My son is a secondary school teacher. Much of the work that he has been doing has been "behind the scenes" or visible to only a minority of parents and students.
He's been setting work, marking work and available via email continuously. If your child does the work without a problem and submits it maybe you'd be thinking "huh, what does Mr X do all day?".
What you aren't seeing though are the numerous emails (and I mean numerous) from a minority of students who simply cannot work on their own. They have a query so email him. He answers it. Cue 10 more emails with yet more questions. He's currently teaching one whole year group in an eight form entry school plus other classes throughout the school, including at GCSE and A level so even one or two of these students in every class is generating huge amounts of work.
He spoke to me last night because he was so stressed and he realised that he's usually fielding these conversations from these students everyday in lessons. The difference is that it's an exchange that takes maybe a minute plus everyone else in the class hears, so it's not the same question being asked four or five times, all requiring s written response.
Then he's getting multiple emails from parents because their child won't do the work, won't get out of bed, won't get off the Xbox (usually these are his form class) and can he please phone to speak to the child!!
Then there's planning the work. He makes his own resources usually, and the work that he would have taught doesn't translate well to just being emailed out so he's having to re plan everything.
On top.of that he's having to assess his GCSE and a level students to recommend their grades (which has really upset him at times). He's fighting tooth and nail for his students against a system which is now insisting grades are in line with a school's previous attainment.
Then there's his work with the vulnerable students, keeping a closer eye on them and making frequent contact.
On top of that he's going in to teach key worker children.
Another teacher has just quit and my son has been given his classes but the outgoing teacher won't engage so it's hard to ascertain what these classes have done, where the gaps are. All of this being done with only a laptop, at home. So no access to all the resources he would normally use.
Many students aren't doing any work. Others are really behind. Some are complaining there's not enough work, others too much. Some want live teaching, some no on line work only paper based, some want work sent out in advance so they can choose what they do and when, others want work sent following a normal timetable eg normal lesson 9am Monday so that lesson's work sent out at 8.55 Monday.
This just is not doable with the staff they have, working in the conditions that they are.