To expect homework and revision to be put on Teams?

[Riversideandrelax]

At my DD's school they use Teams but also have a paper planner.

Some teachers put all homework/revision on Teams whether it is online homework or real life work. (Some go above and beyond and give summaries of the lesson's learning!) Some put the instructions for the homework on Teams but don't add the worksheet or whatever you need to complete it. Some just don't put it on at all.

My DD is in Y7 and has autism. She is immature for her age and has a lot of executive functioning issues and motor skill issues affecting her writing.She does her best with her homework but I keep an eye on Teams to make sure she completes homework/revision. The problem is in class sometimes she doesn't get all the homework written down due to her motor skills. She also sometimes misses school and then does not know about the homework or test.

Wouldn't it just be better to put it all on Teams then everyone knows? And include the resources so if someone wasn't in class they can still complete the homework. Surely in this day and age that's not too much to ask?

It would make such a difference for my DD.

I like to hear opinions as to if I am unreasonable before talking to the school.

If you are not getting a response from the Sendco, that can be frustrating. Options are to call the school reception and ask the Sendco to call as you have not had a response to your email, or to email the form tutor and ask them to chase. I tend to email the Sendco and copy in the form tutor so if one is off or snowed under, the other may be able to pick up the issue.
If this is an ongoing issue with not getting a response, perhaps escalate - our school has a standard escalation pattern that goes something like tutor / head of year / deputy head / head. It can be frustrating when you get no response, but this could be because they are firefighting multiple urgent issues, or staff are absent. Or they could just be not very good at communicating!

Keep going - you.will eventually (hopefully!) find someone who can help.

Well, it's also likely to be that it's the last week of public exams so a lot of schools will segue into year 10 and 12 exams at this point. And there are many SEN DC needing exam support from the SEN team. Plus of course the new batch of year 7s.

Realistically, year 7 are not the priority in June.

Teacher here. Imagine having say 9 classes and 6 hours a fortnight ‘free’. Each class has 2 to 4 lessons a fortnight. 10 min to add each piece. Teaches 44/50 hours. It. Doesn’t. Fit.

Some hideous comments on here from
those who have zero idea about teaching so it’s no wonder we are leaving in droves.

Using Teams in a company with other adults who are likely all computer literate, using the same type of device and software is completely different to posting stuff for children who are accessing it from a wide variety of devices (phones, tablets, games consoles and a handful of laptops/PCs). It takes ages to make something compatible for everyone. You sound quite involved in your DC’s education but many children will be accessing homework alone and won’t have printers so work on Teams then creates more work for the teacher to help pupils use it.

Focus on working with the school to find a solution that works for your child, not one that adds to the already huge workload problem when you don’t have any insight into why what you’re proposing might not work.

Haven’t read the full thread, but what is your DC doing when they are out of class? If they are working on something else that is beneficial to their learning, then as a Support for Learning teacher I wouldn’t expect a pupil to complete homework for a class they hadn’t attended.

Wow. This is not a very nice comment. Passive aggressive. You have no idea what difficulties teachers have or how much extra work they have to do, or how many other parents want things for their child (and the teachers are teaching several classes each with 30 kids in.. just think about it).

I'm afraid she will fall behind. And she gets very stressed about it.

The most regular offender is Geography!! Then Science. And French is bad too. Then few missing from Art and RS and Tech putting cooking ingredients on at last minute!! She had nothing set from Maths for most of the year although that was deliberate....but I worried as she is behind in Maths.
And yes, that's good advice.

I've unfortunately tried all that! I've not emailed the form tutor that much but she seems to have given up replying now. Maybe just had enough this close to summer!

With the SENCO I think it is a mixture of her being an awful communicator. She's great if she's in front of you but not aside from that. Expects you to mind read all sorts! She is also very busy as she teaches as well. When she really hasn't got the time for both. She just completely ignores you but expects that to have communicated something to you!! I don't understand her at all!

This isn't just a June issue, unfortunately.

9 classes - one piece of homework per fortnight even if it took me as long as 10 min per piece = 90 minutes per fortnight (main offenders don't even set this much.)

Why would you say it takes you as long as 10 min to write it on Teams?

You've no idea why the teachers who aren't uploading aren't

They may be useless

They may be prioritising other things - the teachers who are great at teams may be dropping other balls or they may be doing it at home,.at the expense of their time with their own children

They may be new to the school / missed the Teams training session / been sent all the bumph to learn how to do it and not had time to read it...

