To wonder why schools are saying they’re not allowed to do live lessons

[Plinkplonkplank]

Because they’ve just started doing them at my ds’s state secondary. We had to fill in an online permission form. So it is possible after all.

Never

Thank you. Glad to know it’s working in places (worried some healthcare is like some school’s and making us all look bad)

Your mum sounds fab. Our first teams staff meeting was hilarious (if we hadn’t all thought the world was ending) as the senior and less tech savvy partners couldn’t get the phone the right way up or were stuck on mute but it’s all good now. Covid seems to have been the kick the nhs (where I work at least) needed to get into this century tech wise (It would have been nice if it didn’t take a global pandemic though)

Yes, I know that's just our experience but we were so worried about this and our experience has just been that it is so good we hope they keep some of the meetings as video ones after lockdown (saves the long journeys!)

Yeah I can barely get my head round my mum using all the video call tech!! but she was determined to make it work for her patients so they didn't have to come into hospital (they are a high risk group)

The chromebooks, I think there were over 100 purchased, I'm not sure and I have no idea where the money came from but it did.

Wow, my entire computing budget in my primary went on a set of 15 laptops this year. There is no way we have the money for all the children who would need one. We even buy our own glue sticks.

I agree that provision could be improved by ensuring each child had access to a device and WiFi. I'd be a lot more keen to do live lessons if I knew all the children were going to be able to access them. But if that sort of provision were going to take place (and it would cost vast amounts) then it needs to be planned for now. Procuring laptops/tablets or whatever takes time. Then they would all need to be set up - we don't have an in-house technician. Our technical support is outsourced to a firm that supports many other schools too. It would be no good the government announcing it on September 1st and expect it all to be up and running in a week.

Never your lack of understanding of learning through play shows.

I fully understand learning through play. My chikdren do plenty. But that's a poor excuse for not teaching children too. Both are needed.

Or rather, if you are saying they don't need academic learning at primary and parents can deliver the learning through play then maybe we just need childcare workers until age 7? Or age 11?

Theres a huge difference between zoom conversations with adults at work and teaching

Can you imagine 30 kids on a zoom call!? With all the tech issues and "can you hear me!?" And possibly without adults.

Ive seen a ks2 class in a computer room with several adults supervising....

I really wish people wouldnt jump on teacher bashing.

Maybe dept 4 ed or govt. Maybe they could fund extra space outdoors /outdoor hand washing like some countries. Or fund more teachers so groups could be smaller. Or fund proper training so teachers can adapt properly as many havent a clue how to teach children online (im struggling adapting to teaching adults and adults have a better concentration span/ can cope with hiccups far hetter than 8 year olds)

Or even just telling schools and headteachers what they expect and plan to do rather than announcing it to the world on a sunday night without warning.

Really I can see why teachers are exhausted and stopping engaging with these threads.

Never many countries have learning through play until 7 (poasibly wales?) .

@Smileeachday - how will that work with secondary kids who might only be in school 2 days per week? I'm really worried that he will miss a chunk of classes. And will it be sufficient teaching to pass exams?

tigger1001

The plan outlined was for secondary.
Re exams next year - there will had to be some adjustments made by DfE/Ofqual, but no one knows what yet.

@Davincitoad I can understand not wanting to be recorded but how are you planning to deliver your lessons, if this is longer term?

If I told my boss I didn't want to do zoom meetings or teams meetings if required, I would be on a bit of a sticky wicket - it's not what I signed up for either, but we are where we are. Would you be prepared to lose your job?

🤣 if you think teaching children through zoom is just like a zoom meeting.

And whether thats accessible or appropiate for half the kids. It wouldn't be in our area for so many reasons.

I provide 3 hours of learning daily, including the odd video, uploaded the day before. I respond to every email within a few hours and provide individual feedback. Some parents I correspond with daily or weekly but about 60% of parents/children haven't contacted me at all. Not a deprived area. On calling them, some have just asked for Twinkl style worksheets printed off instead. I'm not even sure they want live lessons, not that I can provide them now I'm teaching a bubble anyway.

@Smileeachday - I'm in Scotland so
Not sure if it will be the same here?

There was talk of the online stuff being taught by education Scotland rather than class teachers, but not sure if that was for both primary and secondary or just primary.

Currently no online lessons. Work being posted on teams for my eldest at secondary but maybe an hour or two at the very most per day with little follow up. Worksheets 3 times per week for my youngest at primary with no ability to feed back his work to his teacher and no actual contact with his teacher other than the blog posts putting up the work

This might put the cat amongst the pigeons....🙈.

Lifted of Twitter

Subordinateclause

You are not allowed to mention that.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

Is that the Times again?

They have been stirring up shit since this began.

Not sure, l know it’s been in the Mirror.

I do worry about the impact on year 12 going to university. I fear that a lot of courses that have a maths element will need to run catch up sessions.

Well if it does go on that long they will have to improve the infrastructure around schools.

@ITonyah

state school trying to work out how to teach 10 lots of 30 children by teams?

Tbf if you can use teams it doesn't matter if you have 10 or 30 children at the end of the line!

Of course the number of pupils makes a difference! A live lesson isn't just the teacher delivering a spiel to the kids while they sit there, rapt. If it was, it would offer absolutely no conceivable advantage over a recorded video lesson. The teacher needs to interact with the pupils and assess how they're progressing. In a classroom you can do a lot by glancing around the room, by a show of hands, by noticing where the pupils are looking and how they are reacting, and by setting them quick tasks that just take a few minutes, and walking round to see how they all get on. On Teams it is much more difficult to do that sort of quick assessment, and nearly impossible to do it effectively for a class of thirty without the pace of the lesson dropping to the point where you lose too many of the pupils.

To chip in on a couple of other points - not all versions of Zoom allow you to change the background. I have it on an old laptop (Windows 10, but limited memory and processor) and it will only work if I have a green screen behind me.

Oh, and my employer (professional office job, not in education) has provided me with a laptop, two monitors, keyboard, mouse, fully adjustable desk chair, printer, shredder and a large box of paper. When I taught, I bought all my own kit. I think one poster suggested teachers should expect to do this because they were a freelancer or similar and that was what they had to do. They seemed to have missed the point that teachers are employees, not small businesses or sole traders.

Employees are supposed to be provided with the equipment they need to do their work. Teachers are certainly not allowed to hold pupils' personal data and interact with pupils' by video on their personal devices. That would be a serious disciplinary offence in any LEA I worked in when I taught.

The government and DfE suspended the curriculum and said that no new work should be taught by schools.

I keep reading this. My understanding was that there was no expectation for teaching for key worker children. Although ours do the work set for all children to do at home - just in school.

We are teaching new content to all of our students - KS4 and 5 will have exams. I am also not going to work the hours I am and then not actually teach them anything

@Nonotthatdr
I’m using my own laptop (well dhs laptop) and have had to purchase a smart card reader myself.

Assuming you're a GP, you're most likely self-employed, either as a locum or a GP partner. It's pretty normal for the self-employed to provide their own equipment, and then offset the cost against the tax payable on their profits.

For teachers employed by schools, it's normal for them to buy stationery and things out of their own taxed income, and get nothing back. They really can't be expected to do the same for expensive IT kit.

All of the safeguarding issues are easy to resolve if you’ve got someone who knows what they’re doing taking the lead on Zoom.

We do, I’m one of the designated safeguarding leads in my school and I’m teaching on Zoom tomorrow.

Some schools just can’t get the buy-in from staff.