Home schooling - bit of a disaster

[Foncusion]

Child is last year primary. Provision for remote learning is patchy at best. They seem to just get set a ton of work and have to work out themselves what needs to be done. There are two chaotic calls a day which are short and the same loud kids get their voices heard and the quiet ones get no chance. Teacher is often busy so can’t clarify after the call. It feels as though we are sitting doing homework all day with no live lessons. Also work isn’t marked and there’s no feedback. Is anyone else in primary getting live lessons? My older kids are and it works much much better. My primary child gets really stressed at having work set in bulk like this with hardly any interaction. It’s so hard too when both parents are working to suddenly have to stop to help him build an Egyptian pyramid or create a functional volcano out of plastic bottles, with no prior warning. There’s no interaction, it’s so lonely for him and frankly it’s just not good enough. Should I raise this and ask if live lessons could be introduced? Before anyone thinks I’m teacher bashing I’m not. Teacher is normally good, but I feel this is so disappointing even under the circumstances of a pandemic. It’s a fee paying school so feel very conscious that our money is going down the plug hole

We have three tasks a day on seesaw plus 30 mins live class session each day. DD utterly hates the Zoom call, and usually leaves the room in tears, so we're glad most of the work isn't on it.

The tasks are usually worksheet based - DD (Y3) doesn't struggle at school, but wouldn't be able to complete them without our help. They could be completed online, but it would be really hard work; we print them out.

DD's school timetable each year's call at a different time, as they aren't assuming that you have more than one device for your children. The call would work on a phone if that was all you had.

At DD's school, one teacher per year is in school with key worker children, so they are getting proper teaching. The other one is interacting with those at home.

The feedback is all one line and positive (however accurate the original work), nothing is being marked, so we're not getting much feedback - that's the most irritating issue for us.

Private here - full live interactive lessons, full curriculum, feedback, assemblies, clubs, house events since March - and a fee reduction. Poor provision.

Fee paying schools should be doing much better than this. They should have enough staff that they can cover key worker children in school and have teachers at home presenting live lessons. Most I’m aware of have key worker pupils logged into exactly the same live lessons, either supervised by TAs or PE teachers or a mix.

For a fee paying school they should be doing better. A lot better. I would complain.

I was surprised to read that it’s a fee paying school at the end of your post. That’s a poor offer.

My 2 DC are at a state primary using Google Classroom. No live lessons, but Teachers upload tasks, pre-recorded videos, links, including PowerPoint slides, etc.
Teachers are on hand throughout the day to assist via class messages and private messages direct to the Class Teacher. All children (at school & at home) are set the same work.
Year 5 DC has a daily 5pm deadline to submit work for Teacher marking and feedback.

Year 1 DC has a Friday deadline for the week’s work.
We ignore the impossible Year 1 deadlines as DP and I are also WFH and it’s a constant battle with the youngest.

My y5 dd is getting 3 live lessons a day, plus extra tasks to get on with.
In the morning she has a live maths lesson from 9 -10. The maths is interactive with questions to answer on whiteboards and share back with the class. They are following white rose, so the teacher shares the slides and asks questions. We print all worksheets the teacher has sent ready for completion during the lesson and after. Parents upload work and get feedback.
At 10.30 there is an English lesson - again, plenty of interaction from the class.
Afternoon is a story session or PE or PSHE etc.
We got practically nothing during lockdown1, but they have really sorted it out this time and it has been very successful so far.

Primary 3 live lessons a day. Independent work after each lesson relating to the lesson. A new "timetable" each week so you can know in advance for any resources they might need/ support that might be needed. The teacher asks children to put up their hand on the team calls and also asks by name. Lessons are also recorded and power points from screen images etc go online to access afterwards. Links to useful YouTube videos for most subjects get sent as well as a list of other interesting things to do.

I forgot. We upload all the completed work which is reviewed and get feedback before the next day most days, which is really motivating for my son.

I would have been horrified with that if I was paying fees!

Our school's provision is still fairly hopeless and there is no live interaction with teachers at all. Providing a degree of live contact should be mandatory.

We are supplementing schools provision with maths and English tuition (an hour of each for each child), a Jolie Ronde group class, and ad-hoc outschool classes for art/science /social stuff. I feel fairly miffed at having to do that because school provision is wholly inadequate but I would be furious if I was paying school fees!

