School not required to provide work for isolating pupils?

[justchecking1]

Apologies if someone has already posted this. We've received a letter from the director of education stating that school is not required to provide any work for isolating pupils (Swansea). Is this a national thing? Where does it leave the pupils?

My son went to inter high- which is an on line school up to gcse (at that time). Their system then was one where you saw presentations and had the teachers voice but the teacher (who was at home) would very rarely come on the video because of bandwidth problems. It worked incredibly well especially with some teachers. The kids asked and answered questions through chat and over audio. His maths teacher was fantastic and used to private message him with extra support while teaching the class! Obviously you couldn’t do that while teaching an in person class.

Maybe Lesson recordings could be used though. But then would the teacher get inundated with after the fact questions. I think most people would settle for less than ideal.

My daughter is year 12. I just need her to stay engaged with school. She reckons her friends are earning loads of money on apprenticeships (I think there may have been some exaggeration!!)

@notevenat20

I think partly it’s like when bus trackers came in. Bus drivers hated it as they felt they were being spied on at work. Similarly it seems some schools/teachers just don’t want to be watched while they work and so are just making up excuses.

Is there a live video of the bus drivers driving, somewhere in the internet? No?

Is there a live video of the bus drivers driving, somewhere in the internet? No?

That's a confusing thing to say. From the road anyone can video a bus to see how it is driven. From inside the bus you wouldn't really get much action.

If whole class/bubble we will provide work as we did during closures.

If individuals it will be much more restricted, as the teachers are busy teaching. We can't do live stream due to a range of reasons such as safeguarding and the fact the school WiFi just can't handle it, and it certainly wouldn't be reliable. Also the format of a in class lesson wouldn't really work as a live to watch lesson, especially for young children.

The plan is to upload a summary of the week's core learning on our platform, such as which phonics sounds are being covered, what topic were doing in maths, what are English focus is, what main story we are having this week, etc. If appropriate we will upload a copy of the worksheets that will be used. Otherwise we will provide links to the topic area on oak academy of bitesize, etc. One per year group. It won't be personalised. It's unlikely they'll be pre-recorded videos, etc. unless it's something we covered during the general lockdown as we have them already. It's just not possible.

Notevenat20 I think that's a bit obtuse. The comparison would be with a camera installed in the driver's sitting area (like a dash cam in reverse) recording everything he or she did. That is what a teacher would have to do - it's not like the bus tracker system at all.
Teachers walk up and down much of the time anyway so it would be an empty shot mostly.

@StillDumDeDumming

Absolutely genuine question- I promise - I know teachers and schools are right up against it. Why isn’t it possible to stream a live class while teaching it in person? I’m thinking Older secondary?

We have students in school who absolutely cannot under any circumstances appear in video or still image for safeguarding reasons. We do not have the equipment to record lessons as they're being taught.

I've got a system sorted for my oldest classes. I'm using my visualiser (webcam on legs) to both project onto the board, and at the same time record, my explanations and examples. Then uploading those videos and worksheets onto an online platform. I do that bit while I'm in the lesson, and it's working well so far. But I'm not prepared to do that in younger years, because some of our kids aren't allowed on camera (including their voices, which are picked up by the camera microphone)for safeguarding reasons. So sixth form only. Younger years will get directed towards a video and worksheet from another source, but it won't be exactly what we're doing in the lesson.

And whoever asked about lesson plans. No I don't submit a full lesson plan for every lesson, that creates so much work just for the sake of it!! My lesson plans are for my own use, and say things like "whiteboards HCF starter, prime factors page 11, bingo". That's it. It's not helpful to anyone else, only to me, because I know what I'm talking about. If I need to set work for someone else to be able to follow it's going to take more than that.

@notevenat20

Here is a practical tip. I spent a number of hours searching the websites of different primary schools in England/Wales. Some have beautifully set out material for every year and so I used that during lockdown. If your child is isolating this idea may work again.

To start myself off I looked at the league tables per area to pick out the top schools. This seemed to be correlated to how much helpful material they had online.

That is actually genius!

That is actually genius!

Thank you :)

From the few dozen I looked at during lockdown I can tell you they come in three categories.

a) Rubbish ones who have next to nothing to offer online. This was very similar to DCs school.

b) Good ones that provide really useful and regularly updated material

c) Primary schools where you need a password to access their online work :) These are often the ones right at the top of the league table but I have no idea what their home learning is like at all!

