Page 6 | After today's accouncement - planning to ask for remote learning

Howslifenow · 2020-09-22T14:27:26+00:00

After these new lockdown restrictions and increase in cases, is anyone planning to not send their kids to schools and ask for remote learning. After today's announcement I am thinking of doing this. YIBU - To do this YANBU - It's fine if works for you and the school

enjoyingscience · 22/09/2020 19:29

The impact of this isn’t just short term. As and when your DC return to school, they will be behind their peers. Every child with significant absence will be at a different point in their learning, which will mean huge amounts of time and resource playing catch up, benchmarking etc. They don’t have this resource. It means every single child will suffer, as schools won’t be able to move cohorts through the curriculum properly, and not just this year, but probably for several years to come.

I understand the anxiety, but the idea you can dereg, home school for a bit, and pop them back in is ludicrous, and the more people who do this the greater the damage to all of the kids in the system.

AgentJohnson · 22/09/2020 19:30

Every school should already have a plan for the kids that are isolating.

DD is in secondary and if she can not make it to school because of a cold etc then I have ring the school and DD has to send a message to the child responsible for the class laptop that gives access to remote learners (via MS Teams).

catsarecute · 22/09/2020 19:30

I think the government should remove the threat of fines and allow parents to home educate temporarily if they want to. I don't think deregistering kids permanently who would otherwise be in school does anyone any favours. There are issues for vulnerable kids so I guess welfare checks would need to be put in place. But other than that I think if parents want to temporarily home school, it should be fine to get a scheme of work to work towards and not otherwise add to teachers workload. Every family is not the same and the current one size fits all bully tactic of the government to get kids in no matter what or be fined (or have to permanently deregister) is wrong.

My son's school has had 6 cases already in less than 3 weeks and my anxiety is through the roof. Cases are high in our area. He's still going in at the moment as he really wants to be there and in other ways it's doing him good. But if there's a case in his bubble but he is not identified as a close contact I am planning to pull him out for 2 weeks. I don't think the strategy in schools is safe. I would prefer blended learning ideally in secondaries.

YANBU OP

Bupkis · 22/09/2020 19:36

Ds was shielding, and we made an arrangement with school to bring him out if there are several children with symptoms in his bubble....but i think we are very close to taking him out.

I organised his home learning in lockdown, so will do the same, asking the teacher what the topic is and emailing what we have done at the end of the week (which we did previously)

Staffy1 · 22/09/2020 19:44

@nicknamehelp

unless your child has a genuine medical reason (and I know ontology kids whos docs are telling them to go to school) yabu either send your dc or deregister them and hone their school them indefinitely.

Really? That is shocking!

AldiAisleofCrap · 22/09/2020 19:44

when your DC return to school, they will be behind their peers. @enjoyingscience
Interesting how your post conflicts with your user name. Do you really believe home educated children are behind? Why would you believe that?

Littleposh · 22/09/2020 19:45

School is about considerably more than just education

SleepingStandingUp · 22/09/2020 19:57

As and when your DC return to school, they will be behind their peers but op thinks she can keep totally on top of the curriculum in her free time...

changing35 · 22/09/2020 20:38

I am going to work. I cannot do my job from home unless your propose we release thousands of prisoners back into society. Life cannot simply stop altogether for this virus

middleager · 22/09/2020 20:48

My son's school has had 6 cases already in less than 3 weeks and my anxiety is through the roof. Cases are high in our area. He's still going in at the moment as he really wants to be there and in other ways it's doing him good. But if there's a case in his bubble but he is not identified as a close contact I am planning to pull him out for 2 weeks. I don't think the strategy in schools is safe. I would prefer blended learning ideally in secondaries.

