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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to give a massive shout out to teachers

199 replies

Ihatefish · 08/01/2021 18:43

This week I’ve been so amazed by how very hard the teachers at my son’s school have been working, they’ve had to deal with teaching classes where 50% of the pupils have turned up, making sure home schooling is available and working, answering questions from pupils and staff, making sure all the kids are happy whether in school or at home. They had no notice yet have done an amazing job. As a parent at home juggling work and homeschooling I really appreciate the enormous effort they are making in v difficult circumstances-so a big big thank you from a grateful parent to all the teachers on here -you’re amazing

OP posts:
Drinkarsefeck · 08/01/2021 19:17

Dont forget the support staff too, many are invaluable at the moment and deserve more recohnition, especially considering the paltry wages they receive.

Cheesecake53 · 08/01/2021 19:18

YANBU OP, one of my children is in year 11 and their teachers are truly amazing in organising online lessons and online mocks. And no, I am not a teacher.

Ijustreallywantacat · 08/01/2021 19:19

Yes drinkarsefeck. My TA is worth her weight in gold.

Partey · 08/01/2021 19:20

Ds teacher was messaging me at almost 10pm Wednesday to help sort his incorrect teams log in. Last night she marked his uploaded work at 10.38pm.

She’s home with 2 kids under 5 delivering 3 live sessions a day. She has my utmost respect

Woahisme · 08/01/2021 19:21

My kids teachers have done a marvellous job given the situation and the fact they went to school on Monday then closed Tuesday. Hats off to them.

StormcloakNord · 08/01/2021 19:22

I'll be totally honest - I've never given it much thought & if I really think about it I've sort of just assumed the teachers were getting a lot of time off due to the lack of live learning/actual looking after of kids. I didn't think they were doing a spectacular job or anything.

Saying that, reading this thread has changed my mind a little, actually on thinking about it, it must be quite difficult and there must be a lot of planning that goes into juggling everything.

I could never do it, I fucking despise homeschooling and plonk my DD at BBC 2 for a good few hours of the day.

tiggy20 · 08/01/2021 19:24

So impressed with the teaching of my kids in year 3 & year 7. Their schools have done an amazing job getting everything online, & I am massively grateful to them.

GintyMcGinty · 08/01/2021 19:25

All we are getting is worksheets emailed out once a day.

No interaction. No live teaching. No recorded teaching. Zilch. No lessons learned since lockdown part 1.

Its completely shit.

So no shout out from me.

Poppingnostopping · 08/01/2021 19:26

No, they didn't have lots of notice about how the structure of the school day was going to change the very next day!

It's one thing to plan and prepare in principle, it's another thing to have to restructure all your staff and move to a different model of teaching.

Both of my children's school have responded very well. I'm very happy. Both have been emailing me on the weekend/late at night to get the information across that was thrown at them by Boris at the last minute.

MrsHerculePoirot · 08/01/2021 19:27

@GintyMcGinty

All we are getting is worksheets emailed out once a day.

No interaction. No live teaching. No recorded teaching. Zilch. No lessons learned since lockdown part 1.

Its completely shit.

So no shout out from me.

What response have you had from the school when you raised it with them? Is it likely they will up their game next week now they’ve time to prepare possibly?
TooStressyTooMessy · 08/01/2021 19:29

Absolutely huge thanks to the support staff as well.

All of the teachers and TAs in both my children’s year groups have their own children at home that they are having to help with schoolwork. The fact that they are able to also support and teach my own kids is awesome.

listsandbudgets · 08/01/2021 19:32

Both my DCs are getting a high quality of teaching.

It does not and can not match what they'd get in the classroom but in the circumstances brilliant.

DS in year 4 has Maths and English plus 2 foundation subjects a day. 3 out of 4 lessons today were live. The other was backed up by a high quality teacher video. Teachers are even able to look at work as they're doing it and make helpful comments.

DD year 10 has full online timetable all dine through live lessons

All work is marked.

Teachers must be working so hard to do it all. Yes its damned tough trying to work and get my DS to do some work as well ( dd very self motivated) but good teachers are making it a lot easier

MarshaBradyo · 08/01/2021 19:33

I like my children’s, they’re doing great jobs.

GintyMcGinty · 08/01/2021 19:33

@MrsHerculePoirot What response have you had from the school when you raised it with them? Is it likely they will up their game next week now they’ve time to prepare possibly?

I am in Scotland so our school has known since mid December that we weren't going back and they have had months to prepare for another lockdown.

This is the plan.

From Facebook its pretty widespread in Scotland.

The school said this time though we can take photos of work completed and email that it and the teachers will give feedback.

