What is the new plan for primary education if schools close?

[Manteo]

I read somewhere on here that since the huge variation in distance learning provision in the last lockdown plans have been made in case it happens again.

My DD is in year 2 and I'm not quite sure how effective distance learning can be for this age but I'm hoping it will be better than having Twinkl sheets uploaded to the school website once a fortnight which is what happened last time.

Is there an overall plan or is it still down to the individual school? It seems likely schools will close and I'm just wondering if anyone knows what we can expect.

Greater availability of chimney sweeps?

Most schools are using MS Teams I think. It is impossible to recreate classroom learning so it is adapted. In my school there is an online folder for the resources for each lesson. The teacher will introduce and teach the beginning if the lesson as usual, the children then work on their own using the resources available and upload their work. The children do not see other children, and mostly listen to the teachers voice while watching presentations on screen. It does not really recreate the classroom environment. Not all schools will do it exactly like this but this seems to be generally how it's done.

Our primary have said it’ll be similar to before, ie twinkl worksheets uploaded to google classrooms (and presumably a phone call every 2 months if we’re lucky). I plan to throw money at it and get an online tutor for DS.

I’m not going to pretend that I can teach, let alone teach alongside my ft wfh role. May as well give me flip flops, point me in the direction of Everest and say “you’ll just have to muddle through”.

No provision and hope for the best like last time, those saying "most schools do it like this..." are talking nonsense, as most schools didn't and don't

Our school has Seesaw. The homework been on seasaw for the last term so everyone's had time to get used it it.
it should be easier than last time.
I do find though that apps like Reading Eggs, Teach your Monster to Read and Night Zookeeper are often more effective than what gets sent home from the school.

I think the OP is asking if there's a national minimum provision/guidelines on provision that (for want of a better phrase as I hate it) "levels up" so that all our children get an education, not just those with conscientious teachers

The DFE guidance sets out the legal requirements for remote learning. If you feel your school is not meeting them, you can challenge them.

At my primary we will use Teams with a combination of live and pre recorded video lessons. Anyone not logging in for registration or in contact in any way will get a phone call the same day. We know which families do not have technology and will support them in a different way.

My DSs school is using Seesaw, that looks good too.

Schools had to have plans in place for remote learning ages ago. I don’t think a couple of Twinkl sheets will cut it.
We do a certain amount of online lessons (as pp said they cannot recreate the classroom environment but are better than nothing) then children turn in work for marking. Those with no access are given a school iPad or if it’s wifi issues, a paper pack. We use google classroom (I think) very successfully to give lesson times, links, tasks etc. It was bloody hard work during isolation periods, but at least we could see they were safe and were doing some teaching. Did class read every day too!

I plan to throw money at it and get an online tutor for DS
Yep. It all got easier for me last time once I started throwing money at the problem.
I couldn't afford a tutor but I signed both kids up to Reading Eggs, bought a bunch of Outschool lessons and found a teenager willing to talk to DS in Gaelic for £10 a session.
I'd definitely recommend that approach.

God knows.

But as I have a 9-5 job which I need to keep putting food in the fridge, I can't even supervise my 5 year old let alone do school work with him.

All schools should have a remote learning provision plan. Problem is many schools/families don’t have the technology to provide this to everyone and the Government haven’t provided all the laptops they promised.

@ineedaholidaynow

All schools should have a remote learning provision plan. Problem is many schools/families don’t have the technology to provide this to everyone and the Government haven’t provided all the laptops they promised.

It's not just technology that's an issue

It's holding down a job which keeps a roof over the kids head

All the technology in the world won't pay the bills when I can't do my day job because I'm dabbling around with google classroom

To answer the OP, yes there are requirements. No, last time there weren't so there was very different provision. If you don't like what your school is doing, please get in touch, but be aware they will be doing what works for the majority and you might possibly be an outlier in terms of what you'd liked them to be doing. Ask yourself: will what I want work for the majority of parents in my school? If you are a sahm in a predominantly ft work area or vice versa you might feel like you're being overlooked but schools have to give what works for the majority of their children.

