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Is homeschooling compulsory?

144 replies

PumpkinP · 31/03/2020 14:30

So I was under the impression work sent home wasn’t compulsory, my ds try’s to do his work but for some reason the app doesn’t seem to work very well on my phone and seems you may need a laptop or iPad to complete the work properly. I have noticed several times because the app is on my phone notifications pop up the teachers have said that they will be calling parents whose children aren’t completing the work. Has anyone else had this?

OP posts:
canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:16

Yes, of course, Romeo and Juliet will be on the exam. Every year they get a new list of books for the next year both curriculum and suggested. By which time he's already read them. He's already listened to the discussions from his older siblings.
We've had loads of talks about films etc as well. Never mind a very long in-depth conversation about Shakespear.

He's also learned another thing that won't be on the test but will come in handy one day. How to fix a dripping tap.

For me it's that social interaction they are really missing out on at the moment. For years we've been discouraging the use of screens, yet here we are, trying to get them to spend hours at home on their screens. You might be able to negotiate with a primary schooler about the difference but teens are a whole different thing.

booboo24 · 31/03/2020 18:16

I'm not sure if this is just designed to wind us up! Hopefully it is!

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:17

No-one will be doing any catch up because the work set is not compulsory.

BuzzingtheBee · 31/03/2020 18:20

Of course not!

ineedaholidaynow · 31/03/2020 18:21

Is he only doing English?

littlemixarerubbish · 31/03/2020 18:23

This is an extraordinary situation and it's just not practical to expect all children to do all the work set for them by the school. I would expect secondary aged kids to be much more independent learners, but there'll still be aspects that need to be "taught". Most primary ages kids will require a decent level of support when doing school work tasks.

I have DC's in yr5 and yr3. They've been set quite a lot of work (about 5hrs/ day if you follow the timetable exactly as set). I'm a key worker so am out of the house all day Mon-thur. DH is WFH trying to do his 40 expected hours of work that includes a fair amount of meetings. Our youngest is tricky at the best of times and his teachers find him fairly challenging. There is not a cat in hell's chance that we will be able to get through all the work. I'm sure there are many parents in similar situations. So it makes me very sad and very worried to think that teachers are expecting parents to keep up with it all, and if not there will be no time for our children to play catch up. There will have to be Sad

ineedaholidaynow · 31/03/2020 18:24

DS is doing work on the GCSE syllabus so he needs to learn it

ChateauMargaux · 31/03/2020 18:27

Drop the teacher an email and tell them that your son cannot do this work and that threatening him with a phone call is not very helpful in this situation. Obviously, expand and be less blunt.. but I did have to do similar for my daughter who is highly stressed by the whole situation and has been in tears 4 times so far when tech didn't work or she didn't get the instructions etc.

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:30

No as well as all the things I have mentioned throughout the thread, he's also done other things. When looking at natural disasters for example, that branched off into a number of other 'school topics'.

After Easter, new work should be started on Math. What he's learned already he is confident with. The new stuff, errrr, I don't have a bloody clue. Straight away he's disadvantaged. He doesn't know the work. I don't know it. If we tried, potentially I am really going to fuck it up. If he looks, he might have a go. If he doesn't, either way, it's not a big deal.

Because it's not compulsory new work won't be set anyway. So essentially it's all revision and independent learning. Keeping their brains engaged rather than sitting in front of the screen playing games.

TheHarryFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 31/03/2020 18:31

But do please explain how a teen will be disadvantaged from not doing official school work at the moment? is that a serious question? This isn’t a weeks holiday. Your child may not go back to school until September, so March-July he would have learnt nothing on the curriculum.

A. He will have learnt some of it
B. It wouldn’t matter if he hadn’t. Schools don’t cover things once then never mention them again. They revisit them several times.
C. He will have learnt other things that aren’t on the curriculum.

I watched my dc playing in the garden today. They are a range of ages, primary and secondary. They played a game seeing how high they could throw a ball in the air. So they covered forces, gross motor skills (which are essential for writing as much as anything else), pivot, recoil, estimating, averages, fair testing, variables, etc etc.

They also cooperated, communicated, negotiated, built relationships, used language.

They built a pulley system. More of the same. Engineering, design, materials, maths, measuring, calculating, adjusting, communicating, used descriptive prose.

Learning doesn’t have to look like sitting at the table doing a worksheet.

If the goal is to pass an exam, it’s going to depend largely on the dc being motivated anyway. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. You can sit a teen in their bedroom on google classroom but you can’t make them revise. That’s going to be the same in or out of school.

Vaginandtonic · 31/03/2020 18:34

I can't believe the number of parents who simply aren't even bothering to encourage their kids to do any work at all, at a time when normally those kids would be in school and learning.

Fair enough if you don't have the technology, but just saying 'oh it doesn't work on my phone' and then not bothering to contact the school for an alternative is just a bit lazy IMO. And the all the people saying they haven't even bothered to look at it?

