To think school should offer more?

[supermanisdead]

My DD is yr8 at a large comp. she is set roughly 2-3 hours of work a day online which she does.

For the first 5 weeks there was zero feedback given until I messaged the head who said they were implementing it that day. Since then feedback has been very sporadic.

There have been no Zoom or google classroom lessons. I'm concerned about the lack of face to face teaching and formative feedback. She's had one phone call from her tutor.

I'm interested to know what other schools are providing to see if it's comparable.

A bit of background - I'm an FE lecturer and have to call my learners once a week and provide Almost all lessons in a Zoom format. I can't understand why secondary schools aren't offering the same?!

We provide daily home learning via a platform and also a google drive to download and print if parents prefer. We've also set up accounts on some online learning apps/sites as alternatives/additional resources. We have no live lessons as it's inappropriate for our school community as a whole but some of the daily lessons include videos produced by the staff. Feedback happens on the learning app to an extent but as the children are young it is short and mainly positive comments and 'likes.' Class staff put on a weekly round up of some of the work posted and class news, plus a show and tell. The head does a video celebration assembly where reading awards are read out.

Some parents say we put out too much.
Some parents say there's too little.
Some love the format and options.
Some would prefer us to deliver printed sheets and books.
One parent complained on social media school wasn't providing lessons. This was untrue. School made a sm response in brief to show the parent where it was (the child had actually already accessed it?!) and other parents responded positively towards school and pointed out to the parent that there was indeed provision from us.

We can't please everyone. The majority seem fine with it from what we can gather.

That sounds brilliant aragog, I wish my children were at your school.

Dd year 9 gets lots of work that is all submitted and marked no live teaching but they send videos of others live teaching the topics then are there for questions. If anything too much work. We are pleased with the school’s response. It’s an all girl state School with an academic reputation.

Dd2 primary has been unimpressive. A daily learning sheet no feedback nothing marked no answers zero teaching. Parents hung out to dry frankly. Don’t blame the teachers for this the head was instructed by the government to just support vulnerable families so that is all she is doing. She is obsessed with safeguarding anyway. Of course I feel sorry for the minority of families but surely social workers should step in to help and free the Head and teachers up to actually teach the majority of children 🙄 Seems strange to me that they are running round town with food parcels instead of doing their jobs

@echt

I'm not new to Mumsnet.

I name changed recently to avoid outing. You can ask HQ if you like? I've been here since 2010 I think.

Thank you fourtea - as I said though, even then we've had the odd parent complain that it's too much or too little.

We made an early decision on no live teaching. It isn't suitable for our catchment as a whole - technology and Wi-Fi/broadband issues for staff and pupils, parent support, age of children, needs of the children, parents trying to balance wfh and home learning so timing issues.

But we do include videos made my our staff - screen recordings with voice over, teaching staff reading a story or two, video of staff talking through things or engaging with PE/music activities, etc. So pupils do 'see' teaching staff just not live.

But we do include videos made my our staff - screen recordings with voice over, teaching staff reading a story or two, video of staff talking through things or engaging with PE/music activities, etc. So pupils do 'see' teaching staff just not live.

I'd settle for some marked work tbh but I think it must be very beneficial for the kids to have access to their teacher in the way you describe. It would do my youngest a world of good to see his prerecorded teacher and feel a part of something bigger than our home.

@echt

I've said several times I am also in contact with the school.

My DS is in primary school. We had a lot of communication issues at the beginning in regard to set work. This was partially due to ancient laptop at home (I have a work one, and we have small kindle) and some of it because school didn't know how to handle this.
I kept contacting the school, it took them about 3 weeks to sort it out. We have a class email (normally answered within the hour- or out of office and day when will be answered) I can pick up a work pack once a week, there is often a personal, note from teacher about the previous weeks work or what to focus on in the week... I think it's great and DS is really motivated!

DD is an abandoned y11, hoping to go 6 from... the only communication we had is , what are your future plans.

I have a Year 10 dc doing the same amount of work as your dc op and I am getting increasingly worried as they will sit their exams next year. No online classes and a fortnightly call from a member of the admin team only. Some work is marked and some isn’t but I assume that some teachers are also trying to homeschool their own children so appreciate they can’t do everything. If it wasn’t for that fact it was GCSEs next year I wouldn’t worry so much.
My year 12 dc on the other hand has to log in for each lesson and gets to speak to his tutor and teachers so is much more on track.
It’s not the teachers fault at all, I just wish there was a more fair even playing field so all pupils were in the same situation.

