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.

Guidance states basically it expects remote provision to go downhill or disappear (you're looking for point 12 in "Preparing for the wider opening of schools from June - planning guide for primary schools" if you're that bored)

I worry about what is going to happen with all the resources free for the shutdown - we've used a few of them a lot, and the school used another one free for the duration - I'm hoping that stuff continues (although mine are going back to school if things pan out) just for the kids who aren't.

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

Another one for the “but people never generalise and bash teachers gallery”

DD1's primary has been excellent at delivering daily lessons. We've been overwhelmed with the work load at times. They have emailed today to say we will soon be asked to give a definite yes or no to our child's return. The email is very clear that there will be some home learning sent out to those who choose not to attend, but it will be greatly scaled back. I'm not surprised as we've been told to expect the children to be doing full school hours if they return. It is impossible to both teach a class all day, and prepare and upload work for those at home.

We will not be providing home learning for the year groups who are back, the teachers will be too busy teaching those year groups.
Years 2-5 will still be providing home learning.

I hope there will be something. DD is not in a returning year but her school have made clear they're not taking anyone with someone high risk in the family - which in ours is me. But if they don't provide anything I can wing it like I did before the Easter break.

Ours aren't going back till the 8th of June (at the earliest) but been told from that date will get same sent out as they are doing now however will be limited feedback /email support as teacher will prioritise those in school.

@ChemiseBleu the government suspended the local authorities and parents responsibility to provide education, right at the start.

Chemise - if you think it's ridiculous then blame the government. It was their decision, not teachers, we just do as we're told.

As for the original question, it will very much depend on the school. Those with a higher number of teachers shielding will probably be able to continue at least setting work, but depending on the ratio of shielding teacher to non-attending children, feedback may be more limited. Some will arrange their in-school learning so that it can also be done at home, but again feedback to those out of school may be more limited.

Your best bet is to ask your specific school, as only they can advise on their situation.

Planning remote learning takes much longer than normal, and requires a lot of adaptation of existing resources and in some cases making entirely new ones. I'm also finding marking takes more than twice as long on-screen. There is no way that I can do that as well as a normal teaching load. In secondary, not all departments will have a member of staff shielding, so that won't always be an option.

Our school has said that children will be in either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday so that the school can be cleaned on Wednesday and the weekend and that teachers can prep and give attention to the home learning work on the Wednesday.

We will still receive packs

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

The government has issued absolutely no guidance on home learning.

The teacher I know are desperately trying to think of lesson plans that use resources that the maximum number of children will have access to. Remember some kids are working from a parent's mobile phone that their parent takes to work during the day. Lots of kids will have no paper at home. Certainly no printer.

That makes it very difficult. How do you do science without experiments for example?

Or get kids in reception to learn through play when you don't know what items parents have in the house to accommodate that.

Plus not only do you have to write up a lesson plan, you have to then re-write it in a way that kids / parents will understand when previously you could just verbally explain. That's a lot of extra time and effort.

All your kids are at different levels so you have to pitch to a certain level which might be too high for some but too low for others, whereas in the classroom you have more ability to stretch the best and coach the struggling.

And you've got to try and make it fun to engage the kids who can't work with a partner or in groups like normal.

And then you may be dealing with lots of additional pastoral care issues due to parents being in financial difficulty or there being conflict in the home.

Then if you are in school you have to have things to do with the kids there. And because it's a much smaller number of kids in, they are more demanding on your time and attention (no friends to play with / talk to).

And you also have your own child care / educational issues to juggle at the same time.

I know the teachers I'm friends with are finding it much harder. They can't use their normsl resources. They have to spend time searching for them. They are working their days off and answering emails sent at all hours (one said she's had emails at 2am in the morning - she didn't answer that one immediately but she had been trying to answer as quickly as possible)

There's no support from government on this. No examples of what you could do. No signposting.

All this business of 'what are the teachers doing' comes back, time and again to what practical support are the government giving them in terms of advice and resourcing?

