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.

You thought you could be rude and unpleasant because you are 'very familiar with autism'. And no I'm not going to apologise because NT people think people are being passive aggressive because that's what they do themselves! Not everybody stoops down to that level.

OP you seem to be refusing to engage with the fact plenty of teachers have told you that the IT infrastructure in their schools makes popping something on Teams a much bigger job than you’re implying. That makes you seem disingenuous and like you were never willing to consider another POV, so I don’t really know why you posted.

I'm sorry if that is the case, I do understand.

However, I do have friends who are teachers at the school and they don't say it is difficult to post to Teams. And as I say plenty do use it a lot. I appreciate there may be additional barriers to this which was why I posted. So I'm sorry if I came across that I was dismissing those barriers.

Ultimately, though if that is the system they are meant to use I think the school should be looking at mitigating those barriers or else find a different system that works properly.

Just feed that back to the school.

I've just emailed the SEN team to say as the Homework Policy is all homework should be on Teams and that this would help my DD so much, is it possible that it can happen going forwards.

hmmmm, yes, I can see your point. Replace the creaking old IT infrastructure over the summer maybe? The schools probably has tens of thousands sitting around in a bank account somewhere. Or if not, just sack a few teachers to fund it. 6 or so? They were probably surplus to requirements anyway.😕

Sorry this is so unreasonable. I'm a career changer and used Teams extensively before teaching. We used to have to put homework on Teams (at least instructions) in my old school and it can easily take 10 minutes. Bear in mind schools often use very old tech that can take ages to load. On Teams you can only add assignments for one class at a time even if you teach multiple classes in the same year group with the same homework.

I'd suggest looking at additional support for your daughter and find out the regular homework days for each subject so you know what to expect each week. We also used to have a rule that if students were unsure of homework, or missed a lesson and didn't have access to a sheet (or to Teams) then it was their responsibility to see the teacher in the week before their homework was due.

But surely the school need to change their homework policy then?

If the policy says homework must be put on Teams then surely the expectation is that it is put on Teams.

That's a good idea to find out the regular homework days. My DD wouldn't be able to see teachers without support, though. Which I'm trying to sort but currently her needs aren't being met.

I think you have misunderstood my point.

Teacher here. I put all homework on Teams with resources. It is a bit of a pfaff but it helps pupils stay organised. I think it's a good idea. Ask the school.

This issue is the exact reason why I objected to my DD’s 6th form suggesting that we parents leased a laptop from the school for each pupil - 17 years ago!
As an IT professional dealing with users that despite being very intelligent, were not computer-savvy, I recognised that for the Utopia described by the 6th form administrators, the teachers (some of whom had been in teaching at that point for 25+ years) would need an enormous amount of training and support to embrace the digital age: training which had been overlooked by the college!
Expecting teachers to be experts in digital learning is unreasonable unless their teacher training has concentrated on this aspect of the job. Sadly, I don’t think that even now, the TT concentrates on this, so we are still a long way off achieving a scholastic digital revolution!

Just remembering another issue with Teams was managing the tasks.

You had to submit them in a certain format with the date with no slashes or punctuation marks, then subject, then task. This was so the most recent tasks came up first.

Then you had to regularly go in and archive old tasks.

The biggest extra work was the different ways work was submitted (regardless of how explicit you were about how you wanted it). Most just handed in the task on paper but those who worked on a PC anyway found it easier to just upload to Teams. Some randomly scanned the written work and uploaded it and some even sent in excuses via Teams messaging!

All the above is extra work. And I do consider myself computer literate. The expectation was always on the teacher to manage the system and not on pupils to archive tasks, find most up-to-date tasks etc

Finally teachers aren’t just dealing with one system. I think we had 5 at my last school: Teams for prep, the school system for registration, detentions etc, a KS3 system for Science, a 6th form Physics application and an HR system for annual reviews, CPD etc. All were decently designed systems and, within reason, intuitive. But they all had their quirks and small things to remember.

It

We have switched from Teams to Classcharts for homework and one of the things I really like about it is that students aren't able to upload work (unless you tick a little box) and they can't message you.

They can of course email and attach work that way - and I do allow that for students who type for exams and have laptop as their normal way of working.

I have regularly spent more time on Teams getting homework into a format I can mark than actually marking the work!

