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Original poster

Primary Schools plans’ for future homeschooling

131 replies

Lemons1571 · 23/08/2020 20:36

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?

OP posts:
Fortsta · 29/08/2020 01:55

The thing is, it is easy for a teacher to say "you need a plan b as a parent too" or "I have my own children to teach too" or "it is not my job to parent your child",
But

  1. If schools close, teachers do not need to worry about their pay. Unlike working parents who may find their bosses unhappy about them putting less effort into work as they are focusing on homeschooling.

  2. Of course nobody on this thread is saying teachers need to parent their child. Their saying that children are massively disadvantaged now, particular those with working parents. And that include parents who work from home. Just because parents work from home doesn't mean they can juggle homeschooling and work.
    If homeschooling is so easy for parents to do and if it was easy to juggle home-schooling and work then schools would not exist and parents would be homeschooling their children.
    So no, nobody is asking teachers to 'parent' their children, but to 'educate'.

I completely agree OP btw. If schools close then it will cause stress for working parents.

Fortsta · 29/08/2020 01:56

Which is why I find in these surveys when schools are asking parents "do you work from home?" it is adding to the current stereotype that those who work from home are not doing much. Therefore, the can surely homeschool their children Hmm

notevenat20 · 29/08/2020 05:28

I hope no one thinks this is too sneaky but I searched as many primary school websites as I could until I found one with decent home teaching material you could download. I found the SATs league tables were a useful guide for where to look. Although the ones right at the top often had passwords!

GalaxyCookieCrumble · 29/08/2020 05:37

I had one email in week 12 off my Dc teacher and that was it, work was put up weekly but nothing was marked, no online lessons, was not happy about it.

notevenat20 · 29/08/2020 06:00

Up until the end of June we could pick up print outs from outside the school and that was it . Nothing on the web and no interaction.

One week's work was in its entirety "Make an invention". The teacher of course would never hear of DCs revolutionary invention.

Kitcat122 · 29/08/2020 10:05

During lockdown curriculum was suspended so no children in or out of school were given new syllabus. They were consolidating previous learning the government guidelines this time are different.

Everyone will have this problem. I work in a school but if my children in different school have to isolate I will not be able to work. I don't usually get paid if I'm off for my children. I have a mortgage.

CKBJ · 29/08/2020 12:22

Plan b,c,d as in tier 2,3,4 been released by government late last night. According to this Primary’s won’t close only as a last resort and after everything else has closed. Therefore many working parents would be back at home like March-July trying to work and juggle educating children.

SlipperSwan · 29/08/2020 13:06

During lockdown the curriculum was suspended and schools were advised by the government to point parents in the direction of finding their own resources online. Lots of parents don't seem to realise this is what the guidance said. This is what the government wanted.

It will be different from this term onwards as the curriculum has been reinstated.

notevenat20 · 29/08/2020 15:46

During lockdown the curriculum was suspended and schools were advised by the government to point parents in the direction of finding their own resources online. Lots of parents don't seem to realise this is what the guidance said. This is what the government wanted.

Could you give more detail on this? Was there a central edict by the DfE saying schools must not provide any education or support to students during lockdown? Did they say teachers must not look at any work that children have done? I am very interested.

NoSquirrels · 29/08/2020 16:05

Plan B for lockdown is going to be much the same as March-June for us i.e muddling through, both working parents taking it in turns to help home educate whilst continuing working, and expecting/demanding understanding from both our employers. OP in your situation I’d certainly expect my DH to have a conversation with his employer about temporary shorter hours/WFH if possible/flexi-time to gain a day at home or whatever so the entire burden wasn’t on you just because your work can be home-based.

Employers are more likely to be sympathetic to parents with primary-aged DC than secondary, but I think that’s fair I guess. Secondary aged DC should be able to do a lot more independently and catch up out of hours learning when it’s convenient - evenings and weekends.

I don’t know what other Plan B could be expected, really. If schools are shut, and a lockdown imposed for quarantine, what can anyone do to mitigate that? We’ll just have to cope again and have the hard conversations with employers.

AdelaidePlace · 29/08/2020 20:00

annie,
Department for education advice is that schools should be ready to provide proper online learning with teacher interaction in case schools need to shut or classes need to isolate but we’ve heard nothing from the state school in preparation for that.

Give us a chance ..,guidance released middle of the night on the Friday of a Bank Holiday..,doubt many HT's will be able to advise you just yet.

notevenat20 · 29/08/2020 21:46

Give us a chance ..,guidance released middle of the night on the Friday of a Bank Holiday..,doubt many HT's will be able to advise you just yet.

Wouldn't HTs have been planning for this since April? It is what the private schools have been doing since day one. They started planning for lockdown at the start of March if not earlier.

Kaiserin · 29/08/2020 22:28

I'm dreading this. We survived ok the first round of homeschooling, but it took its toll on me, DH, and our two primary aged DCs.
We managed with WFH, flexitime, and lots of catching up in the evening.
But it was like doing two jobs (one being completely new!), and the mental load was unbelievable.

notevenat20 · 30/08/2020 07:20

I heard that in the US parents were grouping together and hiring online tutors during lockdown for their DC. I guess that's much cheaper than private school.

