Will remote learning still be available?

[Minkyscamp]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

When years R, 1 and 6 return, will teachers no longer be under an obligation to provide lesson material etc for those children whose parents have decided to keep them at home?

Just wondering really. Our school have said (as I understand has the Government) that it is the parents' decision whether to send children back in. But if schools are open, then presumably that means that teachers will be focusing on teaching in classrooms and the home-learning side of things will be abandoned?

If anyone has any insight, would be much appreciated.

We've just received a letter saying that all learning and resources provided up until that point will still be available online but no further support will be available from 1 June as teachers will then be in school.

Our school are also only taking YR back from the 8th June and Y1 and Y6 to follow but no date announced yet. All of these year groups will only be doing half days to facilitate cleaning.

It all sounds like a huge waste of time and energy and lots of children are going to be even worse off than they were before schools went back. And I want my dc back in school but not like this.

Schools are currently under no obligation to provide any remote learning, the curriculum is suspended.

Each SLT has decided what, if anything, will be provided based on the specific challenges facing their staff and children.

Each school will have a different answer to the question you have asked but many schools will need other teachers to cover the second half of the classes going so the provision you have experienced may change.

Best way to find out is by emailing your school.

We are providing for children off still because we have enough staff.

If more numbers go in, we won’t have enough staff so we won’t be - it will depend on individual schools, numbers attending and staff capacity.

We at getting no further support, unless child is off for medical reasons / high risk.

I imagine it depends on school and if they’re off for medical reasons.
But the government online school, Oak National Academy should still be running. Then there’s BBC Bitesize, twinkl and various other online resources.

We are doing home learning but the teachers will be doing the home learning in school so the children get the same (in principle) wherever they are.

We will still be providing. Secondary though

Me and my colleague have planned for 10 weeks so we should be covered for most eventualities!

School I work at is providing home learning for the children not coming back. The shielding/pregnant staff are working from home doing it.

Depends on the school. Ours will offer part-time places to eligible years and keep online learning with link to class teacher going.

Agree. It really does depend on the individual school.
I think quite a lot are continuing to provide the home learning packs but the children in school will do them there so there will be parity.
But best to ask, I think.

I think they will have to
a) shielded DC cannot return to school
b) DC from a household where someone else is shielding might not be able to come to school
c) risk assessments might mean other medically vulnerable DC might not be able to return, or at least not in the first wave of returners waiting instead for time to develop tried and rested procedures
d) any DC might have to go into isolation if a case contact (and until they've got testing properly sorted their could take several days for results)

All those DC still need educating. So yes. I think schools will be required to support off-site learning. And it's going to be more complex when some can be onsite and some cannot. Assuming of course that they all matter, none should be left behind, and the extremely medically vulnerable really must not be further disadvantaged

Imo there should be no expectation for the class teachers to provide work for anyone not attending - or at the very least provision should be hugely scaled back. I assume providing work for home means heavier teacher workload as they're also teaching during the day. Considering how many teachers might be needed to cover sick leave next year, I think keeping staff workload at a reasonable level would be good. The English school system is known for having high teacher burnout rates as it is.

Ideally there would be some kind of government run resource (not Oak) providing lessons for those at home...

@SallyAlly2020

‘Schools are currently under no obligation to provide any remote learning, the curriculum is suspended.’

Do you have anything to back that claim up?

It seems absolutely ridiculous- what on earth are all the teachers actually doing?

It may explain the rather sub standard home learning scenario we are in from DS’s secondary school...

It seems absolutely ridiculous- what on earth are all the teachers actually doing?

What do you think they are doing?

My DS school has said no more work set remotely for Year 6 when they go back, as the teachers will all be engaged with children attending school. If I keep DS at home (still undecided) I will use BBC bitesize etc, there are loads of useful resources out there.

Before Lockdown, we were told we had to provide work for those who were at home because they were self-isolating or shielding, but not if they were just "choosing" to stay off.
Maybe the same rules might apply from now on?

One of my 2 primaries will continue setting work for remote use. All year groups.

Not sure what my other school have planned. Finding that out tomorrow.

@ChemiseBleu

Thanks all. It seems that it's very dependent on the particular school. I've not yet heard anything about the arrangements for our school. There has just been a questionnaire sent out asking whether we will be wanting our child to attend from 1 June. If it gets to half term and we've not heard, I'll email to ask.

I will obviously carry on with BBC bitesize etc if we do decide to keep DS at home, but it would be nice to have an idea what the rest of the class (in school) are doing, as the stuff they have suggested we do thus far has been random and not entirely what I expected. Hence, it would be useful to have a steer.

Thanks again.

Again individual schools will decide what they provide (hence the big differences in home learning set as the government never set what the expectations were, so schools had to decide).

Our school will still be providing home learning as well as class based, no extra planning as what I set for home learning I will use in the classroom.

We currently have very heavy involvement in giving feedback throughout the day on work uploaded, this will need to be scaled back due to time, still giving feedback but not necessarily in detail on every piece.

On a personal note, I have been working hard over this time both within school and through remote learning and I do take offence when people imply ALL teachers/schools aren't. In every walk of life you have good and bad. If you have an issue please speak to your school and feedback your issues. We have had some teething issues at the beginning but by parents giving us constructive feedback we managed to get it to work for our school.

@ChemiseBleu

The government guidance to schools said as much in April.

The updated advice from last week reiterates that there is no expectation schools will be able to provide the curriculum as usual.

The government advice on remote learning gives links to Bitesize, Oak Academy and a list of resources to support parents but that is it.

This is from one of the many government guidance documents.

12. Remote education during wider opening Many schools will have been able to offer high-quality remote education opportunities or programmes over recent weeks. Now that primary schools will be opening more widely, larger numbers of staff will be needed to provide face-to-face teaching at school. This means that it may be more difficult to maintain the same level of remote education provision for pupils in the year groups who are not eligible to attend, or for those pupils in year groups who are eligible to attend but who themselves cannot. In these circumstances consider how Oak National Academy or other remote education platforms can provide additional support for learning, as well as how learning delivered in school, if manageable, could be made available to pupils learning remotely. Equal consideration should also be given to pupils who do not have suitable online access and where possible would benefit from printed resources

Oak Academy will continue, and many schools including ours will be having online learning supported by the (many) staff who are unable to come in.

I know pre lockdown our school said they couldn't do it for children who were in quarantine for staffing reasons and it being too much workload.

So I'm going off the assumption generally that no it won't be provided.

However it's not going to be normal school anyway. It's likely to be worksheets etc so lesson plans may be more similar to remote learning than they were previously. So it may be possible.

But I wouldn't bet on it.