No I haven't. You said "find a different system" as if that was even remotely within the bounds of what is financially viable for a school

To the teacher who said that: if you can't find the homework you are just looking for an excuse - well why give them that excuse? Why not just be so incredibly consistent that you can give every kid who hasn't done the homework the bollocking you are clearly dying to?

I am NT and so are my kids but inconsistency and plurality of platforms is a MASSIVE bugbear of mine. I don't love Teams, most other apps have problems too but the solution to any given app not being perfect is not GET MORE APPS AND USE THEM ALL INCONSISTENTLY. having to search 6 places for things is just such a waste of everyone's time and it WILL result in kids in good faith missing stuff.

I know teachers have too much to do and I know uploading this stuff is time consuming but that isn't the kids' fault. I work in a job where "I didn't have time to put the information where you could find it" is considered a piss poor excuse although working till 10pm is standard - I think "I didn't have time" is considered a shit excuse in most jobs whatever the workload.

I really, really hate inconsistent use of platforms by teachers and I beg all teachers to hear this, coordinate, and simplify.

I have 10 apps on my phone for school!!

4 plus email is used to communicate/pay for things etc.
Then Teams and then 5 homework apps.

I've had to learn them all...and before that it's a bit of a scavenger hunt of trying to find the apps they use as they like to keep it a secret! 😂 Luckily I have friends at the school so they were able to tell me all the apps I needed!

Update Had a meeting today and discussed this issue. Despite it being policy that all homework is put on Teams, the headteacher doesn't seem to think it is possible. The Senco however agreed that it should all be on Teams as it helps the SEN students so much! She had sent an email to all teachers to remind them to put all homework on Teams. Meanwhile my friends that work there are bemused with the whole thing as they always put their homework on Teams anyway. Perhaps it is easier for their subjects, I don't know? But basically, the school can't even decide between themselves if their policy is reasonable!

I said nothing about IT infrastructure. You made an incorrect assumption about what I was talking about.

The problem is running two systems. Some parents want it all online. Some want it online and also on paper. Some only want paper and will not even look at it online. We have been doing paper and online. Most students still do very little homework. Then factor in the waste of time checking who has and hasn't done it. This is also recorded online. Then we send reminders to parents after every three missed homework - again done online. Nothing changes. Homework still not done. It is frankly pointless.

Yes, it's good to make it very specific to what you want it to do.

They used Google classroom at my DD's Primary and the teachers always responded. But on Teams at Secondary a few teachers are so on the ball with it and others just never answer. If you're not going to use a facility it makes sense for it not to be available otherwise it's just frustrating!

I completely agree!

The headteachers answer to this issue was that my DD doesn't need to do any homework. So she misses out on that learning because they can't sort out their homework policy.

Absolutely this!

This. The chaotic family lives of a large number of children make homework virtually impossible for them. And another way children from middle class stable homes will again move ahead faster.

I qualified without using a computer once for either my degree or PGCE. I have never been given any ICT training. I’ve had to pick things up as I go and there are probably easier and better ways of using ICT than I do. There is no money or time for me to do training. I have no say in what platform our school uses. The problems mentioned in this thread are a reflection of how much the education system has been ignored and poorly funded for DECADES.

@Riversideandrelax ,

‘The headteachers answer to this issue was that my DD doesn't need to do any homework. So she misses out on that learning because they can't sort out their homework policy.’

I do think you (and the SENCO) need to help your daughter to help herself by giving her additional strategies and also accept that schools aren’t nuclear power stations, nothing will explode if she misses the odd task.

Fundamentally, if prep has been set in class and your daughter knows she has missed it, she needs to ask someone or copy their book. And, as I said above, in Year 7 homework is helpful but not essential (it helps more as people go up the school).

Ultimately, it is a good thing if homework is set on Teams, but you do have to forgive the odd teacher who misses the odd task. If I had got in at 7:15 (as I used to), spent an hour preparing lessons, taught until lunchtime bar a 20 minute break, had a lunch duty, grabbed a bite, taught until 4pm and then run Oxbridge extension classes from 4:15-5:30pm, then Year 7 Teams probably might have slipped my mind. That would be an exceptionally busy day, but they did happen.

By the sound off it, the SENCO did send a reminder to teachers, and hopefully they will remember more.

If you want a solution rather than a moan, you could ask her form tutor to help her with her homework diary, I have done that for struggling pupils (though I refused to tutor Year 7 as it was about twice the work as any other year group, mainly due to parents expecting the same level of support as primary).