Is my state school shit or just normal?

[Twattergy]

I've been v relaxed about the educational side of lockdown in terms of impacts on DS's learning (year3).
But today I've just been hit by how crap I think his school has been. Or maybe it is normal (state primary?). Tell me if this is better or worse than what your state primary school has offered:

1. online hub that is extremely un user friendly in which small number of worksheets are uploaded once a week. No need to send in work. I gave up and used bitesize .
   
2. from next week, 12 weeks in, one 30 min zoom group w teacher. Once a week.
   
3. from next week, one short daily video uploaded on aforementioned un user friendly hub, from teacher introducing that days work.
   
   Nothing else. Why the small amount of videos and zoom now, after 12 weeks, at the time when more of the staff will actually be busy with yrs R,1 and 6? Am I being harsh in judging this as crap? Btw I know what fee paying schools are offering so no need to describe to me what they are doing by comparison!

[NeverTwerkNaked]

@covetingthepreciousthings yes it is pay per course. It was US based originally and a lot of the teachers are US based but you can set the filters to UK times of day that are suitable. Ours have enjoyed the US teachers and like interacting with children all over the world. My daughter was thrilled by a child talking about porcupines like they were the most normal thing in the world.

I would say the key is to really work the filters to get the right age range and time of day etc.

You can also select the type of course

• one lesson only
• short course ( a lesson a week for a number of weeks))
• ongoing (lessons run once a week on an ongoing basis but you can still dip in and out)
• camp (once a day for 4/5 days in a row)

I would filter heavily and then see if any of the topics appeal to your child. They are particularly strong on science/engineering and creative stuff.
If there isn't a time that suits you can also request a time.

If you want to try at no cost I am happy to ping you a $20 code if you PM me

[grafittiartist]

For those moaning about worksheets- what is it that you would like specifically.
It's very hard setting work that can be understood and delivered by everyone- including children getting on with their work independently.

[MojoMoFo]

OP, that doesn't sound great tbh. Has the class teacher been in email contact to find out how you're getting on?

DD2 is in Y3 and at a state primary (also have DD1 in yr 6). First of all, we had workbooks to do and good email contact with the class teachers.

Just before Easter hols, the whole school started using Google Classroom with Zoom calls with the class teachers.

DD2 had a Bingo game on Zoom, as part of her French lesson (which was a great idea!). She's also had a couple of class quizzes on Zoom which she really enjoyed!

Lots of work to be done on Google Classroom for both DDs.

DD2 has English, maths, RE, Science, Guided Reading, French, Art, D&T, Topic (different each half-term) and we submit the work and her teacher will mark it and add comments. DD1 has the same too.

We have a workbook from school for maths for DD2. I mark her maths work, and upload it on G/Classroom, so her teacher can see how she's done.

We don't get it all 100% done. I'm a key worker and working more hours that I usually do (as some fellow workers are vulnerable and self-isolating). DH is self-employed, so has (finally!) finished the jobs around the house that he hadn't had time to do whilst working! We both help DDs with school work.

We do what we can and I upload the work on G/Classroom and I try to comment as much as I can, on what DDs enjoyed, or struggled with, etc.

DD1 has SEN so it's takes her a little longer to get her work done. But, her teacher has been understanding and is aware that we can't get 100% of her work done. Our school SENCo has also been in contact by phone a few times to see how's she coping with her work, etc.

Sorry you've not had as much support from your DD's school. It's not very helpful if the current way to view and submit work is so non user-friendly!

Can you speak to the Headteacher and ask for more communication between school/parents? So you don't feel so isolated and 'cast adrift'? x

[NeverTwerkNaked]

@grafittiartist a worksheet isn't teaching is it.
A worksheet with an introductory video explaining the concepts would be moving towards teaching.
Feed back on the work done would help too.

I assume a teacher doesn't just dish out worksheets in class without any kind of introduction or explanation?

[Sittingontheveranda]

@grafittiartist a worksheet isn't teaching is it.
A worksheet with an introductory video explaining the concepts would be moving towards teaching.
Feed back on the work done would help too.

I assume a teacher doesn't just dish out worksheets in class without any kind of introduction or explanation?


Exactly this ^^.

The bar some teachers set is very very low. DC told me that her teacher does dish out worksheets in class without an explanation, something I was unaware of previously. I have brought up concerns in the parent's WhatsApp group about the lack of progression when they were in school and one parent (a personal friend of the teacher) knocked all discussion down by making excuses for the teacher in question.
A friend of mine has a child in Y2 in a different state school. The difference between the standard in the same year between two different state schools is hugely concerning to me. My friend's child has been receiving long emails outlining work, explanations and continuous teaching from the start of lockdown. Not all her pupil's have access to technology so their teacher manually types out large extracts of online programmes. She follows on from week to week and is following the curriculum completely. In contrast, DC's teacher uploads a page of addition between 1-15, gives no feedback and has not taught anything since lockdown.
My friend's child will go into Y3 having completed Y2's curriculum. My child will go into Y3 after missing a large part of Y2, not only from lockdown but prior to that as the teacher's standard of teaching is very low, but no doubt that will be blamed on lockdown.

