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

I'd be unhappy too OP especially with a fee paying school

DS is in year 4. today was

8.45-9.15 registration and class time.
9.15-10.15am English - live lesson with some associated work to go away and do.

10.15-10.45 break 10.45-11.30 Maths - live lesson with work to do. 11.45- 12.30 Verbal reasoning (11+ area) again with live teaching. 12.30-1.30 lunch
1.30-2.30 drama live lesson
2.30 - 4.00 they're free to choose from any number of possible activities, catch up on anything they couldn't finish earlier in the day etc. there's a teacher online to help them with anything they found difficult , or if they want some help with their projects or even a just a chat

Teachers stay on meet all the way through lessons in case they want to go back with any questions. I've been so impressed, the school has been brilliant, there's lots of interaction and so far I've not had to build a volcano!

I still sit with DS and support him with some things if and when I an though partly because its an opportunity to give him some extra help where he needs it - not because there is no choice.

I feel that those schools who havent opted to do live lessons AT ALL as doing their children a disservice. I would be happy for one in the morning and one last thing. Just something to make them feel like a connection with the teacher rather than just some "great job" message on class dojo.

Just feels like full on homework every day... Not inspiring for anyone.

@listsandbudgets

I'd be unhappy too OP especially with a fee paying school

DS is in year 4. today was

8.45-9.15 registration and class time.
9.15-10.15am English - live lesson with some associated work to go away and do.

10.15-10.45 break 10.45-11.30 Maths - live lesson with work to do. 11.45- 12.30 Verbal reasoning (11+ area) again with live teaching. 12.30-1.30 lunch
1.30-2.30 drama live lesson
2.30 - 4.00 they're free to choose from any number of possible activities, catch up on anything they couldn't finish earlier in the day etc. there's a teacher online to help them with anything they found difficult , or if they want some help with their projects or even a just a chat

Teachers stay on meet all the way through lessons in case they want to go back with any questions. I've been so impressed, the school has been brilliant, there's lots of interaction and so far I've not had to build a volcano!

I still sit with DS and support him with some things if and when I an though partly because its an opportunity to give him some extra help where he needs it - not because there is no choice.

Sounds ideal. I am very jealous of the provision from your school. I have always been happy with our school, but feel the kids are getting left behind now.

For every parent and child that wants or benefits from a live lesson, that's another parent and child that dreads them.

Many schools are doing a good job without live lessons.

State primary: 45% FSM. We're doing 3 x live lessons a day: 2 core subjects in the morning and then a catch up in the afternoon. We're setting three daily tasks. 2 linked to the live lessons: chn start them during the lesson but can complete after the lesson. We put time limits on every task so a child knows its OK to stop and submit even if they haven't finished. We also set one independent task, which is introduced during the live lessons so chn have a bit of an intro on it. Chuldren are also encouraged to complete tasks on maths and reading apps we subscribe to.

All work that is submitted is marked and returned that day. At the moment the expectation on teachers is only to provide acknowledgement feedback but most are giving much more than that.

We scheduled lessons so that only 2 live lessons run concurrently. We have our government laptops and they've gone out: every family now has a device. We know this because we hsve been relentlessly chasing to get everyone set up. Our awesome head teacher has got extra funding from charitable organisations associated with the school so next week we can give android tablets to families who are sharing devices. We won't quite be at 1 device per child but we're not far off.

Its not perfect- none of this is perfect but I feel proud of where we're at.

@minipie

I'm in FE. teaching full time online and I'm vroken with it. I cant comprehend how school teachers are doing online and face to face and prepping work to be done at home.

In our school they’re not. The teachers are working from home - the form teachers give live lessons in the morning. In the afternoons we do pre recorded specialist lessons (music art drama PE, teachers also working at home) so the form teachers presumably have that time to prepare further live lessons.

The KW/vulnerable kids are being supervised in school by TAs and support staff - they’re getting the same “live” (via teams) or pre recorded lessons as the kids at home. Nobody’s getting their actual teacher in front of them.

Appreciate this set up depends on staffing levels however.

This sounds the best set up. This needs shared far and wide!

@Theforest

I feel that those schools who havent opted to do live lessons AT ALL as doing their children a disservice. I would be happy for one in the morning and one last thing. Just something to make them feel like a connection with the teacher rather than just some "great job" message on class dojo.

Just feels like full on homework every day... Not inspiring for anyone.

Or they just know their school community as a whole and what will work best for the children and families they actually work with.

Even the government's guidance, and they are definitely not on the 'schools side' with all this, states that live lessons are not the gold ticket some people want to be,Eve they are.

As a school we know that live lessons would not be appropriate for the majority of our school community. We know that pre recorded lessons with some feedback, and limited 'pressure to do it all' works best for our families. Yes, there are probably one or two who would have liked live lessons but we have to do what's right for the majority rather than the one or two.

We have our government laptops and they've gone out: every family now has a device.

As an infant school, despite having a number of vulnerable and disadvantaged children/families we are not eligible for any government devices. We have applied for some from the LEA who have done a drive locally and local businesses/community have donated. We await to see if we will be given any. In the mean time a couple of parents have kindly donated devices to us, but 2 or 3 don't go very far sadly,

I’m amazed at how the provision varies! Our school has been great. DS is in Year 2.
We have everything (timetables, worksheets, videos, Zoom log in details, useful links) uploaded by the weekend for the following week. This is great because you can print anything you want to (they’ve purposefully set things up so you don’t NEED to print anything) and dig out useful books etc before Monday.
Timetable is: Live maths lesson, break, live English lesson, lunch, pre-recorded shorter lesson and task (subject varies) and then it will either be another pre-recorded and task (1 day a week) or a self guided project (3 days a week). On Friday the last session is a live Zoom story.
Children need to raise their hands to speak so there’s no problem with anyone not being heard. The TA’s watch out for hands up in case teacher misses anyone.
You submit work throughout the day and it’s marked throughout the day too, with at least a line of feedback for each piece.
On top of this they’ve also been incredibly supportive. We’ve all been told that we’re doing a great job and which basic bits to focus on if we’re struggling to do more. We had a video message from the head this week too, thanking us as parents and telling the children how proud she is of them and how much she misses them. This is a state school by the way, so I’d expect you to be getting more OP!

At a fee paying school, I wouldn't be paying for the content you are receiving. As someone involved in few paying school, all children from reception to year 8 are following their normal timetable over zoom. This even includes music and games and assembly plus one 1-1 session a week catch up with form teacher. It isn't the same but it's as close as the school can get. Only 10% fee discount but think that's fair