A friend's Y4 class bubble had to close for the last fortnight of term.
She did a live 30 mins in the morning and 10 mins in the afternoon to introduce the work, then recorded voice over ppts and a video of her reading a chapter of the class novel for each day.
During each day, around the two live sessions, she was also available on Class Dojo to respond to work or questions sent in.
Between her and the TA they also phoned vulnerable families each day and phoned the other families once each week.
Over the first week, a total of 9 children submitted any work and 6 the following week. A maximum of 11 out of the 32 children joined the live sessions on one day, but the average was 7.
A part-time teacher from the school met one family (of a child that had not engaged) in town in the last week. 'It's quite nice to have a longer Christmas break,' said the mum, 'What are you planing for home learning if we can't go back in January? I think she might start getting a bit bored by then'.

"Greater availability of chimney sweeps?"

Surely this would have been handier before Christmas? 😁

Don’t reading eggs do a referral thingy? I think they did when I had it a few years back. Maybe a referral thread for things like that (a bit like the Christmas one) might be helpful.

It's a disaster for our kids.

Covid cases are rocketing because of a new strain. We need the vaccine.

Schools (England) were required to have plans for off-site learning in place by 22 October, so I suppose you could just ask yours.

But I think that sort of enquiry will go down like a cup of cold sick at the moment, as they wait for new guidance, and changes to guidance, between now and whenever term starts

That's a really good idea Nellodee

My DD was off for the last week of school and again only had Twinkl sheets uploaded to the school website. Is this likely to mean this is still all they have planned?

I work almost full time from home and have to be at my desk and on the phone for set hours.

DS has decided to gatecrash his sister's yr9 live lessons rather than more undifferentiated revision worksheets. She will quite enjoy having a 'classmate' to chat to about the lessons too.

@Manteo

My DD was off for the last week of school and again only had Twinkl sheets uploaded to the school website. Is this likely to mean this is still all they have planned?

I work almost full time from home and have to be at my desk and on the phone for set hours.

Was her bubble closed or was she an individual off within a class that was open to others?

@Manteo

"Greater availability of chimney sweeps?"

Surely this would have been handier before Christmas? 😁

Absolutely, but don't worry, Boris will see you right for the cold snap in Jan. 🧹

It has to vary by school and family situation, which is why it's hard to set a national standard. I'm a primary school teacher and most schools have surveyed their parents about remote learning and what would be suitable for them. I teach in a deprived area and at my school, 25% of parents said they cannot access learning online due to lack of devices/unsuitable internet access. We are a small school and only have 15 laptops in the whole school. These are our only source of teaching computing in the school so we can't loan them out in case anything happens to them. We've applied for DfE devices but they aren't as easy to come by as the government makes out. They are also not available to any pupils in KS1.

So in my school, live lessons for example would be unworkable and we've actually been told we can't do them as it would exclude so many families. We have to provide a mixture of online and paper resources and have to think carefully about how to send out learning so it doesn't involve printing etc. In other schools, where all the pupils are likely to have access to devices and wifi, it would be much easier to do live lessons.

I teach KS1 and when my class have been isolated in the past term, I did send out quite a lot of pre-recorded videos, but I tried to supplement with similar work explained on paper as far as possible for those who couldn't access it. I found most children could access very short videos sent via a Youtube link as they could watch on a parent's phone and if they weren't too long it wouldn't use too much data if families didn't have WiFi access.

It's so hard for the youngest pupils though as there is very little new learning that can be done if you can't rely on videos/livelessons and if their parents aren't able to support them closely at home.

Microsoft teams is also a pain to use as we don't have Microsoft on home laptops. Just open office. It's a daily headache as it alters the settings and displays. Heaven knows what my kids hand in.