AIBU to think that my Child's school should not be asking all teachers to go into School to deliver "remote lessons"?

[bob1234bob]

Our children are in an independent school which is part of an association. Just heard that the association has decided that all their teachers should go into the schools to deliver their "remote lessons". They are expected to have the key worker children physically in their classrooms (even if only 1 or 2) and deliver to everyone at once. Seems as if they are determined to flout the regulations as much as possible and I can't see what the benefit to the association is. Presumably they don't trust their staff to deliver lessons from home (which is weird because "dropping in" on remote lessons would be easy enough). I am starting to think that the association leaders are a bunch of idiots and also probably not a very nice employer.

Same at my regular primary. In my classroom today there were more adults than children! I don’t mind but lots do.

As an independent school these teachers are not public sector employees.

@bob1234bob

As an independent school these teachers are not public sector employees.

They are critical workers though which is the wording of the guidance...

@ChloeDecker

I don't see how they can effectively teach remotely and in-person at the same time

Many teachers have been doing just that since September.

This is actually easier now (in Secondary) because the children in the room are being individually taught by their actual teacher through Teams and the teacher supervising is teaching their own class through Teams, rather than the supervising teacher teaching both those in school and at home.

Obviously Primary is different.

This was how the situation was managed last lockdown but this time the children in class and at home are meant to get the same lesson. I don't think both the home and class cohort will get an equivalent experience from the lessons.

It makes sense to me?

Not everyone is set up to WFH adequately. Or do as well WFH.

Maybe they're not reasonably able to work from home. I'm a teacher and I can't. Access to resources, suitable technology (visualisers are infinitely better than laptop cameras), suitable working space (most businesses have to risk assess wfh in normal times). I could just about work from home, but would be far less effective for all of these reasons.

Also, there are children to supervise in school. Much safer to have me and 3 children in a big classroom than stuffing 20 into a room with one teacher.

@bob1234bob

As an independent school these teachers are not public sector employees.

Fair point. Missed the private school reference

Did reread your Op. You may well be nice that this is for monitoring at your children's school and that they might not be very nice employers, if they are dictating this to all staff.

I'm not sure what you can do about it.

No teachers are on site at my state primary, SLT are in & support staff are looking after the bubbles.

This was how the situation was managed last lockdown but this time the children in class and at home are meant to get the same lesson

I’m not sure why you can not comprehend that this third lockdown may be handled differently from the first?
Weather
More people taking up places
Two new rampant strains therefore more measures to keep more children apart if physically possible
The government have now made it law to provide specific remote learning and therefore schools may well be considering how to meet this more effectively.

In short, there are many reasons why your school meets the requirements for going to work (did you not hear Chris Witty this afternoon?) but it is a shame after the many posts on this thread, that you don’t want to acknowledge them.

@Inmyownlittlecorner

No teachers are on site at my state primary, SLT are in & support staff are looking after the bubbles.

So the lowest paid members of staff (support) are put at the most risk. Nice.

I don't think both the home and class cohort will get an equivalent experience from the lessons.
Of course they won’t but no child will get the full same experience as they would in normal times. But news flash, thousands of children have not been able to have normal lessons since September. It’s not unique to this new lockdown. Individual schools are just doing the best that they can with what they have.

Makes sense to me!

That's what my secondary school were originally planning to do for the next couple of weeks. But after Boris' school closures announcement we were told that the new plan was for support staff to be in on a rota to look after the vulnerable and key worker kids in a computer room (one for each bubble) with teachers teaching from home. I don't think the risk was really for when in a classroom but actually when we're not teaching we have to go back to small and busy offices. We don't have a classroom each.

@2020out

Maybe they're not reasonably able to work from home. I'm a teacher and I can't. Access to resources, suitable technology (visualisers are infinitely better than laptop cameras), suitable working space (most businesses have to risk assess wfh in normal times). I could just about work from home, but would be far less effective for all of these reasons.

Also, there are children to supervise in school. Much safer to have me and 3 children in a big classroom than stuffing 20 into a room with one teacher.

I think it is a valid point that some teachers may not be able to "reasonably work from home" and I would certainly consider it fair if staff in those circumstances were being given the option of going in to school, if they wanted to. In this case the teachers are still using their laptop cameras for the lessons, so that is not a distinguishing feature.

Good WiFi access and space to work may all be issues but a lot of other workers will be struggling to manage the same thing. Working less effectively from home is not the same as being unable to "reasonably work from home", otherwise every office in the country would still be full.

@ChloeDecker

This was how the situation was managed last lockdown but this time the children in class and at home are meant to get the same lesson

I’m not sure why you can not comprehend that this third lockdown may be handled differently from the first?
Weather
More people taking up places
Two new rampant strains therefore more measures to keep more children apart if physically possible
The government have now made it law to provide specific remote learning and therefore schools may well be considering how to meet this more effectively.

