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!

[Doyoumind]

By failing to provide work or contact and remaining closed, I feel our school has firmly put the mental health of the children and their parents at the bottom of the priority pile while the teachers have had weeks and weeks of doing very little work at all. I am starting to become really concerned for my DC.

[cocktailoclock]

@Doyoumind are they not even open for key workers

[BunsyGirl]

@user1487194234 I have a family member who is a teacher. He is doing very little work - mainly lesson planning for next year. However, he has completely revamped his back garden during lockdown. Not all teachers are doing this. Some are working very hard. However, as we can see from these threads, others are not. It is a disgrace.

[Doyoumind]

Cocktail, yes they are open for key workers but don't have many in and therefore very few staff in at any one time. They provide very little work or guidance. No online teaching, marking or feedback. No calls from the school. We can't contact teachers. We aren't in a deprived area where children can't access online learning. Education has been largely left to the parents to pick up, whilst they try to work from home.

[user1487194234]

Apologies I certainly didn't mean all teachers

[Kokeshi123]

Are there really schools that allow shielding teachers to do nothing? I'm shocked if that is the case. You can't catch viruses through your computer screen or pencil.

I hope/assume that this is not the norm and that most shielding teachers are working on marking, feedback, setting work and other things. Obviously teaching KW kids or delivering packs of hard-copy work or picking them up is not going to be happening.

[lifestooshort123]

My yr7 grandson does bbc bite size work. His form tutor said to concentrate on the core subjects and don't overdo it (!). His history teacher sent them a link to their syllabus from now until GCSE and said, pick out anything you're interested in. His drama teacher emailed his mum (first contact in 12 weeks) to say why hadn't she asked for any work yet (she's off the Christmas card list). My daughter is a single parent wfh and each evening she plans work for him for the next day - it takes up to 3hrs for him to do - and also uses the maths and science on Oak National Academy. She's realised that a lot of his teachers don't teach, they facilitate. Some of his class mates haven't done any work at all and nobody from their school has pushed them. I worry about the fall out when they eventually get back into school and the long-term damage this is doing.

[pontypridd]

I imagine the government is happy to turn a blind eye to the current absence of state education as it will increase the social divide to the advantage of themselves and their mates.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

@pontypridd

I imagine the government is happy to turn a blind eye to the current absence of state education as it will increase the social divide to the advantage of themselves and their mates.

I presume that’s what teachers (#notallteachers, but the ones who are happy for a large portion of the kids in the country to go uneducated and accuse us of teacher bashing if we try to raise it) are thinking- their own kids will be fine, they will teach them and there will be less competition for them in the future.
I would never have believed this of teachers a few months ago but then I wouldn’t have expected them to fail their classes so completely.

[palacegirl77]

Very surprised on the zoom thing. Our school has said they arent allowed to use zoom as it is not secure and for child safe guarding reasons it shouldnt be used?

[pooiepooie25]

TheCountess yes you are absolutely right- lots of teachers don't give a shit about their pupils and are delighted that their own kids can get ahead... of course you are correct. We ultimately all went into teaching with the hope that one day their would be a global pandemic and we would finally be able to get a one up on everyone else by teaching our own kids at home...

Is it time for that Mumsnet favourite line- Are you on glue?

[BrieAndChilli]

Our schools are using teams for video calls. The primary school have requested that parents are nearby during the call, I guess to safeguard both the children and the teachers.

[LongTallSammie]

I had a lot of respect for teachers and for some I have lost that.

Older child school - excellent - good amount of online work set and it's obvious that they are working. When it comes to Ofsted returning my response will be huge praise and thanks for the school.

Younger - very poor - weekly email cut and pasted to all - read 20 mins each day, watch BBC Bite Size and a small topic, general theme go off and research yourself. This is supposed to cover all the week. This must take a teacher tops 30 mins to do. When it comes to parental feedback - very poor and will list exactly why, since there is no way any of the teachers have worked full time at all. PS They have on average 15 keyworker children in and staff are working a 2 weeks off (supposedly working from home - doing what who knows) and 1 week in school.

To all of the very defensive teachers - I have contacted the school several times and they say don't worry they will catch them up next term, blah blah blah. I have said how poor compared to other school and they say only some teachers are in each week! Some had had it remarkably easy.

[BraeburnMia]

Our children's primary school have been amazing. Yr6 and yr3
Each Monday, we receive a timetable for both classes
Each day there are 4 lessons
Literacy, maths, pe and alternate days of topic, re and science.
We have an email for each teacher and each day we send the days work which is checked and feedback is given the next day.
We also have telephone calls once a fortnight from the class teacher and zoom calls for 1 hour each friday for each class.
We also have an app where the head teacher uploads any updates, newsletters etc. Each week a child from each class is chosen as star of the week and a certificate arrives in the post. They also use twitter to post the work so other pupils can see what each other have done.
The yr 3 teacher made videos each day for the literacy lessons and we have downloads for the maths and other subjects.
As my eldest is due to go to secondary school in September, the new school have also sent us a link for maths lessons, and will be sending science and literacy lessons too to help him prepare. They will ba doing zoom mtgs for him and his new form class so they get to know their new classmates and the form teacher. They also sent a pack through for us to go through in preparation for the move.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

@pooiepooie25

TheCountess yes you are absolutely right- lots of teachers don't give a shit about their pupils and are delighted that their own kids can get ahead... of course you are correct. We ultimately all went into teaching with the hope that one day their would be a global pandemic and we would finally be able to get a one up on everyone else by teaching our own kids at home...

