Primary Schools plans’ for future homeschooling

[Lemons1571]

The government guidance says something along the lines of “schools need to be ready to immediately switch to remote learning to minimise disruption”. Presumably this is if a bubble bursts or there is a bigger local lockdown in the area.

So, how are the primary schools going to manage home learning when parents are also working and unavailable to input / manage / set up this “provision”.

I would like a plan B for my family, but I can’t think of one. If there is a local lockdown we can’t have anyone else in the house (eg vulnerable grandparent) to help. I work 9-6 no flex, DH works out of the home 9-5. Mortgage needs paying. I can’t try and enthuse a primary aged child to do some homeschool at 7am or 7pm, it just wouldn’t happen and wouldn’t be fair. But then not paying the mortgage if I don’t work isn’t exactly a great plan either.

Does anyone know if primary schools have a plan that doesn’t assume all families have a sahp able to support this? Does anyone else have a plan B?

I would expect live online learning, that seems to be the norm in America were states are not going back, they even have rules re dress codes about it - far cry from a few twinkle worksheets! (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.fox5ny.com/news/school-district-says-no-pajamas-for-online-classes.amp)

@2kool4skool Hopefully by sending the survey that means they're putting plans in place for if things don't go to plan? I know that's not going to help you though. Our schools aren't doing that as apparently it'll be fine - I guess that's where the difference between private & state come in.

@ineedaholidaynow as a parent to a 6yo, if we have to go back to home school while WFH again I would like

• contact between DD and her teacher, we had 1 phone call in April and that was it.
• weekly Teams/Zoom class meet up so they can do an assembly or catch up, story, sing song type session for an hour
• marked work, doesn't have to be a huge amount, just something like the homework book they have when at school normally that confirms their understanding of the subject.

The first couple of months I was very understanding, it was a new situation, we had no way of knowing what was going on, teachers were scrabbling around trying to figure out the keyworker thing.

After that though, there were less than 10% of the kids at school in keyworker provision, hardly any of the teachers needed to be there to support that, and there was no provision of work to homeschoolers and no contact. There should have been plenty of time for the teachers not at school to be developing schemes of work and delivery mechanics for the kids at home.

@ineedaholidaynow I guess I’d like understanding from the school that when there are 2 ft working parents, then homeschool will happen barely or not at all. And no the parents might not be keyworkers. But they still need to pay the bills for a roof over their children’s heads.

And when the kids go back, that the ones who couldn’t be supported at home get additional help to catch up (maybe via this additional funding for tutoring in the autumn term?)

Not just some assumption that when a parent is wfh, they are able to magic up an additional 6 hours in the day to do 2 jobs at once. And cannot just prioritise homeschool over paying the mortgage.

Our bubbles pop if a child is symptomatic until the test is negative or 14 days. I hope there's a decent provision for online learning given how often that bubble is gonna pop.
They were pretty good tbf during lockdown, bit when the kids went back, the kids who didn't go back have virtually nothing

Our teachers worked hard to provide online offering so I’ve no complaints there, save that kids need social interaction generally, but with young kids they NEED an adult there with them. Gone if you are SAHP with 1 kid but if you have 2+ kids or a FT job WTAF are you supposed to do?
I get that’s schools plan B, but what’s my plan B with the work I can’t then do as I’m homeschooling 2 kids?

Actually I think one of the hardest scenarios is going to be the halfway house - when school is open but significant numbers of children are absent because of self isolation (due to symptoms of a family member for example). At least when a whole school is closed, the teachers aren't in class - so they have time available to deliver remote learning (in whatever format that's delivered). But when the school is open and the teachers are in class teaching all day, who on earth is going to be sorting out high quality remote learning for the (say) five kids out of thirty who are at home that fortnight?

[quote Qasd]I would expect live online learning, that seems to be the norm in America were states are not going back, they even have rules re dress codes about it - far cry from a few twinkle worksheets! (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.fox5ny.com/news/school-district-says-no-pajamas-for-online-classes.amp)[/quote]
This will not work for many families who may have no laptop or siblings trying to all share one laptop/tablet. There also my be internet bandwidth problems especially if parents are also working from home.
It is better to have a mix of online recorded teaching that students can access at any time plus a mix of downloadable worksheets/questions and online work so that the learning is accessible to more families. A few sessions of live interaction might be possible but even then I don't know what students will do if siblings need to be online at the same time.
Children in year 2 or lower might well need parental input while they access a live lesson anyway as I think many of them will find it hard to focus via zoom or similar.

Also, a school may close because many teachers are actually I'll with Covid19. They won't be able to any kind of work while they are I'll unless they have it very mildly

I’m also wondering about the logistics of teacher numbers if they are Ill not just isolating. Are there enough supply teachers - who won’t necessarily have access to technology to provide work for pupils at home? We definitely need clear backup plans

I can’t try and enthuse a primary aged child to do some homeschool at 7am or 7pm, it just wouldn’t happen and wouldn’t be fair.

I know it'll be a nightmare, but imo it would be fair to try to do some things at funny times. Or switch the weekend for the week.

I'm not saying anything will be easy or fun, but a bit of time when it can be fitted in is better than nothing.

Honestly OP if it comes to it, don't stress about what they learn. Prioritise whatever pays the bills. Maybe have some time at weekends where you do 30 mins English and 30 mins maths together. There will be a lot of people in the same boat even if it doesn't feel like it from what the school puts out.

Also, can you get your/DH job classed as key worker?

Also, can you get your/DH job classed as key worker? What difference will that make? If they're isolating, they cannot be in school!

When schools 'closed' the Government said that the curriculum was suspended so technically schools didn't really have to provide any new work and when key worker/vulnerable children were in school it had to be more childcare than teaching otherwise they would have been treated preferentially to the other children which would be wrong.