I had been hopeful when I saw so many people in England reporting that this time they were getting actual interaction from teachers that we would get that too. But nope.

redpencil77 · 08/01/2021 19:34

Lemonpiano, you change your way of working overnight for your "clients" with 12 hours' notice. And we aren't talking sacks of spuds we are talking our children who beed to be kept safe, fed, nurtured educated. I am sure the teaching profession would welcome your application. Though, on second thoughts...

AaronPurr · 08/01/2021 19:34

What a mostly lovely thread. Can I just say a huge thank you to parents and carers for supporting school staff during these tough times. If you're impressed by the online learning or a member of staff going above and beyond please can I urge you to email the school. It will be a welcome sight, as many only ring / email when they have a complaint.

I needed this thread after a difficult week, so once again thank you to all the parents and carers. 🤗🤗

CountessFrog · 08/01/2021 19:37

Ok I’ll do that now 👍

ilovesooty · 08/01/2021 19:37

@Lemonpiano

They were told months ago that they had to be ready to provide high quality remote learning. They had plenty of notice and are now doing their jobs.
Mean spirited.
Forgothowmuchlhatehomeschoolin · 08/01/2021 19:37

I always have massive respect for teachers but even more so at the moment. Absolute troopers.

Daphnise · 08/01/2021 19:40

I would be pleased to acknowledge any group of people doing their jobs under difficult circumstances with this horrible virus so rife.

Whether teachers are especially worthy I can't say.

Thisisworsethananticpated · 08/01/2021 19:41

Hear hear
Hate the bashing they get here

Clutterbugsmum · 08/01/2021 19:41

Of course Teachers need massive praise for the work they are doing to keep our children in education with the goal posts being moved every 5 minutes.

DoubleDeckerBusRideLover · 08/01/2021 19:42

What do you deem notice?

Yes, we knew it was feasible we might have to move online. So we had trained the children up to use Google classroom, trained ourselves how to use tasks, thought about how we would manage it, identified resources, etc. We were ready to go if the time came.

But we were told we would be in school. The lessons we would usually deliver in school are very different from what is suitable to send home. So we planned for in school, because that is what we were told.

Let's look at few small examples - even converting small stuff like the morning starter takes time. Written to use in school, the easiest way to do it is to have one file per week shared between four teachers who teach a class at the same level each. To go on Google classroom for families to use, it needs to be split into a task per day and loaded onto the four separate classrooms. So one upload becomes twenty. It would be crazy to upload it twenty times on the off chance we might need it! (consider this is a ten minute starter task and a school day is six hours plus....)

Likewise, we are calling children at home in small groups. We knew we would do this. But we could not organise the groups until we knew which children would be in school and which at home. The numbers are totally different from last time as the government has radically changed the criteria.

We sent every password home (Mathletics, etc) on a laminated card to every family - that is us being prepared. Roughly 20% of my families lost the cards. It happens, but they needed to be provided again this week urgently as the call to go online came. What could I have done to cut that job down? Might not parents have realised the cards were missing earlier with more notice? I was in class teaching with my laptop, with another laptop next to me that I could use (in any tiny gap) to send out passwords to people as they asked, so did not have to wait to get started on their work...

We are lending children devices. Yes, we identified which children in advance but actually handing them out / signing loan agreements, etc, is a large administrative task. We were hardly going to hand them out on the off chance, we usually use them in school! We did get extra from the government (applied for months ago) - they came on Wednesday.

I would say we were as prepared as we reasonably could be, but I worked from 7 am - 12 am every day this week (just six pm today). Much of that work could have been staggered or not needed if the decision had been made earlier.

Please let's be realistic about what has been asked of people in education and not suggest we could have been better prepared.

Mrsfrumble · 08/01/2021 19:42

Yes! Last spring / summer both of my children’s teachers were working from home, and I thought they doing bloody amazing jobs then. This time round both teachers are in school with 50% of the class AND providing the remote provision. They are amazing! And the brilliant class TAs who are also there and fielding questions and giving support on google classrooms. My oldest has SN and has really struggled (should really have a vulnerable child place but there are too many children already in) and a member of his classroom team called me last night and we spoke for nearly an hour about how they provide more support for him. I will be baking them lots of cakes when that sort of thing is allowed again!

redpencil77 · 08/01/2021 19:42

Raise it with the Scotch parliament, your education system is devolced isn't it? Aren't they in charge of quality and therefore homeschool policy? Alternatively see if any schools are teaching the lessons your children are learning, or Oak Academy, there are screen casts with every lesson (Google "Oak Academy KS3 or KS2" or whatever, unless Scotland don't have Key Stages. But there are Scottish school resources on BBC bitesize, I've seen them - look on those? Sign up for a free login to TES and download free resourceson the topics other teachers have shared?)