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?

@Pitaramus As above, the SLT is literally management, like in any other organisation - those in charge (head, then deputy, SENCO etc if the school is large enough to warrant them) who make the decisions.

I think where you’re thinking of parents being involved that’s the governing body. This is comprised of staff, parents and other members of the community and has kind of an overseeing role, a check against the potential absolute power of SLT. They don’t tend to get involved in the day to day decisions, but instead take part in discussions about how budgets are spent etc.

All schools have SLT, but the levels of management depend on the size of a school (in primary). We’re a one form village primary, so it’s head, then part time deputy and SENCO, then teachers. In others you can have head, then full time deputies and leaders of KS1 and 2, then teachers.

All schools also have some form of governing body too.

The levels of management in all organisations, even schools, always makes me think of those human pyramids that cheerleaders make in the US 🤣

@bigdaddysleotard I apologise for not making it clear enough that I was referring to previous posters, not you.

I’d decided to take a few minutes for me while the messages from my class/parents were quiet and the toddler was eating nicely. My mistake, said toddler was actually posting slices of pear into her nappy, so I had to sign off quickly 🤦🏻‍♀️

Enjoy it! We’ve had near constant calls and it’s driving me up the wall 🙄

We’ve had no calls but we get daily work set, full timetable, including a weekly ‘challenge’ (delivered on video link by HT) which applies to all year groups then ties in to the work throughout the week, age appropriately. I Submit the work by email (upload photos) directly to the class teacher who doesn’t mark individual pieces of work but gives daily overall feedback by return (along with a total number of ‘happy marks’ the day’s submission has earned. He’s also contactable by email for queries and replies quickly. No complaints here, Yr3 state primary. He may be calling other pupils, I don’t know - but he says he’s happy with our DC’s work and we aren’t ‘vulnerable’ so I wouldn’t expect a call on top.

I understand the concerns over live zoom lessons but not the video links? A lot of the work set by our schools teachers contain video links to the teachers explaining what to do, maths eg has an accompanying video demonstrating the work every day. And they read a story on video every day. This really helps DC feel connected

mumoftwodc
Schools have their safeguarding and pastoral teams on for vulnerable students.
Lots goes on behind the scenes for those children and families that, rightly, the rest of the school community doesn't see. Not even class teachers get all the updates and information as information is rightly shared on a need to know basis.

Our school hasn't called but I don't expect them to. We are in daily communication by email and class website, sending all the work in and teachers responding with feedback. There is no need for a phone call as far as I am concerned.

Agree @handfulofflowers. Whilst I know DC would love to speak to the teacher, it’s not ‘needed’. I share the feedback received on the work and that makes them very happy.

We’re in an odd situations as Dd was due to start a new school the week they closed as we had moved house. She was due to start on the Monday before lockdown but we called and left a message saying she wasn’t coming in - I didn’t see the point of five days at a new school when I knew they would be shutting for months on end after that!

So we’ve heard nothing from them at all. I didn’t really expect to, the teacher had never met her and luckily I’m an experienced home educator anyway, but I do wonder if we will ever hear from them.

@HeadSpin5

It sounds like you’ve had a really positive experience. My experience for the same year group is so different it makes me sad.

Constant contact from our year 1 teacher and absolutely nothing from the year 4 teacher.
I've even stopped uploading his work because I get no feedback or anything.

As far as she is concerned we could be dead.
I wouldn't have thought anything of it but the fact that we get it all from the other teacher just goes to show she is slacking in my opinion.
It's no surprise though as even before all this, she wouldn't reply to messages or anything.

@Divebar agree, based on what I’ve seen here we most definitely have, feel very lucky. We are both wfh FT and whilst it’s bloody hard trying to do everything the approach from the school has made it much easier. It also helps with potential return, whilst DD isn’t in the first years back I am more comfortable about the return (whenever it happens) because I trust the school to make it a positive experience.

@Divebar posted too soon, meant to say that I really feel for you. Obviously I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, our school could have more available staff, not so many poorly etc - I know ‘our’ teacher is a younger man with no kids which may help. But the approach in lockdown has fitted entirely with its overall approach to everything in normal-world so it hasn’t surprised me.

Dd is yr8 and set work by academy's online learning platform regularly. We dont think it is marked but each piece has a deadline. She had a phone call from her form tutor to check how she was doing a fortnight ago. He rang dh and asked for permission to speak to her. Dd declared it 'weird' to be speaking to her teacher at home.
He actually was due to leave at easter so it was good of him to ring.

We have weekly 1 to 1 google meet with Form teacher, instrument and LAMDA lessons on zoom every week and 4 school lessons a day with either a live or pre recorded introduction with worksheets/tasks to complete after. This is a private school though with a Year 1 and a Year 3.

Dd (Y7) and cannot fault the school. Work is issued / uploaded through SMHW and she receives feedback on every piece of work.

Ds (Y5) totally different story. We collect a pack of very poor work sheets from the school once a fortnight. Asked not to send any work as school will not be marking.
We have a class twitter account and DS teacher tweets a daily photograph of her garden or similar with an inspirational quote attached. Rather annoying when you're wfh full time and home educating. DS is using his cgp books and bbc bitesize. I'm considering accessing a home tutor group.
I feel completely let down by the school.