To bin off the homeschooling

[Lemons1571]

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

I have been feeling like the biggest failure as a mum for not having done much in the way of homeschooling but trying to get the 2 school age dc to sit & do some work, help & explain where needed whilst looking after a busy, recently potty trained toddler with a DH who was working 12 hour days out the house while I was furloughed with an unexpected critical illness (my father) & a family bereavement to contend with has been a struggle to say the least.
Whilst the idea / of homeschooling is great, unless that's literally all you have to do & everything else in life stops, it's not practical or realistically sustainable for any length of time

We gave up at Easter. You've done extremely well in my book.

Catsick36

And Half term.

To those of you who are saying it's discriminatory to have some schools open more widely than others, do you think those larger schools should not have opened? To make it fair?

I totally agree GuiltyBark. Thank you.

And to Lemons1571 - sack it off. I would never judge anyone for this. I am fully expecting lots of my kids to go away on holiday after July 4th. I would too if I had the chance!

AlyssasBackRolls I have taken on board what you are saying and will think about what I share with my class on Teams. However, be aware that some of our KW children are actually afraid of/bored of coming to school. Some of the poor buggers have been in every weekday since lockdown. Some are afraid of leaving the safety of home. School is not what it was. We have to think of their mental health too and try to inject a little fun. And we are not actually teaching as much as enabling - it is strangely exhausting.

Year 4 teacher here. Yep bin it off. You're a hero for keeping it going this long!
Try to keep them reading over the summer, just a bit most days is fine. And if they know their times tables in Sept that would be really helpful. There are lots of fun games for that. 10 mins of times tables most days will do it.

As a pp said, why not pack it in now, as if you were in a Scottish school, as it sounds like anything attempted now will be pointless. You're shattered and your child is not going to engage at this point. Have a very well deserved break and then start back in August with a positive attitude. This will probably mean they find the transition back to school a little easier and may find they're in a better mindset to begin any catch up work as they'll have done a few weeks prior to start of term as opposed to having the whole summer off and finding it hard to re-engage. Best of luck.

Definitely not saying schools shouldn't have opened re: discrimination, but it would have been much better to give everybody a little bit than bring some back full time, and others not at all.

TokyoSushi

Opening up to every child on a rota basis was stopped by the government.

It's not that Y1/Y6 shouldn't be there - it's that ALL children should be there - it's not an "either/or". And of course that would need a shit ton of help and resource. But why haven't the government provided that? That's my question. Not to you - only they could answer that.

Those with private insurance are perhaps able to access a better standard of care more quickly, at their own instigation, as opposed to those those phoning 111/999 at the point of crisis.

Private schools are better placed to open up to all pupils due to class size and resource. They're doing so.

Had the government not thrown a lot of money at the NHS to even things up - many more would have died and the rich would have had markedly better odds in terms of outcomes (oh hang on that still seems to be the case anyway)

Same with schools. What we have is a bodge. It's a bodge. Of course we want as many as possible to get an education. But why can't the government show that same reflex to drag everyone up to the same baseline - direct resource at the problem to even the playing field.

If the government really believed education for all was a priority they could have done something similar. Not bashing teachers, it's the current neglect of education that's the issue.

Well, you're right - it is a bodge. And schools are, contrary to popular belief, doing their best to minimise the effects of the bodge.

That said, I wonder if it might have been better all-round in some ways, if there had been a blanket closure until September. Instead, we have all been limping along from week to week, never quite knowing how much longer it will be that we have to manage this intolerable situation of patchy provision. It might be that there was a reluctance to throw billions at an issue that might have resolved itself by September.

The effect of closing off schools to half and giving full provision to other half is discombobulating. When they announced years I didn’t expect for dc to be so impacted. Not with learning so much (which takes effort here, hence amazed people wfh can do it, no way wfh dh could fit it in during day) but more how the dc feel to be cut off from school.

I’d have much preferred they gave some to all, not sure why not, I guess it’s easier to split it by year.

I think when the government realised that they couldn’t get the other years back, they should immediately have given notice for all primary to return part time. It might have needed schools to close for a week to reorganise the bubbles. But at least all kids could then have had a few weeks at 2 days a week at school. Even that would have been universally better than the yawning chasm we have now.