[pontypridd]

Our state school is even more crap than yours OP. We get one page of suggestions per week. A link to some maths website that doesn't explain anything.

I gave up too and we're 'doing' BBC bitesize ie watching videos/not having an education.

[ChocolateCard]

We have had not one phone call, email, video....nothing since school finished on 20th March.

There is a google classroom. Now and again, some badly photocopied pages of an Abacus book are dumped on there. So badly photocopied, that you can’t read them.

Many of the kids, have been on this google classroom throughout the last 2.5 months, literally begging their teacher for help.

“Can you help us with a timetable, miss?”
“Can you ask the violin teacher to send our music sheets over?”
“Please, miss.....I’ve been waiting ages to play my violin......”


It goes on and on. Heartbreaking to read.

The only response they ever get is “yes, I’ll try”.

The innocence of their continued requests and the unconditional respect they have for their teacher is both wonderful and sad at the same time. She clearly has no intention of helping them or responding.

This is a Year 5 class in Bridgend, South Wales.

End result is that I have taught myself to be a primary school teacher over the last 11 weeks, and we’re doing okay, apart from having to do my real job late in the night and getting very little sleep.

[CountessFrog]

State primary.

Worksheet uploaded every Sunday, supposed to last the week. No sight of the teacher. No online video, no chat, nothing. Just the worksheet.

[Ratbum]

It's not the work that's crap, but the support.
We're 12 weeks in and you're starting to get connection?
Um, not good enough for a school with qualified staff, no. The Head needs a conversation.

[MsTSwift]

I think it’s a scandal tbh.

Kids have been let down. My mother and her two friends (she is retired primary teacher they both recently retired primary heads all extremely well regarded) well they all think it’s shit too.

[MsTSwift]

Thankfully we already had a great maths tutor so we have upped her hours via zoom. I’m losing money (self employed) to teach the rest. Dd and I both strong on English and humanities. It’s kids whose families can’t do this that will lose out.

[Yester]

The gap between private and state makes me so angry. The government has little motivation to do anything at thw best of times with state schools and the currwnt lot openly hate teachers. They see little Jonny getting his zoom schooling 5 days a week and don't understand (or give a ahit) about the other 93% of kids.

[MsTSwift]

Have any journalists done anything on this? Guys if you on here trawling for stories...here you go!

[VashtaNerada]

We’re a state school and set a full week’s work. We pre-record some videos for them and talk weekly on the phone to every student, but we don’t do zoom lessons which I think is the right call. I think it’s really important families can do the work in their own time rather than feeling tied to an specific time. I’ve got two DC so I’d be really stuck if I was expected to lead a lesson at the same time as one of them was meant to participate in one! Plenty of families have parents working from home and needing the family PC at specific times (if indeed they have a PC). It’s just not appropriate to expect anyone to drop everything and be available at a specific time at the moment.

[CarlottaValdez]

It’s been pretty crap at ours yes. It’s actually been the tipping point for me to start to consider private education and I feel quite bad about it. Very much has a rats leaving a sinking ship vibe.

Our school does seem to have been great sorting the reopening though so swings and roundabouts!

[fruityloom]

My dc is in private school and in the first week was offered nothing. After the Easter holidays they decided a zoom call every morning to check dc healthy and tell parents what work we needed to do. Sheets sent over daily and then in the afternoon another zoom call to show anything you've done.
We can submit but nothing I've submitted so far was marked so I just stopped submitting and have put everything we've done in a folder instead. I have done all teaching, the teachers don't teach anything just send over sheets.

Work is set to one standard there is no working at different levels so I've then stopped doing half the work set by school as it's a load of rubbish (make a poster half the time) and gone onto the year above oak academy and bbc bitesize. Tbh for us it's highlighted the poor teaching and resources of our school that's usually about £18k a year. I did notice before but I liked the sports facilities so used to supplement the shoddy academics with stuff at home anyway.
I've been furloughed though. If I hadn't been my dc would have been put in a room and left to get on with it. If they didn't do it I wouldn't have been able to contribute much. Dc is year 2 and tbh I'm not that worried about them losing their education this year. If they were in older years I'd be feeling quite awful.
During Easter holidays I subscribed to twinkl and feel I did a better job myself at resourcing worksheets and going over them and now feel like the work being set by school is interfering with the higher quality of work I was setting. (We also get scans every week where the teacher cba to check the scan and half the work is cut off at the bottom or half the page of black so it uses up all your ink ffs)

School did however supply iPads where dc had no access to a computer. If you remember that many parents are using theirs for work even in our school many dc were left without anything to work on. Many dc do not have printers and I couldn't source ink for mine for weeks so was left with an iPad trying to let them colour & write on it etc which isn't the same.

