Really disappointed with school

[ILoveYoghurts]

Dc in year 1 and 3. Through the pandemic we have no communication from school, just a pack they were sent home with the day they finished.

Received a message in May asking if dd in year 1 would be going back if they were to open. I said yes. Heard nothing again. I phoned last week to see what was happening to be told school don't have enough space and only year 6's would be returning in June.

I feel so disappointed. I have heard other schools teachers are calling them weekly to check in, they are doing online classes and star of the week. I feel this would really have helped dd as she has been really difficult to engage in any school work and we are struggling.

Is this normal or have other schools been much more involved?

I don't think you are unreasonable to want more frequent communication from your child's school.

That's really low contact. So no weekly emails with work or phone calls? My children send an email every week with detailed plans. We send photos of work back. Teachers write a comment. I thought that was the minimum any school would do? I also teach and have online lessons and phone calls.

That’s completely hopeless. Strongly worded letter to the governors and the LEA about the school’s failure to provide any kind of an education.

Are you absolutely certain they aren’t providing any work via the school website? Any form of class app (dojo?) or Via an online program already used like my maths/Timestable rockstars etc? I can’t believe any school would get away with such low contact. I also think that I would have been in touch with them after a couple of weeks and not 2 months after!

Yes that sounds absolutely disgraceful.

We get a weekly email with work for the week plus regular email updates from school. We also have an app for uploading images of work or files if completed on laptop etc. Also a chat area where she can message her teacher directly. They have been great.

My daughter is in secondary but she gets multiple daily emails and I get a call once a week from her form tutor. That's very poor communication and I don't think meets their safeguarding responsibility.

I would also advise calling them first thing today to find out what they have in place. If it really is nothing other than the initial pack then I would be requesting speaking to the headteacher.

Schools should be checking in weekly, this can be via Class apps, email, phone calls, home visits (social distancing) if families aren’t engaging.

Um, that's appalling.

My year 4 has a full week of learning every week through Google Classroom - we receive a chart every Monday morning setting out the learning for each day that week, divided into maths, English, art, topic, science etc.

The class teachers are marking every piece of work and providing comments.

And there are also one or two class zoom calls a week (and a special themed one to make up for their missed residential).

This is also the case (adjusted for age) lower down the school.

I have to say, their efforts have been extraordinary (esp given that they are also in school some days and have their own kids to look after), and I wouldn't necessarily expect every school to be providing quite this level, but that should give you a measure to compare your own school against!

What strikes me most is the lack of communication, and there's really no excuse for that. As a parent, it would make me wonder whether the school was up to scratch more generally, lockdown aside.

Thank you everyone. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being unreasonable. I have left a message asking for telephone call/meeting with headteacher or senior member of staff

That sounds awful. My son’s Primary school sent them home with a learning pack. We have had 2 telephone parents evenings, one of which the teacher spoke to the children to check in with them. We have a weekly load of work sent on a Monday via an app that works out at about 2 hours of work a day. We have log ins for an app that has loads of books for them to read at their learning level. Info on the Department of Education YouTube phonics lessons (which are brill) They get regular video messages on the app from their class teacher and headteacher. Weekly newsletter still from the headteacher and loads of updates on the current situation. That really doesn’t sound good enough from what you’ve described!

Also, the schools advice is that if they can't accommodate Year R, Year 1 and Year 6 then they start from the youngest children first. Year 6 shouldn't be in if Year 1 aren't.

It’s not that usual, we have weekly tasks on the website but not requirement to hand in and no personal contact.

But say it on here and it’s “just your school” apart from the fact it isn’t! There are enough schools with this approach to create serious nationalwide problems for education but also safeguarding (my son is fine but literally no outside agency would know if he wasn’t).

But the tide does seem to be turning and I am increasingly thinking that schools will either go back in September fully or there will be a requirement for minimum levels of education and contact for the children who remain on their school roll. Here is hoping anyway!

And ours only has year six back after a 300 percent rise in key worker children! Basically they are not educating the majority of kids so anyone who can claim key worker status is doing so as the only meaningful way to access an education.