@Bridecilla

If a whole class is off I have time to set work. If the majority of the class is in then I'm teaching them and don't have time to set work. It's not that I don't want to set work for isolating kids, it really isn't

You can't do everything if you're teaching that's what you have to do.

Our home learning (infants) is on a learning platform and is password protected.
You could see some odd versions of some of the work by following links to year group
Google drives, but not the interactive stuff and the videos.

We did it that way so that children could more safely add photographs and videos without them being available to all to see.

A livestreamed lesson would mostly contain empty shots of nothing happening since the teacher is always walking around the room helping children and the children would not be able to be filmed for safeguarding reasons.

You might see or hear the teacher dealing with behaviour issues, again this cannot be livestreamed for safeguarding reasons. Why should any child have their difficulties or learning disabilities broadcast to the world?

Most schools don't have good enough wifi to load the register quickly or watch brief video clips online, let alone have all the classes streaming simultaneously.

This of from the DfE guidance.

"Develop remote education so that it is integrated into school curriculum planning. Remote education may need to be an essential component in the delivery of the school curriculum for some pupils, alongside classroom teaching, or in the case of a local lockdown.

All schools are therefore expected to plan to ensure any pupils educated at home for some of the time are given the support they need to master the curriculum and so make good progress."

We have taken this to mean work needs to be provided for students isolating and our few remaining isolating teachers are busy creating a bank of recorded lessons, but with the best will in the world, schools can't provide a full curriculum in school and out of school at the same time.

My dd is isolating as her bubble burst. School are providing a very good home learning programme. I'll add that the home Learnjng in lockdown was non existent.

If a student is in one of my exam classes and they email me directly I'll find some time to send them a response with some resources.

Otherwise, it's a case of use what's available online I'm afraid. We have a general topic list on our school system with some links to bbc bitsize etc. but I really dont have any more time in the day to support all the students currently off ill/isolating in my classes.

It's not a case of not wanting to, but unfortunately with all the additional things we're doing its just not something I can do at this stage.

Maybe if the government had more seriously considered online learning or even sorted the current testing rubbish out it wouldn't be so bad. We're already covering other staff off with symptoms who cannot get tests.

We are uploading all lesson PowerPoints and resources on to Teams. That’s for individuals to access if they are isolating- no time to voiceover/add anything to just the ordinary lesson.

For whole bubbles isolating we are providing voiceover PPs/more detailed lessons.

Teachers who are isolating are teaching live - so we have a cover supervisor/ teacher in the room but the children still have their specialist teacher doing the teaching.

It’s not perfect but it’s not bad.

Tbh what needs to happen is faster testing and results!!

It's really not realistic to expect schools to set work for individually isolating children

We have to where I am. Tailored to the individual child too. About 14 children across the school today.

But it's a private school so the parents are paying for a service and expect to receive it. Fair enough, I suppose, but it just widens the equality gap which has already widened so much this year!

It's really not realistic to expect schools to set work for individually isolating children

DfE expect it, read the guidance. To be honest a ppt/worksheet should do. Possibly link to Oak.

Schools doing nothing will be slammed by ofsted.

Ds junior school have said they have home learning resources planned and ready if bubbles burst, not sure what happens if just one child is isolating.
Dd secondary school have said they will provide work online in either e eventuality.
Both are state schools in England

Unless Ofsted can add some extra hours to the day, they can whistle for it.

Uploading a ppt/worksheet or a link to Oak academy isn't that onerous.

I teach a specialist subject with very little online or pre made resources. That will be tricky. For the majority of state school subjects, Oak Academy will do.

It's shit not to provide anything and schools know it.

Oak academy don't have my subject, or nothing relevant to what I teach - I checked back in lockdown, maybe should look again.
It's doesn't take seconds to review your ppt, check whether all the info needed is actually up there (not in the bits you add orally) and upload it to the system you have had to log into first. That's assuming your lesson is PowerPoint based, they don't actually have to be. When I've been asked to provide work I have, but the numbers this is needed for are only going to increase and the demands on me aren't lessening.

Nothing for one of my subjects either. But to provide nothing is poor and clearly against the guidance.

I teach statistics, resources are very limited. But I'll provide something.