Why aren't teachers providing lessons by Skype?

[Folicky]

If schools are to close, which they will eventually, why don't they teach the lessons via a video link / Skype? At the moment, as I understand it, if schools close, parents - many of whom will be working from home - will he expected to home school their children. How is that going to work?

@Bridecilla that's lovely.

get there them all to mute their microphones and type questions

😁😁 Do you know how long it takes a 6 year old to type anything?

Maybe if schools had had decent funding we could have invested in technology and trainingso we could do what the Chinese have done. There would also need to have been significant investment to ensure everyone had decent home access to technology too of course.

Because preparing lessons via Skype involves a shed load of work that they probably don't have time for as they are busy trying to manage kids being sent to school with symptoms.

You have had some good info her, OP. I'll add to it. DSis, EYFS, is already working on home packs and online work. Her HT has planned for staff video conferences on Mon/Wed/Fri of each week and has warned that they should think about this being how they will work until the end of the school year.

That is home packs, printed, collated, delivered.

Online work designed, built and placed were appropriate

Parent support considered, designed, placed and/or delivered

New intake procedures reinvented, beginning of the new school year redesigned

SATS reconsidered, awating government advice, but time having to be set aside to redesign the schedule

And a whole host of other stuff.

Home Ed organisations are all over facebook with free resources, offers of help

Freelance teachers, as above, also offering additional help. I may come out of retirement myself.

YOU have no idea, but HTs and teachers the country over DO an are gearing up for it.

Educators are working hard to get this sorted. Stop panicking It will get done.

Don’t forget that teachers are getting all this stuff together; making home packs, planning online lessons, adding to the website alongside their normal teaching day. They still have to plan, teach and asses their everyday lessons.
My DH was working from the moment he got home last night until the moment he went to bed because of the extra work load this situation has created.

We’re not just teaching our own everyday lessons, we’re on cover every minute we’re not because there’s no supply for love nor money and loads of staff are off.

Many secondary schools will do online lessons
It’s probably not appropriate for young children (EYFS KS1)
Teachers may be poorly themselves and if not..
Teachers are looking after young children. They may be able to reply to emails and set/mark work but can’t skype with a crying two year old!
Finally safeguarding considerations need to be thought through. At the moment there are probably no policies, teachers are uncertain what will be safe and not. They may be waiting for further training and advice before committing.

^ that’s all once the school is shut!
If it’s still open then they will be busy teaching

Absolutely oncemore. The snotty emails coming from parents who have chosen to keep their children off demanding work are not helpful. They’ve forgotten we’re still busy all day, and busier than normal because of all this.

Our school plans to for years 10 and 11 but they have to prioritise which is understandable

Schools are planning remote learning. My son's school closed yesterday and today he has all his lesson's via Microsoft Teams, logging in at the usual time for each lesson for virtual presentations and online discussions. We will see how well it works. It is clearly not ideal and not all households have resources - the school is trying to support those. They are prioritising examination years.

Oh good. Another way to criticise teachers.
This. Teachers arent rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of 3 months off while everyone else works from home! They will still be working! If they can record a video, upload powerpoints, take work in online and mark it and ring students and email student while maybe being I'll themselves and maybe having their own kids at home, how on earth are they going to skype teach 5 classes a day to 30 students each?

Our school is using google hangout - not in the UK. Ds is early Secondary
All the class can be in the chat. Plus they all see the messages

OP you sound like you are less concerned with the teaching of children and more concerned with making sure teachers arent getting away with not working. You do your job and let teachers do theirs. If they sit at home for 3 months watching Netflix then they can answer to Ofsted, their employers, the parents of their pupils, funding bodies etc etc etc. Not people who just want to criticise teachers just for the sake of it.

Our school is closed and they have put work on the wesite. Its just basically their usual daily homework, a book to read, and a project to complete in the next two weeks. This is for 10 year olds.

You will be home schooling (normally called home esucating in the UK) if you register your child from school. Otherwise you will just be keeping your child at home and the school will (should) still give you guidance and work. When this is over your child will go back to school.

No parent should have to worry that their child will be "left behind" as everyone will be in the same position.

The point of my first post was that if schools close, we teachers will be at home with our own children, whose schools are closed. And our children will have work from their school that we will be expected to help with. And pre-schoolers that won’t understand that Mummy has to skype students all day.

Our plan if we shut is to set extended project work online, attach scanned resources and be available on e-mail for exam groups to mark exam questions etc. Plenty of options rather than skype

I’m self isolating today - just making a cup of tea and having a loo break.

I got up at 6am.
I’ve set my classes work and have been back and forth emailing the less confident of children.
I’ve also been preparing GoogleClassroom for all classes in between.
I will literally be monitoring emails; completing tasks I am sent e.g. things SMT want emailed to the urgently and supporting learners until 3.30pm. At that point I will revert to just planning work for any possible closure. Last night I did this until 1am.

My child is also off school and I am also monitoring him working. I got him up and asked him to get ready, shower, clothes, brush hair and teeth. He had breakfast and prepared a bottle of squash. He’s now doing his English lit work and will start on a maths mock paper in an hour or so. He will have a break at 11am for 15 mins and lunch break at 1pm for 30 mins. He will finish his learning at 3.15pm today. He will then have an hour of reading before he has the evening to himself.

He wasn’t happy, but it’s going to be our routine over the next few weeks, unless one of us get too poorly to work. Weekend excluded of course.

Today has so far been much, much harder than any school day due to the juggling act and limitations...for instance...I haven’t got a single green pen in my house 🤦‍♀️ So I have had to order ink for my printer; paper and green pens off Amazon. It’s proving expensive too.

I haven’t got time to have a jolly. Teachers do actually really care about your children and want them to do well.

Oh and my son has also had his devices confiscated whilst we are in ‘School session’.

My dcs' school (Year 7 and Year 13) have already enabled online connection to lessons for self-isolating pupils. If the school is closed after the Easter holidays they plan to offer skeleton digital/remote lessons every day at least, plus online work, marking,feedback, registration etc. Private school though.

Yesterday I received an email from a private tutoring company reminding me that they offer Skype tutoring (we don't need it). Many of the tutors on their books are also regular teachers working in schools - I expect some of them will be able to earn a 'double salary' now if schools are closed for a long time.

What might happen of course is that the Autumn term starts again in July or August with a two week break in October.

What might happen of course is that the Autumn term starts again in July or August with a two week break in October.

I don’t think it could.
Teachers are still working and will still work despite not being in school.

Summer holidays are not paid and I don’t think it could be enforced that teachers attend school during this time. The only way it could possibly work, is if teachers were given 6 weeks off now, not including the Easter holidays, with absolutely no expectation of work/ interaction with children or parents, remote or otherwise.

Summer holidays are not paid???

Having talked to several teacher friends here, this has been an incredibly busy and challenging time. Our schools closed last Friday, and last week they did an enormous amount of overtime preparing for online teaching.

I just wanted to put out there how hard teachers are working right now and how grateful I am.

The other thing our school system is doing is not having lessons every third day - mostly to give teachers a chance to regroup, prep, assess what's going well and what isn't.

No, they are not. Teachers are paid pro rata and contracted to 195 days. All other days must be non contact with no planning/ marking expectations.

As teachers will be continuing to plan and mark through any period of lockdown, not to mention engage with work and pupils via email, this period will still count towards the 195 days.

The only way to change it is to say OK, we won’t hear from teachers for 8 weeks. (Easter hols aren’t paid either)

Oh and 5 of the 195 days have to be inset.