To ask the teacher to change the live call time

[namechangestory]

DD is in reception and is attending school as we are both key workers (I WFH, DH goes out to work). There is only 3 others from his class and most of his friends are staying at home.

The class teacher is running a zoom call every day so the class can all see each other and listen to a story. The problem is it clashes with pick-up time so DD cannot join and she misses out on seeing her friends who all see each other on the video call every day.

AIBU to ask the teacher to change the time slightly so DD can attend? Push back by half an hour so we are home?

I am a teacher and it wouldn't bother me if you asked

I wouldn't suggest making it later as I'm sure she has a tonne of marking

Do you mean from all those essays that reception kids write?!

Planning maybe, but definitely not a tonne of marking.

No harm in asking, but if she can't do it then I think you'll just have to put up with it.

@hallamoo

I think YABU to ask.

However, It would be less work for the teacher if she did it at 2.30 in school and live streamed on Zoom at the same time to the ones at home. No one need have cameras on and she could point the camera in school at the smart board so only her voice is heard.

Then she wouldn't have to stay late.

It's actually really hard to do blended sessions like this, with both in-person and virtual attendees, and it tends to be that in practice the attention goes to those in the room, and the virtual attendees feel like they're just watching a video of someone else's event. The teacher obviously set it up like this for a reason and this might be why, it'll feel like much less of a 'real' contact for the ones at home if it's a camera pointed at a board and a voice rather than a direct video of the teacher, but that's hard to do with other children in the room unless you essentially ignore them.

Upsetting isn’t it @Yellow78

@BlairCorneliaWaldorf

I wouldn't suggest making it later as I'm sure she has a tonne of marking

Do you mean from all those essays that reception kids write?!

Planning maybe, but definitely not a tonne of marking.

Clearly you haven’t had to compile 30 EYFS profiles then!

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel and do you stand by your observation that the teacher in this case has shown ‘very poor planning’?

I'm a teacher and absolutely would not mind that suggestion being put to me. The teacher can only explain if it's not possible or they may just not have thought about the fact that your dc can't take part. The teacher might be able to accommodate a change of time on at least one day. Either way, if you don't ask youll never know

I say this as a parent who has a child part time in school.. Your teacher has given her time and attention to your child.. The other children need that time..

Do arrange zoom calls for your DC.

@MrsDev1980

I'm a teacher and absolutely would not mind that suggestion being put to me. The teacher can only explain if it's not possible or they may just not have thought about the fact that your dc can't take part. The teacher might be able to accommodate a change of time on at least one day. Either way, if you don't ask youll never know

This. It's really that simple

@ThePricklySheep we're all in school doing full lessons, inputs, group work,marking etc.

[quote AccidentallyOnPurpose]@ThePricklySheep we're all in school doing full lessons, inputs, group work,marking etc.[/quote]
@AccidentallyOnPurpose

For classes of three? And doing online lessons too? That’s absolutely bonkers.

To be honest I'd just be grateful you are WFH and have got a keyworker spot in school. My DD isn't in school even though we are both critical workers and my husband is juggling a full secondary science schedule as well as homeschooling a 5 year old. I sometimes come home from an NHS job and complete any outstanding work with her in the evening, while he continues planning and marking until gone midnight. The local council have asked everyone WFH to keep their children at home and we've complied. We could probably push for a spot if we wanted but that's not really the spirit of lockdown is it?

@ThePricklySheep I have 14 in my class, I know some bubbles have 11 ,8, 5 uhmm not sure about the others. I don't socialise much, not that it's allowed now anyways.

I should think the class teacher has scheduled it when it works for him/her. I would think teachers are trying to limit their time in school at the moment and it seems very nice that they are already doing this outside of lesson time to include the children who can’t make it into school. I would also think that the teacher has set it up for the students not in school, as it has been scheduled at the time that students who are attending are going home. Essentially it isn’t really for your DC it’s for the students who can’t come in

Thanks for the answer @AccidentallyOnPurpose!

Anyone got any ideas how to set up zoom calls with parents you have met at 2m distance for a term at most?

No party invites to acquire numbers and no playdates should have happened this term either, so it's not exactly easy to set up a zoom that way.

My DD's school Facebook group doesn't allow posts (only replies) and there's no year group WhatsApp or FB group...

We moved to the area in April so no nursery/baby group mum pals either.

The teacher does it at pickup time specifically so that the kids who are allowed in school have gone. Asking her to do it earlier or later would be very unreasonable.

Anyone got any ideas how to set up zoom calls with parents you have met at 2m distance for a term at most?

You only need 1 contact to start the process. Do you have any names you could find on Facebook? Anything?

Try not to worry though they are 5 they will recover from this unscathed. In the first lockdown my DD was in year 2 and hated the zoom calls that I arranged anyway. She didn't know what to do on them. Her and her friends don't chat they run around and play together. She's had one this lockdown which was more successful but only because they did a fashion show for each other. They're not "catching up"

‘ Wow unbelievable! I am a key worker and have had to send my children to school through the pandemic and it has broken my heart to do it! Don’t you think key workers would rather have their kids home and safe? ’

If you say that’s how you feel that’s how you feel. I know many people stretching the ‘critical’ worker definition to a comic degree to avoid home schooling their kids cos it’s a ‘nightmare’ trying to home school while working from home.

I have to do my class zoom at 3:00 as I got the last slot that no one wanted! There are 14 zooms daily at my school and we do them on after the other to take into account siblings in other years so there's no clashes. You can ask but it would be unlikely that the time would be changed!

If DC is in reception surely he/she is getting time with other children? More so than the other kids on zoom??
It’s VUR to ask everyone has to give and take in this you can’t ask a whole class to move around for you

I would ask politely, given the time that it has been scheduled. To hold it at 3pm will possibly affect those key workers who have children at more than one school, and I understand it to be the shift change time for the police.

We do our zooms during the school day, and the key worker child get to join from school. I had 100% of my class in my last zoom. It was so lovely to see them all smiling and waving to each other.

I would ask if the time of the zoom could be changed to allow key worker children to join in. It's not cheeky, at our school it's a requirement for ALL children to join in.

Lucky you OP. We have no "live time" at all in my kid's school 🥲