Would this type of 'blended learning' be better received?

[IDSNeighbour]

Generally, I'm not in favour of the idea of blended learning. I want to see my classes every week. I teach a 1 lesson a week subject anyway so already feel I don't see each child enough.

But I think that (in some areas of the country at least) it's starting to look inevitable. And much better to have blended learning than totally online teaching (regardless of how in/effective it is, I will go clinically insane if I have to go through teaching via MS Teams again ).

In Brazil, they have had a sort of blended learning for years due to having too many children for the school buildings/number of teachers.* In their state schools, half the children attend the morning session and half the afternoon session. They get, I think, 4 hours schooling (8-12 or 1-5) with no need for a lunch break and then have homework to do in the other half of the day.

Could this be a sensible solution for a while, do you think? I don't know if I'm missing some obvious downside but I feel like it could be an effective way of halving the number of children in the classroom without halving their time spent in school.

I do appreciate it doesn't solve the childcare issue but I'm just thinking about it from a teacher's point of view atm, not a parent's.

*(Disclaimer, it is possible that overcrowding isn't the reason for Brazil's system at all and that I had a Portuguese fail when it was being explained to me - I'm not fluent in Portuguese by a long shot. So sorry to any Brazilians I may have inadvertedly offended!)

@IDSNeighbour I’ve worked in the independent sector and I’d say that a lot of timetabled lessons even for them. We did 6x50 min lessons (so 5 hours plus reg and an hour and a half of co-curricular time each day, with teachers doing 3 of these per week. We taught Saturday morning, but not Wednesday pm as that’s as sport fixtures, so they cancelled each other out. I did supply in another independent with a similar structure but no Saturday school. Seemed standard judging by the staff I met at meetings etc fro other schools.
State schools tend to do 5 hours of teaching per day plus reg. To have 8 hours of teaching almost doubles the workload and would lead to a higher even than usual number of resignations.

Yeah, but part time doesn’t guarantee consistently open either - it is possible for children and staff to catch it in smaller classes or outside school. I don’t mind part time if the quid pro quo is smaller classes and focus is on core curriculum, but people keep presenting part time/smaller bubbles as the alternative to repeated bubble popping, whereas my hunch is it would just be both.

@Numberblock7 yes agree, part time learning is something you do when cases are low, to keep them low. It isn't going to bring high numbers down, but it will stop low numbers getting high.

The only way to bring high numbers down sadly seems to be full lockdown, with all that this entails. There will not really be an appetite for this when the death numbers get high and the army are out supervising shopping, hospitals etc

Mean to say, there'll only be an appetite for another full lockdown under truly awful conditions, but we might see this

Numberblock - Yes, that's true. I feel like it should happen far less - but accept there's no guarantee. Especially if half is still quite a lot!

You know what, maybe the government could trust schools and head teachers to make the best decisions for their individual circumstances?

Problem is, there will be many different sets of individual preferences within the same school, won't there.

Some want their children at home full time, some want them in school full time, some want a blended model but there will be different ideas of which blended model. I would really NOT want to be a decision maker on any level right now.

I can only speak for secondary, but I’d like to see years 11, 12 and 13 in full time, with study areas for in-between lessons for KS5.

Year 10 would be allocated 2 full days a week with intense focus on English, Maths and science, perhaps even being able to sit those GCSEs early for some.

Year 7, 8 and 9 would have alternate weeks in on a three week rota. Vulnerable children or those with learning difficulties would be kept in school full time.

Not ideal for working parents, but I agree at some point things are going to collapse anyway. Like the op, I’m considering ways to meet educational needs rather than childcare needs.

I don't think schools should close but I agree that years 11,12 and 13 absolutely need to be prioritised to stay in school full time, preparing for exams.

My dc were involved in last years' A level fiasco and I hope nobody ever has to go through that.

“ Wait a minute - so teachers who don’t accept their contract being unilaterally changed and their work doubled have to take a 20% pay cut? You’re aware teachers are already leaving in droves?”

You would need to have flexi-time but it would be 60% extra teaching time so no one would be forced to work less time. You could, for example, have one teacher doing their 25hrs a week (minus planning time) over 4 longer days. We’d all need to be flexible - it might suit some people.

Another way to do it would be to teach the last lesson (p5) online from home later in the day.

I was just playing with ideas.

Love the forest/circus school idea!

Op proper on line learning, where possible was achieved by many schools in lock down and students were chased if they didn't log on, and were taught normally following their time table.

It's not a problem or any issue.

