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?

Primary child with an ehcp (270ish kids in school) = one email to see if all is okay.

2 x children in secondary (of 800+ kids) we've had two phone calls off form tutor.

Year 11 totally dumped. Only email I've had is to give me a time slot to empty her locker. Disgusting tbh. I don't know how they expect them to regengage after summer when they can't even be bothered to call her

@RedScarf what a lovely Head to send a postcard, that's such a kind and thoughtful thing to have done

We've only telephoned children from this week, apart from those who are more vulnerable or where we've not 'seen' anything of them via home learning, etc

We've been in touch though via the home learning platform and through feedback on their work, posting chatting videos, etc. And the parents have access to year group emails, the learning app and social media as well as the main school email.

Two in primary and two in secondary and primary school has been great. Secondary school not so great but has given work.

3 in school
One call from eldest guidance teacher few weeks ago.

Younger 2 one with additional needs who hates school and 10 yr old who loves it and missing friends. Nothing, 2 weekly grids which are rubbish and stories on YouTube but nothing else, it’s like they’ve been forgotten about as individuals - it’s a small school 240 pupils. A call would be nice, assembly via YouTube even seeing the headteacher but nope nothing, really not surprised not impressed with school anyway but this hasn’t helped

Rubbish about zoom being a safe guarding issue. My boys school has done zoom meetings and quizzes, my ds's cubs group has been doing zoom meetings since the second week of lockdown. How can some
schools say it's a safeguarding issue when others are clearly doing it with no problems at all?
Our school have been amazing- we've had daily contact from the boys teachers via the tapestry app, Seasaw app, email and if necessary if it's a day their teachers are in school by telephone as well.

We've had clear plans for work each week with daily feedback from teachers once uploaded on the learning apps.

Primary school, there is a page with suggested home learning for the children to do. We've done a few bits although a lot of it requires you to print a worksheet and we don't have a printer. There's a sharing page for the children to post photos of their work and the teachers have posted encouraging comments. Children seem to be posting less and less as time goes on though. We haven't had any zoom lessons or phone calls or anything like that.

The excuse of zoom being a safeguarding issue absolutely boils my piss. It's not. Plus throwing safeguarding up as an issue is hilarious as they seem to have abandoned all attempts at that - I've not had a single phonecall from either of my children's teachers.

DC’s school have started a weekly Google meet up for each class, but only since half term, and it’s the teacher talking to as many of the 30 kids that log in at once for 30 minutes, so no time or scope for any personal engagement. DS is autistic and can’t cope with it, so he’s not joining in at all.

If I’m honest I am disappointed that we’ve had no call or email to ask how DS is getting on. I’m putting all my time and effort in to getting him and his little sister to do the work that’s being set so I suppose on the surface it looks like he’s fine, but he’s actually struggling and I would have appreciated some contact with the SENCO just to check in. I feel like he’s fallen down the cracks because he doesn’t have an echp.

.... I should add that I’m happy with the work being set, which is thorough and marked / responded to promptly. It’s just from the pastoral side I’m disappointed in.

Actually PinkFondantFancy safeguarding is probably why you haven't received any phone calls.

Unless a school has a specific policy for contacting children at home under what circumstances, teachers put themselves in a vulnerable position if they do contact children.

The seeming absence of policy to contact all children in your children's school should be taken up with the SLT if you're concerned. It's not really fair to say that they're 'abandoned all attempts' at safeguarding, as you've got no idea who they have been contacting and they've also been co-ordinating the highly problematic FSM vouchers, which has necessitated contact with some families.

Thanks for all the responses. Frustrating that so many other schools have such little contact.

I could email teachers directly & ask to call them maybe? But it's not quite the same as telling the dc that their teacher wants to speak to them after teacher making the effort.

I'm pissed off that I feel the need to point this out as surely it's obvious that children need the connection. And then to be dismissed by the head with. 'It's Safeguarding' is most frustrating.

I'll respond tomorrow. I don't make a fuss normally but as pp said it's the difference between them feeling part of the school & that it was somewhere they used to go.

No phone calls, no emails. No response to an email. No checking if the children are doing the work (which are just links to YouTube and A few ideas which requires a lot of work on the parent’s part I.e you have to make up your own worksheets from
It) no proper feedback just a “well done” if you post it on the FB page.

Fuming to be honest. It’s completely changed my opinion of the school.

As a secondary teacher I teach 320 kids a week; I set individual work for every lesson via google classroom and am available throughout lesson times to answer questions as they arise. I give written feedback for every single piece of work submitted by every child every week. I do live lessons once per week for my KS4 classes and once per fortnight for KS3. We keep a spreadsheet and refer children who are not communicating with us and completing work to the pastoral team, and then they chase it up. I worry dreadfully about the kids I teach and enjoy doing the live lessons because it’s lovely to see them, and generally uptake is good (around 75% usually attend the live lessons). 97% of my students completed the online end of unit ‘test’ I wrote for them which i was really pleased about.

As a parent DS’s school set incredibly complex and detailed work for his class to be printed off each week (around 60 pages a week). Ds now attends keyworker ‘school’ three days at least a week whilst I’m working and he completes some of it there. No live lessons or much communication with the teachers, but he’s loving being back at school.

I’m appalled at some people’s experiences tbh, but I have friends who teach at other secondary schools who’ve not done any online teaching of their classes at all and everything has been centrally set - ie HOD sets all maths work for all y7, y8, y9 etc and they’ve not had any contact with their students in their individual classes.

My husband organised a zoom call with My daughter’s P1 class. Invite went on google classroom. My DD has two teachers and not one of them bothered to come on for 5 minutes to say hello. I thought that was poor

I've had a phonecall from DDs teacher and we've had several emails, also they write messages to the children on Google classroom and any time DD has sent them one they've always replied.

