Covid primary schooling and virtual lessons

[Merryoldgoat]

I’ll try to be brief - I’ve been speaking to a friend from a different area who I’ve not had a proper catch up with in about 2 years.

She said during the school closures her primary aged children (Y3&Y4 at the start) had virtual lessons every school day.

Not for the full school day but about 2-3 hours depending on the lesson.

Normal state school in a mixed area.

Was this normal? We didn’t have a single online lesson.

YABU - my kid’s school had regular virtual lessons

YANBU - no virtual lessons at my kid’s school.

Did the schools that only offered this much furlough their teaching staff? As if not what were they doing? And I’m not the shoe bashing but honestly why was it so vastly reduced in some schools?

My kids were secondary age. They had 4/5x1hr on line lessons a day plus form time and set homework that was marked and expected. If they missed lessons we had an email to let us know and offering pastoral support one on one to the kids.

They also set them ‘PE’ tasks each week.

@Botw1 what a bloody stupid comment. Teachers have never had to deliver content on line - it’s a totally different skill and there were also lots of safeguarding issues we had to consider. Plus working out how we managed our vulnerable children. Plus as previous posters have said, parents weren’t happy whatever we did. It was shit. We tried and in a lot of cases we failed.

Our LA made up their own key worker rules which barred everyone but the smallest selection they could get away with from accessing 'key worker' providion.

We were expressly told that it would not be education, it would be childcare and would not be done by teachers

They used hugely emotive language like, please do not put our staff at risk by sending your child unless you have no other option.

But yeah.

It's over now so it should all just be forgotten

Despite the proven detrimental effects it has had on a generation of kids and the effect it continues to have on the education system

That's terrible ! None in our local area closed, I wonder how on earth they got away with that?!

And how shittily teachers were treated during covid has had the knock-on effect that no one wants to be one anymore.

There were three weren’t there?

March 20
Oct 20
Jan 21

is that not right?

We were very lucky we had lessons four days and Friday was pe, art, quizzes etc. The teachers were amazing. They collected donations and distributed food and resources to families in need.

I have to say i will never forget the kindness that the teachers gave to the children.

@x2boys the special schools here were all open and it was a godsend to those parents. I’m so sorry that was your experience.

So did you raise your concerns with the school at the time?

Also, what happened in other schools is entirely beside the point. What matters is whether the school adhered to the government guidance, which no longer exists, it has been withdrawn.

@BadHabitsGoodFun

And hcp had never dealt with covid or were moved to an area they had never worked in or had no experience of

I appreciate it was shit and new and lots of teachers and schools tried their best.

Lots didn't and took a 6 month holiday. If you were unlucky enough to have one knf those schools, we didn't know what we were doing doesn't cut it I'm afraid

@Merryoldgoat schools didn’t close in the second lockdown - only shops and pubs.

Interesting that this has been forgotten so soon.

I work for a private school - I wouldn’t even begin to compare - it’s an entirely unfair comparison.

Schools stayed open in the second lockdown (November 2020).

@Botw1 well I didn’t I worked fucking hard in the face of endless complaints but feel free to keep slating the teachers. We’re used to being blamed for everything 🙄.

Are you kidding??
Most schools had all staff still at school, working full time, teaching, full time. Remember all those wonderful NHS, police, fire, etc etc etc keyworkers.
Well lots and lots of their children were still at school!
My children’s school was completely ‘full’.
I myself was at school teaching as usual…. And then spending my evenings and weekends sorting out the online provision. Marking it, feeding back…
Whilst also homeschooling my own children.
You understand that each ‘bubble’ of kids in the school still needed a teacher. Less kids didn’t necessarily mean less classes.

wonder if we had kids at the same school! Poor teachers had to look after their own families so couldn’t do pre-recorded or live lessons! My boss wouldn’t accept childcare as an excuse for not doing any work.

@BadHabitsGoodFun

Im not 'slating teachers'

Im giving a factual account of my children's school provision during lock down

As asked to by the op

Should I lie to protect a random, unrelated teachers feelings?

If you had a bad experience with healthcare or the police would you lie so as not to offend a nurse or police officer it isn't relevant to?

No.idea but we have generally good provision in my LEA ,I'd ,two special.primary schools and two special.secondary school during the first lockdown all we closed ,and during the second they were open to just " vulnerable pupils" given all the students are classed as vulnerable it must have been pupils with child protection issues ,I know it wasnt just my LEA.

You are quite right - there were only two closures - apologies.

his EHCP was issued during LD3 and he went in then.

The LD1 we literally heard nothing from his school except 1 call just before end of term inviting him in to collect stuff etc.

Well done, OP. As if there wasn't enough teacher-bashing at the time, you feel the need to resurrect the whole nightmare period.
You might have noticed that there is a major recruitment and retention issue in schools right now.
Ask yourself why and if you don't know, then some of the nastier posts on here might be a clue.

@Botw1 what a shame you weren’t teaching at the time, you could have shown us all what to do.

In (national) lockdown 2, schools were open completely as normal except with masks in corridors in secondary.

@BadHabitsGoodFun

Given that some schools seemed to manage it very well I'm not sure it was not knowing what to do or needing to be shown what to do that was the problem but nice avoidance of the question

I’m not bashing teachers - I haven’t once bashed any of his teachers. I’m talking about the school as a whole.

It has been downgraded to ‘requires improvement’ from ‘good’ and whilst that alone isn’t a major concern as I know this means a lot of support to improve, my son is suffering.

And I want to know if the school is failing him or if it’s something else.

He is coming home more and more disconnected from school and today his teacher told me he’d talked about self harming and when I had a chat with him it transpires there are significant issues that no one has told me about that have been ongoing all term.

So yes, I wanted to get a full picture of the type of school my son is at and a comparison to other similar schools is helpful to ME.

And there are plenty of shit teachers as well as good ones. It’s not bashing to point that out occasionally which I didn’t even bloody do.

Don't forget that the Government suspended schooling during the first lockdown. Zero guidance was given as to how to proceed. Schools had to take it upon themselves to make provision and some were quicker than others.
Even by the second lockdown in January '21, many schools simply didn't have the tech in order to provide what major companies were. They'd been starved of funds for years and parents were unaware of how dire things were. Covid blew it all wide open.
All my friends in private sector industry had state-of-the-art laptops, screens, orthopaedic chairs, desks, you name it, delivered to their homes within days by their companies.
Teachers? Buy your own laptop and crouch at your kitchen table and get on YouTube to work out how to use Teams. And duck when all the vitriol on Mumsnet heads your way.