Both of my two sons' secondaries have around 5 cases in a fortnight, including one in my one son's option group. We are in a high risk area and of course there is concern over this, with two schools and two children to factor in, but this is the same for lots of us.
If your son is happy and there are no vulnerabilities, but you have axieties, then is it fair to pull him out?

changing35 · 22/09/2020 20:48

Again I ask the question. Are you proposing to never have contact with another person or object until covid has been wiped out. For the poster saying the only way it will get into your house will be from school. Utter utter rubbish. Do you never bring in shopping or medication including food items or goods which are delivered, wear shoes outside receive mail or have contact with another living soul ever?? Nope thought not

changing35 · 22/09/2020 20:52

@middleager

My son's school has had 6 cases already in less than 3 weeks and my anxiety is through the roof. Cases are high in our area. He's still going in at the moment as he really wants to be there and in other ways it's doing him good. But if there's a case in his bubble but he is not identified as a close contact I am planning to pull him out for 2 weeks. I don't think the strategy in schools is safe. I would prefer blended learning ideally in secondaries.

Both of my two sons' secondaries have around 5 cases in a fortnight, including one in my one son's option group. We are in a high risk area and of course there is concern over this, with two schools and two children to factor in, but this is the same for lots of us.
If your son is happy and there are no vulnerabilities, but you have axieties, then is it fair to pull him out?

If its the same as my childs school then any positive case in the bubble will mean 14 days at home. With what you are proposing you could be pulling him out for a fortnight at a time for potentially months on end. Your anxiety over all of this WILL be impacting on your child and not in a positive way either. Unless he is particularly vulnerable then people really need to calm down and just get on with life you cannot wrap them / you in a protective bubble forever. Its ludicrous

middleager · 22/09/2020 21:02

I agree changing

sunseekin · 22/09/2020 21:30

We haven’t gone back so I am definitely in the YANBU camp.

Don’t deregister, there will be changes with schools soon and you don’t want to lose the educational and social support over any lockdown.

I will leave at half term if the current system proves to be sustainable but until then I will stand my ground.

I would be very surprised if an LA fined in the current climate - cases rising and testing chaos. By the time you got the letter schools could be closed and they’d look very silly.

I could be wrong but I just can’t see how things can keep going as they are for much longer.

MsAwesomeDragon · 22/09/2020 21:38

My school wouldn't be offering you remote learning, as it's a parental choice for your DC not to be in school.
All our teachers have a class in front of them that they need to be concentrating on, and providing anyway decent remote learning takes time, which we don't have.
I could tell you what topics we're doing this week in maths, but it would be "adding and subtracting negatives" then you would need to resource that yourself, because I don't have the time to provide you with anything else. I don't use PowerPoints that I could send you, I don't use worksheets I use textbooks that live in my classroom.

So you can try, but don't be argumentative if/when school replies that they won't be providing anything unless your child is isolating due to being a close contact of a positive case.

TheSunIsStillShining · 22/09/2020 22:31

@MsAwesomeDragon

My school wouldn't be offering you remote learning, as it's a parental choice for your DC not to be in school. All our teachers have a class in front of them that they need to be concentrating on, and providing anyway decent remote learning takes time, which we don't have. I could tell you what topics we're doing this week in maths, but it would be "adding and subtracting negatives" then you would need to resource that yourself, because I don't have the time to provide you with anything else. I don't use PowerPoints that I could send you, I don't use worksheets I use textbooks that live in my classroom.

So you can try, but don't be argumentative if/when school replies that they won't be providing anything unless your child is isolating due to being a close contact of a positive case.

I can't agree with your starting sentence. Many kids are off because parent's choice. But parent's choice may be because they are vulnerable (like me). And school does have the obligation to provide learning.

Personally I would be over the moon to actually have the term's topics, but am struggling to even get that. We have all the textbooks, and are working through them. If the topics happen to coincide, like today in chemistry, than I'm happy, otherwise if they don't tell me I'll do what I can. The real issue is that it is mandatory for him to do homework (they get a lot) with 0 guidance in many subjects. There has to be an in between way that is acceptable to teachers as well.

on a sidenote: the fact that schools don't have a clear plan B and materials lined up is horrendous. We all knew that autumn/winter will incur lockdowns. Schools should have had the extra funding to hire extra staff to help with material creation/organization/sorting out tech.