I also have very bad WiFi and if dh on a work call it just stops working and we have to wait for the call to end. That can be 3 hours sometimes!
It's not simply private vs state. Some state schools are doing more than our school. Some state schools doing less. What my dc is lucky to have is someone that can sit down and work through with them everything. Even in our school, several mums have newborns, those dc are getting a lot less support than mine and it's noones fault I hope going forward it's recognised that various dc will be behind due to circumstances beyond anyone's control.
I personally think leave out 'topic' work next year and focus on bringing up English and maths skills to allow for the disaster of 2020! Also for anyone who's really worried and can afford it some of my state school friends have turned to online working which they pay for but it's going really well.

[Pluckedpencil]

In Italy we have had two 2.5 hour online lessons a week in primary, much more for secondary but they don't let the primary and secondary overlap as they realise families might not be able to stream two lessons simultaneously.
They have uploaded work onto their, albeit clunky, app each week and marked most of the work every week by sending back a list and/or notating the file.
They started this after one week and it has evolved a bit but we are now pretty slick. Work arrives Sunday night for download and printing (if you want but not necessary), and parents also send the previous week's work in via google drive.
We have still been whinging though as it has been too much work both for kids and parents! Glad we have arrived at summer hols here this weekend!

[MsTSwift]

Dd1 state secondary impressive. Lots of work set responsive teachers some zoom coming in work has to be submitted and marked.

In our small city its an issue with the primaries. The next state primary along from ours is even worse!

[Figgygal]

Same here yr3
First week or so there were daily videos on their learning platform since then it’s been 1 phone call

They are asked to do 30 minutes of txt rockstars a week (we do it every day), something called numbots which literally was asking things like 2+3=? We binned that off, a spelling frame app where they do online weekly test of 8 words and daily reading. Oh and white rose maths daily some of which I can’t bloody do it seems well above their age range.

They have a weekly topic sheet for the whole school with a range of activities to cover all age groups and you just pick one that you want to do no individual class-based learning

They do a weekly assembly and weekly book at bedtime with the headteacher on zoom so they clearly have no concerns about the security in soon yet or not using it to engage directly with the pupils, if we upload things to the online platform we get the odd well done comment.

Luckily my husband is furloughed and so we are able to find other things to engage him with But I’ve been really disappointed with the school compared to others

[Figgygal]

And yes all the teachers I know are on a rota maybe once a fortnight in school having a fucking laugh at home on full pay Having a great time with their kids while I’m working 10 hour days (thankfully with dh st home furloughed though on 80% pay) on 90% pay. It’s wrong

[MsTSwift]

I dont understand what the primay teachers in our city are doing either. Big school some key worker kids but lots of them so guess one day max with them in school though more likely one day a fortnight. Sending a worksheet. That’s it!

[CeeJay81]

State primary in Wales. Ours isn't great with work either but the school are saying the kids mental health etc is more important than the work.

We get work fortnightly, few worksheets plus an activities grid with Maths, English and craft activities. My daughter's teacher does a video with information about the activities too (R/1). Her class has a Facebook group which the teacher is part of, which is lovely. However this week we had nothing for my year 6 son, only to do a profile on PowerPoint for transition. He also has mild special needs and I was worried about something and his Sen teacher has been lovely and called me twice. Generally I am happy with the school. If there is no work for my son next week though I'll be in touch, but they are responsive when you do.

[EspressoX10]

Doesn't sound great.

DC are in P2 and they use Microsoft Teams to distribute assignments, to interact with the teacher and with their peers. Teachers are available during school hours.

The assignments go live every night so parents can prepare for the next day.
They get handed in, marked and commented.

In addition, they use specific websites with logins for languages (P2 do Spanish and Mandarin), Music, Reading and Audiobooks, Maths games, Science and lots of PE challenges.

They also get extra suggestions for things to do every day, including life skills.

Families are encouraged to do as much or as little as appropriate for their circumstances.

This is a state (Catholic) school in Scotland and I'm pleased with the provision.

[VashtaNerada]

And yes all the teachers I know are on a rota maybe once a fortnight in school having a fucking laugh at home on full pay Having a great time with their kids while I’m working 10 hour days (thankfully with dh st home furloughed though on 80% pay) on 90% pay. It’s wrong

That really isn’t typical. There are other threads on MN explaining what we are doing at the moment. Do all the teachers you know work at the same school? Sounds very, very different to what me and my colleagues are doing (inner-city state primary).

[MrsBellamy]

Our school has been great. State school (Scotland)
The kids P4 & P6 are issued with 2 weeks worth of work every other Monday. I do find that we don't have any time for PE until after school hours though as it takes so long to get the work done, but the fact that they have 2 weeks to submit it means that if parents are having to work they can be more flexible with schoolwork.

The kids submit their work on google classroom and the teachers usually mark it and return with comments within a day or 2.

They haven't had any zoom lessons at all though, so I don't think they have been taught any new concepts just getting more practice on things they've already been taught.