Calls from school - welfare

[OnTheMoors]

Are school form tutours calling all of the children's parents in their form /class?

@FlowerAndBloom

So the unions are saying teachers shouldn't be phoning pupils, they shouldn't be teaching online lessons and they shouldn't be going into school.

So what exactly are they going to be doing for the next 6 months? It seems to me that the unions want them to have the chance to sit on their arses!

I'd furlough the lot of them if they don't want to do any work.

I'm surprised teachers are contacting students directly for unions to step in.

It's my understanding that teachers still had to still stick to various policies such as contact. Under normal circumstances that would be gross misconduct. Yes, somethings have to adapt, but the basics to protect both, should still be in place. Now more than ever, because teachers are even more vulnerable at the moment, working from home, with no colleagues to act as witnesses.

I've phoned all of my form students' families up. They're all year 12 and some have siblings in other year groups, so I've checked with the other form tutors first. When I did that, it turned out that one family had received a call from the tutor, a subject teacher AND the Head of year, as they had all assumed responsibility.
So it may be a miscommunication within school that mean different staff have crossovers on their lists?
Hopefully it will settle down

My DD is 15 and was told she would receive 2 calls a week which she has. I think its really nice, she is able to ask questions on school work or anything she is unsure of and the teachers praises her for attending every online lesson which I think makes a difference to my DD

All contact between school has been to me. I have offered to give them his direct number, and they refused. He can contact them by email. They have spoken to him over the phone, with the phone on loudspeaker. Not that they asked to talk to him, was a case of oh I can hear him, want a word?

Safeguarding and conduct policies cannot be disregarded due to Coronavirus. Unions exist to protect their members. This includes being accused of misconduct, safeguarding teachers and pupils, and teachers being asked to go into schools with no PPE. All teachers will be working from home providing the very best offer they can to their pupils right now. But that doesn't mean they can be recorded or put at risk

I’ve truly heard it all now. How fortunate so many people care about your child

Obviously your school need to coordinate who is ringing though. We were all given files with names and have been allocated families to care for and checkin on and pre agreed intervals

My two DC's (age 10 and 8) are both on CAHMS waiting lists, both have had extensive behavioural issues at school and a lot of not particularly successful pastoral support, I've actually cried at 2 of the many recent meetings we've had with the SENCO and external agencies due to the stress of dealing with both their behaviours and multiple exclusions. Additionally they know we've had suspected covid19 in the house as we were isolating before schools closed but not a single call.

Work sent home has been a booklet off some generic website for each of their yeat groups and links to assorted home learning via emails. Nothing geared to the very differing academic abilities of the children (one very high achieving in the year, the other very much at the other end of the scale). We'll get through it somehow, things could be a lot worse.

I really despair at this – unions have no say in this. If teachers refuse to teach, then they should be given the P45 immediately – certainly not furloughed. These are graduate educated people, and should have been on-line teaching and on the phone teaching in less than 48 hours, the same way every other business has. Dance, Piano Lessons, Exercise, Uni Courses etc. have all be achieved on-line the next day, so there is no excuse.

In the meantime, one teacher per year group in an entire county can prepare lesson materials and send to all teachers to distribute – without the personal contact, there is no need for each teacher to do this independently. If the head teachers didn’t get together within an hour of this occurring to arrange this, again they don’t deserve to be in place.

Parents are responsible for children, not schools – schools are there to educate. The only things teachers should be doing are teaching, setting assignments and marking – the same as every day in a physical school. Pupils without adequate access can clearly receive centrally produced materials as a fallback; however, parents need to provide suitable home environments and in todays world this means every pupil above 8 needs a computer or tablet & internet access. This is the expectation of life in the modern world.

Every business had to adapt in days – there is really no difference.

Unless teachers would phone pupils at weekends and holidays, very unclear why they are doing so now.

DS has SEN and attends mainstream secondary and we've had a few emails (form tutor, SENCO and his 1:1) but no phone call.

I work in a specialist school and teachers are phoning parents daily to check in and offer support but these are children who are quite profoundly disabled and I imagine losing the respite of school must be taking it's toll on many families

The unions have suggested we only ring children where we believe there to be a need to do so, and in agreement with our heads.

For me that is a group of 20/130 students for whom I'm largely responsible. I want to ensure they're safe. However, on top of that, I'm sending whole-class emails to check my classes have understood learning, uploading my lessons, answering student queries via email, marking and scanning work back to students and fielding parental questions, so I can assure you I'm not "sitting on my arse".

I don't have any vulnerable children in my class but we are in contact daily via Class Dojos, plus sending them work and messages.

DD's SEN TA called very day last week as dd has an EHCP. She is happy all is going well and dd is submitting her work on line etc so now will only call once or twice a week.

Why are parents like me getting phone calls ? My ds with SEN has been in mainstream for 9 years and we've never had any calls or support during the holidays (summer holidays are always tough) .

Very little from one school - a weekly email from the Head very much focusing on the kids in-school (feel the rest are forgotten about right now). I've had contact with the class teacher purely because I initiated it over checking a particular issue - but that's about it. I suppose the Head knows we're a family that are doing OK for various other reasons (everyone is bloody interconnected to fuck around here).

The other school we get an email every couple of days from the Head, and the Head and class teachers are chatting with the kids on Google Classroom (it's all a load of drivel the kids are chatting about but it's keeping the connection going and really appreciated) and the teachers have put photos of the class pets and things on and are responding to any work the kids photograph. There's an offer for the kids who get emotional support to have that via telephone as well if needs be too. There's a lot going on in terms of daft photographs of the school mascot doing various things in a mostly empty school and the like on Twitter as well, and a daily joke in the school noticeboard for any kids on a daily walk past - it's just appreciated in terms of the kids not feeling like they've been cut out completely to be honest.

It's quite a contrast considering it's normally the second school that are shit with communication and the first school that really are closely involved with everything!

We have a call from dds primary school every Friday, it is a tiny school though.

Rang all the pupils in my small tutor group and was very happy to do so. Happy to speak to parents too but I feel a duty of care as well as a personal interest to check children are safe and have no major problems. I teach at a small independent school and all children have been contacted. I would do the same for any of the pupils in state schools too. (Taught for 19 years in state sector) It’s part of my role and it was lovely to chat to them.