Are schools offering education or childcare to key workers?

[lorraliks]

I'm waiting to hear back about a place but I just remembered in March a distinction was made that the provision would be childcare & not education.

Just wondering if it was different this time?

As a primary teacher myself, it's probably childcare.
They will access the same online content as children at home just with supervision. No extra teaching or support. In fact our Key Worker provision is by non teaching staff. So that teachers can plan, video and mark lessons.

secondary - childcare, with access to the online live lessons.

Secondary - Childcare with access to computers

Students are expected to use headphones and follow the online teaching.

I'm primary and at my school we're teaching from the plans that we would have been using anyway. Absolutely normal teaching. We have a lot of keyworker and vulnerable children; I'm going to have just over half of my class in tomorrow.

We've been asked to provide 3 hours of home learning each day so those at home will be given the same learning objectives but might sometimes be asked to tackle the learning in a different way, especially for science.

In my experience (primary teacher) childcare with access to devices so they can access the home learning. They will be supported with this in my school, in fact they are grouped in small year group bubbles in order to enable this, but staff in school will not be teaching as such. Mind you, if you know a child is struggling, of course you will talk it through with them, the same way a parent would.

My sons primary only offering some pupils spaces are doing the home learning that is set for everyone else at home. But essentially, yes ,it is childcare and thank god. What we would do without it!!

Secondary - students are in a computer room, following the live lessons.

Last lockdown my children did every piece of work set by their teacher and it wasn't marked or even looked at, an entire exercise book worth of work. She certainly wasn't marking anything so that wasn't keeping her busy.
I am a teacher so just marked it myself.

They've got to provide the curriculum this time. Last time the curriculum was suspended, so it would not have been fair to teach the children in school and not the children at home.

So I will assume the children in will be given the same work provided to those at home

@quornflakegirl - we had the same issue! We submitted everything we did online and didn't receive a single piece of feedback - hard to explain to a 6 year old and to keep him going as well when he realised no one was looking at it!

Thanks all, my 6yo has some anxiety issues but he's made real progress the last few months but does still have a bit of 1:1.

Instinctively I think he will be better in a school setting rather than just leaving him on a remote lesson.

Im unsure whether I will get a place as the school is saying you both need to be key workers & it's just me who is.

I work is Special Ed. We will have reduced children in school but our HT told us today that we are expected to provide education not childcare. That was earlier today so may have changed now. I'm glad my ds is remote learning and even more relieved he is in Year 10 not 11 or 13. Those poor kids.

Yes it's shit all round ☹️

I’m waiting to receive confirmation re. two primary school places (I’m a KW and 1 DC has an EHCP), but we’ll be keeping our DC at home again, if the provision is purely basic childcare provision and esp. due to this new strain. Not worth the risk.

Childcare only this week (Scotland, primary). Next week the children in school, ‘invited’ and key worker children, and those learning remotely, are all to access as close to the same learning activities and teacher support as possible, simultaneously.

I’m primary and it’s exactly the same offer as the home learning. We have very few KW, literally only a handful in a school of over 500. We have more vulnerable and have spent today trying to get them in, as some really need to be there.

They will log on at school and be supervised / helped with the remote learning. They will also join all live lessons the same as those at home.

It's absolutely education. My school and the school my children go to have spent lots of time ensuring that the provision for children at home and in school is as identical as it can be.

Do any teachers know what the support will be like for the children at school (primary) with completing the online learning. Mine needs a lot of support to focus and lots of confidence boosting and if expected to work independently... well it won’t happen

I’m support staff in secondary school. We are supervising the KW/vulnerable groups whilst the teachers teach via live video. The KW/vulnerable group will have access to computers and join the lessons their teachers are running.
We are just babysitting essentially.

@sherrystrull

It's absolutely education. My school and the school my children go to have spent lots of time ensuring that the provision for children at home and in school is as identical as it can be.

Same here! 100% education - not babysitting!

I looked after KW/V children today (secondary) they followed their timetable and completed home learning work (proper live lessons were due to start next week). They happened to have my subject today so I taught them the content as I would if we were in class instead of them reading the... Pdf/powerpoint and completing the tasks and then supported them with the work in their other subjects that I am less familiar with.

Surely if it’s teaching rather than just babysitting then even more parents will be pushing for keyworker places which will defeat the purpose of closing schools. I will try my best to support my dc but there is no way I can teach them anywhere near to the same level as a teacher.

Remember your child might not get their regular teacher, as their teacher might be the one doing remote provision. So it might be more than childcare but they might not always be teaching the work your child is doing. They may be plugged into a laptop so they will be doing the work that their peers will be doing at home