School needs 24 hrs notice to send a teams meeting invite and get a laptop into a classroom

[Notsayingnothin]

Second time for isolation since Sept - thankfully we got a test without much problem, so hopefully it'll only be a couple of days. Contacted the school to let them know about the absence.
Kids contacted their teachers to let them know they needed a teams invite to join the class today, but apparently that's not going to happen as the school needs 24 hrs to arrange this. Really? Is this a lack of laptops because setting up a teams meeting is pretty straightforward - the laptop is placed on a text and the class proceeds as normal - it doesn't seem so hard. So it looks like everytime they need a test they'll lose at least one day of video teaching.
Kids are doing A levels this year - apparently pushing the date back by 3weeks is going to make it all better - they've missed 4 moths last year, and 1 week so far this year a 3 week delay seems fair.

I had to switch quickly last week, and I did need to change my lesson resources somewhat. That, alongside finding laptops, produced a delay, and teaching my normal lessons of course.

For the record I don't know what my DCs school do as thankfully I haven't had to find out but I don't think I would be too worried about a day to sort it out. It used to be the case with schools that if your kids took one day off we were told it had a huge negative impact on their education - doesn't seem that important anymore - even in an exam year!

Of course it has a huge impact- why do you think teachers are so stressed and working so hard to try and catch up on what has been missed?
That doesn't mean they have the tools to work miracles. In most cases we barely have the tools to do the day-to-day stuff!

@Notsayingnothin

For the record I don't know what my DCs school do as thankfully I haven't had to find out but I don't think I would be too worried about a day to sort it out. It used to be the case with schools that if your kids took one day off we were told it had a huge negative impact on their education - doesn't seem that important anymore - even in an exam year!

I don't think previous absence rules really have any bearing on the situation we're in now, I know it endlessly gets brought up but to what end? What does bleating on about it achieve now? The world is a different place, I can't see that even an exam year child is going to be disadvantaged by having a small delay, they can make up the lessons.

I suspect you and I are in very different camps, I'm of the make the best of it school of thought, I've worked, shopped, gone out all the way through with suitable precautions, it's a shit situation, I don't expect anyone to be getting it all right first go, of course some things won't be ideal but we have to get on.

I can't see that even an exam year child is going to be disadvantaged by having a small delay That really depends on how much (or little) support the school provided during lockdown, the child, the parents, school and the availability of tech. Every small delay counts when you add them all up.

Notsayingnothing. I’m a teacher. Missing 1 lesson ( as in one day away or 24 hours) has no impact.
Schools are struggling as it is. Cut them some slack fgs. They are working in terrible conditions.

You don’t know anything.The teacher might be sic.The IT system may be crap ( very likely)Teams might be misbehaving.There may be safeguarding issues to sort out.

At the very least it looks like their communication is poor. If any of those are the case they should say so.

Why should they? Teacher absence is confidential.

They don’t have to justify themselves when they are struggling to even cope. Why don’t you back off so they can cope?

I would think 24hrs is reasonable. Teachers I would have thought would need notice to adapt lessons,sort equipment etc. My DS is off today as he had covid test Friday results last night negative but temp didn’t subside until yesterday so needs 48hrs to pass before return (as per guidelines). His school arranged uploaded sheets today in core subjects but did said by tomorrow live lessons could be accessed if he’d tested positive /needed to continue isolating. Don’t think I would ask anything else of them.

Teacher absence is confidential. How do they keep that secret from the kids!😂

Why should they? Teacher absence is confidential. They don’t have to justify themselves when they are struggling to even cope. Why don’t you back off so they can cope?

That is a terrible attitude. The problem is to think of clear communication with parents as having to justify yourselves. Schools should always try to be as clear and transparent as they can in communication. This is vital for fostering a positive atmosphere and is often done very well.

Teacher absence is confidential. How do they keep that secret from the kids!

I assume the children are not told if there is a teacher in their class or not and, blindfolded, have to guess.

The children know that Mrs X is not in the classroom. They don't know that she is off because she is ill or if she is on a course. Generally teachers don't mind saying either way but sometimes it is confidential, eg a teacher off because of bereavement, miscarriage or mental health. You get the picture.

The teachers are absent - no one needs to know why - or would even want to but the fact that they are absent is not confidential ...that is completely ridiculous!