Anyone else's dc isolating due to case at school?

[Whatafustercluck]

If so, and your dc is primary age what remote teaching/ learning has the school put in place?

Got the dreaded letter today, 9yo ds has to isolate until 19th.

School are basically doing what they did for 6 months - put everything on their website and asking parents/ dc to self serve with a few phone calls and the offer to take questions of clarification. This is despite all children in the class having been issued with laptops and Teams having been rolled out widely. Apparently the laptops are for 'school use only'.

Dh and I both work ft, luckily from home. But we're both just so busy every day (I don't even take a lunch break most days) we're considering taking leave to try to teach him. Feeling quite resentful that 8 months on the school still hasn't got adequate provisions in place for remote learning.

That's not good! I'm a teacher we have to provide a physical pack of resources linked to the childs targets and basics like spelling, numberline, whiteboard, etc . Online stories/ comprehension, maths lessons/ games etc. Googlemeet at least 1 time a week and other phone calls and email contact.

DD1 has just finished her isolation. Luckily they all got sent home before half term with their tablets. The teacher has been uploading work to that every day (English/maths and other) I assume it's much less work than they actually do in school but I'm glad we had something to work on

Wasn’t there a requirement for schools to have online learning in place by end of October? Or have I got that wrong?

Our dcs primary puts the lesson plans for the week on Google Classroom without fail even if no kids are SI.
I think though it wil still require parent input.
I think if the whole bubble is sent home provision will be improved.

Wasn’t there a requirement for schools to have online learning in place by end of October? Or have I got that wrong?

Depends what is meant by 'online learning'. Ds's school will argue that they've got lesson plans on the website. I've looked at the one for Maths and it gives them the answers if they work through it without supervision. The English requires discussion to ensure concepts are grasped. It is English that ds struggles with most. They've given a series of PowerPoint slides, same as they did in first lockdown.

Fortunately we have a spare laptop (purchased at our expense for this very reason) but many children won't have that. I asked the school about the laptops ds's class has been given and was told they weren't part of the government allocation scheme and are set up for school working, not home.

@Whatafustercluck - what sort of provision were you hoping for? Is the work not being put on Microsoft Teams, then, so that he can type questions for the teacher through that and the teacher comment directly on his work?

Spoke too soon. 2 of my dds are now self isolating. Not happy as dh is ecv and dd3 was apparently a close contact.

Yes, my 8 yr old is on his second(!) occasion of isolation at the minute. Our schools do 3 zoom lessons per day (maths, english then one of science, pshe or history), (each is 30 mins long with a 30 kin activity afterwards), twice-weekly phone calls from a teaching assistant to hear them read and a weekly assembly with the head teacher.

Its ok. It makes the days go quickly and gives us lots of structure but my god it's hard to work from home at the same time!

No live lessons, no marking of work uploaded. Sigh.

Oh I’d be fuming if I were you. DS’s school have thankfully hugely improved since the first lockdown where they did the ‘here’s 8 million suggestions of resources, we hope you know where you kid is up to, pick something!’.

He’s in y1 and we are 8 days into his first lot of isolation. We haven’t got access to teams or anything else for remote in time video lessons as school deem it a safeguarding issue. But everyday we have had a video sent with the days phonics lesson to follow along with and associated worksheets. A maths video and associated worksheets. Some type of comprehension task. And then topic work- so far we’ve had RE- baptisms, science- animals, Autumn writing with a video. Teacher has been available constantly and replies to most messages instantly, she couldn’t be more helpful.

Honestly though- I’m on Mat leave so not wfh but have baby to look after and it’s exhausting. It is a full time job just looking through the tasks, printing them/ asking for them in printable formats, explaining them to DS, helping him, motivating him, helping him navigate the iPad/ laptop and additionally doing 3 meals, cleaning them up, chucking him in the garden for exercise/ fresh air whilst facilitating baby’s feeds and naps!!