Mippi · 22/09/2020 22:36

@MsAwesomeDragon

My school wouldn't be offering you remote learning, as it's a parental choice for your DC not to be in school. All our teachers have a class in front of them that they need to be concentrating on, and providing anyway decent remote learning takes time, which we don't have. I could tell you what topics we're doing this week in maths, but it would be "adding and subtracting negatives" then you would need to resource that yourself, because I don't have the time to provide you with anything else. I don't use PowerPoints that I could send you, I don't use worksheets I use textbooks that live in my classroom.

So you can try, but don't be argumentative if/when school replies that they won't be providing anything unless your child is isolating due to being a close contact of a positive case.

What will you do when children in your class are off for up to 2 weeks at a time? Surely it would be sensible to have a plan for that now?

MsAwesomeDragon · 23/09/2020 07:55

I don't make the rules you know, I'm a classroom teacher. The policies are made by the head and deputies.

If children are isolating as a close contact of a positive case (either at school or family) then they are being provided with work. That same work is not being offered to children who are absent because of parental choice. Those children will at most get a list of topics the rest of the class are covering that week.

I completely understand both viewpoints, but the reality is that teachers do not have time to do 2 jobs at the same time. If your child is ill I'll do my very best to provide for them (that might be at the detriment of the children in front of me in the classroom as I won't be able to spend as much time marking or planning), but if school is open and there are children in front of me, that is the job I have to prioritise.

Mippi · 23/09/2020 09:35

I hope your Head sorts things out quickly then, they have until the end of the month to get set up to provide the same home learning as in-class learning. This is going to be an ongoing situation throughout the year so teachers do need to be able to easily switch between the two without creating too much additional work.

makingmammaries · 23/09/2020 09:38

I have done that already (not in UK). Both DH and I have medical conditions. If the DCs miss out on social interaction, so be it. So far, they seem as happy as Larry and with a bit of luck their parents will survive the pandemic.

LemonTT · 23/09/2020 09:41

@Howslifenow

Are you people not worried about around 5000 cases today. If people are allowed an option to WFH, why fine parents who want to keep kids at home. Even keeping them on the roll is enough for me as I can teach her for some time.

If you are not in the UK why are you so bothered about the situation there. Why are you making decisions based on the UKs situation?

And signing petitions when you don’t live there 🤷‍♀️

Bupkis · 23/09/2020 10:23

When we were self isolating there were 5 off in ds's class of 12.

Dd1 said yesterday that there were 6 missing from her tutor group, and dd2 said 8 missing.

If ds is ill like he was last year, and it takes 5 days each time to get a test (as it did last week), then that could potentially be 35 days off for his sisters and him, between now and March....remote learning is supposed to be (according to govt guidelines) available for these periods.

This is one of the reasons why we are trying to work with the school and bring ds out, when the numbers of children off with symptoms start to rise.

ohthegoats · 23/09/2020 10:54

I don't think deregistering kids permanently who would otherwise be in school does anyone any favours. There are issues for vulnerable kids so I guess welfare checks would need to be put in place. But other than that I think if parents want to temporarily home school, it should be fine to get a scheme of work to work towards and not otherwise add to teachers workload.

Alternative point of view: children's progress is linked to teacher performance management and pay. So, if you don't keep your child up with the learning, then it remains the teacher's responsibility, they are accountable, and they don't get the pay rise because of a choice you made.

Sending you one email, adds to workload for someone.

We are not obliged to send work home because anyone in your family is vulnerable, same as we are obliged to come to work even if someone in OUR family is vulnerable. Or we ourselves are vulnerable. Sorry.

PaxMalmKallax · 23/09/2020 10:58

I have been putting all my lesson materials on our virtual learning platform since term began. Loads of staff and kids are isolating and we’re clinging on to keeping everyone together. My own kids are off following my covid diagnosis a few days ago and their schools are doing the same. Guessing it’s a Borough-wide policy.