Aibu to ask if your school have phoned you during lockdown?

[Ineedaweeinpeace]

Ours haven’t - I’m not bothered at all by it but another parent (friend) is absolutely stark raving mad about it! Have you been called? Did you give a toss?

At my DCs school they have a "register" post every day, if you do not respond i think you'll get a call, likewise if there are issues with the work (though you don't have to do it all)

Oh and they have a class video conference every week too. Teachers are in contact electronically every day but we haven't been called for any reason.

No call. I'm not surprised really, his form teacher has been absolutely rubbish. No pastoral care whatsoever even though his Dad has a brain injury and son has some caring duties. In a whole year, she talked to him once, asking him where his school tie was. We had an email from Head, saying all form tutors had made contact with children, so I asked him and he showed me a generic message she sent on teams to the whole form, saying hello. That was it.

The schools that have said ‘you can contact us at any time’ - we have had the opposite, with stern messages not to email at weekends or evenings, and at the start of Easter and half term we got told not to email then either.

(I wouldn’t DREAM of expecting a reply out of working hours, but I always thought one point of email was that you can fire it off at any time and they can reply at a time that works for them.)

Totally agree @MrsToadofToadHall , DS's school has been excellent from the day they finished school. They had Google Classroom set up within weeks ( before that managed by downloading work onto the school FB page). There's a weekly zoom call - and 2 more "drop in's" in case you're struggling with work. We've had projects, English and Maths every day, PE, competitions. The only slight change since the reopening of the year groups (DS is yr 6) is that work is marked by a TA, but who cares?!

I find it so sad the difference between schools, I understand that schools are going to vary, but to hear some children are getting the level of DS's work and others very very little is shocking, and very worrying if this continues for much longer.

Yr 5 and 7 here. Private prep school.
No calls but Zoom and Teams set up within 48 hours of lockdown. They're in "school" from 9 until 3.30 with a break for lunch.
Weekly meeting with school counsellor to check on mental health.
Work marked every day.
Weekly newsletter from head plus special letters and info.
Online music lessons.
I've been in awe of the slightly technophobic school turning this around so fast. I know that this is extremely unusual.

Now I know what some schools have managed from responses here it’s made me really question the provision at my children’s school. For kids in nonreturning years the school have issued reports and basically said goodbye hopefully we’ll see you in Sept!

I can’t believe this isn’t on the front page of every newspaper (which instead have pictures of massively long queues of people at the shops or on beaches).

Our local outstanding state secondary has been asking the local community for second hand laptops as the government promised ones still haven’t arrived. It’s absolutely scandalous the Government have allowed such patchy provision at schools. They need to start announcing clear plans for Sept with a contingency plan ready in case their policy of crossing their fingers & hoping for the best doesn’t work out.

When’s Gavlar supposed to be making his announcement about the catch up plan??

One phone call in april. Said DD was struggling no real advice received. Work set on seesaw and submitted work was all responded to. But DD wasnt doing anything.

School fortunately reopened on 8th for half days only. But no work set for those that remain off. They are however sending an email once a week to say what the kids are doing that week with links to outside resources. They are short staffed so this is more than expected.

This is going to be a total nightmare when schools start back, isn't it?

I'd say that DD is largely where I'd have expected her to be at the end of this academic year in a non covid world. They haven't covered everything and I know the teachers are very frustrated at what's been going on with the exam classes, the odd subject like Science has definitely had to cut some things very short and sweet, but I've seen DD's online work and test results and it's about what I'd expect. I have worked in a school myself so I've a fair grasp of what she should be covering and where she should be, and I'm happy with it. I'd say in terms of basic study they've managed to deliver about 3/4 of what you'd expect if the child was physically in school

This has all been done mostly on Google classroom. DD does have a laptop and printer, but she can access GC on her phone. Her teachers have been able to access the school building if they need to although they don't have to. All emails and calls to me have been via smartphone.

