What have your school done for home schooling support?

[Bannerwag66]

Really disappointed in our school.

-One phone all home in 12 weeks.
-2 sets of work sheets they created but had repeat tasks on ie-make a cardboard robot On different sheet
-no communication from class teacher
-no class communication so class mates can see each other
Links to websites such as bbc bite size but barely anything they have created or at least advised was what was going to be teached
-they said as of this week They were giving daily lessons out, yesterday didn’t bother to send due to IT issues, why would you send it the same day anyway? I’m not sure why they are changing the routine now, we prepared for chnage and got the children ready but then they didn’t send the work? Just feels a shambles.

In all honestly we’ve done well creating activities and intoning that off websites. Appreciating the schools have a lot on surely there are available teachers to do more with those students at home? Apparently they can start to use Microsoft teams next week.

Interested in other people’s experiences as I want to talk to them but am I being unreasonable. A bit of reassurance the curriculum is being followed and also some interaction with class mates would really make a difference.

We were sent a message to enquire if we wanted school work or not. It was optional. I didn’t reply, so subsequently haven’t heard anything.

Upper primary using Google Classroom and getting 5/6 activities a day. Lower primary using seesaw and getting about 4/5 activities a day. All work is marked with a comment. Teachers are recording themselves reading chapters and setting appropriate work. Teachers are also recording videos of themselves giving little messages. Video from head teacher every now and then and messages on the platforms from deputy heads. Children are getting more than enough work to crack on with. And I can't fault them. Only criticism is that a lot of the maths work is revision rather than learning new things so we're working on that ourselves. I don't understand what your teachers are doing or being paid for if that is the level of communication/teaching that is happening. I appreciate that it's a tough time but they've had 12 weeks to get it together.

A list of tasks put up each week on the website primarily ideas to do like “get your child to write a story about dinosaurs” no handing in, no marking and no phone calls. If he was in trouble in any way the school would not know!

Eldest at secondary gets weekly tasks for each subject, uploaded on to teams all acknowledged and some marked. Teachers available for questions it’s not amazing but head and shoulders above the primary school offer.

To be honest we are trying to find a tutor at the moment as we cannot go on this long with him. And he is not otherwise disadvantaged so I dread to think how more vulnerable kids at the school are coping here is hoping they have been prioritised for support!

DD9 in year 5: Google classroom launched on March 23. 2-6 tasks set daily. Following the normal school curriculum: the same maths and same reading books they would have done if they were in class. I love that the literacy tasks are built around real books. There's also Spanish, Science, grammar, RE, photography, well-being, sport, cooking etc.

No phonecalls but teachers are on-line to help everyday. HT did a video yesterday to show the changes that have been made in the school and there were messages from all the teachers.

DD13 is year 8 in a grammar school. She's given a list every Monday for every task that needs to be done in every subject (and where to find it, the due date etc.). There's about 13 subjects that she has to organise through the week.

Perhaps not perfect but I have no complaints. The girls have been very happy with homeschooling.

I should add that whilst it sounds like a lot of work my children don't start work until 10 and finish at 1. We sometimes do a half hour or so of extra project work in the afternoon - like building the bloody space rocket ! And having said that, the school have also been really clear that if the children, or parents can't manage to hand in anything then not to stress about it. They have made calls to families who haven't engaged at all online to check in that everything is OK and to offer tablets if hardware is the problems. They really are doing their best.

My son’s school has been brilliant (year 8) lots of varied and interesting lessons for each subject every day, always marked and returned with comments and feedback, regular emails from teachers and head of year, 2 phone calls so far, on line assemblies and soon to start some online lessons. Lots of extra support offered if needed. I can’t fault them at all.

Our school’s provision has got much better since half term. More teachers are using Teams, they have added a couple of good portals, one for music which is a sort of on-line mixing desk, and a group quiz site.

The teachers seem more organised, better rehearsed and a bit more confident. I guess they’re adapting as they go.

Yr3 - online resources which are handed in. Teachers doing videos of them reading stories.

Yr9 - emailed daily with tasks, most online resources. Working well.

Yr7 - same as above but after many struggles school have given him a place at school. Currently goes once a week.

So happy enough in the circumstances, just frustrating that there is little consideration for the "one laptop between 3" situations.

