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?

Slightly different situation as we are in Australia. My children only ended up having one week off school. During that week my oldest had 5 zoom catch ups with teachers and work sent out via Connect ( Kind of a form of emails!!). However his class sizes are small being ATAR years ( Kind of like A levels).
Ds 2 is in year 9. Work was sent out via Connect. I had two phone calls in this week , from two teachers. Just checking up that we are able to access the work ok at home, that we are ok and to say to email the school if we need help. They also chattered to ds2 .
Good luck to you all

I have children in years 1 and 4. The school were very prepared for lockdown. It shut in the Wednesday and each child came home with a teaching pack - notebooks, pencils, whiteboards and markers, 2 days worth of work,and non-verbal test books for my year 4 child and a phonics learning pack for my year 1 child. Regular updates from the head teacher, an Easter message performed by all the staff, Friday night family quizzes and daily zoom lessons for each child. It's hard work getting through it all but we've been told to do what we can. Lesson plans and materials are posted everyday and the zoom sessions are interactive. We've had science experiments, poems to write, stories read out, daily jokes, puzzles, while class maths and English lessons. I've been teach French, geography, history etc and I'm very grateful to Google for what I don't know! We have to photograph and submit everything that is done and if anything is unclear I just message and get a very quick reply. Other teachers join the sessions for variety and every now and again the head teacher will pop in to say hello. Families who don't engage though are contacted by the attendance officer to find out why. It's very much business as usual in a very unusual situation. I'm very grateful for what has been provided to us as I know others locally are not receiving anywhere near this level of support.

My 4 children are at a private school abroad.

From the start of lockdown (similar date to the U.K.), my 10 year old son has had a full online schooling programme via the school’s Virtual Learning platform (including recorded assemblies and PE classes). He has at least 2 hours of live lessons daily via Google Meet followed by offline related work...it is all in online folders which can be printed or the answers written out. The correct answers are then published the following day.

He has also had projects, orals and other assessments that he submitted and got his marks back. He even had exams via Google Classroom last week..

He has a daily live morning “lesson” with his form teacher to discuss various things and twice monthly live wellness sessions to discuss how everyone is feeling,,,

My 8 year old daughter has at least 2 hours live daily via Google Meet too followed by work on the Seesaw app which is submitted and feedback is sent back within a couple of hours by the teacher...she also has online folders with instructions for specialized lessons such as art, music, computers, drama, PE etc..

My daughter in Reception has 1.5 hour live daily via Google Meet including a 30 minute
small group (4 children) focussing on literacy or numeracy. Then a folder of daily activities that we can complete and send photos.

My 2 year old has a 20 minute live morning ring daily also via Google Meet. This includes singing, dancing, games etc..and she has a folder of activities online to complete too - painting, baking, movement etc..then a 15 minute live storytime daily at the end of the morning. Once a week she has a fun 30 minute live music class.

My oldest 3 also have live dancing classes every week via Google Meet and 2 have weekly music lessons via Zoom too (this is all that they do via Zoom).

It has been great other than the mess at times with the younger 2s creative work.

I was chatting to a colleague whose Ds yr 10 gets a weekly phone call from his form tutor, every Friday he rings the landline. My Ds at another school also yr 10 has had nothing up until this week when the school have been forced to provide some provision. He's having an hour a day zoom lessons.

I think the school have given him an appalling level of support, a simple phone call is nothing at all but can give a morale boost.

And today we have received a questonnaire asking the kids how they have been during lockdown and asking what, if anything the school can do.

Comefromaway it's important that parents/carers complete these forms giving detailed (constructive!) feedback.

Schools had never done this before and are finding their way as much as everyone else.

There were a number of threads on here in early April from parents being cross that their school was inundating their children with work and that they were in too much contact, as a contrast to many experiences on this thread.

I'm a pastoral member of staff and every single week for the entire period we've been through we've called every single family a minimum of once a week and up to daily for very vulnerable students. Yes it's time consuming but it's vital work.
Huge amounts of work are set on line and the feedback has been fantastic on how we're managing.
My year 9 ds unfortunately attends a different school and I'm disgusted that they've not contacted me once. And my sister who has a year 7 who is classed as vulnerable hasn't received a call either. I can not believe in what 12 weeks, a school isn't calling parents.
I don't even know what to do about it.

