Italy closes all their schools and universities: how will you cope if we follow?

[ChristmasFlint]

I can work from home but not everyone can. It made me wonder how on earth people with sort childcare?

As a teacher we would make use of the internet! Realistically I can set work for all of my exam classes virtually if needed. I’d rather it was closed than them come in and get sick.

We have experienced what we called "virtual school" it has been very much as has been described above.
Issues are going to be access to computers/laptops - I used to gave to shuffle our laptop between the 2 kids, because DH was using the computer for his work. We also suffered with internet connections. I would imagine some families would not have broadband availability, and a mobile data package may not be sufficient. As a parent of primary kids it was hard work. Trying to wfh at the same time would have been taxing!

If it needs to happen, I will do it, but there will be groans from the kids, and a heavy heart from me.

We only closed on Thursday so everything is still a work in progress but lessons are happening online.

How does it work? Are you at school recording yourself teach your hour long (or whatever) lessons on a laptop and then uploading them all to a platform that children can access at a later date and sit and watch it from home? Are you the setting work to accompany it, which they can email you and you Mark?

Or are you at home, setting tasks but not teaching lessons?

I’d like to know what this actually looks like, especially in Ks1/2.

If the government implement removal of the class size caps (which they would love to do...and keep removed forever) and I end up teaching classes of 45, I would expect Ofsted to be discontinued for the duration.

Staff are still working at Italian universities, they're just shut for teaching.

With the Easter vacation period starting, there will be no less need for UK universities to shut for teaching undergrads. Postgrad would be a bit more of a challenge though.

After Easter could be a nightmare if the summer exams are disrupted, particularly for finalists.

will be less need

Ignore the errant no.

@PhoneLock yes. I hear from my friend who works for a UK uni that they have been asked to plan alternatives if summer exams cannot to ahead as normal. Imagine it will be a nightmare!

@Letseatgrandma every one is slightly different but for KS 1&2 here at my kids school in HK they use online tools like Tapestry and Active Learn - there may be others not sure. They can set work and see how kids do.

Then some teachers have loaded videos of them telling stories or teaching introductions to topics (usually supplemented by YouTube videos too). They set art projects which are photographed and posted in google docs and will go to school when they reopen., Some have switched topics I know one year is deliberately doing weights and measuring now so kids are encouraged to cook with an adult.

For those KS 1&2 now we're 4 weeks in, they've introduced weekly check ins and even small group show and tell through google hangouts (this was available day 1 for secondary and upper primary but teachers were reluctant for the younger years).

It's not a full day teaching online so a big chunk of responsibility goes to parents especially in younger years (parents hate it but accept there's little other choice and as I said some have just decide that at these very young ages it's really not worth stressing)

It's trial and error and generally most people are ok when things go a little off piste!

@Letseatgrandma

I've only done 3 days of virtual school at a run.
At KS1, it was very much reinforcement of stuff already done - and for 3 days that would be fine. 3 weeks less so.
We got things like:
Weve been learning about shapes, name these shapes, and then find as many shapes in your house of each type.
Weve been adding double digit numbers, here's a worksheet.
Its PE time, here is a YouTube video, do as much as you xan.
Its English, find a book in the house, and write about it draw a picture about it.
Our next topic is about the Arctic, with an adult look up about the arctic on kidrex, and then make an arctic snow scene (this didnt go down well with the parents!)
Now its music, listen to this piece (a long one) and draw a picture about how it makes you feel.
Listen to me reading out a book (video of teacher reading a book, accompanied by the text typed out), and answer the questions on the worksheet.
Its art time, follow this "how to make an origami frog" video, and take a picture of your frog.

KS2 we made posters, read books, did maths worksheets, art, music as above. You tube videos of in French of a relevent topic, and a worksheet to fill in.

It was all done on Google classroom, with each child already having an account and email address.

It wouldnt be a long term solution, as no actual teaching happened. It would work for the first week until decisions were made by the school about how further to progress. It did need proactive parents, with stable I ternet, access to printers, scanner/camera, and a decently stocked arts&crafts and junk modeling drawer. I can well imagine some families would not be able to provide all the support and resources to make it work.

For those where virtual teaching is now the reality, I assume this works in reasonably affluent areas, but what about poorer areas/families?

A lot of kids don't have PCs at home anymore, but everyone has a smartphone here.
@Letseatgrandma I am secondary and my biggest class has 34. We are using zoom.us, hangouts and all schools are being added to the ministry platform already in use for experimental digital only classes. We are doing normal interactive lessons.
Elementary schools also up and running and the people I've spoken to aren't having problems so far.

I assume if you have 3 or more children of school age at home and a parent also trying to work from home you are going to need the tech and broadband to be able to cope with that.

Dd has been teaching her classes of 4-12 year in China olds via internet from here in UK for last month using various online tools/apps- she'd just happened to have come home in October for a prolonged holiday and was due to return at end of January!
...it has been challenging ( not least because she's up from 2am onwards and because she's deputy head she's coordinating teachers in U.K., USA and S Africa! ) but also because teaching 4yr olds is usually more of a hands in job with interactions which are tricky online!
However schools have been closed for 6 weeks now( since just before the week holiday of Lunar New Year) but are slowly beginning to reopen over next fortnight...she's hoping she'll be able to return to China within the month

Thank you for the replies-I struggle to see how it would work. I’m a jobshare teacher in a YR class with no laptop-just a class desktop. I think I would struggle. We have a laptop at home, but I’m presuming my 3 DC would also need access to that for homework and our broadband is shockingly bad as we are v remote.

My daughter is in yr 7. Her school have already sent out plans for remote working and how it will work in case it is necessary.

I have a friend in Japan and it all looks to be a very slick operation over there - even her reception ages child is being set work and having remote face to face time with her teacher.

There is a petition to close schools on the petition board, if anyone is interested.
It's up to 123k, people want them closed.

Where I live most of the feeder schools to the local secondary schools are small rural village Primaries. The broadband service in those areas is not great.

Also the demographics of these areas are such that many families won’t have the tech or other resources available to help their children learn from home. In addition the schools don’t have enough laptops/tablets to be able to loan them to schools.

Really can’t see how it would work here. I assume priority will be given to children who have exams in the near future.

mamba
They'll all close soon anyway, but sooner rather than too late would benefit those who will probably die if we don't shut down like all other responsible countries.

I meant schools don’t have enough laptops etc to loan to families

We’re lucky - in my school every child has a council-provided IPad. Could come in very useful!

an affordable solution for keeping your kids' education ticking over.

Affordable?

Yeah, because everyone had £18+ an hour spare knocking about at a time when folks are worried they won’t be getting paid if schools close and they can’t work

TheMammothHunters that's interesting . We are in a city with two large Universities

We can't ask grandparents to look after kids as they are too vulnerable!

It would now be sensible for everyone to have a plan as to how they will cope if schools close. Ireland is about to shut down all schools and childcare.