My son is Y8 and can't fault the school at all. He's getting loads of work through, sometimes too much to keep on top of, which is hard work for me as I have to supervise him otherwise he wouldn't get it done. No Zoom lessons which I'm not bothered about, he has lots of resources to work independently and all his teachers are more than happy to help if asked - they all seem glad just to get feedback and interaction so that they know the kids are doing stuff.
They use Show My Homework and some want it submitting via uploading to the app, some don't give you that option.
I worry about him getting behind as he is not a great worker, starts things and doesn't finish them then the deadline passes but he's probably doing more than some of his peers so I'm trying to keep on top of it.
School are also very active on Twitter with tips, quizzes and challenges.
I admire them all, but I know some parents not having much effort from their schools.
My thinking is that if you're child is not getting enough work from school, there are loads of resources on the internet,you just need to make time to look for them and get them ready for your child.

@supermanisdead

Here is what I wrote on another thread earlier this morning. Some schools are offering more. It can and does work. Take it up with your schools management.

"Another teacher bashing thread.... great.

For what it's worth here is what I'm doing as a secondary teacher in a not affluent area.

Each week we are providing each year group two live lessons, via google meet. This means you can only get access if you have a school email address. (Anyone else is denied entry by the supporting teacher as entry has to be requested.) We combine classes so all have more than one staff member on at a time (sometimes there are up to four of us). Safefuarding. Pupils have cameras off and mics off. Teachers have cameras off. All lessons are recorded for safeguarding and so pupils who cannot get on live due to their circumstances can watch later. We invite responses during the lesson via the chat function. And if students are invited and want to they can talk via their mics when given permission. We can remove any student not complying with the rules at any time. At the end of the lesson they complete an online quiz to check their understanding and we have a short opportunity to revisit things if we need to. (We can clearly see who got which questions right.)

After the lesson the students are expected to complete the work on the google classroom within 7 days. Supporting powerpoints are also on the google classroom for anyone who cannot get onto the live lesson, so they can still compete the work. I then mark and comment on this work as it comes in.

We are providing paper copies of the work for any student who finds it easier to work on paper. (They have to make an appointment to collect it from the resources hub at school, similarly if they don't have stationary, books etc. they can also go and collect what they need. There are not many that do this but it is there for the students who have very little.)

We are teaching the normal curriculum, just slightly less at a time.

Most students are getting at least two live lessons a day with work provided for other times. Yr 10 are getting three a day.

Completion of the work and attendance to online lessons gets you positive class points. The ones with the most at the end of the week are celebrated and are sent a small recognition in the post.

We do an online tutor time each week where students can come with any worries anything they want to share. Next week we have a quiz planned and some students are going to play the piano or recite a poem (their suggestion and they are Yr 7!).

In addition I have the usually meetings, five this week. Two about arrangements for when Yr 10 come back in after half term.

This is taking a massive amount of time, we are planning lessons from scratch as what we have doesn't suit online teaching. And the online marking is significantly more time consuming than books.

Oh and I work a .6 contract so am working well over my usual hours. I have my 9 yr old and 11 yr old at home too.

Please don't tell me it can't be done and isn't being done. In some places it is and is very successful. In my area we are the only school doing this and as far as I am concerned there is no excuse. Some of the work being provided by other schools is quite frankly embarrassing. They need to step up."

It is obvious that there is too greater disparity in what different schools are doing. I think many parents have been very surprised by this and rightly so. We are supposed to have a national curriculum however there is no consistency is how this is being delivered. It isn't right or acceptable that some schools are teachers are providing lots whilst others none.

It seems to be clear that pupils won't be going back in June but what I think most of us can see is that it won't be back to normal by September. The DofE need to very quickly get something detailed in place showing what schools and teachers should be doing and communicate that with schools and parents so we know what to expect.

There is too much 'we've been told not to .....' Lets change this to a detailed plan about what schools are teachers are going to do to keep education going. I do believe that it was more structured parents would be more supportive of not going back in June.

