things we can't do so we're going to do the bare minimum".

It's so depressing how defeatist so many schools seem to be, and how stark the gap in provision is between schools, even just between state schools and not factoring in independents.

And we moved our daughter to an independent because her state primary (different school from my youngest's) was exactly the kind of school that did the bare minimum on everything. I guarantee in this situation they will be the ones providing next to nothing and bleating about all the different reasons why they can't, instead of coming up with what they can do.

It's so depressing how defeatist so many schools seem to be, and how stark the gap in provision is between schools, even just between state schools and not factoring in independents.

Absolutely

@Wannakisstheteacher our private school have also had all day schooling from day 1...no probs. (9-3.30 - senior school)
I appreciate we have much smaller classes, but is is very doable!

It is not zoom....not sure what that obsession is all about! there are lots of different ways available

Ringsender2 for my DC's schools (primary and secondary) it's a county/LEA decision, because all parents had emails fromthe county to explain this. I don't think the schools themselves are not allowed to go against this even if they wanted to! So they're waiting for the outcome of trials with the platform.

It's so depressing how defeatist so many schools seem to be, and how stark the gap in provision is between schools, even just between state schools and not factoring in independents.

Yes. I wish we could discuss different approaches without all the jeering and aggression from some teachers. I'm talking about approaches that are happening in local state schools, not some dream world. It's the parents who are themselves teachers who are most up in arms about our school's lack of effort. They know it can be done because they're doing it, and still trying to provide for their own children at the same time because our school aren't.

a number of parents complain they don’t want their child on a screen for any length of time every day, they have to be accommodated.

Why should they be accommodated? I can understand accommodating people who don't have the devices to access work. But if it is a case of "ooh no, keep my child away from the devil screen" I wouldn't be pandering to it. The work is provided, if they don't like the medium they can adapt or create it themselves.

@penguinsbegin. I’m not sure exactly who would do that. I’m not in the UK anymore so we don’t have any where near the numbers of TAs that UK schools have.

That said, I’m sure that the children will undergo some type of assessment when they return to school and depending on the outcome a plan will be put in place. It’s not unusual for the school to identify particular groups of students who need help in a specific area and then they free someone up who has skills to help them. It could be children behind in their writing or reading or spelling for example. One of my children received extra one on one help with their reading when we first moved here because they were so far behind. They progressed through 2 years worth of reading levels in a few weeks. Another has trouble with spelling, so they had a special online programme to use at school and at home to help. They tailor the approach based on the situation.

In terms of the dv thing, I don’t know for sure but the school seems well aware of who is at risk of all sorts of things and do their best to provide additional support for those families. I can’t imagine that in homes with obvious dv on display the children would be in zoom calls. It’s against the law here to even smack children. Teacher’s do spend a lot of time keeping in touch with families who don’t respond to emails, attend zoom calls etc to try and make sure all is ok.

The priority should be the children though. If you aren’t delivering adequate provision for them right now, I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to point out you’re getting ahead on next years planning, ordering and CPD requirements.

It wouldn’t wash anywhere else. No way would be industry survive if we deprioritised current client needs for next years ordering.

I’m not necessarily saying Zoom classes are the answer, but certainly more face to face time, more targeted material to student are obvious things that teachers should be prioritising right now.

Penguins,

Clearly you are working ridiculously hard but I would question some of the prioritisation.

It does sound as if an awful lot of your time is spent creating and transforming resources. This is reinventing the wheel! There are so many resources already out there.

And surely someone other than a leader in an important field should be producing paper resources?

Your work redesigning the curriculum for next year could easily be postponed a year. I am sure your current curriculum could serve for another year, given how precious time is right now.

And online CPD seems to me to be a ridiculous luxury (except for maybe NQTs.

I do think it a little ironic that you seem to think Teams meetings with staff are essential and yet face to face time with students is not. Are adults or children more able to discuss issues over e mail?!