In short, there are many reasons why your school meets the requirements for going to work (did you not hear Chris Witty this afternoon?) but it is a shame after the many posts on this thread, that you don’t want to acknowledge them.

I am actually listening and I have seen some good points about teachers not being always able to reasonably work from home and I totally accept that because the "critical worker" definition has changed and more people are requesting places this will mean that more staff are needed for supervision.

I remember that it was acknowledged in the first lockdown that schools were open to provide "childcare" for key worker children (rather than teaching as such). Is this expectation different for this lockdown? I see in Scotland that they state:

It should be noted that children attending school will not necessarily receive child-specific tailored schooling - a skeleton school and nursery service will be provided as a means of offering additional support and supervision.

In England this time are you expected to simply provide a supervised space in school for the children to access the same remote learning as the children at home, or are you meant to be "teaching in the school"?

If you have a quarter of your class in front of you in a class-room and the rest of them at home, who do you direct your live lesson to? Do you look into the camera or the class-room? Do you use in-class teaching aids for the benefit of the pupils present or ignore them because the children at home can't participate?

These are genuine questions, as our school's choice seems, to my mind, to be less useful than simply ensuring that the critical worker children have supervision and then teaching them via the same remote lessons as the rest of the children. Allowing the teacher delivering the lesson content to be free to focus on one uniform cohort and one delivery method rather than have to switch focus between present and remote pupils constantly.

We were asked to teach remotely via a headset and Teams whilst also live teaching 70% of the class that was in front of us last May. I teach a subject with lots of practicals and it was a real PITA to act as camerawoman and teach and answer questions from the 2 cohorts at the same time. Online teaching - no problem, actual teaching -no problem, but the mixed teaching I found discombobulating and practically impossible. All it led to were complaints from the remote learners about video quality and speed of response if they'd typed a question.

@Lollipity

We were asked to teach remotely via a headset and Teams whilst also live teaching 70% of the class that was in front of us last May. I teach a subject with lots of practicals and it was a real PITA to act as camerawoman and teach and answer questions from the 2 cohorts at the same time. Online teaching - no problem, actual teaching -no problem, but the mixed teaching I found discombobulating and practically impossible. All it led to were complaints from the remote learners about video quality and speed of response if they'd typed a question.

This being exactly what I expect to be the problem. Seems far fairer to have all the actual teaching be on-line. That means putting in place supervised child-care in school with the facilities for the children of critical workers to access those on-line classes from school premises and devices.

Otherwise the school is not really closed it is just open to a select few, with everyone else reduce to watching on from home.

If this is what you did last May, will it be the same for you this time?

It all depends how many they have in and how they're managing it. I've a very small number in class and they join half-virtually and half-live. We can't all have sound on in the same room due to feedback noise, but they see my screen in the same way as others. It is actually incredibly useful as it gives me a better ideal of the issues that children at home might be having.

Our numbers are so low that little supervision is needed (9-11yos) and I actually get a good insight into what problems children and parents might be having at home. Having 5 people in a large room is far safer than having larger numbers of children somewhere else in the school being supervised while accessing learning I'm providing from home or an empty classroom.

No idea of your school's circumstances, but I'm not sure it's right that you're assuming they're being unreasonable.

The new lockdown guidance actually says the following:
Public sector employees working in essential services, including childcare or education, should continue to go into work.
which feels like a mistake or simply a way to annoy school staff. Obviously most schools are ignoring this because it directly contravenes You may only leave your home for work if you cannot reasonably work from home but it is difficult to argue with an employer when that is written in to gov guidance.

Omg such a godsend, I was having trouble with my 2 wanting to do online learning, but I found these and now they take pride in hanging them before they start an online lesson ...why didn't I find these earlier makaweb.co.uk/product/virtual-learning-minecraft-hanger/ and makaweb.co.uk/product/virtual-learning-unicorn-hanger/

What's the problem? they are actually being paid by this independent school to teach to the best of their abilities, and the parents are paying for it directly.

Kind of feels like the economics of being paid to perform a quality service has gone out of the window in this lockdown.

Had a few experiences when a service has been well below par, yet the ever reliable "yeah, but Covid" excuse is given for something completely unrelated to Covid.

Last time I was at home most of the time apart from when I was on the rota to supervise key worker children. However, all work was a set of instructions which I posted up in advance of the lesson. I monitored typed questions during the lesson. My crap broadband could just about cope.

Now, thanks to all the moaners, we have to deliver live lessons. I can sometimes Zoom/WhatsApp call my DDs from home but it's rubbish. I have to go into school for live teaching, simply because it's got the bandwidth I need to work. Today I was trying to dictate a rhythm for my class to write down. Clapping didn't work, nor did playing it on a drum. I jumped up & took my laptop to the piano & played it there, which was great. Had I been at home, I could not have done it.