To ask what happens if you don't home school?

[Chalkcheese]

What does happen if you don't homeschool during lockdown? Is it mandatory? Is it enforceable? Could someone be reported to education welfare or social services? Or is it voluntary?

DS is 8 and we are having trouble with it all. We are just doing what we can, one of the things the school have done that I really appreciate is changing the times as to when the lessons have to be done, it use to be 3.30pm and then they would disappear, but now its 23.59, so we can take our time and it not feel so stressful.

For example today was multiplication and he is really struggling with it, so we spent 2 hours doing different sums using lego, he thought it was a great game and hopefully it sticks, will find out tomorrow

Well I have 2 primary aged children, who are doing no learning.
The school is sending me links and loads of sheets, a filmed YouTube assembly and no live lessons. I am working from home and also have my high school child attending online lessons.
The primary school don't seem to care, I've told the teachers when they called that we weren't doing it. We fit in that vulnerable but not vulnerable enough to help group.

I'm a single parent and my job comes first, followed by the high school lessons, so unfortunately the boys will fall behind, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Mine are secondary school aged. If they dont engage, they fall behind, simple as.

I as absolutely absent first time around! Working, kids, shock , nightmare,

This time I'm much more engaged

But I don't think it's enforceable!

4 kids here. 2 in school, one ore school and one under 2. We are 'homeschooling' if you can call it that. We do the work sent from school. It takes about an hour and a half per child if they just sit and do it all at once. Granted they are 6 and 7 so they don't have loads but enough for their age. We do one child at a time. I help them and answer any questions where I can. But it's not really teaching is it...? It's a few power points and work sheets to fill in for primary. Understandably secondary is different. My home schooling is life skills like cooking and how to do other things. Our school are fine with the work not being completed as long as they try as much as possible but they aren't saying anything If it hasn't been done. I have been lucky with my kids so farm but not sure how much longer it will go on for. I work from home too.... So that's fun

My grammar and predictive text is awful.... I shouldn't be a teacher

Nothing I assume.
I can't force my teen to learn or look at her laptop. She sits there on her phone all day even if she's logged in. The risks of a violent meltdown are too high for me to put any pressure on her

Her older bother just gets on with it.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/disapplication-notice-school-attendance-legislation-changes 'It temporarily disapplies offences relating to the failure of parents to secure regular attendance at school of a registered pupil. Parents can be sure that they will not be prosecuted or receive a criminal conviction for not sending their children to school during the specified period'.

The notice applies from 7 January 2021 to 6 February 2021.

Only children offered a place in school should be marked present or absent - for everyone else schools are supposed to use a Covid code in the register - ie similar as if school were closed for a snow day www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance/addendum-recording-attendance-in-relation-to-coronavirus-covid-19-during-the-2020-to-2021-academic-year

Any covid related absence is not counted towards a child's attendance record.

So while parents are supposed to ensure under s.444 Education Act their child receive education by attendance at school or 'otherwise' schools and councils cannot currently sanction parents if they dont / can't.

If kids cant / dont do the remote learning Schools should be offering those children places in school as 'vulnerable' children who have difficulty accessing remote learning - which could be because a parent works or there are other children at home

If teachers read the guidance they would realise they cant mark kids as absent in the attendance register or issue threats about remote learning.

@Essexgirlupnorth

Being threatened with the attendance officer?
Attendance officer only happens when there is non attendance at school. It is done to ensure the safety of the children. It is done to try to build bridges with the parent who doesn't send the kids to school.

Your friend is a drama Queen who has previous form for not sending her kids to school.

Our schools are taking the register and you have to report absence if your child is unwell.

I'm not sure. The school is happy with my ds and his work . He enjoys school and is online at 9am each day. They have mentioned that they have issues just getting some children to simply log in so find his enthusiasm refreshing.

At the moment my DC (P1) is engaged with her school work BUT she finds it quite easy and might get less co-operative about things. We had tears, tantrums and a meltdown and need to go and hide behind the sofa today because she got an answer wrong on a maths app today...

We're getting online videos and tasks/feedback through seesaw which is good as far as it goes.

That said I wouldn't be in a position to work with both my P1 and my toddler around anyway so the need to do school work does not change the level of engagement required - mostly explanation, reading and encouragement/checking answers.

My 8 and 6 year old have a 40 min zoom call with the class each morning to talk about the work that is set that day, then they are meant to get on with it. So there isn’t really ‘attendance’ to online lessons although they do take a register just to say they’ve seen them - it’s not to do with their work. I then do 2 hrs work each with them which amounts to about 3 maths sheets, 20 mins on Lexia and 10 mins on Spellzone and 3 handwritten sentences from ds1 and even less from ds2. They probably do 10-20% of work set.

