To think school could get in touch with pupils at least once during lockdown?

[buckeejit]

Has your school been in touch with children by phone or zoom at all?

We've had no direct contact from school, just worksheets to print out from the website. I've emailed the head to request zoom or a phone call, he has said they've checked and zoom is inappropriate due to child safeguarding.

AIBU in thinking a quick phone call from teacher to pupils would boost morale?

Yes a few times withGoogle classroom lessons issues each day at 9am.
I probably would have dropped homeschooling without it.

The form tutors email parents and kids and say they'll phone if they don't hear back from parents or kids. They've done that twice. I was fine with that.

We have had nothing either. Just sheets uploaded and to be honest I can find more engaging tasks on twinkle.

My child missed his form meeting this week and I got an email checking how he was doing the next morning. It had been his birthday so we hadn't completed any work at all. They noticed and checked in with me immediately. He was then able to have a google meet and tell his form tutor what a lovely week he was having. My child's school has been fantastic - assemblies/wellbeing/sports and fitness/lessons/games/group meet ups. They are all incredible.

Dd year 10 no phone calls from school whatsoever. She has now fallen behind with her work. No online lessons.

I spoke to head of year Monday as I had sent a couple of emails asking about DD’s progress. Think some teachers have emailed pupils about TEAMS this week but because the pupils have never used this before, they don’t know what this and they can’t see the wood for the trees as they are being sent a ridiculous amount of long emails from all their teachers, with the word TEAMS buried in the emails with no explanation of what this is. Teachers then send an email to other subject teachers and copy in Head of year saying take up extremely low (I know as I have been copied into one such email. So these are being missed by the vast majority of pupils not just DD.

Comms not commaw

I’ll just give trying to text on my phone - typos!

It's so variable, isn't it? My DD is in Yr12 - she's been having live lessons in all 3 subjects, work set and marked, assessments for end of year are happening and daily contact via email with teachers. School has also set up virtual meeting spaces where students can meet with a teacher to discuss work. Just a local state 6th form.

No. And I wasnt bothered at the start but as time has gone on I'm a bit disappointed.
Comms have been a bit patchy too but when they are actually at school I'm very happy with it.

Both my kids teachers were calling in every week. Both were also asking about my wellbeing too. As a single parent I feel that they have done a great job to make sure we are all ok.

No calls at all, although others at the school have had some. No response from emails until i posted on fb page them they answered. Very disappointed tbh if dcs were struggling they wouldnt know

Not a squeak.

They have a 1990s style bulletin board where the kids can leave notes and someone may or may not reply.

No phonecalls. No zoom, for any of my kids at both primary and secondary.

Not good enough.

No contact from my P5s teacher. Work is posted on MS Teams and submitted there too. No feedback at all.

My DS's state secondary school use Chromebooks. Teachers have sent group messages most of the time that they set work. Some teachers are setting homework every day, some are setting a bigger project over the week so DS is getting at least one message per day. Most days he has Maths, English, Humanities,Science and his language option, though they are set weekly . He has sports home work one each week along with art or IT.

His science teacher emailed him (and us) three weeks ago as he'd missed a few pieces - he hadn't checked the bottom of the set work. She asked if he was OK, if he was struggling. He replied he was fine - just hadn't opened his eyes! He picked up the pace and did his assessment this week so his teacher could see where his gaps were. Each child got a feedback sheet also sent to their parents saying where they did well, not so well and how to improve.

The science teachers have now set up a system where, if the kids email with a query that needs illustrating, they send back with a quick clip of them explaining the answer - so they ''see' a teacher.

The school sends out House newsletters every two weeks with 'well done's', things kids have done and an update for the 'virtual' after schools clubs. The teachers have set up a virtual sports club, photography club, cookery club and art club. The kids scan in photos of them doing sports/cooking/art or send in photos they have taken during their day. They will literally take anything the kids have done and celebrate it.

They've also sent out certificates for good work or achieving something which are also on a rolling 'hall of fame' on the House newsletter - so when you click on the link you have the child's first name and first initial of their surname in alphabetical order. The hall of fame rolls round like the opening credits of a film. A few weeks ago they sent out 500 virtual certificates. One of DS's friends, who is in the SEN group, has always struggled academically, but he didn't miss out - he got a certificate for delivering food to his elderly neighbours. 1400 of 2000 students are now working on line.

