BBC being forced to remove BBC Daily Online Lessons on 27th July

[Worriedmum999]

I’ve just found out that the BBC are removing their Daily Online Lessons on 27th July. I am absolutely shocked. Apparently BESA who represents online providers have kicked up a fuss and threatened them with legal action. You would have thought that, in the middle of a pandemic, they could have let it go until at least September. Lots of children haven’t managed to access this during term time due to parents working all the hours god sends on the front line and were going to catch up over the summer but now what opportunity will be gone. Another way the children of keyworkers have had their education fucked over for 3 months. There is already an article about this online, saying who it will disproportionately affect the children from poorer families.

Not sure if the collective power of Mumsnet can do anything about this to keep the content available until September? The BBC have offered to put something there for the children to do over the summer but it will be shit compared to what is there now. Alternative is Oak Academy but I find the children struggle to get on with that themselves and I still haven’t worked out how to print off the linked resources!

I have tweeted by disgust to BESA. Not sure what else I can do

I think the Oak Academy stuff is very variable. Telling young children to make flashcards from a long list of complex vocabulary at the beginning of a topic is not the best idea. And basic spelling mistakes in the PowerPoint if you are going to make a fuss about spelling vocabulary words is cringeworthy. The topic choices for non core subjects are really odd too. The year 1 stuff we looked at was more imaginative though and pitched better. My 9 year old has used the BBC bitesize stuff a lot, only watched half a lesson of Oak Academy.

To be honest . I am all for the kids having a summer holiday.

I think the mental health of the children is so important right now .

School in September is going to be playing catch up so yes if you haven’t got round to homeschooling in 14 weeks ( for whatever reason ) I doubt plonking them in front of bitesize us going to change much

BBC is so much better than oak academy. You watch a short fun explanation, and they get the concept in a minute.

I think that why mine have liked it - rather than wade through the oak academcy or bbc on-line videos.

Haven't looked at Oak Academy stuff for a while but when we were trying to use it it was very variable.

To be honest . I am all for the kids having a summer holiday.

Mine are older and I think they do need to keep doing a bit - but there are other sites like seneca, bluetick both have free content.

Youngest starting secondary doing nessy and mathsfactor with paid for content though with reduced rates.

Possibly might look at khan academy also free.

I think if it's easier to step backthe younger the children are and further from exams.

Just to reiterate the point to a couple of earlier posters who think that all keyworker children have been in school the whole time.

Keyworkers had provisions made at school in April and May if it was unsafe for them to stay at home.
So plenty of keyworker children have been at home with parents who are doing keywork from home, or who have one parent who is not a keyworker but still working from home, as it has not been ‘unsafe’ for them to stay at home, but parents have been stretched, and unable to do much for the work set.

The last 3 months have been a disaster for education. Teachers have been working really hard, but some kids have had almost no educational input, especially at secondary level.

My fear is that the pandemic is compounding inequalities and this is especially so in education, where private schools have carried on educating kids online, following timetable and curriculum, while state schools have been instructed not to Follow the curriculum.

The people bleating on about it being the summer holidays are getting on my nerves. There are many reasons why dc may do a bit of school work during the ‘holidays’, for example dc are home ed and we work through the summer holidays and yes I use Bitesize among other things as part of their work.

The BBC is easily accessible and free for all, the lessons should remain there for people who wish to use them.

We are probably going to have some days with a break from work but not that many. My plan was to work maybe 4 weeks out of 6. But I've also decided to go what I think is full on homeschool - ignore the curriculum and do projects based on what DC would like. I've planned a week or so worth already. Im thinking 2 hours a day plus some educational trips. When lots of things are closed, they can't meet their friends as normal, what else are they going to do without spending a ton of money if they don't do some learning?

Is there a way to tag Mumsnet HQ in this post? Maybe ask to get a campaign going? We don’t have long before it’s gone.

The last 3 months have been a disaster for education. Teachers have been working really hard, but some kids have had almost no educational input, especially at secondary level.

