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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To bin off the homeschooling

379 replies

Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 20:49

God I’m probably BU. But bloody hell I've had enough. 14 weeks of working ft, plus trying to fit in twinkl, Oak, Khan etc. Watching my Year 4 get more isolated and sad. Feeing like a loser / outsider when the school send out their weekly newsletter asking Reception to bring in x, y and z and Year 6 to remember their deposit for (insert end of year activity).

Honestly the thought of Monday makes me want to throw things at the wall, and it’s not even Sunday yet! Got a bunch of corrections sent through on last weeks schoolwork which I now have to try and fit in around Skype work calls, deadlines, appraisals. Anyone else just about had it? So tempted to tell child to not worry about it too much and have some screen time.

I don’t need help with coping or with mood or anything like that. I just need to not have two full time jobs.

tomorrow’s another day

OP posts:
D4rwin · 27/06/2020 21:43

Ditch. I have been disgusted at a friend who posted proudly how she's giving her children a short break now then back to lessons to get the raring to go next year, with her lesson plans. What a bitch. She even admits to them being stressed in subtle ways. Pushy parents like her must be inflicting all sorts of damage.

CallmeAngelina · 27/06/2020 21:50

@GuiltyBark

Homeschooling when people are working was only ever a band aid. This current situation is absurd. I'm jealous and my children bewildered seeing the Y1 Y6 whatever kids in their uniforms around 330 when we've been at home with my career going down the toilet as they learn so little. I can't do it. They're disadvantaged Single parent with high responsibility WFH job. Every day placing strangers needs over my children's needs for my attention and my tuition as if I'm a fucking teacher even if I had four spare hours a day to help them. Inequitable. Awful. it's not fair. But hey pubs open. Education has been entirely neglected and childrens education ignored.
So, what do you expect? If your school is sending work through, but you're not able to do it (for entirely understandable reasons), why are you railing at children's education being "entirely neglected?" Lockdown has meant that schools can't open. What do you think should have happened?
Scotinoz · 27/06/2020 21:55

Oh bollocks to the home education.

My kids are only KS1 but lost interest after week 1. Two needy kids + two paid jobs of reasonable desponsibity = disaster.

Kids are doing a bit of reading and a bit of maths school day, and whatever keeps them engaged thereafter.

They're fed, relatively happy and have some kind win every day.

I can't do any better so it is what it is

D4rwin · 27/06/2020 21:58

Fwiw we are persevering. But I am lucky with the ages the year 7& 10 just crack on only needing help with specific things which I've occaisionally relearned or dug out text books to help. Most effort directed at the youngest but at that age where more is learned by playing anyway.

If rebellion begins I'll be shutting the laptops for summer. They are finding it difficult with no positive feedback from school. Work goes into a void then weeks later points appear. The loss of immediate feedback from teachers seems the biggest demotivator but teachers were never trained or recruited for this.

PinkFondantFancy · 27/06/2020 22:03

@GuiltyBark yy to your post. I have the same feelings of jealousy and unfairness when I see the kids walking to school past my house while mine remain at home being ignored for hours and hours on end. I just have to hope September means they go back full time as normal.

Original poster
Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 22:03

@CallmeAngelina I think all kids should have gone back part time. 2 days in for 60%, Wednesday for cleaning then the other 50% for 2 days.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 22:04

Sorry 50/50 not 60/50 Wink

OP posts:
Original poster
Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 22:08

@PinkFondantFancy it’s insane if you stop to think about it. Feels like a two-tier society with us at the bottom. The haves and have-nots

OP posts:
beela · 27/06/2020 22:15

[quote Lemons1571]@CallmeAngelina I think all kids should have gone back part time. 2 days in for 60%, Wednesday for cleaning then the other 50% for 2 days.[/quote]
Totally agree. I've got one in y1 (4.5 days school for 6 weeks) and one in y4 (2 hours a week for 3 weeks). I can't fault our school, they have done their best within the ridiculous guidance set by DfE, but ffs! Angry

I have just realised though that most public schools break up a couple of weeks before state schools, and therefore I might consider moving my ds over to private education for a couple of months, starting early July.

Original poster
Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 22:21

@beela our school is going to try and get them all in for an hour before the end of term but said don’t hold your breath.

OP posts:
beela · 27/06/2020 22:26

It breaks my heart for them Sad

DontDribbleOnTheCarpet · 27/06/2020 22:36

We're n Scotland, so term ended yesterday. One of mine has now properly left school and another is starting secondary. Only the youngest is till at primary school.

To be honest, the one going up to secondary has had such a poor education so far that no damage was really possible. There is only one available primary school and it sucks, especially for families who aren't the "right" kind (we are definitely the "wrong" kind!). The youngest is very bright but also really reluctant to engage with homeschooling. I work 105 hours a week and my husband left school in 1966, aged 13, so what has been done has to be done by me.