I am really disappointed and confused by the difference in provision.

I'm a teacher at a primary school. We have to check in with children once a week, if we don't hear from them the Head calls. Every day a whole days work is posted for each class on the website. This is sticking to the usual timetable - all subjects. No handing in of work or marking but children are encouraged to email pictures of work which are put up on the website.

The school weekly newsletter is still sent out every Friday, with the usual certificates for achievement, photos etc.

This is government and local advice. Why are some schools not doing it? Why are a Heads not insisting on this. I'd be interested to see if it's certain local authorities.

@BoysRule Hi thanks for sharing. Where has this advice come from? I’m just interested as I’m concerned about the lack of consistency across local schools let alone if it’s nationally. It’s such a shame.

I know you say government but I’m just wondering if it’s consistent for all. Very interesting this appears to be ignored!

Full online teaching with live lessons and recorded lessons
Live form time every morning..inc video via Teams
Teachers available on line in Teams when it's a recorded lesson
Lesson plan on One Note
Work marked and or verbal feedback given
BUT
Prep school
Fee paying parents
All children year three and above ( yrs Rec to 8 ) have a school iPad

Y5 primary using Seesaw - the platform is great, easy to use and over time, they have improved a bit on their content... but mostly its actually photocopies from a maths book ( it has chilli's hot, super hot and spicy hot for differentiation) although I think this is what they use anyway in school for their maths curriculum... but there's minimum teaching behind it. So if you don't understand how to do long multiplication, there's no support... just lots of questions to answer. DC is good at maths so it's too easy anyway. As it was in school.

It seems very revision based... but we just had a new topic relevant to Y5 so DC is actually doing maths this week!

English was better behalf half term. They chose a book, 99p on amazon but they also scanned in the pages. So they had to read and then follow Literacy Shed questions.... again, there was no 'teaching' just photocopied questions from a teaching manual. Again, DC is a good reader and has enjoyed the work set. PLUS being able to type up work rather than hand write it has been a bonus.

It has shown me that the school don't create any learning content - they just buy them in!

Minimum if any science, RE, PE and that's it.

Am I disappointed? YES. They are two form entry so only one of the teachers needed to do this scanning and uploading (or share it!) and I can't see that taking more than an hour tops. So what they are doing for the rest of the week (ok, less now the children are in) but even so.

As well as the lessons scanned from a book - so are all the answers so parents have to mark it too.
Teachers might give a heart or well done comment but again, I can't see how this takes so long but apparently it is taking up all their time!

I have every right to complain. I work in a primary (support) and my school is a thousand times better. Daily lessons, videos, full staff edited videos, all work is commented and marked for improvement, web based maths, topic, phone calls, respond to emails, phone when children are stuck. Plus sent home exercise books, pens pencils etc. Daily head teacher emails (they must be sick of us!!).

Wouldn't it be interesting if there was some way to measure Ofsted rating of leadership with parental happiness of lockdown learning! ! !
Is there a correlation ?

Year 8 SEN in mainstream school - one phone call at the beginning of lockdown to ask if I wanted to send him in or not. Daily work via school lessons system piling up out of control because we can't keep up with it. Support worker sent email saying I can email with any problems. Not sure what she expects me to email her with, i'd be there all day. I did email her and ask her if my child would benefit from going to school twice a week and she said that he wouldn't have one to one support (although he is entitled) and that i'd probably be doing a better job with him at home. But it's 'my call'. Gee thanks, rock and hard place springs to mind.

No other support, no phone calls no pastoral support. Pretty shit really I think.

DD primary have been amazing:

Daily activities to complete posted on seesaw
Daily optional activities to complete on seesaw
Option to pick up huge pack of worksheets each week
Weekly communication
Several posts per day on classdojo offering info on pacesetter workout schedule and reminders for key worker parents and additional support

We are incredibly lucky tbh. Really pleased with everything they are doing. Just want kids to be happy and safe and encourage us to tick along their core skills most of all.

I note from reading Hansard that the govt is planning to start making expectations on schools to deliver good quality remote learning much clearer, so hopefully things will improve for those of us who have had a risible amount of input from school.

Yes I have figured stuff out to do instead, but that is exhausting on top of a full-time job.

