School Contact

[beepbeep]

This is NOT a school bashing thread!!!

I was wondering what contact people had been having from schools and what we should be expecting as reasonable?

I have 3 children (2 at secondary yrs 7&8, 1 at primary- yr5). The secondary approach has been VERY different at the secondary to the primary.

Secondary - phone calls from form tutors, emails from head of year. Daily contact & encouragement from different teachers when homework is handed in or when the children have had queries via 'show my homework app'. Some teachers have emailed in response to queries & been really supportive of the children's work as well as being concerned for their wellbeing.

Primary - using Google Classroom. Homework (other than English is to go onto websites and find work). English has been 3 week project so nothing to hand in. Queried something with teacher on Google Classroom - only way of contacting them 3 weeks ago - no response. DD had maybe 3 at most 1 line comments on her work. No other contact, no phone call, email or anything for 7 weeks.

I realised last night that she could have been under the patio for 7 weeks & they wouldn't have known!!!!

DD is getting quite upset about all the contact her siblings are getting, she waiting for assessment by CAHMS and getting quite anxious about the situation at times.

DH & I are doing the best we can, he is a frontline key worker so doing all sorts of random shifts and I am also a key worker, working full time but mostly from home (luckily I'm able to be flexible around DH's shifts).

I have emailed the head of the Primary to ask for some more support, but I am wondering what would be reasonable to expect? The difference between the primary & secondary approaches are pretty extreme!

[TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince]

But they have safeguarding issues. They can’t just have ‘remote contact’.

It has to be via email or school phone number. There is no other way. How could the schools solve this with no national directive?

[MinesAPintOfTea]

TheEmoji: bit the standard defence is that teachers have to look after their own children. My point is that not all do. And every other profession had to work out fast how to get people able to take calls at home. I could do it on a work number by day 3 of lockdown because it was a priority for my employer. Schools should also have made it a priority for teachers to have remote contact.

[TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince]

‘Another teacher had photos up on the school portal of all the scrubs she'd sewn in her free time. Of course she has free time if she isn't doing her job’

I did this as l work part time. So in my own time and not school time.

The poster complaining her school hadn’t phoned and could have at the end of the day after key worker children have gone needs to know this. We leave at the same time as children as the school is closed after this point. And we can’t phone from home as no one has landlines anymore and you can’t make contact on your mobile.

[SallyLovesCheese]

I didn't mean it to sound as though it's just academies affected, I meant that the removal of all school jurisdiction from the LA has resulted in fragmented guidance for many headteachers, so there is no 'standard' for this kind of thing.

I mean, look at how differently schools teach Science, or MFL, or Sex Education. There's no blanket guidanceon things for all schools so we get these problems of different schools having completely different approaches.

[DominaShantotto]

Our school is LA, there's been no dialogue with the governors regarding not communicating with families at all (I am one). This has come from the head.

[beepbeep]

Our school is LA, not an academy. Not sure that makes any difference?!

[beepbeep]

Sallylovescheese I agree, I have emailed head but heard nothing back so far, but will give him some time to reply especially as it’s bank holiday weekend. The class teachers are a job share, I know one of them is in 1 days each 2 weeks (usually works 3.5 days) so could make phone calls after school ends for key children. But I expect the fact that I there has been no contact has come from the head as it’s the same up and down the school.
My DD’s school have stopped doing any weekly newsletter or anything. The only direct contact was a letter (through the post - I live 5 mins walk away) saying I owed £12 for lunches!! (I’ve paid it now!!!!)

[Paddingtonthebear]

Y2 in an Infants only school.
Work set every day since day 1 via email from class teacher and feedback given daily via email.
Starting this week the teachers are going to call each child in their class every week to see how they are.

[SallyLovesCheese]

The issue of little or no contact DOES NOT lie with the teachers. It lies with the Academy Trusts, the "Executive" Heads, the SLT members who have never been teachers and the Government for pushing for academisation.