But of course there was no economic benefit or death toll. So they didn’t bother with putting resources any further into it.

Year 8 here, still home schooling!
True, it started off with me writing a timetable the night before and us getting up at 8.30am, now it's more likely 10am and just doing an hour or so lol.
We're lucky in the fact that our school isn't expecting us to "show up" to online zoom lessons every morning, heard some horror stories of expectations

Agreed if schools can’t get every class back they should have been allowed to do a rota so that all the children had the opportunity for some school time before the holidays.
Sadly lacking from the government who ploughed ahead without any conversations with actual school staff.

However stimulating what you send out is, if parents, even with the best will in the world just haven't the time or resource, (WFH and fictional laptops etc) - to get it done... it aint gonna get done. That's the broken part that needs fixing - not teacher's fault at all

It can’t be fixed (except for kids going back to school). No one is a bionic robot who can homeschool a well rested bionic child at 7pm after a full days work of their own. A bit of homework to consolidate learning that was done at school, yes. But actually teaching?

@CallmeAngelina you refer to homeschooling being the education that was on offer. There has been no education on offer. Resources yes. But parents are left to attempt any actual educating.

@TokyoSushi I agree that the mensfolk in the government don’t see it (or perhaps it doesn’t appear on their financial forecast)

Totally agree, Lemons. DD is year 5 and is getting nothing. Zip, nada. For all the school cares we could have been beating, starving and neglecting her since March. Meanwhile Y6 is back in and DD’s teacher (who is teaching a Y6 bubble now) is putting stuff up about all the exciting stuff they’re doing. It makes me want to scream and throw furniture.

The school can’t change the bubble sizes, because it would be so exposed if one of the staff was seriously ill with Covid. (I discount the possibility that one of the children might as that’s so unlikely.) But nothing will happen to them if they arrange for everyone to be part time for the rest of the year, such as is left. They won’t because it’s easier to do what the government says, but they’re seriously letting down their pupils in the process.

DD is year 6 next year and likely to do well in SATS. I would have encouraged her to take them seriously. Now if she gets into the selective school I have in mind I think I might give her the week off: we owe the school nothing after they’ve let her down so badly.

It's the blatent abuse of the keyworker system at our school that annoys me the most, basically once people had enough of homeschool they just sent them back with some crappy reason as to why.

Us who have struggled on and abided by the rules have now been pretty much cut off altogether. No contact from school anymore, lots of lovely updates on the school FB page of all of the fun things they've been doing in school. Almost like you're punished for coping! I know that's extreme but I really am fed up!

is it really abuse? I am not being sarcastic, genuine question.

What has changed in our local schools recently, it's allowing ONE keyworker to qualify - whilst originally it was 2. So one parent a key worker but the other parent a SAHM: they get a spot.... And as the definition is very wide, it makes for an interesting bunch!

@TokyoSushi no good deed goes unpunished. I expect we’ll be completely deprioritised for any of this promised “tutoring help” as we’ve “done so well”.

Dd2 is 13 and has worked hard on the schoolwork but has had enough now. She has exams this week. (At home online ones) and would normally have gone on a school residential the following week then had a week of end of term stuff so i said after the exams this week she can hopefully start her summer holiday early.

It really is at our school @JaniceWebster loads of people in a similar situation to me, WFH, or work a couple of days a week, DC back at school full time.

Very much an attitude of 'well I need to do some work' or we qualify because one is a keyworker but the other is a SAHP. The message from our school has repeatedly been if you can look after the DC at home then that's what you must do. We all need to do some work, but the insturction from our school isn't to send them in if they're getting under your feet!

This is for the non-returning years, not R/1/6 which I completely understand.

Oh yes @Lemons1571 I'd be astonished if we got any extra help 'you won't need it, you've done so well.' - Yes, and nearly had a bloody breakdown in the process!!

Gosh, I should go to bed!

Yes there's lots of piss taking going on. It's unbelievable that children aren't allowed to go to school based on their parents job.