I know this all seems Captain Obvious, but most people have smartphones and most teachers I know have laptops. This is a (rather decrepit!) state school, they aren't using any particularly fancy or exceptional resources, however in my opinion they've done a sterling job,and I could kiss them for being so present for DD, who has been quite anxious at points through this.

I am the last person to teacher bash, and I've been cross at some of the comments I've come across on MN over lockdown, but reading some of the experiences on this thread, I'm not suprised.

We have a 5 min weekly phone for my ds yr3 where his teacher chats to him about his week. Work is set weekly for maths, English and topic and we can send it in. There is no feedback or marking though which makes it a bit disheartening

For kids in nonreturning years the school have issued reports and basically said goodbye hopefully we’ll see you in Sept!

We had reports this week too. They only reflected up until 20 March, with comments on what to work on next covering stuff that at least some of the kids have resolved during lockdown.

Could not have been more dispiriting or demotivating for the kids to put down in writing: ‘all that hard work you’ve been putting in? We actually haven’t paid any attention to it.’

Yr12 DD has had no calls, no zoom classes, just (little) work set via Google classrooms. She’s taking Spanish A-level as one of her 3 and has had no speaking lessons at all. We had a letter at the beginning of the month to say ‘some’ pupils would be invited back, but it didn’t say on what criteria they would base their choice on.

Yr8 DD has had no contact at all, other than lessons set on Google classrooms.

My Yr10 niece however, at a school of equal size in another area, has had zoom lessons for almost every lesson, her learning timetable has not been affected.

I know it’s unprecedented times and I fully support the teachers and understand the pressure they’re under, but I cannot understand the huge disparity between what schools are doing. If one can do it, why can’t ours?!

My son's teacher Y4 has contacted everyone and she is going to call us tomorrow. I have no idea how talkative DS will be with her! They speak via Class Dojo a lot anyway.

My Secondary school has 2 or more staff in each day calling all parents on an ongoing constant basis. It’s a big job with 1000 students but it’s important.

No calls. My kid is in 6th form and he's been emailing with his teachers but no calls or video. The interaction and general guidance is the main thing he's missed. He's only getting 1 day in school before term ends, we were both hoping for more.

Yr 11, had one phone call - said I was in work, she asked if he was ok and said she'd ring back - hasn't rung back

Yr 4, one phone call from teacher (along lines of a phone parents evening)

Had several generic texts and emails though

My children's class teachers have called a few times since the start of lockdown to see how they are getting on, and the headteacher called me last week as I had emailed him about other year groups not going back. They also reply to emails very quickly.

**“ I know across countless operational teams in work that weekly calls to check on the progress and wellbeing of 12-20 staff members is expected. If it hadn't been done for 12 weeks it would be a severe lack of management, bordering on disciplinary“

It’s so interesting reading this. I think what shocks me the most (as a non-parent) is the disparity between what’s happening in schools and what’s happening in all other virtual workplaces. I get that they don’t want to put too much pressure on parents to homeschool when they’re also trying to juggle wfh, but to not bother to contact your pupils via phone or video just shows a shocking lack of concern for their wellbeing in my opinion. It doesn’t have to be 7 hours of zoom classes a day, or hour long chats with parents every week, but can you imagine any other work setting where you’d just move from constant face to face interaction to then literally ignoring your “team” or “clients” (pupils) for 3 months? I don’t care if they’re busy preparing worksheets etc, to not find ~8 hours in a working week to phone pupils (15 mins x 30 pupils) is ludicrous. And you could do a class zoom every 2 weeks or something to save more time if you really need it.

I guess there’s just a complete lack of direction from heads in terms of what is expected and clearly the less dedicated teachers view the need to concentrate on vulnerable pupils or supervise the key workers pupils every few days as an excuse to basically treat the rest of their time as furlough...

School called today. Dds second call since march (shes yr 8). It was her head of year checking she had access to a computer. This is the same man who, when dd asked if she could borrow a school one during lockdown ,said no you dont need one. Now hes offering it three months later. You couldn't make it up!