And how this situation takes them away from a format they are familiar with (in person in a classroom speaking) to communicating via email (perhaps with little feedback) to parents or children directly. It's harder to explain and ensure that children 'get it'. Zoom contact us limited because of issues relating to digital poverty so that's not an option for teaching a whole class. The whole thing takes more time to do the same tasks due to having to write it all.

The people I know are not slackers. They are busy individuals who are highly motivated and hard working. And they are struggling with the extra work load it's creating, even though they are on site less often.

Friend's school won't be. They need all the teachers in from the 1st to provide cover for the smaller nursery, rec, Y1 and ,Y6 classes from 8-6.30. They will have absolutely no time, with having to plan and prepare work for these smaller classes at home in the evening, to also provide home learning for those children not in school.

Friend's school won't be. They need all the teachers in from the 1st to provide cover for the smaller nursery, rec, Y1 and ,Y6 classes from 8-6.30. They will have absolutely no time, with having to plan and prepare work for these smaller classes at home in the evening, to also provide home learning for those children not in school.

Surely it is almost unheard of amongst schools, though, to not having a single member of staff who is either vulnerable or living with someone vulnerable? Our school is having staff who have to remain at home support home learners in other years with Oak Academy.

Surely it is almost unheard of amongst schools, though, to not having a single member of staff who is either vulnerable or living with someone vulnerable? Our school is having staff who have to remain at home support home learners in other years with Oak Academy.

Apparently, there are no shielding teachers, TAs, yes, but no teachers. The vulnerable teachers have all been asked to go back to teach the smaller classes which may or may not be the right thing to do, but the school are not allowing any TAs to manage classes, so there's no other option.

Not sure if there's been any specific guidance on vulnerable teachers, who have been working from home, going back on the 1st, but it does seem as if they have to. The ones I know are really worried about it, using public transport in particular.

Only 1 teacher in my very large primary will be shielding. Quite a few 1:1 TAs as well, but only 1 teacher.

I know of a teacher who is currently on maternity leave who was asked, as they knew her husband was furloughed, if she would come back early. Schools are generally struggling to cope with having to teach smaller classes unless the children come back part time.

I had a phonecall from my daughter's teacher today. He said that he would be working in the school, giving provision for the years that are in (he does not usually teach those years) but would also still be expected to provide online learning resources for the year groups that were not in.

Poor bugger.

Nope. No provision in the school my children attend if you choose to keep your children off. I understand they will be busy, and it’s our choice. I rather had a feeling that would be the case If I’m honest. I’m still not sending mine in. We completed every single piece of work they sent virtually already so we will do some home learning now instead.

I believe our school will have the in school classes also available on Google classroom. Our Y 10s have been speculating on half the kids going in for a week while the other half do it online and then swapping. But we will know this week.

Secondary - we've just been told remote learning will continue for all years but there will only be a few lessons provided for very small groups of year 10s in schools and no school for anyone else before September. Not sure what happens from September.

When school asked whether we would be sending our children back I said DD can stay at home if she will get an online education but otherwise I shall have to send her in to school as I cannot work from home and teach her once she could be in school

Our primary school have said that homework will be available online.

I’m not sure what exactly that means, but previously the work provided weekly online has been referred to as home learning packs. The change of name makes me suspect that less online work will be available. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

First stab at plans for the autumn are due to be circulated firncomments.

They did ask all parents a little while ago to let them know if anyone was shielding (pupils or direct family member) or anything else the parent thought relevant about their circumstances and the pandemic.

So I expect they are working out which pupils will have continuing barriers to on-site learning and working out what to do with them.

I don't underestimate the amount of additional work that educating some of your pupils off-site will mean. But it is very important that medically vulnerable children are nit excluded for schools

Fewer than half the children at my school will be returning before September. We're expecting classes of below 10 with no more than 15 permitted.

We will still be providing remote learning for the majority of children who are not returning.

If parents are able to keep their children at home, they are doing. And I don't blame them.