I have said several times to dh that parents who are wfh must be getting very little work done or their kid very little school work done as they are hardly the age to crack on themselves. I’m thinking of asking the teacher to send the work the evening before rather than each morning/ throughout the day as at least that way all parents would know what their kids have to do the next day and how much support they are likely to need and so can plan their work day/ meetings accordingly.

That's incredible @TheresGotToBeMoreToLife May I ask if your child is in private or state-provided education?

We are now on day 3 and ds is coping really well but we've not had a single phone call from his teacher. I have messaged her via the Seesaw app, and she responded very quickly providing written feedback, but I was expecting some Teams lessons perhaps and work provided via Teams. We had huge problems yesterday morning opening the PowerPoint slides, so I had to go through the faff of downloading them all and sending them to myself by email. I was delayed starting work until 9.45 and was then up against it for the rest of the day and didn't finish till 7ish.

That sounds v frustrating, @Whatafustercluck, and not a good enough effort. From a school’s perspective, the one I work in opted to use Google Classroom, because it is a bit more user friendly for people with limited technological skills than Teams is. That said, it is apparently still beyond the capabilities of a few families who really just want to be sent hard copy, printed work and claim a complete inability to cope with anything else. This is obviously easier said than done when teachers have spent hours recording lessons for people to access at their leisure and trying to make it all interactive, because you just can’t post that, so hours of time are spent each week dealing with these families and trying to get them to use the resources (it isn’t actually a case of not having anything at home to access the work on, just not wanting the hassle of working it out!). To keep everyone happy, schools would have to provide live lessons, recorded lessons, interactive work, the same sort of work but not interactive (so that it can be printed out and posted to families who insist this is the only way they will do it), and also post work to the school website for parents and children who claim a complete inability to log into Teams or Google Classroom, because they are apparently astonishingly technologically incompetent, or incapable of remembering, or safely storing, passwords (or don’t want the school to be aware that they hardly ever bother to look at what their child is supposed to be doing). Even when schools up their game technologically, it seems it is not always easy to get all families up to speed on it and willing to use it, and young primary school aged children do need parental input to get going with it at home.

Schools are supposed to remote teach so no don’t take time off - his teachers are paid to teach him!

Seriously give him what the school has and tell him to do what he can, if that is nothing or very little they will have to sort it when they get back in the classroom (and think about how their systems should be improved!)

We have not needed to isolate yet but senior school does full live teaching if a class has to isolate and the primary is very like yours. So It’s very variable across different places.

@Walkaround this is seriously not a teacher bashing - I already had so much respect for teachers, even before this, but I honestly don't know how they do it. I do understand that it must be an absolute nightmare for schools for navigate the conflicting expectations of parents and government guidance. And i suppose i am coming from the perspective of working in comms/ IT and seeing how we've all adapted to working from home using Teams. At work we run webinars and record them at the same time so other people can view them at their leisure in their own time. I've also seen how easy it is to screen share, video call and collaborate on documents with others. I just think ds's school is taking the easiest route - I mean, there is absolutely no reason why a teacher who is also isolating could not do a series of one to one Teams calls with children a few mornings a week, or run a couple of one hour classes and record it - particularly as, by their own admission, they're using Teams for school learning!

@whatafustercluck not just a state school but yes the provision is good. Far better than the first lockdown when it was just a free for all

Sorry I meant NO, just a state school.

[quote Whatafustercluck]@Walkaround this is seriously not a teacher bashing - I already had so much respect for teachers, even before this, but I honestly don't know how they do it. I do understand that it must be an absolute nightmare for schools for navigate the conflicting expectations of parents and government guidance. And i suppose i am coming from the perspective of working in comms/ IT and seeing how we've all adapted to working from home using Teams. At work we run webinars and record them at the same time so other people can view them at their leisure in their own time. I've also seen how easy it is to screen share, video call and collaborate on documents with others. I just think ds's school is taking the easiest route - I mean, there is absolutely no reason why a teacher who is also isolating could not do a series of one to one Teams calls with children a few mornings a week, or run a couple of one hour classes and record it - particularly as, by their own admission, they're using Teams for school learning![/quote]
Are you me?

