Should I be annoyed that we haven't had a phone call from the school yet?

[bigdaddysleotard]

It's week 8 of lockdown. Surely we should have had one call by now? DC is in year 3.
Obviously this is uncharted territory so I don't really know what my expectations should be. But no call at all seems a bit neglectful!

DC is ok, he's not "vulnerable" so maybe he's bottom of the pile?

We haven’t had any phone calls and I have 3 at school. I’ve heard of schools calling weekly and I would rather not have that tbh!

Unless your child has an underlying reason to be checked up on, why expect a call? You're the parent, school used to be mandatory. It's not now so without reason to check up, don't you think the staff still there have more to get on with? They're not required to check in.

When will people get this. Individual teachers do not get to decide the amount or frequency of work/feedback/emails/phone calls. SLT make those decisions. If you have an issue, please contact the headteacher or similar of the relevant school.

We're getting a workpack emailed weekly - the school has twitter and is updating with little quizzes and fun things, as well as still putting out a newsletter with pictures sent in of home-learning or other activities that are happening. Any queries about work can be sent to the year group leaders by email, and the head teacher is also responding to emails/queries.
Updates on the situation come from the school office by email as and when anything changes.
We've had two phone calls from the class teacher too.
I realise that other schools simply don't have the resources, and feel we're very lucky.

Why bother thunder when they can whinge and moan and whisk each other up into a froth on here?

@JimmyGrimble i appreciate you explaining about the barriers to calling parents. Happy to be better informed. Don't appreciate the ODFOD, though. As you can see from the replies there's a huge range of experiences that people are having with schools, and not everyone is trying as well as you are to help maintain the relationships.

@thunderthighsohwoe where in my post did I put any blame on the class teacher?

No call here either but I’m ok with that. We get through the work and if I’ve had questions I submit them electronically and get a response pretty quickly.

I got so hacked off with schools lack of input that I asked for a call last week. Teacher called today but didn't sound very happy about having to do so. It's so hard. I feel for them, I know they're good teachers but she has her own kids and no doubt has lots to plan to get back to school in June.

I think some of the many very dedicated teachers on here struggle to believe some of the parents (like op and me) who get little to nothing from schools. It speaks to your professionalism that you can't imagine not working during this time, but please believe us it's true and not all teacher bashing!

None of my 3 DCs have received any calls, or even have an email address to send any work to. We've been sent a link to Oak Tree Academy and some Bitesize links, get a very generic email for the whole class weekly from each teacher and that's it. There are only a handful of keyworker kids in, so for a 3 form entry primary school, I struggle to see where all the staff's time is going.

It didn't take long for an OP's entirely reasonable question to be an opportunity for someone to start with the usual goady shit stirring.

OP
Personally I think it's poor form if you've heard nothing in a small school, but equally who knows what's going on. Your child's teacher could have been unwell or had personal situations, however I think if we hat happens then senior leadership should step in and do some of the calls.
If its a larger multi form entry school then they'll be priorising certain children and will probably be working their way through everyone.

Sorry your thread got hijacked by people trying to create another teacher pile in.

Pile on.

Pile in could be fun though

@Stuckforthefourthtime well said!

Op - if I needed to speak to the school / teacher I'd call or email requesting a call, I wouldn't expect phone calls unless my child were vulnerable etc, so in response to your original post, No I wouldn't be annoyed at this.

My kids go into school so I probably don't feel as cut off as some do though.

Ages 8 and 11 here... we have had no phone call and not even a personal email from the teachers to see how things are going. Just "get in touch if you need help" and weekly work set.

Ages 8 and 11 here... we have had no phone call and not even a personal email from the teachers to see how things are going. Just "get in touch if you need help" and weekly work set.

How did they tell you to get in touch if you need any help?

@LilyMarshall probably on the school
website alongside the work set?

probably on the school website alongside the work set? well i could have guessed! But i was asking the pp what was actually the case.

It seems so odd that schools are using so many different platforms to do the same thing. Show my homework, purple mash, google classroom, Seneca, dojo..
There must be a better solution?

@Divebar -can you provide details of the tutoring facility (PM if you don't want to mention on thread)?

DD's school posts worksheets on the school website each week. She finds a lot of it repetitive and boring, particularly Maths as the worksheets often cover topics she worked on months ago. There is no feedback whatsoever from her class teacher. She is in Y2.

I asked the school about Zoom classes and they replied that they can't run them due to safeguarding. I asked if they could record a lesson and send the link and that was also a safeguarding risk I don't want to be 'that' parent so I stopped there.

This week they've dispensed with worksheets for several subjects and have just sent links to videos, the kind you can find by doing a basic search on YouTube.

My brother is a teacher and has thankfully pointed me towards additional resources for DD that have really engaged her so we are now following our own homeschooling plan.
It's slightly random - today we learned about Andy Warhol and Pop Art, the Solar System and Adjectives - but it works for DD.

I really like her school but this experience has taught me I cannot rely on the teaching staff at the moment. I'm not clear on what her teacher does all day but she hasn't called once in 2 months or marked a single piece of DD's work. I am disappointed but thankful that I have the resources and time to help her myself.

@thunderthighsohwoe you mention SLT making decisions around how work is set and how feedback is given etc. I’ve googled and see that that means school leadership team. Do you mind me asking, is that something that all state primaries have or just the larger ones? Google suggests it’s made up of an equal number of parents and staff. Is that right? I’m fairly sure my children’s school doesn’t have something like that but if it’s mandatory then they must do.

Wow that's interesting. We have to register daily and if they haven't heard from us by 12 they start calling.

Christ, that sounds intensive!
I've a year 8 and they're setting work online that they're expected to do.
No online video classes though or registering daily!
As for college teen, they're expected to do work and submit.
Daily registering sounds though

And to answer the OP, I have two kids in primary school and we’ve not had any personal contact from the school. We’re fine and we don’t need a phone call so I’m not really bothered about that. We’ve had generic emails once a week and I asked a question once which the teacher replied to. I would like it if they had commented on the work my children have sent in and I think they ought to. It feels slightly pointless submitting work, I might stop because it’s a faff to photograph and upload work for no one to see!

I think the difference between how different schools have dealt with this situation really shows the inequalities in the education system. We all send our children off to school and assume that most “ofsted good” schools offer broadly the same standards of education but perhaps they don’t.

Well mine is an “ Ofsted outstanding” school providing no teaching or marking - but I’m not sure if Ofsted should be considered a good marker under these circumstances.

I have 2 ds's at the same primary and they have only contacted twice by phone call about my eldest as they needed to give him extra work to keep investing dyslexia. No one has phoned about anything else. O don't expect them to.

@Pitaramus - SLT, the senior leadership team will be in each school.
Usually it's the head, the deputy, each key stage lead. Maybe the senco. Maybe the school business manager.

If you're getting a lot of calls it might be that your school is shit-hot
OR because you're not submitting work
OR because you're considered a family that needs worrying about

We've not had any personal contact from primary school. They send out ParentMails with weekly worksheets but none of the work is returned or marked. No emails from teachers or phone calls. No registrations or zoom or teams or dojo. I'm not expecting regular contact but like OP one call or email would have been appreciated. How does the school even know if my child is okay or alive? Fortunately my child is fit and well but what about the more vulnerable children?