Teachers have to follow the policies and practices set by their school. If you don't or if you argue too much, you face being managed out through capability and that's obviously a risk many teachers won't want to take right now, as we know we're lucky to still have jobs at all.

Please contact the headteacher or executive head or senior leaders if you wish to complain about the level of contact you're receiving. I think it's entirely appropriate for children and their adult to have contact at least once a week from school during term-time.

[MinesAPintOfTea]

Primary. A batch of 6ish twinkl worksheets once a week. Then "motivational" messages regularly about how much nice stuff and photos of what she is doing with her DD. Who is in DS's class. I can't do half of that because I'm working pretty much FT (currently looking at work on Sunday evening and on MN because i cab any more). Occasionally this includes all the planning she's doing for next year, when DS won't be in her class. Surely she shouldn't normally spend teaching hours doing planning?

Another teacher had photos up on the school portal of all the scrubs she'd sewn in her free time. Of course she has free time if she isn't doing her job.

A weekly class via zoom for each "table" or even 15 mins 1 to 1 would be brilliant. More personal work and contact via direct phone or email that doesn't require faffy portals that are hard to upload to would be nice. Less gloating about family time on a portal that (unlike Facebook) I can't block, would be mildly considerate.

[Bigbaddebt]

3 kids all at secondary. 2 had exams cancelled, youngest in their first year. I’ve had emails for parents at least once a week. Kids have full timetables and work for every lesson. Some classes taught via video, other are prepared in advance. Children have all now moved onto their next academic year so they can get a head start on preparing for their exams next year. Not sure what happens if they get poor grades from their predicted results but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

We are lucky that we have enough computers for them all to work at the same time and decent wifi. No idea how you would manage otherwise.

School have exceeded my expectations. Hats off to the teachers for adapting so quickly and sending emails at midnight sometimes. We really appreciate.

OP I think you should email the primary school to make them aware as some don’t want to add to pressure at home by giving to much work or by contacting you too often. If you don’t ask you’ll never know.

[fandajji]

Andi doing as much or as little as they like is a great, well-being friendly message. However the academic gap is a huge worry. Once schools open fully there is going to be many kids held back and many dragged along without full learning taking place.

Attending to the needs of each child's academic ability is already a delicate balance that many teachers struggle to handle (myself included at times). With some moving through the curriculum with teacher guidance and others doing nothing, I personally really worry about the different approach each school and each parent is taking.

[Andi2020]

3 kids
1 cancelled GCSE gets nothing
1 y10 googleclassroom no feed back
Only 3 subjects on it
1 at primary gets work but only feedback if Email teacher
I tell my kids you are not doing it for your teacher
YOU ARE DOING IT FOR YOURSELF
Schools do not want to put pressure on families my boys school advise do as much or as little as you want and safe.

[ChloeDecker]

Oh yes I do have a right to question as I have seen a significant number of parents complain over multiple forums.

If you carefully read over my post, you will see that nowhere did I say that you didn’t.

[AldiAisleOfCrap]

@beepbeep
I realised last night that she could have been under the patio for 7 weeks & they wouldn't have known!!!!

What a ridiculous comment, so could any , baby, toddler, pre school or home schooled child. However as a society we have to trust that the overwhelming majority of parents don’t murder their dc.

[Aragog]

I work in an infant school and I am currently overseeing the home learning provision.

We are only contacting by telephone certain parents - vulnerable pupils mainly. This is the preference for the vast majority of our parents from what we know.

Parents can contact us at anytime if they need us or want to query something. There are several ways:

• Via the home learning platform - as we are infants then we know much of the responses are initially by parent. They can leave messages on there.
  
  
• Via specially created year group email - this is monitored at least 2-3 times a day. The class teachers and I all have access.During the week we aim to answer that day where possible.
  
  
• Via the school's Facebook and Twitter messaging - I monitor this daily
  
  
• Via the school's website or general email address, or my phoning the school office - these are manned during school hours.
  