Nope year two child and no live lessons. It's horrendous

DS yr 6 has live lessons via zoom everyday from 09:00 to 14:30 (with 30 min morning break & 1 hour lunch break). Worksheet for whole week online at weekends so can be printed in advance. I was dreading home schooling again after chaos last year but this time it’s working well for us - DS is busy & DH & I able to WFH. State primary school.

Interesting that live lessons are not necessarily the magic answer from the sounds of many of you. One of my big issues is dumping the workload on them at the beginning of the day. It’s a recipe for panicking and meltdowns as he can’t concentrate on English when he knows he’s got maths, science and many other tasks to complete by 4 pm. If they rolled it out at a more palatable pace it would help. I think they are too young to work out a full days workload themselves. I feel as though he wants to race through it all. To be honest the school haven’t upped their game since the last lockdown and it sounds like many others have.

DDs are in Yr3 and Yr5... No live lessons, but the work is well organised and has videos or PowerPoints attached (English is Oak Academy, Maths is White Rose and French, Music, DT, History, Geography, Computing, PE, RE, RSE etc come from a variety of sources). Teachers also have an introductory video each day, and a class story every night.

Live lessons would be a nice addition... But not for core work. Too many children sharing devices with siblings etc. The school laptops were one per family, and only I no tablet or laptop at home. Simply wasn't enough. They provided internet dongles for this who needed them too.

In our case, im glad I pre recorded as our (rural) internet gives out regularly. Sometimes they need to take turns watching the recorded videos. Yesterday DH needed Zoom...

YANBU to want organised well explained work.

Is anyone else in primary getting live lessons?

I teach infant age, so lower primary.
We have decided not to offer live lessons.
The weekly class 'show and tell' zoom type calls are the only live offering we have. It's enough for this age group, in our experience, and even then lots of children don't enjoy them.

Many of our families don't have enough devices and/or strong enough WiFi connections to have all children accessing live lessons at one time. And , as you can imagine, most will give priority to their older children.

We also have up to 50% of children in school some days and we have almost all of our staff in school, in lessons or producing remote learning (which the in school children also access), responding to responses from pupils on the learning platform, doing weekly telephone calls, etc.

Live lessons may be useful for older children, such as at secondary but actually research has shown that they aren't actually any more effective generally than pre recorded videos created by the school staff.

Interestingly, my child is having live lessons and it's hell. He gets a rushed input and then set off to do the task but doesn't have enough time to finish it before the next one starts. As a result, he ends the day with 4 or 5 unfinished pieces and other bits to do. He can't plan his day as it's all filled with lessons.
Whatever they plan to do sadly won't meet all needs.

@Foncusion

Interesting that live lessons are not necessarily the magic answer from the sounds of many of you. One of my big issues is dumping the workload on them at the beginning of the day. It’s a recipe for panicking and meltdowns as he can’t concentrate on English when he knows he’s got maths, science and many other tasks to complete by 4 pm. If they rolled it out at a more palatable pace it would help. I think they are too young to work out a full days workload themselves. I feel as though he wants to race through it all. To be honest the school haven’t upped their game since the last lockdown and it sounds like many others have.

I can see how having them rolled out gradually may help some children/families but our feedback was that parents prefer to have the lesson materials provided at the start of the day so they can then plan accordingly. Many of ours like to get the work done in a morning and the children so independent work and/or play in the afternoon, often whilst parents try to work.

So we post our tasks on Seesaw in a morning - 15 minute spaced out.

We begin with a pre recorded 'morning welcome video' from the teacher who says hi, refers back to some of the work posted by children the previous day, and then sets out the main learning objectives and subjects for the day.

We then post the core subjects. These have a pre recorded video by a member of school staff and then accompanying activities. The videos last from 5-15 minutes, the tasks should take longer, if done fully in the way they'd be done in school. Tasks may include 'doing' activities, worksheets,links to external sites, etc.

9am - phonics
9.15am - English
9.30am - maths

After that comes foundation subjects - 1 or 2 a day at 9.45 and 10am. These often have a pre recorded video but May sometimes simply be the actual activity itself. Again these can take a range of formats.

In the afternoon we post a 'fun' based task which children may enjoy. These have no expectation.

We also put everything on a Google Drive so parents can access it outside of the platform, and can print easier and upload later.

Feedback comes in the form of a 'like' for work and then at least 1 or 2 pieces of 'core' subject work will have 1 or 2 sentences written about them. These are generally positive comments and maybe an extra challenge where appropriate.