Is it time for that Mumsnet favourite line- Are you on glue?

I think I must have been on something when I genuinely believed they all gave a shit. It would take something very strong to make me believe that now.

[Kokeshi123]

I don't believe for a second that any schools or teacher are maliciously refusing to teach so that their own kids can get ahead. That sounds utterly ridiculous to me and I have never met a teacher who thought like that.

Most teachers and schools are working hard. I think cases of poor provision are usually to do with either a) "Their wellbeing is important, let them play all day!" or b) "The kids and parents in our catchment area just won't engage, there is no point in trying, we'll deal with the mess later."

[MsTSwift]

Dd went back today on reduced basis. Said to dh “guess which teachers were there and have been in school throughout” he immediately said 3 names and was correct. Some teachers are excellent and committed my beef is with the government instructing schools not to bother teaching primary level.

[Sittingontheveranda]

I don't believe for a second that any schools or teacher are maliciously refusing to teach so that their own kids can get ahead.

It would be an incredibly stupid thing to do to their own children who would not benefit in the long term at all. It would mean these children would return to the classroom already knowing what was being taught and would sit bored and disruptive for six months while their classmates learned what they already knew. It would effectively mean these kids switched off in the classroom. It would be very unfair to have disruptive and bored children in the classroom but even more so it would be very unfair to their own children.

It already happens in one of my children's classrooms. The teacher's children (who teach in another school) are very very disruptive and disliked by their peers. It is also unfair to their child who gets on well in primary school due to extra weekend tutoring but when they start secondary, suddenly mum and dad aren't available or knowledgeable enough and the child cannot cope with results being lower and loses any motivation they had. I went to school myself with two children whose mum (a teacher) taught them outside of school. They both dropped out of university. Everything evens out in the end.

[puffinkoala]

@pontypridd

I imagine the government is happy to turn a blind eye to the current absence of state education as it will increase the social divide to the advantage of themselves and their mates.

Yes it took me a while to realise that this was happening but over the weekend it was obvious.

[MsTSwift]

Although most labour mps have their kids in state schools to be fair (not a labour person but anecdotally we know some in those circles)

[purpleblobs]

One thing that is absolutely astounding is how much teacher get paid.
On reading they 'don't get paid for the holidays' if I work back on their 52 week pay equivalent they get paid a lot! I didn't realise they're only paid for the physical weeks they worked before CV hit. Most people have open worded contracts ie or as many hours as required to fulfil your duty. My hours state 37.5 hours but that's just the beginning, and I then get 28 days annual leave, I always have overtime but it's almost unheard of to only do 37.5 hours in my company we don't whine about it. I've taken my laptop on holiday to work as well.

Many teachers do manage to fulfil their duties within their contractual hours as well it's not all sad stories. I will never support teachers pay rise again. Far too much money for the outcome. It should be results based on the least.

[Sittingontheveranda]

Purpleblobs What is the salary? Based on 5 year's service? 10 year's service? 15 year's service? for a primary school teacher?

I didn't realise they didn't get paid for holidays.

[fascinated]

Results based?

You’re having a laugh... with the attitudes to education in some families? No thanks.

[BertNErnie]

Ha ha, highly paid?! Working during contractual hours only?

My contract is 32.5hrs. I worked around 10hrs a day last week and in total I worked 11hrs yesterday and 9.5hrs today.

It's taken 10+ years to reach around 46/47k. I have friends who are bringing in over 6 figures in private sector jobs and we qualified at the same time.

[Theromanempire]

DS1 - secondary school was ok initially. They set assignments on a Monday with the deadline of Friday so DS1 could work through them at his own pace/choice - some he got feedback for, some he didn't. They gradually introduced the occasional online lesson via Teams. However since half term, they have really improved. He is starting the GCSE curriculum so now only doing his chosen subjects and he has 3 hour long online lessons every day at set times with some bits to do outside of these. It is working really well - he is happy as he only has 3 hours each day and it gives him structure to his days Have had regular emails to confirm his progress/engagement.

DS2 - year 6, shocking! Each week, teacher uploads one Maths exercise (watch a video and answer questions), one SPAG exercise (a photo of a page of an exercise book) and a comprehensive exercise. Also some topic work plus encouragement to do online spelling and maths games which they have a in-school league for. How is that supposed to last 5 days?? Nothing is submitted therefore nothing is marked and no feedback given. Not had one phone call or email from the school to check up on DS2 - where is their concern for his welfare? I am so disappointed in the provision Must take the teacher all of 30 minutes per week to do As it is, DS2 has been doing the daily bitesize lessons since they started so his routine is those first then 5-10 spelling and maths games (maximum of an hour in total). Then he plays on the xbox till lunch then does one of the teacher exercises which is 30 minutes max and he is done for the day!