And just to add, I don't understand the obsession with zoom. There are far better platforms such as MS Teams or Google Meet/Classroom.

June your post shows exactly that it can be done. There is nothing wrong in parents asking this isn't being done country wide.

Is this exposing how bad some HT and SLT are because I would guess it's very difficult for a teacher to break ranks and do something different than they are told?

Thanks @June2008 that's really helpful.

Primary school - but worksheet packs, links to online resources and that’s it. Prefer it this way, can get on with what we want to do and it’s working really well.

I think I teach in a similar school to June.

We are doing revordings and live meetings but no video. So I can screen share a PowerPoint or my visualiser and we can go through the work.

Yr7 and 8 have one "teams" session a week and a work booklet and the other lessons they do activities based on the teams session. So my Yr7 are doing weather and climate and this week have been making rain gauges and keeping records, and writing weather bulletins for the TV using correct terminology.

Yr9 mix of PowerPoint/teams session plus then work set based on it. I have fully assessed exam based questions twice for them since Lockdown.

Yr10 same. GCSE groups also doing "virtual fieldwork" using what3words and other photo based resources to do what we should be doing this term for their fieldwork. It's not the same but it's as close as I can get right now.

Yr12 are having 1/2 teams sessions a week, some taught, some seminar type.

8 weeks ago we couldn't do this but we've now had training/taught ourselves.

We are trying to do it but on top of an already busy job, teaching our own kids and bring in school on rota we can't do everything right by everyone.

Honest to god, go find something to binge watch on Netflix. I’m bored stiff of these threads that do inevitably turn into ‘teachers are shit and lazy and not doing their job properly’.

On the contrary cherrysoup, there are plenty of teachers on this thread showing how this system can work and meet their student's needs better.

@cherrysoup

I'm finding this really helpful.

Maybe you could block it from your feed if you don't like it?

Maybe read the guidance that schools are expected to work with.. the vulnerable groups take priority over all other students and there is no expectation for schools to be providing formal education to students during these times. Yes they are expected to provide for children at home but not in the same way as if children were at school. Also schools have to contend with staff illness/absence/limitations due to childcare, lack of resources etc.

Being part of SLT in a school it is almost impossible to please everyone.. we have to constantly adapt to the changing government guidance as well as contend with teacher unions who believe me.. make life really difficult.

There's no option of furlough for teachers, those who can't work in school are expected to work from home whilst potentially having their own kids to take care of too. Those who can work in school have to be with the most vulnerable kids.

I'm sure some schools are going well above and beyond.. but what is the impact of that on the Staff? Increased stress, illness and impacting their mental health?

There's so much to consider and feedback on students work may be a priority to you as a parent but it's just one of the many many things on the list of school staff.

Bollocks, MrsT.

There is nothing you have listed there that is not achievable by a group of well-paid and experienced professionals.

Just get on with it. Like the rest of the world has to.

Imagine if private schools took your stance.
“Oh, it’s just too hard!! 😩”
They’d be out of business in no time, and they know it. Hence the excellent provisions they are offering.

I have a Year 10 and a Year 12 and the differences between the education / support they are receiving compared to friends they have in other schools is ridiculous. They keep telling me how they have friends who don’t get out of bed until the afternoon.

If you look on the Higher Ed board here or the Student Room, you can see that unis (eg Manchester) are starting to email the Year 13s who are due to be starting in Sept / Oct to confirm that while seminars will probably be able to take place (smaller groups of 4 / 5) all lectures will be online, at least for the first term as they can’t do social distancing in lecture theatres, nor can they do the same lecture multiple times with only a proportion in each time. So I can’t see how schools are going to return at full capacity in Sept either - how will the facilitate lunchtime; school coaches (where applicable); assemblies? Some schools are in modern, purpose-built buildings, but others are in converted houses with narrow staircases and convoluted layouts, this kind of thing.

They might have to do teacher assessment again for next year’s GCSE and A-Level students but clearly some teachers are having a lot more contact and will have much more evidence of attainment than others.

To be honest, I do agree that all this “how can I teach when I have my own children at home” is a bit of a hollow excuse. People are WFH doing all kinds of jobs with children at home - online board meetings, conferences - you name it. As if a teacher in an independent school could make that kind of excuse. They wouldn’t last five minutes.