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Original poster

To dread homeschooling

275 replies

Johan23 · 21/12/2020 12:42

I’m in Scotland where the schools don’t go back to the 11th, and for a week it will be remote learning (I imagine it will be longer). In the last lockdown my son was still at nursery, so we didn’t have to homeschool.

It was still a freaking nightmare working from home as he wanted our attention all of the time.

Our work is going through a ridiculously busy period, and we are all expected to just “get on with it”. But, I am totally stressing as I really can’t bear to go through all this juggling again.

OP posts:
VashtaNerada · 22/12/2020 08:17

I’m a teacher and parent and found it really tough last time round but just about managed to fit my work in around supporting the DCs. I pre-recorded a few bits which was fine (just left DC in front of the telly with strict instructions on volume!) but if my school shifts to anything live it’ll be a nightmare. Especially if my DC are meant to be participating in something live at the same time. We just don’t have the technology in my house to sustain us all. I also know lots of families in my school are in the same position and having to fit their own work and the schoolwork in around each other so for their sake as well I really hope we don’t move to live lessons because lots of children will miss it. Oh well, we got through it last time - let’s see what happens!

Tierful · 22/12/2020 08:20

No contact here and a weekly emailed task list too which required total parental supervision and input or completely incompatible with trying to wfh and children completely disengaged.

Teachers here did have a nice jolly sunny lockdown, no doubt about it!

CottonSock · 22/12/2020 08:25

Dreading it too. I hope its only a week

Pinksun12 · 22/12/2020 08:29

I'm in Germany, home schooling until 15th January, two school kids, one at nursery. I totally sympathize with you, just the thought makes me want to curl up in a hole and rock back and forth. I'm putting my foot down more this time though and DH and I have to share the load better.

BatleyTownswomensGuild · 22/12/2020 08:33

Totally sympathise. I hated home-schooling last time round - felt like I was half-arsing teaching, half-arsing parenting and half-arsing working. Felt so stressed and inadequate all the time. Made more challenging by the fact that DS has special needs so meeting his learning requirements was very challenging....

Love to know who these parents are that have got their key stage 1 kids so well trained they work to a timer without interruptions. Seriously... 🙄

Ozgirl75 · 22/12/2020 08:35

Well surely now, schools have had 9 months to get themselves sorted ready for another lockdown, so they’ve had time to learn from the last one?
It is hard, there’s no doubt about that, but i run a business and in the time of Covid we have totally changed so many of the parts of our business that can’t be done face to face to allow for home working and shut downs, so I’m sure schools will have too.
I mean, maybe they were nervous of Zoom 9 months ago, but now that’s been proven to be fine, they should be able to do that, at least. And there are so many platforms now to allow for schools to do this, any of them that don’t do it should be heavily criticised.

loulouljh · 22/12/2020 08:38

Me too. It was awful last time and drove us as a family to the edge.

HugeAckmansWife · 22/12/2020 08:42

I'm not going to defend all schools.. Clearly some really have not dealt with it well, especially in later months when there has been time to think and plan a bit more. I'm a teacher in a private school and we've been doing full structured days online but they absolute key to that is availability of tech and small numbers. There's actually nothing wrong with teachers using twinkle or similar.. They do in school too.. Why reinvent the wheel to make a sheet on X when someone already has? The issue for many parents, including me, is blending their own work with kids working. When mine were at home (tweens) I went through their Teams each night and got as much ready, printed off or resaved as a editable document the night before, worked out when my live lessons clashed with theirs and prepped either then or me to miss it (I teach secondary so with advance notice and decent work set I could miss the occasional one or just do a 10 min intro on my phone) but it took a lot of planning and my kids were, like all kids, not always cooperative or keen. It's incredibly hard. I think posts like skysports are, in the main, unfair but I do accept that provision has varied massively.

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 22/12/2020 08:56

Don't think she's being unfair, most of us can't just sack off work to teach, and we are not educators...

VashtaNerada · 22/12/2020 09:01

@Ozgirl75 I don’t think it’s nerves when it comes to zoom, it’s whether that’s the most appropriate medium. As both as teacher and parent I much prefer what I did last time (pre-recorded stories, weekly phonecalls and a work from home pack). Zoom really wouldn’t work for me or my students as flexibility is the key. I know one family who used to put the children to bed for a nap in the afternoon so they could do their work for example. I’d hate for those children to miss anything live.

MrsChristmasHamlet · 22/12/2020 09:02

I mean, maybe they were nervous of Zoom 9 months ago, but now that’s been proven to be fine, they should be able to do that, at least. And there are so many platforms now to allow for schools to do this, any of them that don’t do it should be heavily criticised.
Remote lessons does not mean live teaching.

