To think live video lessons aren’t all they are cracked up to be

[Alex15]

During the last lockdown it seemed like people were almost obsessed with them and while they are good there are other forms of Homelearning the are also good and they really aren’t the silver bullet people claimed they were?

My primary son has 1 a day, and it's more of a check in. I like that.

My secondary son has a full timetable from before 9 to 3, sat at his desk the whole day, no time for us to all go out while it's light to get some exercise. He hasn't complained but I think it's a shit way to live. I've watched some of the live lessons with him and they're soooooo slooooooow too.

I really appreciate the time and effort that teachers are putting into this, and for some reason live lessons seem to have become the gold standard which everyone wants. But for secondary I think it's boring, too much sitting, not enough downtime and to inflexible.

My two (y3 & y5) have half a day each which adds up to me doing pretty much a full day as an unpaid TA as neither child will participate without me glued to their side (DS1 has ASD, dyspraxia and dyslexia). It couldn't happen if I was working. It's tough enough as it is micromanaging and differentiating for them to make them do anything, plus reading DS1's emotions to fend off meltdowns (he masks in school, but not at home).

Educationally it's an improvement on 4 months of total neglect and inappropriate and poorly resourced work (from one of the teachers, the other was better). But it is inflexible and demanding. We can't really do anything outside usable with daylight at present. It's not school where you can stick them out of the door onto a playground to have a blast of running around with their peers.

I suspect that a halfway measure of check-in points through the day with some flexibility is the best compromise. Trying to recreate a full lesson of chalk and talk to a bunch of 7-8 and 9-10 yos is bloody tough all round.

DD11 is on pretty much a full curriculum via teams. It's working brilliantly and her teachers are doing an amazing job. She's really happy and very engaged. She has structure.

As a single parent working full time I am also so grateful as the March lock down when she was in year 6 was horrendously bad. She has ASD so getting her to do sheets and sheets of work was a battle and I don't want to repeat that.

I do tell mine to get out - we'd have PE, lunchtime, mini breaks and all sorts at school. It's been lovely some days and we're very rural. Hate the thought of them all sitting there waiting for my next stream :(

@Kolo my dd's school did that in the first week, then scrapped it- now there are two opportunities to exercise, first thing and at lunch for an hour at a time, and the teens are encouraged to log/feed back what they are doing for wellbeing. Let's hope your son's school switches to something like this, but I think schools panicked a bit when they heard it all had to be online and everyone was to report them to Ofsted if they didn't do it right, hopefully they will calm down and start offering a more flexible and broader span of activities and realise 6 hours of online screen time is not healthy.

Mixed view here - yr 3 child has a full day of google class room with a break for lunch, no recordings or worksheets. It’s difficult as before we could schedule days around it, but now they’re oNline virtually all day - but enjoys it, seems happier this time for engaging with peers.

Nursery age child (4) is expected to join 3-4 mini google classes of 15-20mins each and is not coping with it. Can’t understand it and getting very distressed about the whole thing. We don’t try now unless they indicate an interest - it is not worth the screaming.

It's so interesting reading all of this feedback too. Makes me feel like I'm vaguely heading down the right lines which is always good.

My DD is 9 and just being able to see and talk to her teachers and classmates on the live lessons have made a world or difference to her mental health. She still feels like part of a group and it's been brilliant for her.

I completely agree. They have been brilliant off my 9 year old too. The lessons are interactive with whiteboard and worksheet activities and kids being asked to answer live questions. They complete work during the lesson that is then submitted for marking and feedback.

My dc yr 8 also have online dance and breaks where they go offline, exercise and the come back.

Oh, should say - for the 9 yr old, it's 1 hr of live maths, 1hr of life English and a short afternoon live session, so there is time to get out and do other things during the day. I think a full timetable would be too much for primary. My secondary dcs have a full timetable of live lessons and it is quite tiring.

@Poppingnostopping oh I hope so! He has about 15mins morning break and 30mins for lunch, so not enough time to go out for a walk. Then by the time he's finished the sun is setting!

My son isn't able to speak to the teacher. No children can speak. The teacher delivers a presentation to 250 kids, and at the end then can ask questions by typing in a chat box. The amount of work going into it is phenomenal, which makes me really frustrated because I don't think the learning gains are worth it. I think the school has given parents what they demanded, and maybe some are happy with it.

They obviously need to be adjusted for every age group but my daughter school has done an excellent job. The teachers fund it hard not having more back and forth interaction and its difficult to tell how engaged the kids are (especially as so many keep their cameras off). But while the hands on classes are suffering (DT, art and sciences for example), by and large the teacher should be able to come up with an interesting lesson plan, and there is now the facility for break out groups within the lesson so smaller groups of children can work together.
I think the real struggle is with younger kids who will find it much harder to sit at a computer for extended length of time and stay motivated. I imagine many of them are playing Minecraft along side their lessons!

Secondary DD- seems to be going well. She's independent with it. They all had Chromebooks and used Google classroom before this anyway.

Primary DS

• not a huge benefit I'd say.
• we have enough devices but bandwidth is a major problem with DD and 2 parents also on calls
• he can't really access it without support and I don't feel I can leave him to it. I actually find it more distracting trying to work with him and DD both on calls. It's quieter if he is just getting on with his worksheet or indeed if he's not and he buggers off to read or do Lego.
• I never hear him interact with the teacher. It's the same one or two kids only. Lots of them don't access it for various reasons and lots who do seem to have tech issues poor connection etc. It really doesn't seem very productive
• I much prefer a video or link to a video, a worksheet and then teacher marks it. This only needs about the same input from me setting it up as a live lesson and keeps him occupied for a bit. Sometimes he won't do it. I try to help a bit but if it gets into conflict then I don't waste my breath and I just tell the teacher he couldn't do it.
• I don't see it as a social benefit for him either. DS much prefers to 'meet up' with his friends online after school hours to play X box and call each other 'bro' and 'dude' a lot in cod American accents.

Overall we just find the live stuff annoying and not of much benefit and am thinking of largely giving it a swerve in future.

Really happy we don't have online registration at 9am. There has to be some perks of this lockdown and DS is still in PJs usually then. DH and I are busy getting our own work days started and get to him later. If DS engages with the work at some point why would it matter if it was at 9am when that would make it hard for the rest of us.

@Lougle as of this week we are taking a register. I suspect the pastoral team will then be asked to call round all families not accessing it.

Personally I'm not sure they should be compulsory - difficult for some students to access, and they get stressed if they feel they have done something wrong.

It does, however, frustrate me when I have put up written instructions, gone live for 30 minutes, AND recorded video instructions but students get out of bed 40 mins into lesson and comment "miss what do I do"

My dd's school are also doing live Google classrooms small groups for art she tells me, so they chat about what they are doing, get individual feedback, upload their work for the teacher to comment on in their own time. It's not just all big taught lessons.

I honestly think she's getting a pretty decent education, but I think it's a shame it's not more standardized and that yet again with lots of things in the UK, it's all a bit of a lottery! The novelty of it all might wear off too...

Just to counterbalance my moaning, I've had half a class turn up this afternoon where they genuinely bounced off each other, contributed, and got extremely competitive about a quiz we did! It's not all bad.

DofE have just published feedback on this. www.gov.uk/government/publications/whats-working-well-in-remote-education/whats-working-well-in-remote-education?fbclid=IwAR0A6ssEEPZ4AIffV4efy4jxebj1CibJG281V-JGEQqG_T6AUhWKQuyyMNQ