Op proper on line learning, where possible was achieved by many schools in lock down and students were chased if they didn't log on, and were taught normally following their time table

Yes, I know. I did it. I hated it and don't think it's overly effective (more so for English than Drama but still not great) but I agree it's perfectly possible.

But teaching from home or an empty classroom to 100% of a class at home is very different to teaching to a half full classroom with 50% at home. It's much harder to hide children's individual needs and abilities from any watching parents and much harder to meet the needs of those online without reducing the effect of the lesson for those in the classroom. I assume. I haven't actually tried it. I may well be asked to at some point, I don't know.

@mokuspokuss as I put on earlier thread my son's school was fantastic with online lessons throughout lockdown, full timetable including form time etc (state secondary). However, it was really hard for my son and it is no substitute at all for actually being in the classroom with his teachers. Yes it's better than nothing and I'm aware many children did well with it but there will also be a great many like my son and there will be a lot of lost learning. So to say it's no problem and not an issue is not true and I get frustrated with posters who see online lessons as a silver bullet and the solution to it all. It isn't.

I don’t understand the issue with other people seeing children’s needs. Simply by listening to my child, going on a couple of schools trips, watching assembly and hearing readers I already have a very good idea of who in the class has behavioural challenges, which children have a ta etc. I’ve also stood in various busy KS1 classrooms during “stay and play”, “stay and read with your child” etc and had I been so inclined could easily have read several children’s draft reports, the list of who was on which book band, the chart of who was on which stage of the maths curriculum, several children’s individual behaviour plans, the list of food allergies..... - it was all blue tacked on the wall in the corner!!

Yes it's better than nothing and I'm aware many children did well with it but there will also be a great many like my son and there will be a lot of lost learning. So to say it's no problem and not an issue is not true

I agree. There are many children that don't have the necessary online access like laptops or enough space at home. In addition, some subjects like Chemistry A level require practical experiments that most pupils can't do at home.

Given that GSCE and A level exams are due to take place next Summer. those year groups need to at school so as to as fair as possible.

This could work in some areas, but the areas I've known to use this before involved younger kids with little expectations for the other half of the day (and childcare in the area already set up for this). With older kids - between travel, switching modes of learning, and so on, splitting the week or a rota system I think has fewer issues.

My DS1 is a part-time Y11 student. Last year, he had things similar to DBML's suggestion - he had essentially a day of maths, a day that was 3/4 English Language, 1/4 PSHE-type topics & tutorials if any issues, and then a third day for vocational programme, then he was at home for other subjects. Now he's in for vocational, and doing science & other subjects online.

Thinking outside the box, like WhyNotMe40's ideas, would be great, but as things have been going, I think there isn't enough support particularly from those in power to make it happen for what's going on now, let alone anything as radical as change.

I’m amazed that a teacher would suggest asking teachers to work more hours.
At my school we’re on our knees. I don’t know a single teacher who would like to increase their hours (even for more money). I am already working far more hours than I would like as are many others. We’re doing it because we feel we must for the children but there’s a limit to how much extra we can absorb. I think people are really underestimating the effect of Covid on teachers wellbeing at the moment.

Half days from a parent perspective are the worst of all worlds in my mind. I’ve had mine in part-time for various reasons before. The couple of hours you get while they are at school is nowhere near enough time to do any actual work.

If they said we had to go to part time learning, I’d rather have full days in a split week. At least then I could try and pile all my work into the days they were in school. And asking teachers to work such long days is an awful idea.

It’s fairly common in Europe (predating Covid) I think for kids to only attend school in the morning and finish around 13, 13.30. This is the case in Italy, for example, but it works because there are more SAHMs and also an army of grandparents providing childcare, not something you’d want to encourage right now. It’s also very common for kids to travel by (crowded) school bus or public transport to school (especially if parents are working), again not ideal in a pandemic.

And in Germany where, if a teacher is absent, students just go home.

Cuckoo I explained that upthread - I didn't deliberately ask teachers to work more hours. I more or less just pulled times out of the air based on the hours that I normally have children in school and the rough hours that I think the country I modelled the idea on use. A part time divide of the school I work in would be 8-12 and 1-5 but another school could do 9 -12 and 1- 4 to avoid upping the workload for teachers. I also thought it might reduce work load elsewhere but reducing isolations etc but another poster upthread has explained that part time only helps when transmission is low so that probably wouldn't be the case. Plus it looks like it wouldn't get any support from parents anyway so doesn't matter!

I like the forest school based idea too but only for young children.

Ok. I’m amazed that a teacher who has contact time of 8-5 thinks that’s the norm. Most schools are more like 8:45-3:15. Teachers usually fit all the non-contact duties around those hours when children are in school. Did you really not know that?