  
  I am monitoring all of the home learning provision and noting down those pupils where we have seen no response or access. This has been passed onto the school's learning mentor and I know she has contacted them to check all is okay and if there is anyway we can support them. We know some are preferring to do their own thing and that is fine. We have said from the outset that the home learning was optional and there for those who wish to use it, but that we understand it is tough and many are trying to balance wfh and childcare.
  
  We are doing no live lessons as that is not appropriate for our school community.

[BunsyGirl]

@Howaboutanewname I am referring to state schools as I am not aware of any private schools that are not setting work. Sorry, but teachers can’t have it both ways. They can’t expect schools to remain closed for months and months and then not engage with their students. This is not all schools but it is some schools and that is not acceptable over a long period of time. If a teacher has a personal problem which means that they cannot provide remote learning the position should be exactly the same as when schools are open; someone else does the work. Classes are not put on hold for months because a teacher becomes sick or has a bereavement etc. Schools closed two months ago and the fact that some are still not providing work is disgraceful.

[BunsyGirl]

@ChloeDecker Oh yes I do have a right to question as I have seen a significant number of parents complain over multiple forums. There is clearly an issue with some schools and this needs to be resolved if schools are not going to be opening up any time school.

Who is preventing teachers from going on site if they are not on the rota? If teachers cannot set work from home the rota clearly needs to be revised so that teachers can go into school and set the work.

If you get paid out of the public purse then expect to be held accountable by the tax paying public.

[NOTANUM]

@Saoirse7 Who is encouraging the millions of children to do any work in homes where parents need a gentle nudge?
Some studies are showing as few as one in seven are engaging with home schooling.
A phone call home to the parents mobile would be a great start to try to encourage some reading at primary level.

[Howaboutanewname]

I think I have a right to question what those teachers that are not setting work are doing at the moment. All taxpayers have that right

No tax payer has the right to know if a teacher is experiencing some kind of personal difficultly - death in the family, serious illness, a miscarriage, mental health breakdown....None of your business.
and some of us work in private schools so no tax payer right there.

[emz771]

My youngest daughters teacher calls twice a week - and knows she loves nature so calls her with challenges of what birds and animals to see on the walk. Then my daughter uploads it and she gets a mark for each one. It’s really lovely.

[Saoirse7]

Notanum

Why would teachers call kids who haven't logged on?

During this time parents are the primary carers. I cannot imagine any parent being happy to be questioned as to why they haven't logged in. Especially if it is due to not having a device, not having access to internet etc. Do schools call during the Summer?

If it is a question of possible abuse then we aren't allowed to seek out anything or lead any 'investigations'.

In our school anyone who has no access to internet was provided with hard copies.

[ChloeDecker]

What about computers in the schools. Why can’t the teachers go into school and set the work from there?

Unless you are on the rota to go in, you are not allowed on school site

I think I have a right to question what those teachers that are not setting work are doing at the moment. All taxpayers have that right.

The fact that you are not experiencing ‘no work or contact ‘ from a school means that you really have no idea that teachers are not doing that. Far too many times parents in real life and posters on here have made that claim, only, when questioned, do we find out this is very far from the truth.

Have a read of this thread, assuming you are not being goady. It will helpfully answer your questions. There have been many many threads started, like this one, always stating the claim that it is not a teacher bashing thread but we all know....

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3894500-To-think-we-could-just-collate-all-the-teacher-teaching-related-information-here-and-have-done-with-it

[Cathy1984]

My son's school has set work on an app called seesaw. It allows you to upload completed work and for his teacher to comment on it. There's no deadline pressures or anything but the fact his teacher can see it has been encouraging for him. His teacher has also called twice to check in and make sure we are all doing okay. He is in year 1 x

[TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross]

DS year 8 gets a bunch of tasks set online with the comment "hand this in when you're back".

God, I wouldn't want that teacher's marking pile "when we're back"! Am glad that my school are still keeping lessons and homework and marking all ticking over (although I am procrastinating over getting down to mine this weekend...)