Clearly there have been barriers to live or recorded lessons. However, there are solutions to most, if not all barriers. Some schools have overcome these barriers at differing speeds, but some don’t even seem to be starting to overcome them.
Can I ask, is the policy that unless everyone can access something, no-one can have it? It lack of IT or internet for some children meaning schools choose not to do recorded or live lessons?
Teacher IT issues - it is shocking that teachers aren’t provided with laptops and software in normal times. I can see that getting stuff to all teachers is difficult now. That said, honestly are there really more than a handful of teachers who don’t have a computer/laptop at home and internet access? Teachers are not disadvantaged groups so although they might be using their own equipment, surely they have actually got it. Are they refusing to use it? Do schools feel they can’t ask them to use it?
I know if a small local private school where a friend teaches. It’s not a big name and doesn’t have high fees and teachers earn less than state teachers. They aren’t given laptops. When lockdown happened, they were told to deliver 1 live lesson per class, per week and record it and put it online, plus provide work for other lesson. They were told to take in 1 piece of work per subject per week and provide feedback - marked work, verbal etc. They did 1 live lesson and not all in recognition of shared IT in families and it was fine if children didn’t attend it live but watched later. But the majority are watching live and having interaction with teacher. Each child gets feedback for each subject per week. Some students don’t have enough laptops in there house for 1 per person and share with parent or sibling. It works.
So my Q is, why is this different to the state school? The teachers don’t have superior tech Or even anything provided by school, the children aren’t all rolling in tech.....but somehow a good balance between live and set work with lots of feedback is happening. Of course these teachers also have children T home .....but they don’t say that means they can’t deliver. Like other key workers, they work round it with partners or send their children to key worker provision at their own schools. They didn’t know how to use Zoom or Teams before, like most teachers.....but have learned how to do it. They safeguard by not having children on screen/knitting backgrounds and using settings to control what children can do online. All of these things were quickly learned.
So I totally accept there were and are barriers....but the Q is about overcoming them. Some schools do seem determined to overcome them....and some don’t. Is the fee paying parents who might withdraw their child, somehow a motive that helps teachers and schools overcome barriers, but for some state schools the motivation just isn’t strong enough.
Schools face differing circumstances. But even in schools with significant no’s of disadvantaged children and barriers, provision has wildly differed. The Q is why some have managed more feedback, to look at more work and to engage with children more than others, even when the schools have similar cohorts of children and similar issues of staff equipment, staff having caring responsibilities etc.