And the PE department did a virtual sports day last week. The kids had to do a measured distance - 30ft and run so many times between it, then time themselves. They did throwing a ball into a bucket or drawn circle at three distances, Then they did hopping for a minute on each leg - send in the total hops for each leg. Each child got a virtual bronze, silver or gold medal depending on how many seconds their run was, how many throws etc.

And the Head sends an update home every week. It goes through what has been happening in the key worker school, congratulates the kids and parents for working so hard, thanks the teachers and informs the parents of anything happening in the school.

His teachers have been working their socks off teaching the kids and keeping in touch. I really can't fault what they've done. They could teach a few schools by the sound of it. Even a very cynical parent I know saw me in the supermarket last week and said how good the teachers had been.

We've had a weekly call from each teacher - nursery and y2, and daily updates on the blog on learning activities they can do (a good mix of online resources and interactive stuff IRL). I actually think they've handled it well; we just have limited time to engage with it because we're also working flat out.

I'm also secondary and teach over 300 pupils. I cannot phone them all from home, at my own expense. I email all classes a couple of times a week, mark work and provide feedback and have raised concerns with HoY for any pupils who are not completing work. I am aware that HoY and Pastoral support have phoned pupils who are having issues or struggling.

My dd was in year 11 so has left now. Her school haven’t been in contact with her, but have rang me 3 times so far just to see how she’s doing.

I've had a phone call each week from my eldest child's secondary school and actual work set.

I have 2 younger kids at Primary school, not one phone call yet to check how they are. My middle child is year 6, if we don't hear anything before they break up for the summer and leave for secondary school, I'll be fuming. The school have already said they're not having any years but reception and anybody wanting a full time nursery place, so they won't be seeing them face to face.

I think if some schools can manage weekly phone calls, all schools could manage one phone call a month

I try whenever I can to back the school and support the teachers. I know they have a hard time and are working in difficult circumstances. But, not only is it different between school but between different teachers in the same school. My elder child (year 6 so going back next week ) has had a couple of phone calls, lots of class video messages on seesaw and countless comments on her work. The younger one who is not in a year group who can go back has had nothing beyond a few "well done"s written in response to work she has uploaded (even when the work hasn't been that good!!) No corrections, suggestions for extension work etc. I don't think it's too much to expect a teacher to ring each child in their class of 30 once in 11 weeks.

Its so variable! Our school (bog standard primary with very socio-economically mixed intake) has been pretty supportive. My youngest is Reception & his teacher uploads several videos every day, sends weekly emails with pics about what the class bear has been up to & is very available by email. My older one's YR3 teacher has phoned several times & sets detailed work every week & emails back good detailed feedback about submitted work. Interestingly both teachers have made it pretty clear they support getting the kids back in school (Reception have just gone back part-time).

One call here. My kids didn't get called as I work there so they 'didn't need' to see how they were.

A weekly email with website links and worksheets. No feedback or marking.

One phone call from year 5 teacher (others have had more). A few comments on Dojo to work submitted but only after I complained we weren’t hearing anything. I know other teachers in the school are more available.

Year 7 provide work via the homework app and chase anything not done. They are light touch with DD due to her SN (ASD and has an EHCP). SENCO has been fantastic. Support when we need it without pressure.

Just to add the YR3 teacher has organised a class meet up via some Zoom type playform (Google Meetup I think???) for Friday & wants to make it a regular thing

Form tutors call every student once a fortnight, students that are vulnerable in any way get a call from the head of pastoral every week. One staff member collects photos and updates from pupils and staff and posts a little video every week about what everyone has been up to, birthday wishes etc. Students without internet or a pc get work delivered home and collected by their head of year every week. Sixth form get one or two live zoom lessons daily, everyone else does teams or edmodo. We did a musical with students and staff sending in contributions and all the parts pasted together with video. People have done a lot to try and keep spirits up.

SEN school here for HFA. We have a online classroom for work being set and to load work back up. Twice weekly teams meetings for the class and weekly call from the teacher. Can't fault them really as distance learning for our kids is tricky. Thankfully they are all back full time now.

The variation is crazy. When the government puts it all back on to schools to manage, this is what we will get. Some will be more proactive and others won't. And I guess there is no come back because there is no guidance.