There is also a weekly phone call. Parents can opt out of these (except in case of vulnerable families where the learning mentor is involved) - if they opt out of calls they communicate with weekly email.

We now have a weekly zoom call for the class - this is more of a structured 'show and tell' type thing. It's optional for children on a drop in basis. The children at school take part in this with the teacher in the classroom.

Children in school access the main remote learning via a shared whiteboard in a morning. They don't necessarily post to the learning platform as they write in books though often the class staff will upload it for their parents to see. This can also help them with continuing work on other days, as out children can be on a part time basis.

As you see we offer nothing live.

We have offered similar since March, though with the odd tweak based in parental and school feedback.

Fee paying! No way I would be happy

No live lessons here just set work on online they have a class video chat once a day for half hour

We have a similar set up at our school where the work all arrives at 8am. My daughter is year 3 and would not cope managing this herself..I spend 15 mins looking over both kids tasks and doing a list. I manage tasks then and am pretty hands on. They have 2 live lessons a week. My daughter is fairly high input and it's not in her first language, otherwise she may manage herself a bit better.

We are not doing live lessons. Logistically, it is too difficult with many children being one of three siblings if not more.

Although you feel the teacher is hurried after a lesson, have you dropped them an email or politely requested a call back? I speak to at least three or four families a day by phone and a handful more by email.

Yes, live has its pros, you've already voiced yourself a disadvantage of the 'loudest always heard'. How demotivating would it be for a child to have that all day?

I personally see more disadvantages to live than pros. But then again we offer pre-recorded teaching (10mins ish per lesson) and then well structured 'worksheets' - not just downloaded from twinkl.

I do also think schools should be offering feedback. We comment and give feedback to every single piece of work a child does. Currently 40ish children x 4 pieces of work a day.

I think you just need to communicate with the teacher directly.

Y1 google classroom oak national academy for English, white rose for maths, worksheets for much of the rest. Phonics videos, worksheets and games. A couple of stories read each week. Good use of google forms to reduce print outs. Most things commented on that day. Nothing live. Feels achievable when also working myself. Delighted maths can be done in 5 mins which buys me time, but probably needs extending for more able as very basic. Helps that ds is very motivated to learn. Deprived area, many kids without access to a laptop, many parents supervising quite a few kids. Delighted it’s just 1 for me.

@foncusion

Just read your point about the work being loaded on and it feeling overwhelming. I certainly worry about this when we upload a day's worth in the morning. But again, by doing this, we offer families maximum flexibility. I have a child who without fail has completed all of his work by 10:30. I know they do that because mentally, it works better for the family. If I didn't upload it all at once, they wouldn't have that choice. Equally, we have families completing the work at night when the parent has finished work for the day.

I think you make a valid point about the overwhelming nature of that but again, all it takes is either yourself or the teacher to speak to your child and build an understanding of 'yes it goes on at 8:30 but you complete it in your own time!'

My DD is in year 6 and gets 3 live lessons in the morning with a gap in between to do the task related to the lesson. There will be some sort of topic work to do independently on Teams in the afternoon. I’m delighted because it takes the pressure off us to plan and timetable the day. DD gets to see her class mates and interact with her teacher. I don’t have to feel guilty about not interacting with her while she is in her lessons. What I hated in the last lockdown was a baffling list of tasks that seemed to be given equal weight with no timetable or prioritisation.

This is an inner city needs improvement large primary in a ‘mixed’ (high level of FSM and ESL but some professional families as well) catchment.

@Foncusion

Interesting that live lessons are not necessarily the magic answer from the sounds of many of you. One of my big issues is dumping the workload on them at the beginning of the day. It’s a recipe for panicking and meltdowns as he can’t concentrate on English when he knows he’s got maths, science and many other tasks to complete by 4 pm. If they rolled it out at a more palatable pace it would help. I think they are too young to work out a full days workload themselves. I feel as though he wants to race through it all. To be honest the school haven’t upped their game since the last lockdown and it sounds like many others have.

Can you control how he gets the work? Eg we have google classrooms but me and DH are the ones who print it all out and organise the DCs in terms of what they do first (y4 and 6). If I gave them everything in one go, they’d have a meltdown. DH and I both work.

To help your child manage his work load could you support him to make himself a daily timetable in the morning?
If he has a set plan for the day this might help him. By year 6 I would expect him to be able to help you in prioritising the subjects and helping you decide how long to allocate to each subject.

This skill might also become really beneficial ready for moving onto secondary where his homework, and eventually revision time, will increase.