Those of you with dcs at secondary schools with good, easy to follow home schooling instructions, tell me more about it

[effingterrified]

Basically, my dc's school has provided incredibly complicated instructions, using multiple different platforms and given vast amounts of work that no child could actually do.

There's so many random and unconnected materials and organising to do it all is so complicated, my dc does barely any of it and is really put off.

From talking to other parents, they also feel the school's approach is unclear and unhelpful, so I'd like to contact the school with suggestions of how to simplify it and do it better.

So if your dc's school has given your dc really easy-to-use and engaging home learning activities/programme to do during lockdown, could you share the kind of things they do/structure of the programme, so I can make suggestions to my dc's school?

Thanks.

MrsWombat - Your poor dc! No child should be given that many hours to do.

Hercwasonaroll - using many different platforms may indeed be normal when schools are running normally. But this is not normal. And individual teachers only need to be familiar with the one platform used for their subject.

Individual parents at the moment, however, despite not being trained teachers in most cases and in many cases working full time or recovering from illness or looking after family members, are being expected to master several different platforms. This is not realistic. Schools need to work with parents, not expect parents to suddenly become unpaid full-time teachers with no training!!

Titsywoo

I’m an English teacher.

If we don’t go back until September it’s going to make it very difficult to cover the curriculum in English. I know the same is true in Science and probably many other subjects.

We are currently trying to rejig the curriculum in order to minimise the effect, but if it’s a Sept start then the exam boards will have to do something to mitigate the lost learning time.

My son (year7) has 3 subjected per day from a published time table. After feedback they now only send out the 3 subjects on the day via SMHW, each is different so some may use something like active learn, others video clips etc. Work is submitted by SMHW or email,, teacher provide feedback by the same platforms. Teachers are asking for feedback from parents and children and are very responsive. I've been very impressed

Dd has online registration at 8.45 and then all her usual lessons - teacher talks via Teams (I think) for 20 minutes and then they set work.
She finishes about 3.30 . Has homework every night too

No one is expecting you to teach. All the online stuff we have sent home has been for websites students SHOULD have previously been using. They aren't unfamiliar platforms, even if students haven't got their heads round different logins.

Our students have different platforms for:
Maths
English
Drama/perf arts
Science /history/geo/citizenship

It does sound like your place is overwhelming students. Getting in touch with a head of year or tutor would be my first point of contact.

Regarding the content, we are going for 90% revision and revisiting. The odd bit of new content for year 10s. We will pick up the pieces in September. New learning is difficult online.

My year 8 and year 10 are following normal timetable and have a variety of videos, worksheets, PowerPoints etc and MyMaths tests for year 8 when she finishes a topic. Teachers responding to emails quickly. Both seem happy enough working independently but both finished after 3ish hours sometimes a bit less. Not sure if they’re doing enough but they assure me they are!