Refusing to homeschool

[SonicTheSorryRabbit]

Curious about this...

How many parents have simply decided that they're not doing homeschooling? Either because they're wfh and can't balance that with homeschooling or because it's too much for their kids and making them miserable?

If you're not homeschooling, (i) are you getting a hard time from the school?; and (ii) what are your kids doing instead?

YABU - we're homeschooling.

YANBU - we never started/we've given up.

Nanny0gg
You do know our role isn't just teaching. How do you think we deal with all our other roles at the same time? You know the ones that aren't about delivering a lesson but we still need to do....we are in the same boat.

You say we need to differentiate but can you explain how to do this for 7 year groups and SEN all on different lessons and kids who also need 1-2-1.....we are in the same boat.

As for no tech? My laptop died during the first lockdown, I still had to teach my kids. My colleague has 3 kids - they don't have 3 devices. You seem to think we are loaded and have devices coming out of our ears.....we are in the same boat!

@MNnicknameforCVthreads

Whilst ultimately some sort of education is in the best interests of the child I am inclined to agree with this:

“ Lots of schools basically abandoned kids in the first lockdown (despite some heroic work by individual teachers). They can fuck right off with threats of legal action now.”

It is not the school making the threat. They are carrying out government directives.

I feel hugely let down by school to be honest. We get the bare min of online (less than an hour a day) and a whole heap of stuff they want printed / completed / uploaded. We have very little availability in the day and yes of course we do some at the weekend but it won’t be enough. The school is not providing what they are required to do and just push it back out. - sorry but they need to take some accountability back for the schooling. That’s their job. I have mine.

My teen sorts himself and the others are too young

One of my friends. Doesn't homeschool because she said. Her kids fight it too much and she has too much to do. Cleaning etc. She is a sahm.
But there is the element she is dyslexic so can't help much. So I think there's lots of factors.

They can only do that if they deregister the child and forfeit the school place. You cannot remain registered with a school and not engage with their education attempts.

usually yes but not at the moment

Some people just can’t change their hours and so 9-5 they both have to work from home . And supervise young children . But the time 5 comes they are totally spent . Children getting frustrated and depressed . This means school work at weekends only , which might still involve work because work has got behind trying to supervise children as well .

I can see how people are struggling , really struggling.

@ReginaPhalangee. I hope no one on here is blaming the teachers. No one I know is (though some schools do have unreasonable expectations of some pupils). It is recognised that teachers are trying their best. Also, many teachers are parents and supervising their own kids.

It's been very interesting to hear how you're dealing with this on the other side. Thank you.

AbitSceptical I’m not contradicting myself, No need for me to list every single detail, they do whine, cry say they are tired. Just like any other child. Even during school days , but at the end they login sit and attend their lessons. They know there is no other option.

Well, at least if they try to phone home to speak with me, they won’t get me as I’ll be at work.
Perhaps they shouldn’t have declined my keyworker place (NHS consultant).

I can really see how difficult it is, but equally by looking at my two children's work it is possible for them to get it all done in 3-4 hours if they work at it, so you could do an hour before work and a couple of hours after - or one hour before, one after, then a couple of catch up sessions at the weekend. Some BBC bite size while you're working and give them rewards for completing some of the online maths etc apps you can get for tablet?

My DS7 is working quite well, my DS5 just refuses point blank. I can't make him put pencil to paper.

I let DS 11 yrs choose which bits he wants to engage with.

There’s no online teaching so no zoom etc. and without any interaction with friends, I think it’s pretty depressing for him.

I doubt our school will do anything as they’ve repeatedly stated to do what you can but not to worry if you don’t complete any of the work.
That seems reasonable to me.

Thanks Sonic. It's tough for us all, there's a lot of teacher bashing around which does upset me because I'm working myself to the bone and my colleagues are too. I don't sleep at night, I am constantly worrying about how to make learning accessible to every child I teach.

I'm disappointed to read about schools which may not be giving the same offer but I can assure you that plenty of us are working harder than ever before, including the first lockdown.

My daughter does not have to submit any work to be marked. Year 2. Is that normal?! We are doing the homeschooling, alongside me trying to hold down a professional job, to say it's a juggle is an understatement.

@Awalkintime

But what if I say to you, "Sorry, I'm working. I can't supervise DC and work at the same time.

What do you think teachers are doing in school? Working online and supervising children at the same time.

Is very different at home with partners. Kids push the boundaries more and as far as kids are concerned they can opt out because there are other things to do. If a working parent is on work zoom calls all day how can you make a child engage with school work

My youngest is being assessed for ADHD/ASD at the moment. Last year, pretty much every time I tried to get him to do any school work he screamed the place down, and would keep it up for hours. There were 2 other children here plus DP wfh. So I did the best I could to keep the peace. I'm NHS so they're in school this time around.

@Helspopje
Well, at least if they try to phone home to speak with me, they won’t get me as I’ll be at work. Perhaps they shouldn’t have declined my keyworker place (NHS consultant).

Where are your kids while you're at work?