My fear is that the pandemic is compounding inequalities and this is especially so in education, where private schools have carried on educating kids online, following timetable and curriculum, while state schools have been instructed not to Follow the curriculum.

This!

How frustrating, I was going to use it a little bit in the summer holidays as we haven't got enough home schooling done. I'm guessing a lot of parents are in the same boat?

It's awful, they should leave it up, even if they aren't adding anymore lessons. BESA are being unfair by forcing the issue.

Re: a campaign, can you tag @MNHQ in the thread? I'm not sure how you do it!

@Worriedmum999, I think I may have done it.

Not all key workers children have been in school. My husband and I are both NHS, both got redeployed to frontline work and had to work our shifts around each other to work around the kids staying at home. School initially only allowed kids in whose parents had no other option. There were only about 5 children in school between April-June.
Mine have now gone back as I was asked to resume my normal role (office hours) from the beginning of June and they aren't doing anything other than the work that has been set for home school. This was deliberate so that the kids who haven't been coming in aren't at a disadvantage.
Personally I would like to be able to do a bit of home school with them over the summer holidays if possible - my 9 year old
In particular has loved the stuff we've done at home, there are loads of interesting topics covered by BBC bitesize and Twinkl.
I would like it to be left up until September if possible.

They've spent the money on it, they might as well keep it up!

I think you mean US! The BBC licence payers have paid for the content. Now they are scrapping it under the guise of ‘updating’ it to something less useful.

Is it just the worksheets & resources that will be missing (because all the topic videos are on iPlayer)?

What exactly is the difference between the two offerings? Because if you go to Bitesize home, and click through, it’s clear new lessons will be available until 24th July, and then will be available on iPlayer. So is it just the interactive element or worksheets going?

I’m amazed how many liked oak academy! After a yr 8 maths lesson with zero explanation of the algebra being used, just parrot learning, with some guy waffling in front of his fireplace I wasn’t impressed at all. Geography was lazy stereotypes. As a teacher I was embarrassed by the standard and dreariness of a lot. Just seems a cynical academy led plan to push ‘difficult’ (ie SEN) children out of school in alternative online schooling. Like the 40% some of them excluded. Big agendas, lots of high friends.

BBC daily had some great stuff, documentaries etc. Clips from the Eden Project, David Attenborough... even some very engaging Shakespeare reading. Maybe less of a ‘sit down and shut up’ resource, but some great stuff to use.

I totally get it can’t be carried on with, but removing the content is a crime against learning. What a huge waste of resources to remove it.

It's not just KW kids who have been affected.
I'm a single parent working full time from home. How do you suppose I managed to HE my child? I did my best.
I focussed on keeping him occupied and happy, my work ticking over, the household running and caring for my very unwell FIL.

@Worriedmum999

I think you mean US! The BBC licence payers have paid for the content. Now they are scrapping it under the guise of ‘updating’ it to something less useful.

Yes i did mean US! :) (WE)

Just searched Oak Academy online. It's brilliant!!! I wish I knew of this!

Bump

Link to these resources- even more there than I thought www.bbc.co.uk/teach

Bite size daily has been a lifesaver for us as well. I am gutted about this.

I’m at a loss what to do about it. I have tweeted, emailed and written to all the right people but heard nothing back. We need to get a question during the corona questions maybe? Or a newspaper to pick it up. The Oak academy is really aimed at teachers to help them support learning at home if you read about it. BBC Bitesize was intended for children and parents. It’s criminal that it’s going in 2 weeks.

Quite a few of the Bitesize worksheets are from Twinkl. I wonder if this is why they have been asked to take the content down? Twinkl offered free accounts during lockdown, but this stopped a couple of weeks ago.

Oak National Academy didn't work well on our computer, but as others are saying that it has worked for them I might try it again on a different browser.

I just signed the petition "Parents: Stop BBC Bitesize Daily Lessons Being Removed On 27th July" and wanted to see if you could help by adding your name.

Our goal is to reach 100 signatures and we need more support. You can read more and sign the petition here:

chng.it/QKGJRmHcSX