How supportive are your state secondary schools being?

[springsummer22]

Just wondered how helpful secondary schools in particular were being during this time. For example helping with technical/log in issues/lack of technology at home/ queries with work. Also if there is any support available for teens with existing mental health issues. Typically can parents contact teachers directly via email or is there any IT support. Are any schools offering any online contact with class/tutor group or speaking to any students. Has any guidance been given to schools to follow. What would be reasonable to expect? Thanks.

Is this for an article?

No!! Just to see if my expectations are unreasonable and if there is anything I can do about it. I have 4 kids and one of their schools is offering absolutely nothing at this time whilst the others could not be more supportive. I just wanted to see if 3 of my kids were exceptionally lucky or if as I suspect one of my kids is at a school that is not following guidance. It has actively discouraged key workers kids attending and has now closed the school and phone lines. If this unsupportive attitude is going to continue until September or longer it is going to have a very significant impact on my daughters education and mental health and seems very unfair compared to her sisters schools. They are state comprehensives in England. Thank you.

All three of mine (different schools) are getting lots of support. I don't have any contact with the secondaries but the children seem to be busy each day, so I am guessing that is good news. We do have an email we could use and they are emailing updates regularly about participation. I have actually been quite impressed. Can you access any mental health support through an employee assistance program?

Were you happy with the school before? Would it be possible to home educate her?

Dc in y11 has no contact he is classed as vulnerable so I thought we might have had at least an email.

I cant imagine she will ever return to school after this. I knew the school wasn't great at technology and systems and didn't offer direct communication channels with teachers but it seemed fairly caring. I guess it was less set to cope with remote teaching than more up to date schools and the SLT are not wanting to risk their staff with key workers children. My daughter would not have been attending as she is old enough to stay home so that is not my issue more than they cant manage a phone call or emails. Am I being unreasonable - presumably they are on full pay and school is physically closed so they are working from home but without any year 11 or year 13s and with no marking or lessons. My other kids schools have been so supportive. Does anyone know what guidance has been given to schools. Is it available to see? Not sure what an employee assistance program is.

I think it might be useful to share exactly what the National Education Union have told teachers not to do while schools are closed:

1. Teachers should not be asked to personally contact their students

1. Teachers should not live-stream lessons from their homes, nor engage in any video-calling

1. Schools should suggest activities that children can complete on their own

1. Tasks that require no access to technology are preferable

1. If schools have systems set up for online lessons, these should be kept to a minimum

1. Teachers should not be expected to carry out marking or grading of pupils’ work

So there should be no contact with pupils, no online lessons, no use of technology, no marking, and children should be doing independent work.

Remind me again what teachers are actually going to be doing for the next 6 months and why they are still being paid full wages?

Ok so they are following instructions then!! Maybe they could go and help key workers then whilst they are on full pay. I really thought the mental health of kids would have been a high priority. So teachers/pastoral/SLT cannot speak to a student whatever their state. Does that apply to speaking to parents too? As parents we take on teaching our own children (4 in my case) on top of 40 plus hours of our own work per week for at least half an academic year. Would schools response depend on the level of union involvement in the school then as it seems so varied?

Most schools that I know of are setting work through online platforms such as google classroom or microsoft teams. It isn't going to fill 6 hours a day but it isnt meant to but it should provide kids with something to focus on. In my school we set about two to three hours work a day. Many students are not doing it but we set it nonetheless. We are setting holiday work and are responding throughout the day to emails and questions from children. I am also calling vulnerable students in my class once a week and am looking after key worker children on a rota. I think that you have just been unlucky. I would expect some work sent home either on paper or online.

There aren’t any guidelines from the DfE. Schools have been left to make it up themselves.

An employee assistance program would be something that you have through your work. It basically provides up to six free counselling sessions (at the moment would be online) to you or one of your household (think ours is over 16). One of mine has been given a link for a year group well being session. One of mine is having regular (parent organised) video calls with class mates Is there anything that you think would help her? Have you tried using the usual email to contact the school? One of the schools is only really contacting students not parents, but it is normal for that school.

Stormy you pop up on every thread to do with schools and teacher bash alongside saying they shouldn’t be paid.

That is union advice not DfE and doesn’t fit with experience we’ve had. In the primary I work in teachers are working g as has been explained to you on other threads. Re secondary one of my dc’s schools has been fab with everything in the op the other not so much.

Surrey council sent a letter to be shared with all school parents which i think makes fair points.

Might be easier to see here

Just to clarify information from NEU

1.Teachers should not be asked to personally contact their students

BUT instead the pastoral team or senior leadership team are likely to contact parents, especially vulnerable families. In a secondary, teachers are likely to teach over a hundred pupils.

1. Teachers should not live-stream lessons from their homes, nor engage in any video-calling

BUT they are likely to record videos to be watched by students. This is to avoid safe guarding issues

1. Schools should suggest activities that children can complete on their own

SO parents who are working do not have to spend their day trying to teach their children as well as work

1. Tasks that require no access to technology are preferable

SO families who have not got technology or limited technology are not disadvantaged

1. If schools have systems set up for online lessons, these should be kept to a minimum

SO students are not overwhelmed

1. Teachers should not be expected to carry out marking or grading of pupils’ work

AS how can they know whose work it is. These marks or grades would not be a fair representation of students work.

Just like the rest of the country schools are trying to adapt to a very different world with very limited notice. Some schools will have a head start if they already have things in place but most will be still be trying to make it all work for everyone.