It's a school one - isolation & provisions

[covetingthepreciousthings]

I've had a look through the threads recently but couldn't see one on this..

Are schools in your area providing any online learning or provisions for children isolating? Whether it's due to household symptoms or year group bubble contact isolation.

I haven't heard anything from our school (academy) about any provision for isolation, and wondered what others are doing.

My primary aged DC has been in isolation for a week now - they managed 4 days at school in their new class - and we've not had anything from school at all, I even asked for the weekly spellings or homework sheet and didn't hear back.

We hit the ground running setting up systems to move as smoothly as possible to being able to provide some work to isolating pupils. Google classroom set up in KS2 classes, seesaw in KS1. Adding spelling lists for the full term to our school website. Swapping to a grid of activities linked to our topic for homework so that it can be dipped into if ever off school too and maths homework sent on classroom or mymaths.

No chance of live lessons, especially not while actually teaching, but plenty of opportunity to link the stuff provided on classroom etc to what is actually happening in the classroom - inc setting some tasks for my in class kids using it too.

Debating whether it's a good idea for books to be collected ie where we have a maths scheme that could then be followed at home, esp as not all have access to the tech required.

Mine have only just seemed to get this up now they've had a positive case in school. My DC were off previously though thankfully negative and nothing was going though I used Oak Academy. That said they were meant to have homework on there this weekend and it isn't up yet either.

Our school are uploading weekly learning menus with work and links for those isolating. We plan these alongside our normal planning 🙂

Mine had to isolate for 2 days this week whilst my youngest was tested, none of them was given any work (years 7, 5 and R, all different schools). I would expect to get work if they had a 2 week isolation because of a positive case in school

I'm a secondary teacher, a couple of kids isolating but not had results from tests back. Those kids have had work sent home. If a bubble had to isolate the school should provide work during term time. Either online or by post, some kids don't have access to internet and we are trying our best to make sure all kids are staying up to date no matter what their circumstances.

Yes, 2 of my girls have been set work that is similar to their class work because they have been isolated.

DD’s whole class sent home to self isolate today. She came home with all her books and zoom lessons start at 9am Monday. They’ll be following roughly their normal timetable

@TwinkleMerrick
Are the isolating pupils getting work in every subject?
In our secondary school, it depends on the individual teachers getting stuff ip and so my dd’s have only got a couple of subjects to do.
@MojoJojo71

What year is tour Dd in? That’s great that classes are going ahead on zoom.

I have children in two schools - one has been sending what they've been doing in class every day.
The other can't/won't even tell me vague topic areas (such as fractions in Maths, letter writing in English) so I can find appropriate work myself!

Schools are required to have remote learning plans in place for quarantining students by the end of September.

We're providing packs, and will do the same type of YouTube linked video lessons and email feedback that we did during lockdown. Only in the case of bubble isolation though. In lockdown we had workbooks bought for each child, but have decided against that for what we hope will be short term stuff.

We'll also do a daily invite to an MSTeams chat, but lots of our children don't have very good tech options. Hence 5 min YouTube video lessons. We've taught them how to use it in school, but who knows.

All of our children off now are off ill- not covid. They wouldn't be working ordinarily, so we won't provide work.

At our primary each year group is putting up work, but just on a Monday for the week. If a whole bubble has to self isolate, then work for each day will be set.

So, already it seems it's varied across the schools. Is this not something that should be standardised across the board with state schools across England?

Even if not specifics, but just guidelines to say all schools have to provide some home learning in isolation situations - whether it be worksheets or recorded sessions.

If an individual child is quarantining eg because a family member has symptoms, the school will be expected to provide high quality remote learning for them.

The provision itself may be varied, but the guidance is clear. However, schools have until the end of the month to put it in place.

Independent prep school here (small, under 200). For the year group isolating because PHE sent them home after positive test we are providing almost full curriculum online as we did in lockdown. But their teacher is also at home so has the time to deliver remote e-learning for them. For those self isolating whilst waiting for test/results we are sending home maths and English work, plus there are other activities accessible via parent portal for other subjects. It's tricky because our staff have a promise that it's online or i person teaching but not both - which is reasonable.