I think some contact home is entirely reasonable to expect.
I offered to use one of my KIT days to phone all my tutor group before I return to work but my maternity cover has already called them all. I'm very lucky they've been in caring hands this year.

DD5 is in reception and we've got daily video recorded lessons in literacy and maths (with associated paper tasks), 1-2-1 via teams with her teacher once a week and a live "class playtime" supervised by one of her teachers once a week. As well as a myriad of other home learning, reading books online, maths online and other lessons. We've also had input from the school counsellor to check if everything is OK and to do some mindfullness work with DD. We have access to the teachers via phone and email and work is returned to them for marking once a week, with feedback from the teachers.

School have been brilliant with home learning right from the outset and the communication both ways has been constant and easy.

But then it's also fee paying.

@Bflatmajorsharp

Comefromaway it's important that parents/carers complete these forms giving detailed (constructive!) feedback.

Schools had never done this before and are finding their way as much as everyone else.

There were a number of threads on here in early April from parents being cross that their school was inundating their children with work and that they were in too much contact, as a contrast to many experiences on this thread.

It is for my son to fill in. Parents were simply sent a copy for reference (I know it would be different if it were primary).

In his welfare check yesterday with his form tutor she said he is the only student where the word Spamalot will appear in her notes for him!

My Y8 dd hasn't received a phone call, but she has been engaging with the online learning and also attending the weekly Zoom tutor group meetings that they've had the last couple of weeks.

I think this is fine tbh, but that's because I know that she's okay. I would be disappointed if she hadn't been engaging and the school hadn't contacted us though.

The weekly zoom tutor groups are the highlight of her week I must say. It's much harder for secondary children to say I really miss my teachers compared to primary, but they do!

I think they could do more, does seem to vary widely school to school. My teenagers have no online lessons, just emailed PowerPoints, worksheets etc no individual contact from teachers or group form time nothing via zoom or teams just all by school email. My 13 year old is really struggling, hard to get support and hard when you are working full-time to support them too.

I am a little bit confused.

On the one hand we have teachers complaining that they are incredibly busy and are working full time, all the hours of the day, and on the other, we have all the pp saying that their schools are doing hardly anything.

I know my brother's child has had no contact from their primary school the whole time, no work set or anything - so what are the teachers doing?

There was also a thread a little while ago about someone's DH, a teacher, who had been laying about the house for weeks doing nothing, no work, no housework, nothing.

Who's correct, the teachers or the parents?

We've had no phonecall from our High School. We've had emails from the Head, and some work set. I say 'some' because since lockdown started we've had two science pieces of work and two history (which was to draw a picture). We then had email from Head, saying all form tutors have contacted children in their form. All that consisted of was her messaging on teams, "hello, hope you all ok", and then her replying to the 2 pupils who replied. Hardly contacting and being in touch. I would have thought a little more contact than that would have been appropriate, even from a wellbeing point of view as they know his Dad has a brain injury and he has some caring duties.

@Notadramallama

I am a little bit confused.

On the one hand we have teachers complaining that they are incredibly busy and are working full time, all the hours of the day, and on the other, we have all the pp saying that their schools are doing hardly anything.

I know my brother's child has had no contact from their primary school the whole time, no work set or anything - so what are the teachers doing?

There was also a thread a little while ago about someone's DH, a teacher, who had been laying about the house for weeks doing nothing, no work, no housework, nothing.

Who's correct, the teachers or the parents?

It realluy depends on the school. Some, like my husband will have been busier than ever. Uploading work, providing zoom/video lessons, attending weekly assembly, marking work and providing feedback. Logging onto teams, holding drop in sessions. Uploading challenges and collating responses on the school intranet and facebook group.

Some, like my next door neighbour will have been in school with the key worker/vulnerable kids, holding meetings about transition and making weekly or even daily phone calls to the most vulnerable kids. She works at my son's school, he has had half termly phone calls but some are getting far more.