@atimetobealive

My husband organised a zoom call with My daughter’s P1 class. Invite went on google classroom. My DD has two teachers and not one of them bothered to come on for 5 minutes to say hello. I thought that was poor

I don't think you can judge that as poor to be honest. We were told by SLT the day before schools broke up that under no circumstances were we to use Zoom or any other platform that had not previously been used in school and confirmed as acceptable. We were told that this was because of safeguarding concerns and that if we did so we would be facing disciplinary procedures. So frankly if your DH had invited me to a Zoom call with the class I would not have gone on for 5 minutes to say hello. You have no idea how little freedom many teachers have as regards contact with pupils. It's not our decision to make.

It’s shocking how poor the provision is for some children.

My children are in years 10 & 12 at a state grammar school. Their school has been outstanding.

All pupils at the school have to have a chrome book so they all had access to a device. The week before school shut they learnt / practiced how to use Google Meet. The day school shut they were sent home with huge piles of textbooks, piano keyboards for those doing gcse music who didn’t have one at home, rowing machines, library books - you name it, it felt like they emptied school out.

School has since run pretty much as normal - normal timetable but with slightly shorter lessons and breaks between each lesson.

*Tutor Time / registration every morning on Google Meet

• Assemblies onnYouTube
• All lesson details uploaded onto Google Classroom in a clearly numbered format. Approx 95% lessons involve Google Meet for some / all of lesson.
• students upload their work to Google Classroom and it is marked / feedback given. For example my year 10 has had to do gcse maths practice papers for homework- they self Mark, photograph them and upload to classroom, teacher marks & feedback given.
• Any absences followed up by pastoral staff
• music lessons on Google Meet
• Virtual choirs / orchestras
• Various whole school sports initiatives and motivational videos from PE Dept
• 6th form student led academic societies running as normal on Google Meet (these are well attended)
• 6th form ran an induction via Google Meet for prospective students for a couple of days.
• careers appts via Google Meet
• UCAS launch to yr 12 via assemblies / google meet with whole year / individual meets with tutors etc etc
• very regular (bi weekly) communication from head to individual year groups
• normal newsletters etc
• speech day etc to be run on line
• end of year exams via Google Meet - invigilated by class teacher
• regular mental health / well being updates with sign posting to students / parents as to where to get help
• fun competitions eg mfl bake off
• school library offering electronic versions of books
• school now offering for students who struggle working at home to have option to come in and have space to work in school.

There’s other stuff but I can’t think what at the moment.

Basically school has still been school - not as good as the normal version but certainly not bad.

I have no doubt the whole school staff have worked massively hard in order to achieve this. They decided before school shut what they wanted to do and they went for it 100% from day 1.

They probably face less barriers then some schools as everyone had a chrome book and as a selective school they would face a smaller range of educational needs then a large comprehensive.

They aren’t taking year 10 & 12 back this term as they felt it would be disruptive and they wouldn’t be able to offer anything to add any additional value.

My children have appreciated the normality which school has given them.

We get a call every 3 weeks. They ask how things are and talk to the children if I suggest it. It's a nice gesture but I feel a bit sorry for them. It's almost a,waste of time for them as there is only so much they can say or do over the phone.

DC in Secondary. DD tutor phones once every three weeks roughly. DS gets a call from the SENCO once a week. And the pasterol lead contacts both once a week. Either can email subject tutors whenever and the tutors reply to messages on the homework website which is where most of the work is set.
Both are getting between 3 and 4 subjects a day set. Maths through Hegarty maths which is half decent.

No it's not always desperately exciting but neither expect it to be. "I dont get the schools doing nothing to motivate them". It's DCs education not schools. DC stand to lose the most if they dont do it. There is no option to not do it.

One call "to check they weren't sitting in front of the TV all day". We both work f/t at home. I could have cried. Yeah, thanks...helpful. Like I don't feel shit enough.

Wales has just put out guidance for online teaching/streaming lessons.

It states in it that 2 teachers/adults need to be in the room to be able to do that.

Which effectively shuts down any teaching live from home for me. And limits any from my classroom if and when I'm back with my groups in class unless the TA is available. And even then there are other issues to consider.

I’m an primary teacher. We use a platform called class dojo, which allows us to upload videos, photos and files, onto a class page, much like a Facebook page. Parents can then comment on the videos etc, and can upload videos and photos of their child’s work into their personal portfolio. We can then comment on the photos and videos, and give the children dojo (house) points for their efforts.

I’m Year one, so I have been filming a maths lesson, RWI speed sounds lesson, RWI spellings lesson, a writing task lesson and a topic lesson each day. The videos last up to 8 mins so not too long for the little ones to watch. We can also send individual videos to boost moral, and the child with a 1:1 TA has extra videos each day to keep him engaged.

If a child/ parent doesn’t view anything for 3 days we contact the family either by message or phone call, and I have phoned a couple of parents for a chat when they have sent emotional messages saying they are struggling. I have also held one zoom meeting with the SEN child’s parent and the TA to complete a risk assessment before returned to school last week.

Now that some year groups are back, including mine, all staff are in school full time working with small groups of children, so we have had to scale back the online learning, but we are still sharing links and tasks, commenting on work uploaded and replying to messages from parents. I also upload a video each morning before I go to school just to say hello and share a task or song happy birthday! We’ve had 2 this week.

I have absolutely loved using class dojo as I still feel like I have been teaching my class, they get to see me on the videos and being able to see and hear them on thier videos has been wonderful. I have had many messages saying they miss me and love me, and love my lessons.

I know our school is offering way above what many other schools are offering but in all honesty filming the videos used to take up to an hour each day, so it’s not like it was unmanageable and I think all primary schools should have offered the same level of support.