Not original. Not everyone has zero idea about teaching. Plenty of teachers and ex teachers posting on here!

@Riversideandrelax ,

OK, firstly the stress. A Year 7 doesn’t need that! If the school is putting her under pressure, then you do need to make an urgent appointment. If it is self induced or you are putting pressure on her, then you need to work on that with her.

Unless she is passionate about Geography, I really would forget it, or just ask her what she is learning and talk about it with her. As for Science, see if they are following a scheme (‘Exploring Science’ is a popular one). If they are, see if you can get online access and you can find tons of resources to help her. Just choose one that is relevant for what she is learning and gives he sufficient but not too much challenge. As for French, it is a bit of an optional extra. I would hate to discourage someone who loved it and had linguistic talent but, for most, it does seem to have become a chore (which is sad).

Maths was the one I was most concerned about, as that, like a language, it does require practice and you don’t want to fall too far behind. Again, there are tons of resources online. If you are mathematically minded, just google ‘Year 7, end of year exam’ and go through it with her. Then give her practice in areas of weakness.

Try to work with the school rather than against it. As in most professions, there are lazy and useless teachers but the vast majority do care about the pupils they teach and would hate to feel that they are letting them down.

You are saying you can't understand how it takes 10 mins to put something on teams but it took you an hour to answer 1 pie chart question on Mathswatch. Surely you can see from that that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Mathswatch isn't perfect but also quite good in comparrison with other apps. It took my year 7 daughter 10 minutes for one pie chart question recently (I remember as she was complaining it took her so long!) so I had a go out of interest and it took me just under 5. It takes me 7-10 mins per class for teams homework to be set and can be a complete faff.

Most teachers just write instructions on Teams. Some will include a link and a few lots of resources. But most aren't making anything.

I asked on here to get insight! And if it was really so left field what I'm 'proposing' - put all homework on Teams - it's a wonder that the school themselves have 'proposed' exactly the same thing.

They are usually calming down or trying to self-regulate. They may be working on something with their learning mentor. Other times they are at home as unwell physically or mentally.

I like my DD to complete as much homework as she can do so she doesn't fall behind.

Just to add I do think the teacher could help your daughter record (or check she has recorded her homework but doubling up where it is written is unneccessary and just adds to an already huge workload

Not passive aggressive. I'm autistic and what I write is genuine. Why do people have to assume people are being unpleasant?? What is it they say? It takes one to know one!

And yes as an ex-teacher I'm fully aware of that. Please read the thread before just posting this stuff.

No, I do have some idea. And no they are not new! And yes, I know they are not all doing it at home at the expense of their own children.

I literally laughed out loud at your response!

How the fuck do you know what teachers are doing at home?

Genuinely - in the run up to GCSEs this year I was posting on Teams every time I spotted something useful. sometimes at midnight if a content creator had posted on TikTok etc

I scheduled posts (taught myself how to do that - in my own time) so they'd appear in the morning though - my students and parents wouldn't know that!

There's a thread running right now where teachers are posting about working on laptops when sat at their own children's hospital bedsides.

You have no idea. None.

It takes me about a minute to set a Teams Assignment and I am no computer whizz. It’s absolutely simple. You type an instruction; attach any worksheet etc you want (a few clicks); click on the date you want it in, type how many marks it’s out of: done. It’s quicker than writing an instruction on the board, saves faffing around photocopying, even stores the marks for you in Grades. You can set an assignment whilst talking to someone etc. it’s time saving! If you have a decent scheme of work, you have the assignment instructions and links to any handouts etc within it.

Teams is such a clunky programme too. It wasn't even designed for educational use. Schools like it because it comes free with the other Microsoft apps.

No-one was routinely getting e copies of homework before 2020. A few schools were using Show My Homework maybe.

It's definitely a relatively new expectation and usually duplicated by paper systems, planners etc.

Honestly she won't fall behind through not doing homework in Y7. Not being in class is a far bigger deal. I don't think our Geography teachers give homework more than twice a year at that age. Attending school and getting appropriate support in class are the big battles to fight. Homework more of a deal in the exam years.

@Lucia573 I assume it takes you a minute when you have the app already open, the right class open on it, nothing is freezing or going slowwwwly, you just want to type instructions and not attach a file with some information etc.
You aren't in SLT are you? They seem to find lots of "it only takes a minute" tasks for us to do.

completely pointless, as they know nothing about the IT system or staffing in your child's school.