Is the School work being sent home actually compulsory?

[MrsHusky]

My kids teacher has sent home a 'suggested' time table, and enough work to keep them occupied for 4hrs a day... and told us its compulsory the kids do it.

I am not a teacher, I also have a special needs child at home. Do they really have the right to expect me to be schooling my daughter for 4-5hrs a day when i'm actually a full time carer for a disabled child?

Good question, my two have been provided work but I've still got to work and I'm a single parent. Really not sure how I'm going to manage it.

It depends how far behind the rest of the class you want your cold to be by the time they go back.

Why would you not support your child's learning?

*child not cold

Don’t really see how school could enforce it, but as a secondary teacher I can say I’m setting meaningful work. If the kids choose not to do it they’ll be really behind when school opens as normal.

No it isn't

They can't make you. They are assuming that you will think it's in your child's best interests to manage it as best you can though. How old is your child? Can they do some of the work independently?

What are they going to do if you don't do it? It's not like they'll be giving out detentions. Just do what you can and don't stress about the rest. How old is your child? Is she old enough to work for a bit independently?

And large numbers of parents will be unable to do any school work with their kids as they'll be working from home.

What age are your children?

she's yr 6, so normally would just be doing SATS revision.

I had planned for her to do some, and allocated an hour or so a day for her to pick a couple of worksheets out and do them while i'm trying to help my other child with his work, then for the afternoons to be free play.

What I object to is the expectation we do 4/5 hours a day!

No, our school have said do as much as you can, but as long as you're reading and playing then that's ok and not to worry too much.

^^ That is primary

@SarahInAccounts why would you not support your child's learning?
Erm maybe because she's caring for her other child like she said guess you don't have a disabled child. Or any empathy.

There isn’t a lot they can do if you don’t do it.

But given she will quite possibly be out of school until she starts at secondary school I would do as much of it as possible (or adapt the activities to something more suitable if needed) because otherwise it’s going to be a big jump to make

Just sats revision? That is an awful lot

No they can’t make you do anything.

But the kids who do more will be further ahead when you go back.

What I object to is the expectation we do 4/5 hours a day!

They don't do 4-5 hours of intense academic learning when they're actually in school, silly to expect it in these circumstances. It won't be like that though. It won't take that long. DD's school will set a task for each lesson and I will help her and talk through what she doesn't understand. What we don't get well ...🤷‍♀️. But I will be encouraging her to complete everything where possible. I do think it's important.

If she's year 6 and the teacher has sent home enough work to occupy her for 4 hours a day, I'm not quite seeing the problem? Surely she can work independently at that age?

Just do what you can.
Have a structure to the day and allocate time for educational activities.

But you could have her baking (science maths etc)
Instead of a worksheet for example

She is Y6, so should be capable of managing her own learning quite frankly. Get her set up in the morning and let her crack on. Get a couple if breaks planned in.

I'm not sure I understand the difficulty. Its what my 9yr old will be doing...

DS is in Y10 if he doesn't do the work set then he won't cover enough of the curriculum for his GCSEs. Schools won't be able to catch up when they reopen properly.

I can imagine myself sat at the kitchen table, with DD beside me. Me doing my work and her doing hers.

Can you have a situation like that in your house? Can your daughter work independently or does she need a lot of help, interrupting your work? If she does need help, then the work is not suitable and I would contact the teacher. Let her know to set work that can be done more independently. There are loads of websites for student-guided learning. Maybe the teacher can suggest that?

Also, do you have more than one computer in the house? That can affect a lot.

My school are asking us to email in every day with "proof" of our child's work and how it is going. I wouldn't have a problem with this except I have 3 primary aged kids all of whom want reporting via different platforms! How I'm going to keep up with each of their ages, requirements & then report as well, I don't know. Plus at the moment I still have no information on the work they should be doing. Nothing! It's awful. Presumably the teacher will upload something over the weekend.

Sorry I missed that you are a full-time carer for your other child.

Definitely let the teacher know that the work set is not possible for your child to do independently. Otherwise there shouldn't be any problem with your daughter sat by herself for 2 x 2 hours (or 3 x 1 h 20 min) sessions at year 6.

My yr8 ds is expected to do a full school time table from Monday. Not sure how we're going manage that as I have work to do myself! He needs a lot of support!