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 22/12/2020 09:03

@MrsChristmasHamlet

I mean, maybe they were nervous of Zoom 9 months ago, but now that’s been proven to be fine, they should be able to do that, at least. And there are so many platforms now to allow for schools to do this, any of them that don’t do it should be heavily criticised. Remote lessons does not mean live teaching.
Correct, even just the teacher recording a half an hour touchpoint each day, it's not all about the work, I know my two would have invested themselves more in the work if it even looked like school gave a flying fcuk
Ozgirl75 · 22/12/2020 09:05

At our school we just had a zoom session at 9.30 every morning so the kids could say hi. The rest was sent via the online platforms. The end of day zoom catch up was only for the older one as they had to do it by themselves.

Ozgirl75 · 22/12/2020 09:06

And I agree actually that live teaching isn’t the best, having tasks to complete in the day but no specific time meant we could make it work with both kids and some rest and trampolining breaks etc.

Ozgirl75 · 22/12/2020 09:09

I also agree that the key point is teacher engagement. Both mine knew that their work would be looked at, marked and commented on daily and so they had to get on with it.
I have literally no idea how my year 4 teacher did it as he has three kids of his own and his wife is a nurse. I was so impressed with both teachers and passed that on to the head of year.

rookiemere · 22/12/2020 09:11

Yes a morning mandatory check in with parents contacted if they don't attend- in the same way that a parent is notified if they don't come to school- would have been great and framed expectations.

I hope our school does that this time, but the way they brushed any constructive criticism from last time suggests not. And to be clear it is the leadership team who should be taking on the burden of the majority of this, not the teachers.DS goes to a private school and the salary the head receives is commensurate with sorting this out properly for next term.

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 22/12/2020 09:13

You do t need to reinvent the wheel, you only need one teacher from each year/ability group to do this kind of regular daily stuff - children thrive on routine

Whattimeisdinner · 22/12/2020 09:13

I don't sympathise with a profession who in the main seem to have chosen to drop a gear.

You have absolutely no idea have you?

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 22/12/2020 09:15

I do have an idea, my experience of home schooling was sub standard - and that's a fact

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 22/12/2020 09:16

And let me just add, I had low standards and expectations from the beginning as let's face it, there's an awful lot of sub standard schools in the uk anyway

christinarossetti19 · 22/12/2020 09:17

@Barbie222

It's clear that parents really rely on teachers. How about supporting them to safely and reliably do their jobs this time instead of leaving your children in the front line of fire? Wouldn't it be good if we didn't have this new variant which seems to strangely infect children more? It's almost as if it evolved in an environment where it was passed back and forth in a reservoir of children. Also, wouldn't it be nice if we could rely on having our children reliably in school for lots of the time?

I don’t expect to see a single twinkl worksheet, or promises that they’ll reply “when they can”.

Whoever said this needs to give their head a wobble. Wtf???

I completely agree.

It is extraordinary how in so many narratives teachers are found to be at fault, either for being lazy, work-why, risk adverse, wanting the schools to close, wanting them not to re-open, wanting them to close again etc etc despite teachers repeatedly and patiently explaining how hard they have been working and that they want schools to be safer not closed.

And yes if there had been more parental pressure on the government over the summer and beyond to open schools safely not at any cost to the health of school staff and pupils, I don't think the situation would be as dire now.

If only every post slagging on twinkle worksheets and the like had been replaced by emails and phone calls directly lobbying the government to do better, for example....

Whattimeisdinner · 22/12/2020 09:18

I do have an idea, my experience of home schooling was sub standard - and that's a fact

Take it up with the school.
My DC’’s experience of home schooling was far from sub-standard (and that is also a fact).

Tierful · 22/12/2020 09:20

I don't disagree the last few months have been incredibly hard for teachers and schools. But why is it beyond the wit of some to not get that some (many?) schools and teachers completely disengaged with children during the last lockdown.

I initially joined us for them before they went totally crazy - but had our lockdown experience even been an iota of what some teachers here are saying they offered their pupils then maybe I could've been more on board with a form of part time schooling.

Agree with PP that all other work places had to adapt, why didn't our school. And that's what matters to me - not what other schools did.

Tierful · 22/12/2020 09:21

And ha! Take it up with the school. You think?!

christinarossetti19 · 22/12/2020 09:22

"Yes a morning mandatory check in with parents contacted if they don't attend"

Agree - this was one of the most shocking things about the government's decision to suspend the curriculum in March for me.

Without any expectations that families keep in touch with the school, there was no way for teachers to escalate concerns as they usually would with persistent absences through the LA etc.

A child in my ds's Y6 class went completely off radar, and I'm sure that she wasn't the only one. I only know this because his teacher asked him if he'd heard from her, when the school had had no joy getting hold of the family via the phone or visiting her home.

Which they had been doing daily to start with to deliver food, until parent surveys indicated that families preferred supermarket vouchers which they then co-ordinated and distributed.

Lazy, good for nothing, down a gear fuckers, eh?