PrivateD00r · 30/08/2020 08:33

@Qasd

Ha ha ours put up some twinkle work sheets and links to bite size last time no need to hand in and no feedback (since no hand in) there communications seem to suggest they think this is as adequate home schooling and the only thing they emphasised is they will still be providing an education to key worker children in the event of closure..the rest of us not so much!

I think it’s just guidance so schools can do sagar they want which means ours will do nothing...I have organised a private tutor, those who cannot afford that option? Umm...

The key worker provision last time was childcare, not education. I don't see anything to suggest it would be any different again. We both were out working FT right through lockdown, DC attended school but did absolutely no academic work. We had to squeeze it all in on days off/evenings.
PrivateD00r · 30/08/2020 08:43

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

I disagree with this so much! All I wanted was for them to be supervised doing their twinkl sheets that formed their home learning - that really is not providing an advantage. Instead, every day I was off had to be a full day schooling, no time to relax together. Long days to try and pack it all into 2/3 days. All so other parents didn't think my DC were getting an unfair advantage Confused

notevenat20 · 30/08/2020 08:43

The key worker provision last time was childcare, not education

We got various excuses for why no education was provided either in school or online during the lockdown. Some were ridiculous e.g. "The teachers are too busy in school to teach online" (there were 6 children out of 420 in school at that point) and some just defeatist e.g. "It would be unfair to those without computers if we provided anything educational online". I really hope that these excuses won't reappear!

Qasd · 30/08/2020 08:44

Our key worker was childcare to start with but switched to education in June when the year groups returned, I think that was a change to government guidance But honestly not sure. Anyway key worker provision became a lot more popular at our primary after that! - went from 12 to 200 children and meant they couldn’t accommodate all the year groups that should have gone back. It will be interesting if they approach any future provision like April or like June at our school since it will impact a lot on demand particularly as they don’t offer any remote learning so it’s quite an incentive to argue you are in financial service when you are an accountant working from home!

FlySheMust · 30/08/2020 08:48

@notevenat20

The key worker provision last time was childcare, not education

We got various excuses for why no education was provided either in school or online during the lockdown. Some were ridiculous e.g. "The teachers are too busy in school to teach online" (there were 6 children out of 420 in school at that point) and some just defeatist e.g. "It would be unfair to those without computers if we provided anything educational online". I really hope that these excuses won't reappear!

Reasons, not excuses. You do know it was government directed that there was to be no teaching in schools? Maybe have a word with Gav, eh?

So sick of teachers being blamed for the idiocy of the government.

PrivateD00r · 30/08/2020 08:49

@notevenat20

The key worker provision last time was childcare, not education

We got various excuses for why no education was provided either in school or online during the lockdown. Some were ridiculous e.g. "The teachers are too busy in school to teach online" (there were 6 children out of 420 in school at that point) and some just defeatist e.g. "It would be unfair to those without computers if we provided anything educational online". I really hope that these excuses won't reappear!

I couldn't agree more! I burst into tears everytime I think about having to go back to that stress. If it happens again, I don't think I will cope to be honest. I have never had MH issues before and usually am very resilient, I bloody love my NHS job. But I think I would have to go off on stress if it happens again Sad

We kept getting jolly messages from a teacher with eg links to a science experiment or a recipe - 'My DC and I have had so much fun doing this today!'. It upset so much and made me feel dreadful as we couldn't fit in anything fun like that as we both had to continue to work FT.

notevenat20 · 30/08/2020 08:49

@PrivateD00r

I completely agree with you. The argument about fairness just looked like an excuse for the teachers to do less work in the end

In more detail, if you are going to claim there are children who can't access online material you have to actually identify them and see what you (the school) can do to help them. In one very good local primary they did exactly that. There were exactly 5 and the teachers walked round to their houses and picked them up to take them to school every day where they could access the material in peace and quiet.

PrivateD00r · 30/08/2020 08:51

Flyshemust.

The government suspended the curriculum. Nowhere did they say that key worker children must not be facilitated to complete their twinkl sheets independently/ with a little supervision. That is all we were asking for Hmm

notevenat20 · 30/08/2020 08:53

Reasons, not excuses. You do know it was government directed that there was to be no teaching in schools?

Can you show the letter from the government that said there should be no interaction between teachers and children online? Or that there should be no educational material online? Or the teachers should not look at any work done by the children?

I think you might be refering to new material from the curriculum but that isn't the topic we are discussing m

FlySheMust · 30/08/2020 08:56

@notevenat20

Reasons, not excuses. You do know it was government directed that there was to be no teaching in schools?

Can you show the letter from the government that said there should be no interaction between teachers and children online? Or that there should be no educational material online? Or the teachers should not look at any work done by the children?

I think you might be refering to new material from the curriculum but that isn't the topic we are discussing m

The government made it very clear that it was childcare for the children of keyworkers and for vulnerable children.

I'm surprised you can't remember that.

PrivateD00r · 30/08/2020 08:57

My DC attend afters chool childcare. This includes supervision of homework. That is pretty standard in after school clubs Confused So I wouldn't have thought it would be too big an ask for schools to provide this within their childcare either.