Which is better than last lockdown when they did no work whatsoever.

@megletthesecond my teen DD is exactly the same as yours 💐

My dc's school are saying that if the kids do not log in first thing to register or submit the work they will be asked to do the work in school. One of my dc's is going in and still can not always remember to virtually submit the work .

Kids attending the school right now are low in numbers compared to a lot I have read about on here. About 10 kids max per year group of what is normally 180.

I warned school that my two (y3 & y5)are very poor at engaging with remote communication and learning. The older one has multiple SENs but no EHCP because diagnosis was shortly before lockdown froze him out of school for 5.5 months. The younger one just isn't a very mature summer term 7yo who finds being stuck in the house constantly to be very difficult. He's a dreamer in school anyway.

I have to differentiate some stuff to stand any chance. They engage with maths which they enjoy, but the English is off line, their weakest subjrct and I've had to go off piste, so frankly, they are falling behind. Some of the foundation subjects get picked up depending on interest level.

They don't cope with learning in the same room, nor independently. They get roughly 2 hours online at different time slots, then there's a window in the middle to try and deal with the offline content.

They're scraping a third of the learning that should be done.

There's a limit to how hard I can push without triggering meltdowns and I am not destroying our mental wellbeing over it.
It's not that I don't value education, far from it, I gave up my teaching career to give DS1 extra support and ended up using a lot of my spare time to volunteer in school multiple days a week to support things like the dyslexia intervention. But education isn't absolutely everything and we need to survive this while being under the same roof with no respite from each other. Some days my emotional reserves are too thin for the constant psycological battle and I'm being honest with school about that.

My DD is year 1, she was poorly for a week so I emailed the teacher. She's had to catch up on the work set...

School have said they understand not everyone can do it etc and there is definitely not everyone in school / on zoom so I have no idea 😅

@OlympicProcrastinator

With one lap top and 3 children scheduled to do zoom lessons at exactly the dark time, it’s simply not possible for them all to all the classes. The school can call all they want but unless they can magic up money for multiple devices it ain’t gonna happen. And I wouldn’t pick up the phone anyway as I’m working so tough.

And you’re happy with the teachers wasting time trying to get through to you, when they could be doing more useful things?

Our Primary School are not doing any “live” interactive learning - they said that they knew it would be too much pressure for families with more than one child at the school to try and coordinate things, never mind the issue of insufficient devices to access Teams/Zoom.

They are doing the OFSTED minimum - 3 hours of learning each day for KS1 and 4 hours for KS2, posted as pre recorded videos and PowerPoint presentations on schooling app Seesaw.

The school have sent messages out saying “do what you can” and that they fully understand the pressures families are under. They are making welfare calls to every child at least once a fortnight and the head of pastoral care is available for zoom calls to assist parents who feel they are struggling.

@Norwayreally

I have 5 DC and I make sure my three primary aged DC do all of their work every single day, they usually do extra on top of the work provided by the teacher’s. I am fortunate to have a device for each child plus one of my own and a printer, crafts, plenty of books and stationary and a garden so I do realise how privileged we are. What I don’t accept, however, is using the amount of children somebody has as an excuse. I’m absolutely knackered but I’m making sure they’re educated to a decent standard because they need it.

My DC have a zoom meeting every day with the teacher to catch up, there’s usually at least 10 pupils missing from said meeting (the ones in school sit with the teacher). We have to like the timetable post every day and that acts as a register. We’re also expected to upload proof of their work every day. No idea how many are adhering to it but I should hope all are.

It’s nothing like the last lockdown when everything was sort of thrown out of the window and we were mostly asked to exercise and bake banana bread. The teacher’s are setting work every day, parents should respect their effort and put some in themselves.

I only have one child to homeschool, but a full time job that I'm still, quite rightly, expected to do to a high standard. It's absolutely impossible, particularly as said child is absolutely unwilling to do the work unless I supervise constantly

"Remote learning is mandatory and families are expected to ensure attendance online in the same way we are expected to ensure school attendance during "normal" times."

It is mandatory for schools to provide remote learning . It is not mandatory for families to ensure attendance.

Your school might "expect" it, might be hassling families for it etc. It is not required for families to participate. Many cannot. Why do you think the BBC is providing a learning programme on tv?

You'll have the opportunity to spend the rest of your child's school career criticising teachers for your failure to support your child.

My kids school aren't doing live lessons so there is nothing to 'attend'

I thought the laws enforcing school attendance had been suspended, therefore there can't be any fines etc for not homeschooling?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/disapplication-notice-school-attendance-legislation-changes