I have sorted a tutor for DD now to supplement what we do, and the boys are at a private school and a private online school respectively, but I know those aren't options for everyone.

Too little, too late from the government, surely? If schools haven’t got their acts together by now, what is going to change in five weeks?!

@haggisfish I agree it should have happened much sooner and much more should have been done but I think it isn't too late as I expect it is a long time before all children are back at school full-time

Wouldn't it be interesting if there was some way to measure Ofsted rating of leadership with parental happiness of lockdown learning! ! !
Is there a correlation?

That would not be interesting, that would be bullying.

I wonder what ofsted have been doing the last 12 weeks? There is literally nothing for them to do. Probably on full pay. Hmm...

We've had almost exactly the same as Lulu1919 above but in a US state school - live lessons, clear lesson plans, work marked, teachers available, lots of follow up if work missed.

They've actually now finished for the summer holiday, and have sent out a survey to find out how they can improve on what's been offered since March, as they think it's not been good enough.

My DD is in state primary. We have had:

• no phone calls
• no marking, and any work submitted has been ignored or a brief comment over a week later
• refusal to consider online meetings, after many comments from parents Head has agreed to trial MS Teams later in the term, which if successful might enable them to use it next term if still needed
• weekly timetable with links to Oak National, Joe Wicks, reminder to use the times tables website and spellings website.and some "fun" learning for each day eg a zumba workout on YouTube or watch a zoo webcam and pretend to be a zookeeper.

School dailed to inform the wider parent community that Year 6 wasnt going back to school until 15th June and then recently sent an update- only half of year 6 will fit into the school as their interpretation of the guidance means they have only found space for 4 or 5 children in each classroom, but 15.

I sent a message saying please, please tell us what you are struggling with - perhaps parents could help or the PTA could fund raise. But no direct reply to that. We got an email today saying the school can't phone families because they only have two landline telephones! They could easily ask the PTA for funds to buy some cheap mobiles.

I used to love my daughter's school, but they have not brought us on the journey with them and many parents are now really fed up with the school constantly telling us how hard it is and how hard everyone is working but we really arent seeing results. Everyone is tired, everyone is struggling, and patience has worn thin.

Thankfully my daughter is doing well in home school, not as well as I would like, but we are doing our own Zoom calls with friends to do lessons online together, reading aloud online to grandparents using ebooks, meeting up for socially-dstanced scavenger hunts or bike rides and picnics.

My point is - the school is going to do whatever it wants, your comments will probably just get ignored aas the teachers are really busy with their year 6 bubbles now. Save your time and invest it in doing the best home school you possibly can.

@ohthegoats inspectors are paid per inspection so I don’t think they will be getting paid tbh.

I have a foot in both camps - I’m a TA where my kids go to school!

However, they have been brilliant.

Weekly lesson plans, emailed on the Friday before so you can plan ready for the Monday.

Monday morning, teachers go into school and photocopy paper versions for those who don’t have a printer. Then they drive round the area delivering them (I’ve done some of this).
Each pack contains:
English activities, including spelling words and activities to help learn those words, reading comprehension sheets, and some writing activities.
Maths, various challenges and worksheets. We’ve done lots of measuring and weighing. Each maths challenge comes with a ‘real life maths’ section so there are examples to work through on the sheets but then something related to it in the real world (like measuring for baking, or comparing different heights of family members, or measuring someone’s height and then converting someone’s height from feet and inches into metres).
Topic work: mix of history, geography and science. Some experiments to do. Some simple things like record what you see on a walk.
Links to other helpful websites, but also individual tasks set in the school learning app.
No pressure to compete the work pack, lots of reminders that you can dip in and out and choose the things that suit you.

Also, regular phone calls to children who there are concerns about - not necessarily vulnerable but children who haven’t completed much of the work pack, for example.

Online lessons, one to one, for children who need additional learning support. (I’ve been involved with these as two staff members are required for each one).

Weekly newsletters with photos of the children and their work, birthdays highlighted, general news of what people are up to included.

A school bake off competition, and a virtual sports day with a list of challenges the kids can take part in.

We now have more kids in school, but the provision has remained the same and will continue to do so because we only have about 10% of kids back.