Obviously some school ignored the suspended curriculum and carried on teaching new work. This has caused the gap for disadvantaged pupils to row even more as they were more likely to be unable to access this work, if their school actually provided it.

The guidelines for September do state that schools have to provide remote provision if required. Unfortunately schools have not been provided with any additional funding to do this. Many teachers were having to use their own equipment to provide work last term, which bearing in mind no pupil details should be on their personal equipment breaches safeguarding rules.

The Government promised laptops for disadvantaged pupils, these really didn't happen. One school I know got one, they had asked for many more. What are they meant to do if they have to close, share it between families?

The much publicised tutoring fund, not seen any of that yet in my schools. Bearing in mind to access much of that funding schools also have to provide some money themselves, money they just don't have.

As a school governor I would not be impressed if a school had not contacted families throughout last term. In our Governor meetings it was a regular question how child welfare checks were going. Interestingly of course there were quite a few threads on here, especially in the early days of lockdown where parents were complaining that teachers were contacting them, so schools really can't win.

@SleepingStandingUp

Also, can you get your/DH job classed as key worker? What difference will that make? If they're isolating, they cannot be in school!

Yes I'm confusing myself here! If there is a future local lockdown where schools close except for key workers kids it would be helpful... but I don't know if local lockdowns will include that.

Hi OP, yes I'm afraid Boris and Rishi have said there will be no extra funding so unfortunately if schools have to close, remote learning is the backup and yes, we do expect parents to support as you've all done so diligently since March. Best, Gavin

@GetUpAgain the Government have said where possible schools will be the last thing that closes if there is a local lockdown.

However, if COVID gets into the school and a 'bubble' bursts and there is a key worker child in that bubble they will not be treated any differently to any other pupil in the bubble and they will have to self isolate.

@dibbleme you’ve hit the nail on the head with your post. It’s going to be a nightmare for schools to provide online learning for a small group of children isolating while others are in school. The government have mandated that schools need to provide this though including daily contact. Expect to see children in school being supervised by TAs because the class teacher needs to provide online learning and contact.

Yes I have a Plan B. I actually had to leave my part time job to home school DS when the lockdown happened, as no way could I do both (severe SEN).

I am now looking at extra income from something more flexible that I can do in the evenings when DH has finished his work. Unfortunately he earns more so it had to be me who gave up my job. I am not angry, I was all for the lockdown, I am a scientist and could see the virus didn’t care whether I had a job! It needed to be done and might need to be done again.

@dibbleme

Actually I think one of the hardest scenarios is going to be the halfway house - when school is open but significant numbers of children are absent because of self isolation (due to symptoms of a family member for example). At least when a whole school is closed, the teachers aren't in class - so they have time available to deliver remote learning (in whatever format that's delivered). But when the school is open and the teachers are in class teaching all day, who on earth is going to be sorting out high quality remote learning for the (say) five kids out of thirty who are at home that fortnight?

I suspect where children are self isolating for family reasons, it'll work how an actual illness would. So if your child had two weeks off sick in January, you'd have to contact the school for work or catch up. If a bubble pops, the teacher (adding they're not I'll in bed with Corona virus) will be home too so will be expected to provide remote learning. How this works if your learning has been paper based I don't know, or for kids without the tech

I have no plan B. As a single parent who cannot WFH, I don't know what my plan B would be. I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for no closures!

'If a bubble pops, the teacher will be at home too.' In primary, yes, but not necessarily in secondary. Our secondary school is working on the basis of year group bubbles, but the teachers are working across those bubbles (with the plan to distance from the kids as much as possible while they teach). So, if Year 9 are all sent home for a fortnight because of a couple of cases, then their subject teachers are all still going to be in school teaching the rest of their year groups. I think the plan is that they would then deliver the Year 9 lessons at the usual scheduled time online, from school, which does work in theory - and I think they're planning that individual students isolating at home will be able to 'dial in' to the in-school lessons live online - but it's a lot to ask of the teachers to be switching between in person and remote teaching, and to plan lessons that are suitable for both, and none of this is going to be easy.

[quote Lemons1571]@ineedaholidaynow I guess I’d like understanding from the school that when there are 2 ft working parents, then homeschool will happen barely or not at all. And no the parents might not be keyworkers. But they still need to pay the bills for a roof over their children’s heads.

And when the kids go back, that the ones who couldn’t be supported at home get additional help to catch up (maybe via this additional funding for tutoring in the autumn term?)

Not just some assumption that when a parent is wfh, they are able to magic up an additional 6 hours in the day to do 2 jobs at once. And cannot just prioritise homeschool over paying the mortgage.[/quote]
It’s likely that you will have understanding from the school if you can’t get the home learning done, what can they actually do about it if you don’t?

Schools might be required to provide a home learning plan because that’s what government has told them to do, but it’s up to parents whether or not they want to deliver it, I really don’t think you need to worry.

On your point about schools providing catch up for children whose parents didn’t engage in the home learning for whatever reason, you’re being unreasonable. Where do you think the extra time and staff are supposed to come from to facilitate this? How are the children supposed to have the time to cover the new work if they’re out of the classroom doing the previous work?

You should absolutely expect a solid plan from your school about home learning if there’s a closure, but you can’t expect the school to do it for you.

@IceCreamSummer20 but can you still afford to pay your rent / mortgage and bills on your DH’s salary alone? Our problem is that we both earn the same and both salaries are needed to meet the bills.

@NailsNeedDoing isn’t some of the £1 billion for additional resourcing to aid catch up? I think individual heads get to decide how the funding should be directed.

My child is disadvantaged - he doesn’t have a non working parent to facilitate homeschool so therefore he’s at a disadvantage. If I stop work and homeschool that will start the road to homelessness. Which I would consider to also be a disadvantage.