School not teaching key worker children

[Frenchcroissant]

Hi all, my two dd are going to school everyday as both me and my partner are key workers. One is in reception and not bothered about her, but older is in year 5 and she's told me that they don't do any learning at all. I told her she can do the same work as home children but at school, but apparently that's not allowed, teacher said she's got to do all learning at home, she's just playing, colouring and watching Disney movies. That's not right, is it? Why is she not doing same as the children at home?

And some teachers are teaching live in the classroom and remotely at the same time!

@0gfhty

My kids school are doing the usual curriculum with a full days learning and their usual teacher. With a smaller class size, it's the best education they've ever had. The homeschoolers - mostly being plonked Infront of screen whilst being told to be quiet and having zero social contact.

That's insane they should get the same as childre at home

Why on earth has the government not stated clearly what schools need to be doing?

The messaging and communication in the UK seem so poor.

Directly told by the local authority to prioritise the home learning over children in school last week. Even if this means it is child care only. This makes zero sense to me (especially as half the children are in school). Teachers cannot win.

I should add that we are trying to do the same for both and make it as straightforward as possible for everyone.

@Butteredtoast55 thats ridiculous of the LA! Plus a lot of kids in are there for being vulnerable

@Mumofsend
Absolutely agree!

In our primary (one form entry, so teachers can’t ‘share’ the planning and prep between others in their year group) we have around 40% of children in.

They are grouped in similar age groups, e.g. Year 2 and 3 together, and supervised by a TA to access the same video lessons and Zoom calls as the children at home. Teachers are doing Zooms and planning/prepping/teaching/marking/communicating at home.

It seemed like the only fair way to do it - though all teachers have offered to do KW cover in school, but TAs aren’t keen on manning the home learning all day (fair enough).

Children at school and children at home should, as far as possible be getting the same experience.
It is unacceptable if your daughter is being told she cannot do the work set in school.
Equally you cannot expect her to be ‘taught’
But it doesn’t seem like you do expect this.

If IT isn’t available then she should at least get the worksheets or printed powerpoints to complete in school. I would definitely ask for an explanation if I were you.

Lots of parents at my child’s school are playing the system. Sending children in when there’s a parent at home and some who don’t work in essential work but who are still working are still sending them in also.

Mines at home because I’m trying to do as we are asked by the govt despite us both being key workers who worked all the way through the first lockdown.
I don’t think it’s fair the ones in school get a face to face education when mine has to make do with me bumbling along while we are both trying to work full time. I am out of the house on shift work then have to come in and teach after working 14 hours or through the night.

If I and the majority of other working parents have to do it around work, using evenings and weekends then what’s the problem?

@Leonberger so you really know the ins and outs of every families circumstances with kids in in your school then?

I don't think they are doing a normal school day tbh. That was made very clear to us last lockdown. At our school there'd a bit of the '3 Rs' every day and then the rest of the day is given over to art, outdoor games, music etc (DS spent half the afternoon African drumming on Tuesday.)

Worth bearing in mind, OP, the school might be short of staff - if they have teachers isolating or off with COVID. They can't expect to run a normal service with incomplete teams. If the students are mostly in the care of a TA or something then it's going to be a 'curriculum lite'. But that's probably the case for all kids right now. How many kids are stuck in front of the Disney Channel because Mum has to be on a Zoom call in the other room? It's just making do atm...

They should be doing more, but is it a staffing or school size issue OP? If there's a mix of ages and abilities it will be very hard. Also depends on your school's IT provision. That said printing work sheets and distributing them isn't too big a challenge in the scheme of things.

Our school is TA care only. I'm with the little ones in reception following the same work set by the teacher wfh. Enough tasks that should easily take 1.5-3 hours a day for a child at home, more with breaks and even more with less parental involvement. Some videos, some songs, some practical maths tasks, some work sheets, some colouring, some writing, online assembley. It will take me longer because I've got a third of the class in, we've stuck to our break times and lunchtimes, and it's hard going (for me!)

Our school has 30 laptops, and a third of the school are in. Understandably, the laptops are prioritised on a rota for yr 2-6 (basically those who can log on independently). So they are doing that.

I wouldn't be happy though if my yr 5 child was doing the same as yours.

Update! They've started doing learning today! They have got printed work that the children at home are doing online. This is for the the children with no printers or devices, and the ones at school. I'm happy with this.

That's good news, glad it's happening for you.
It might just have been they were madly preparing work packs - I'm a school sec and was full on doing this last week in my school. Sooo much paper used, but was necessary to provide all children with work.

@nanbread

Actually *@Kokeshi123* as you can tell from this thread, at a lot of schools KW are being taught in smaller class sizes, while those at home get some worksheets uploaded. Also the opposite of the OP's situation.

Neither is fair.

Totally agree