DSs year is isolating due to a positive case. Teams lessons started the second day they were off. Some lessons are great (mostly the ones were teachers know how to use Teams), some have been pretty poor as the kids have been muting and kicking each other out of meetings - also in one of the lessons (IT) the kids had to show the teacher how to screen share! Hopefully things will run more smoothly when it happens again!

It's tricky because our staff have a promise that it's online or i person teaching but not both - which is reasonable.

Same with us. Parents have been consulted and are happy with our options (by a huge margin too, so not v concerned about what anyone external would have to say about it).

We were 6 staff down today, but all bubbles in. Not enough staff to provide learning and support in school, let alone available to provide remote provision.

Oak National is there for a reason.

I believe the “remote/ blended learning is the future” group think it is unreasonable to ask teachers to teach kids not in school...umm and they wonder why I laugh at “blended learning” being a thing!

Actually away from Mumsnet our teachers are providing lessons PowerPoint and assessment on teams for those isolating. Primary doing nothing because they did nothing from March to July so obviously will not do anything now!

Oak National is high quality provision, and specifically mentioned as such in the DfE guidance.

We’ve all been set up with google classrooms in case we need to move to remote learning. Also school has asked us whether we have adequate access to devices and Wi-fi etc and if not there is funding to provide help

I could have cried this week, we've got several off (primary) self isolating due to symptoms but no tests available. I still have 25 to teach, books to mark, meetings to attend etc. One of the children at home's parents sent a message asking for work, I sent a link to the relevant sections for Oak National.

Our head sent an email stating that we are expected to provide work which is the same as the class for all who are self isolating. I queried this as:

a. We can't just send a smart notebook through without any teacher input. They wouldn't have the software to read it and it's just notes for the teacher really- not parent friendly.
b. Aren't some of these children actually ill? Do they need personalised work as standard unless they are well enough to access it?
c. WHEN? We have shorter lunchtimes, fewer breaks, extra duties and yet are expected to magically conjure up the time to teach children at home as well as those in school.

I appreciate that it is hugely frustrating for parents awaiting tests and children missing out on learning. I think there should be something in place for them which is why Oak Academy is such a good solution.

@Overoptimistix

I could have cried this week, we've got several off (primary) self isolating due to symptoms but no tests available. I still have 25 to teach, books to mark, meetings to attend etc. One of the children at home's parents sent a message asking for work, I sent a link to the relevant sections for Oak National.

Our head sent an email stating that we are expected to provide work which is the same as the class for all who are self isolating. I queried this as:

a. We can't just send a smart notebook through without any teacher input. They wouldn't have the software to read it and it's just notes for the teacher really- not parent friendly.
b. Aren't some of these children actually ill? Do they need personalised work as standard unless they are well enough to access it?
c. WHEN? We have shorter lunchtimes, fewer breaks, extra duties and yet are expected to magically conjure up the time to teach children at home as well as those in school.

I appreciate that it is hugely frustrating for parents awaiting tests and children missing out on learning. I think there should be something in place for them which is why Oak Academy is such a good solution.

It’s unreasonable to expect you to provide work for those kids off who have Symptoms and awaiting results. In a normal year you wouldn’t be expected to provide home work for an ill child, or if they were off for 48 hours after D&V My DD has symptoms last week so I had to keep her and her brother off for three days. I had no expectations of work being sent home, I got them to do a bit of my maths/times table rockstars and write up their holiday diaries. It won’t harm them to miss a few days

If it was you who had symptoms, and if you then tested positive, your children would be off for 14 days. And if they were in year 11, you might not feel that a bit of TT rockstars was cutting it. That said, links to online lessons and associated resources should be fine. We are using Oak resources.

My DD has been isolating while trying to get test for her sibling - how do I know which bit of Oak Academy is right for what she's doing in school? I've asked the school for stuff and they've said they hope to have it set up for next week.... I love her school but am fed up she's had no work. She's been reading a lot these last few days so I suppose that's something....