I've done what I can with what resources I have, but I'm exhausted and the school has been worse than useless. I'm done.

CallmeAngelina · 27/06/2020 22:51

[quote Lemons1571]@CallmeAngelina I think all kids should have gone back part time. 2 days in for 60%, Wednesday for cleaning then the other 50% for 2 days.[/quote]
What, when Government orders were that schools were to close for all but the very few Key Worker children?
Schools had to think fast and switch to a completely new way of working (with zero additional funding). Some adapted better than others but the vast majority sent what they could for the maximum numbers of children to be able to access.
Lots on this thread seem to be saying that they haven't engaged with this.
So, I ask again, what do you think should have been done? Opening for two days a week on a rota system was not an option at the time.

Original poster
Lemons1571 · 27/06/2020 23:00

It could have been an option from 1st June...

OP posts:
Singlebutmarried · 27/06/2020 23:08

I’m thinking bin it off after next week. They’ve got some bumf coming about the new teacher at some point next week.

Interest flew out of the window some time ago and we’ve had more valuable feedback from a teacher friend (currently not working as supply teacher) than we have DDs own school. We’ve had one contact since March. Nothing else.

GuiltyBark · 28/06/2020 00:33

CallmeAngelina by throwing money, creativity and resource at the problem. It could or can be done. The Nightingale treatment. Using unused public buildings. Actually working with schools.
Using private tutors the way they sequestered private hospitals. But nope. Education not apparently that important.

GuiltyBark · 28/06/2020 00:39

*CallMeAngelina

"If your school is sending work through, but you're not able to do it (for entirely understandable reasons), why are you railing at children's education being "entirely neglected?" *

Because their education is being entirely neglected. I can't do it. The school can't. Their education is, as a result neglected, ultimately.

seething1234 · 28/06/2020 01:36

We finished up last week (Ireland), our school was great, lots of work being sent but no pressure to get it done. Most of us eased off in the last month because very little gets done in June with school tours, sports days etc. such a weight lifted off the shoulders not having to face into the school work

CountessFrog · 28/06/2020 01:57

Call me Angela, you’ve spent weeks shouting on here that children’s education is noting to do with teachers.

You accuse people of teacher bashing when they aren’t.

You accuse people of jumping on threads to teacher bashing and ‘goad.’

And yet here you are, on a thread started by stressed out parents, seeking these threads out to come and spout your usual opinions. Exactly what you accuse others of doing.

IHeartKingThistle · 28/06/2020 02:32

I probably shouldn't have read this. I barely saw my kids today because I spent all day making PowerPoints and recording voiceovers onto them for Year 7.

I'm not going to judge you for ditching the work - the whole thing sucks. There is no substitute for teaching.

shazstanton01 · 28/06/2020 02:39

This reply has been deleted

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echt · 28/06/2020 04:28

Call me Angela, you’ve spent weeks shouting on here that children’s education is noting to do with teachers

CallmeAngelina has never ever done this.

beela · 28/06/2020 05:31

What, when Government orders were that schools were to close for all but the very few Key Worker children?

@CallmeAngelina no, clearly not to start with, but it would have been an option from 1st June instead of giving three select year groups full time provision and the other four year groups almost nothing (I'm talking face to face provision. Actual teaching from actual teachers, not parents trying to deliver stuff set by teachers. I am not criticising the work done by teachers to set home learning).

FixItUpChappie · 28/06/2020 06:02

Well I've mostly just done my own thing with thing since the beginning as opposed to teacher set work. Mostly my kids teachers have set worksheets but with the additional hassles of the tablet, me needing to sort through the instructions etc. Since I know what areas my two are struggling in I ordered my own workbooks and just set the work I wanted them to do.

Not a personal dig at the teacher by any means, but I figure if I'm going to do all the teaching my kids can catch up and do what I prefer to teach them (at a pace that works for us) - foundational reading, writing and arithmetic. I definitely didn't faff around with time consuming projects or anything like that.

My husband and I both working on rotation out of the home, wfh the rest of the time - there is only so much you can do with younger kids or kid without the skill set to work independently. I'm not going to stop over the summer but will continue to do my own thing with it as I see fit.

soundsystem · 28/06/2020 06:14

We do lots of informal learning... I've just explained to the DCs why my gin bottle is cold and wet at the bottom and warm and dry at the top. Good science is that, especially in DH's line of engineering

Brilliant! In our house, science lessons have been mostly coffee based, with DD exploring the impact of particle size on extraction time. With the result that she can now make me an excellent V60 Grin

Other than that, she reads a lot and we talk about current affairs which leads into history/geography (I mean, we chat while we're eating/drinking coffee, we don't do lessons) and then she goes off to do some research.

OP. I think you're perfectly fine to start the summer holidays now though!