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!

Ours has been dreadful and I’ve had a lot of stick from others parents who think it’s wonderful and how dare I say anything to the contrary. Eldest dc is in an independent secondary and the difference is unreal.

The primary school has been using an app which simply isn’t fit for purpose and it took six weeks to get it up and running. It took me two hours to install the app and it was taking longer to access the work than it was to actually do it. We’ve given up with it and are doing our own thing. I explained exactly why we weren’t engaging with the online offer and school allowed me to pick up a pile of textbooks. Tbh, I think they should just have done that in the first instance.

My daughter's school (infant academy) gave a list of links to educational websites and a bugclub login on the last day of school and then did nothing and i mean nothing until after Easter.
There has been no direct 1 to 1 contact either via email or phone or zoom etc to this day.
After Easter you were supposed to know via osmosis that they started uploading links and some worksheets to the school website once a week.
No feedback loop as there is no direct contact except when i emailed to complain about the provision and how there wasn't even a welfare check in 10 weeks and you are made to feel like you are incredibly unreasonable, even though you are a single working parent, you can't possibly be as busy as anyone in the teaching profession.

@grafittiartist yes that is a fair point.

That's crazy! I'm a primary teacher in Scotland (year 4) and we use Google Classroom. I set daily tasks and mark them. I have made YouTube videos to explain how to complete them and google slides. I do a daily zoom with them to check in. We register them.

@fascinated Ah, sorry should have clarified- there's no pressure whatsoever to complete any of this stuff. Just means there's resource, structure and feedback there if the parents / weans want it. Surely that's a good thing?

@GibbertyFlibbet our head teachers has said the same - not allowed to contact teachers by their email. I would love an explanation as to what they've been doing & why they are unable to contact the children when the school has been told they are struggling.

@Claire5678 - my SIL is doing similar to you and working really hard. It just shows what can be done if the schools are wanting to support the children.

We also give home learning packs or tech to families who cant access GC

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

Handy that isn’t it. Our school says the same. A complete copout. Their mental health will suffer more when they go back into a classroom and realise they are at the bottom while the kids who had online tutors breeze through. In my DC’s class, nine children have one parent and many have both parents who are teachers. I can assure you they are teaching their own children while the rest of the class is being told to colour in. It makes me so upset.
The only thing is I am now much more involved with the schooling and will continue keeping a very close watch on it when they return to school. However I’m unsure what I can do as they have a tendency to fob parents off.

Kokesh123 I have no doubt that most state schools are already meeting or exceeding the kind of standards I'm thinking of What kind of standards are you thinking of? I can assure you if you think most state schools are meeting or exceeding them that they must not be high?

@Fruityloom 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.
Can you please recommend the websites for online working? Thank you.

@Sittingontheveranda I've pm you

@fruityloom could you let me know the online learning your friends are using please

Ours is so-so...

One weekly Zoom assembly
One weekly list of 'tasks' (a few SPAG and maths worksheets from the web plus, 2 or 3 slightly meatier teacher-devised tasks)
3 weekly suggestions for Bitesize 'live lessons'
We're allowed to email teacher if we get stuck, but I haven't done this

...but zero marking, so it's hard to motivate or to assess progress

@Sittingontheveranda - our head said the same thing about mental health!!! I suggested that connectivity with the school was extremely important for the children's mental health and asked what the school were doing in supporting their mental health - he didn't answer or mention it again!!!

@fruityloom please could you send me the info as well please?

Our head is also obsessed with mental health 🙄 handy as them providing work is bad for mental health apparently as stressful opposite is true imo.

[quote TheNortherner]@fruityloom could you let me know the online learning your friends are using please[/quote]
Have you tried oak national academy?

It's free.

Not perfect by any means (I found a mistake in one of the quizzes) but is well structured.

Yep, we get the mental health and well-being horse shit here as well.

I can confidently say that nothing would benefit my children’s mental health more than some contact and support from the school they hold dear.

Oh yes “the mental health and well-being” patter. We’ve had that too. TBH my kid’s mental health was fine but would be greatly improved by having a structured education provided. It’s also bloody hard to do get a 7 year old to do cosmic sodding yoga with a three year old running around the place unfettered.

My son's mental health and well being has improved so much since we gave up hope of his school doing anything and enrolled him at an online school. He's buzzing about all the lessons and the work. We were doing as much as we could with him (around very busy jobs) but it is the teaching and the feedback and the interaction with the class that has given him such a boost

My DS 14 is at a private school in Scotland and it's pretty poor tbh. Individual teachers have been setting work, but it's not coordinated so they get 20 emails a day about what they are meant to be doing and got told of a (rare) Maths zoom lesson at 7.52am that was taking place at 10am - DS has been sleeping in which is clearly my fault as well as everything else.

Meanwhile my friends DD at state school has been issued with an overview with the aims and topics for all subjects covered in the session.

I've emailed the school to ask them to communicate more with the parents so we can help to direct the work, but no response. I've sent another message yesterday, prompted by governors letter saying next term will not be normal.

My class got a 3 week pack on the day school closed, with a whiteboard, a wb pen, an exercise book and photocopied stuff. Since after the easter 'break':

Daily links to white rose lessons - although from next week I'm doing the same coverage but my own version of the lessons. We've given them workbooks for this term, so lessons tailored to those. Focus on fluency only, hoping that most children can access that bit. Answer video of me working through the workbook questions, narrating my thought process/allowing them to mark. Some extension activities for those who can access them.

Daily videos or online link for an English activity. Sometimes a video lesson, sometimes a worksheet to view online. These have been linked to books or to video clips.

Other stuff varies - science lessons have been most popular, as have history. They are hard to do using home equipment though. I've done French lesson videos with my own child helping me with conversation. I've also read 4 class books - some Jackanory style, some video screen and kindle online screen record.

I'm happy with what I've provided, but all other year groups in my school have done something different. It took 6 weeks to get teams up and running, but I'm not going to use it - class webpage and YouTube has worked ok so far, so I'm carrying on. After 12 weeks of asking, I've finally been given a year group email address so I can get work handed in to me.

I've also spent my own money on SEND resources and posted them with handwritten letters to kids without tech.

Meanwhile amongst our staff we've had parents die, cases of pneumonia, ancer diagnosis, domestic violence/staff member in a hostel with her child, people in middle of home renos with no kitchens or no internet access.

School guidance didn't suggest we do anything in particular, so we all did what we were able to do. A video lesson takes about 3 hours to plan and record. I have to record mine after 10pm when my neighbours stop yelling in their garden.

Here are the kickers:

36% of my year group is engaging with this stuff. In a good week.

I've also got a child at home to home school/take care of. Her school wouldn't accept her as a key worker child.

I also have a partner working from home who is on conference Zoom calls about 80% of the day.

No one has had it easy. If your school have been crap in your opinion, then take it up with the government. It was their guidance.

The parents I know in the UK all have kids at state schools but are in "nice" areas where parents tend to engage in education and everyone has multiple devices at home. I think provision probably tends to be better in those areas.

Schools have to do what best suits their community. Large chunks of my school's community will have no tech, and won't speak English at home. Makes things trickier.

I wish that were true kokeshi...

Ours is a bulletin board where Kids post things and are invariably told it is fab. Even if it is blatantly wrong or a picture of their cat. My son is starting to get really sloppy with spelling etc as he sees the teacher praising things regardless of quality....

That's because we are so pleased that they have done anything!
Some kids will have done the work completely unsupported. So it's hard to criticise them when they have made an effort.

Totally agree @grafittiartist if they are uploading something they deserve encouragement.