I do think the key issue is that teachers have not been trained to provide this kind of work and so even though I get the sense that they're all trying really hard, and spending HOURS on it, it's not going so well.

DD had to self isolate. The work they sent home was an absolute disaster and required me to spend hours every day with her. PLUS I had to educate myself on what she was supposed to learn as the instructions were vague. It infuriated me and if either of the DC has to self isolate agin I'll be sending a strongly worded email to the school about this. At our school, the head teacher is not a big fan of taking parental views into account as she thinks she's the educator and specialist. Which, to a large extent is true. But it means she's missing out on useful feedback and suggestions from people who may actually have some experience.

Based on the work DD had to do for maths, and feedback from other parents, I'd say that no more than an hour of different prep from the teacher would have saved at least 60 "(wo)man hours" from the parents who all had to go and do the SAME research to figure out what was required by the curriculum.

Ds is on day 3 today. Hes at secondary, and is at least getting a live lesson a day, and work has been uploaded for each lesson which is a great improvement.

[quote Whatafustercluck]@Walkaround this is seriously not a teacher bashing - I already had so much respect for teachers, even before this, but I honestly don't know how they do it. I do understand that it must be an absolute nightmare for schools for navigate the conflicting expectations of parents and government guidance. And i suppose i am coming from the perspective of working in comms/ IT and seeing how we've all adapted to working from home using Teams. At work we run webinars and record them at the same time so other people can view them at their leisure in their own time. I've also seen how easy it is to screen share, video call and collaborate on documents with others. I just think ds's school is taking the easiest route - I mean, there is absolutely no reason why a teacher who is also isolating could not do a series of one to one Teams calls with children a few mornings a week, or run a couple of one hour classes and record it - particularly as, by their own admission, they're using Teams for school learning![/quote]
But a teacher that is isolating can’t go into school and use the computer there to deliver a teams lesson? DH is a secondary school teacher, and there is no school money to issue him with a laptop. Anything done form home has to be on whatever mobile he has at the time. Isn’t that a reason why teachers can’t necessarily do a series of one to one teams lessons when isolating?

But a teacher that is isolating can’t go into school and use the computer there to deliver a teams lesson? DH is a secondary school teacher, and there is no school money to issue him with a laptop. Anything done form home has to be on whatever mobile he has at the time. Isn’t that a reason why teachers can’t necessarily do a series of one to one teams lessons when isolating?

The whole class has been issued laptops. If the teacher has not been prioritised (why not?) for one already, then why can't one of the 30 others be re-purposed? I'd happily forego ds's one seeing as we have one for him at home. The point is that teacher isolation should have been factored into the school's contingency planning over the past 8 months. There is always a solution, providing someone is asking the right questions. A teacher not having access to a laptop is a pretty fundamental issue that I'd expect schools to resolve pretty quickly. I get that broadband provision varies, and in some cases that will present problems, but in the vast majority of cases technology enables more than adequate continuity to some degree. Only the very rural areas really struggle and this is a really well connected area, urban and rural. Phone tethering is another option.

Sorry @Lemons1571 I am talking very specifically about my own situation above. But the point remains - laptop provision for isolating teachers should be a top priority.

@Whatafustercluck I know. Crap isn’t it. We are slightly in the sticks - kind of lost in between not being a deprived rural area, but also not an outstanding schooling area or an urban regen area either. I imagine better funded areas give their teachers a laptop each.

Friends child just gone back after isolation - they had a full day of Microsoft teams - even PE

I've got twins aged 7 both isolating since Monday as two confirmed cases in their year group bubble.

We are getting work uploaded to seesaw and that's it. Neither of my kids will work independently (both have SEN) so I literally have to go though every single line with them. I'm supposed to be working from home.

Really fed up with it all.

It depends. In secondary, at first, whole half years we're sent home, so teams lessons were being done by the teacher. When they switched to only sending home close contacts, most of the class and teachers were still in school, and it just doesn't work as well.