It is my job as a parent to ensure my children get a good education. The schools can’t provide that right now, so I am doing my best.

I have 3 kids, one of which has complex SEN needs. I also have a full time job. My kids are all in different schools so the level of work and the amount of online participation that is required varies, but it's definitely much more than it was during the first lockdown and the schools really seem to be ramping up the pressure to have work completed and online lessons attended. My DD's primary school is the worst. She has various online lessons over various different platforms. She's required to wear uniform whenever she has a 'lesson' Most of her lessons require parental support (e.g. setting up the zoom call, printing off worksheets, photographing work and submitting via a parents email) Don't get me wrong it's lovely that the school are trying to keep the kids learning and I'm very grateful to her teachers, who are really trying their best. There is, however, an assumption that a parent is there to help all the time and that the relevant tech is available. I have to say as well that I'm not convinced that a zoom call of 30 small primary kids is anything more than organised chaos. We try and get as much work done as possible but I can't be all things to all people so I just do the best that I can. Sometimes DD attends the face to face sessions, but sometimes she doesn't and I refuse to feel guilty about this. It's not because I'm a feckless waste-of-space parent, it's because I'm trying to juggle the needs of her siblings, organizing a house and trying to get my own job done as well. Homeschooling is important, but so is keeping my job, and my sanity.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

You can't just decide that compulsory education isn't working for your family, it is a legal requirement and, more importantly, to not persevere is to do your children a huge disservice

It is a legal obligation to provide your child with a suitable education. It is not a legal obligation to engage with a school to do so.

So parents do need to homeschool children, but they are under no obligation whatsoever to use materials sent by the school or to report back to the school. Lots of schools basically abandoned kids in the first lockdown (despite some heroic work by individual teachers). They can fuck right off with threats of legal action now.

1. In lockdown 1, this was all brand new, totally unprecedented and a complete emergency. Noone had the foggiest what to do or what was going on. Schools had 2 days notice of closure. Many had no experience at all of remote teaching or the platforms to be used.

2. Schools did NOT abandon the children. We were instructed by the DfE to suspend the curriculum and just provide childcare for keyworker and vulnerable children. Go back and listen to the speech. Many schools did above and beyond by providing work anyway. This was variable due to a bundle load of reasons including staff illness, time constraints, money and online access. Again, we were told just to provide childcare so stop whinging that it wasn't all consistently brilliant, schools and staff were just surviving in the face of adversity and doing the best they could. Many teaching professionals worked through holidays to look after key worker children so fuck off with your "schools basically abandoned children" rhetoric.

3. Thos time round, schools are legally responsible for continuing to provide education for those at home. Anyone who doesn't want to engage is welcome to deregister their child in order to meet the "by other means" part of the Act. If not, expect the school to be acting on their legal obligations.

4. Noone wants this. But if you want to pick a fight about it all being too hard (and it is, I taught from home whilst homeschooling my Y1 SEN child and 4 year old in Lockdown 1) then pick a fight with those who cried they weren't being given enough work in Lockdown 1. Consequently, government put a legal obligation on schools to provide 3/4/5 hours of work a day, depending on Key Stage, and to ensure children progress as if in school. They are the ones insisting on complete engagement or children being classed as vulnerable, with lack of engagement leading to fines, courts etc. Schools are threatening noone. (Although we would probably rethink that if put in a room with the twonk allegedly in charge of this ridiculous situation.

The government have no idea what it's like for any of us on the ground, either attempting to deliver in the classroom or trying to juggle full time jobs with homeschooling. It must be hell for shift workers and single parents.

If they'd listened to the teachers (or even bothered asking) a more nuanced approach would have been taken.

Je551ca lots of teachers are parents and are doing exactly that.

There are kids that struggle to engage in school too you know.

@ReginaPhalangee our teachers are working their arses off. Most can see it.

People forget that there's children who live in dangerous homes, with illiterate parents, in unsecure housing and that schools are still working with them - the most in need. Alongside teaching online, teaching in class, marking, dealing with their own children and caring responsibilities.

You deserve medals. I've got two learning from home and the broadband isn't the only thing under some extra stress!

Our local LA is giving out food packs, they've designed them so theoretically even young children could feed themselves from them. Really brought home how vulnerable some children are. I think of that when I'm feeling the strain, my kids and I don't know what hardship is.

My child is attending school this time. He has asd so struggles doing school work at home anyway as in his mind school work is for school. I tried but as I was also working from home I was not prepared to spend the small amount of time I could spare with him screaming and shouting and getting distressed to get the smallest bit of work done. School were relaxed about it and he did do a lot of reading so there was some learning just not what the school set (primary). He was offered a place this time due to having an ehcp so he’s going in and happily does his work at school. It looks like the expectations from school for the ones that are at home has massively ramped up this time do not sure we’d cope if he was off this time

My dc are doing online learning. Yabu.

@sonypony 'in whatever way they can' so it doesn't have to be what the school sets? If we decide to cover the curriculum in our own way and can prove it, it looks like this would be fine.