I don't know, I just feel like if I don't bother with this, then the only people that will lose out in the end are my kids, and I don't want that for them. I'm not pushing them to do everything perfectly, but it gives our day a bit of structure and routine as well, and I feel like I owe it to them to at least give it a go!

PrivateD00r · 31/03/2020 18:37

Op its a nightmare isn't it? DH and I are both key workers, it is awful having to spend our days off homeschooling. I hate it! We have tried our best to make it fun, invented various games and activities etc but we are already falling behind, which makes me sick with worry.

My youngest DC is also 8, she has mostly been working on tables and some mental maths worksheets. We are lucky to have a printer so can print off the stuff the school send through.

We are making sure to play plenty in the garden too, trying to strike a balance. Definitely contact school and see if they can post you some worksheets.

ineedaholidaynow · 31/03/2020 18:38

Maybe it’s not new work for your DS @canigooutyet, but it is new work being given to my DS and I assume that is the same for a number of Y10s across the country, and they will more than likely need that work for GCSEs next May/June with no time for it being taught in full again.

It might be different for your DS if he is in Y11 so a bit of limbo, although DS’s school is giving work to the Y11s, possibly just in case they want to do the next sitting of GCSEs rather than accepting the teacher grading.

MinorArcana · 31/03/2020 18:39

Our primary school isn’t making it compulsory.

They’re sending loads of work home (via email, school website etc). We have been having difficulty keeping up. I emailed DC’s teachers to explain, and they’ve replied saying not to worry about it.

But we will keep trying to get the DC to do the work set. DC1 in particular has SEN and is already behind where he should be, and I’m worried about that gap widening.

Parker231 · 31/03/2020 18:40

My colleague and her DH are both working from home full time hours with regular conference calls with clients and other colleagues. They have a six and eight year old. Their aim is to keep their DC’s safe and happy whilst they are working. There isn’t going to be any schooling when they finish work at five or six o’clock.

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:41

New work shouldn't be sent out at the moment though.

You know after Easter, R&J should be on the curriculum, like I know what Math they would be learning.

Both children are disadvantaged right there if new work was to be set.

Vaginandtonic · 31/03/2020 18:42

I'm guessing that most kids whose parents aren't bothering with the school work also aren't creating a huge variety of amazing 'learning away from the desk' opportunities, where their children will actually do some actual concrete learning, each day either. (I certainly couldn't be arsed with that each day!)

Baking and den building seem to be the go-to 'yeah my kids are learning innit' activities, but there is only so much of either of those things a child can do and only so much they can learn from doing it for weeks on end!

TheHarryFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 31/03/2020 18:44

The thing is, this isn’t homeschooling.

In law, parents are responsible for ensuring that children receive an education. But by registering them at school, you have delegated responsibility for the provision of that education. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be interested and involved but it does mean that you can’t decide the approach and content of your child’s learning or whether or not they follow a curriculum.
So this is nothing like home education (‘homeschooling’ is an American term) in which you facilitate the education and are free to learn in a way that suits your child.

If your child can’t or won’t engage with the education provided by school, you can’t really force them. You can deregister them and home educate, or you can let the school deal with engaging them. You can only encourage.

ineedaholidaynow · 31/03/2020 18:45

Why shouldn’t new work be sent out?

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:45

Oh wow, this amazing work my son is missing out on is den building? And the baking now makes sense why there is no bloody flour anywhere,.

Parker231 · 31/03/2020 18:47

There is a big difference between what can happen regarding schooling at home when there is a SAMP as oppose to parents both working full time from home. It’s not that they are bothered but they aren’t free to do schooling particularly with young DC’s.

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:49

Why shouldn’t new work be sent out?

Because not many homes are as well equipped as schools are.
Because a part of learning about something new is to have an understanding. If I cannot understand something as a parent how am I going to teach it?
Not all parents can read/write
It's not compulsory at the moment to do the work.

There's probably loads more I have missed.

Chienloup · 31/03/2020 18:51

No work has been set here, and apparently isn't going to be. It's driving me mad. My children need stimulation, so it's all left to me whilst I simultaneously try to work full-time from home. If they could just send some work that would be really helpful.

canigooutyet · 31/03/2020 18:51

Oh, and by introducing new work without correct guidance, it's almost setting them up to fail.

Vaginandtonic · 31/03/2020 18:53

There is a big difference between what can happen regarding schooling at home when there is a SAMP as oppose to parents both working full time from home. It’s not that they are bothered but they aren’t free to do schooling particularly with young DC’s.

Presumably then they have been in contact with the school to explain the situation and perhaps ask if there are any apps/websites etc the school could provide them with for the kids to do some stuff independently on a tablet or something?

It's also not really the same as 'oh I haven't even looked at the work yet, DC doesn't want to do it and I can't be arsed to try and motivate them' which seems to be a theme on these threads.

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