Who's correct, the teachers or the parents?
Well you see there's some discrepancies in provision being offered and as countless teachers on here have said, if anyone has issues pertaining to their child's school then take it up with that school and go through formal channels if required, but please spare the rest of us goady generalisations about teachers aren't working, teachers are lazy, teachers don't care about the children, schools are failing, teachers should have their contracts ignored and be forced to go into school in their holidays, why are teachers being paid, and the countless 'but I'm so confused what ARE teachers at doing?' threads/posts.

Simples.

DD's tutor fairly regularly, DS's only spoken to once this term and that's only after I emailed her, they are Yr 9 and 7

It’s not “simples” parents have complained, parents have gone through procedures. In the case with my disabled child his ECHP has been replaced with a document that has a legal term of reasonable.

We've had one phone call with the promise of another the week after - which didn't happen.

Lots of work assigned on Teams with a few lines of feedback each week. Quite generic like "well done on trying hard with your phonics".

The phone call was promoted by my sending a lengthy request about how best I should support Dd with an area she is struggling with. Their advice was quite platitude-y; essentially to keep doing what I was doing and they'd see to it after summer.

I'm underwhelmed and pig sick with home schooling. It's difficult to keep bothering when the school don't really seem to care if anything is done.

Boulshired
That's a terrible situation you're in, but it doesn't change the fact that someone with an issue regarding their child's school does not make it acceptable to make the goady sweeping statements that are all over Mumsnet.

If you look at the post I was replying to it was yet another faux confused 'who's right the parents or the teachers on here who say they're working'. It's pointless, inflammatory and designed to whip up more 'teachers aren't working'. That's exactly why I said 'simples' because few would argue that there isn't discrepancies in provision, but discrepancies in provision don't justify stupid goady generalisations.

No, I find the “simples” followed by speak to schools as much of a generalisation as the post you were referring to.

No, I find the “simples” followed by speak to schools as much of a generalisation as the post you were referring to
There was no 'simples' followed by speak to the school. I ended my post with simples because it really is simple that instead of faux confused 'oh I have no idea who is actually telling the truth':

1. There's discrepancies in provision that are school specific so specific issues need to be taken up with the school
2. Discrepancies in provision don't justify the sort of goady nonsense that gets trotted out on here

It's not a generalisation to say school-specific issues should be dealt with by that specific school and escalate as required. What's possibly generalising to say specific issues need following up with the specific school?

And just to clarify, none of that says it's simple to resolve complex issues. That's not what's being discussed. I'm challenging this faux confusion that's designed to be inflammatory:

I am a little bit confused.
On the one hand we have teachers complaining that they are incredibly busy and are working full time, all the hours of the day, and on the other, we have all the pp saying that their schools are doing hardly anything.
I know my brother's child has had no contact from their primary school the whole time, no work set or anything - so what are the teachers doing?
There was also a thread a little while ago about someone's DH, a teacher, who had been laying about the house for weeks doing nothing, no work, no housework, nothing.
Who's correct, the teachers or the parents?

There's no confusion here at all just rehashed goading.

I am generally a huge supporter of our primary school but been really disappointed, only some generic, ' well done, I liked your story' type comments on teams. I basically had to ask for a phone call as DD was fairly anxious. The teacher then sent a short video. I can't believe in this day of safeguarding it is appropriate to rely on thinking that because someone is typing on their teams that the child is ok. For 10 weeks. The high school is loads better, using Google classroom etc, with one or two live classes a week, a good balance I think.

My DD primary has sent out a two weekly email with links to websites and optional work. DD has completed optional work but had no feedback. Think how that must make her feel, all that work and nothing. I've asked for feedback from the teacher, after she said she would feedback, nothing. I understand we're all under pressure, I work in children's services and we're all about safeguarding, but where's the safeguarding for the kids that no-one is checking on. At work we talk about the increase in cases when school goes back and we get all the referals. But what about those kids that are under the radar right now. Who's looking out for them right now? I could have harmed my daughter but no one would know, not that I would, but no contact with school, extra pressure outside the home, it's a potential melting pot for DV and child abuse. I'm sorry that education has to take on such a huge role in protecting children and takes away from education, and I wish it was different, bit we need schools to keep reporting, and if the kids aren't there, we're reduced to neighbours who are scared to get involved, and families that no longer see each other regularly. Sorry, long post, long day at work and so off tangent