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.

Oh and his plan works out better for me as they sit and work together rather than me having to spend ages nagging him to do it, battle with the app they use which only seems to work well on ipads and then still having to find things to occupy him. January is one of my busier work months.

Her whole class was told to isolate for 14 days (then shortened to 10).

It will be a disaster for us. I teach so will be on teams all day, DH working from home.
DD is 5 and already struggling with school (reception) there is no way I will be able to adequatley support her on live classes.
DS is 8 so will do a little better but has struggled with the transition to juniors this year having missed such a chunk of education already.

If they close schools I expect at a minimum access to resources like class reading books (had to fight for them last time) and on-line sheets we have to print at home, it costs a fortune in ink to keep a primary and a year 12, plus my uni stuff printed off. Schools should be posting this stuff out, hand delivered if they don't want postage costs. Some schools managed, ours didn't and I also had to fight for printed sheets.

@iamusuallybeingunreasonable it’s beyond me why we even expect parents to be able to do it all. It’s not achievable IMO.

Either primary schools come up with something that means parents are still able to do their day jobs and keep a roof over their children’s heads. Or they don’t and do nothing. All the helpful suggestions that parents start their own work at 4am and finish 11pm so they can do schooling in the middle of the day, on an ongoing basis with no end date in sight, leave me dumbfounded.

I can only presume that this is dreamt up by men who don’t worry themselves with childcare and homeschooling.

I am guessing I will have to pay for tutors again.

I paid for tutors for maths and English and then used outschool for science and art.

All we got last time and during bubble closures was crappy worksheets uploaded that took my children about 10 minutes a day to complete.

Your school has to put details of their online provision on their website. Most schools were proactive in this, but the DfE have provided a form for completion too. Ask for it if it's not available. Schools were also given money to organise an online platform for lessons etc, so they should have one. At a minimum schools can link to Oak Academy, which are online video lessons.

During the first lockdown, the curriculum was suspended, but this is a legal requirement now. Contact your school, although as someone else said above, they will be working with the majority.

I am assuming it will be like the times they had 2 weeks each off self-isolating due to contact in the school this term. DC1 (year 5) had work uploaded to the obscure online learning platform that our school uses and no one else has ever heard of, which she mostly refused to do. DC2 (year 1) had twice daily zoom meetings with her class, videos online of the teacher explaining the maths/ English task and worksheets for her to do and tasks set for other subjects. I was impressed by the provision for year 1, but I wonder how it will work if they also go to keyworker school on days that I am at work like in the first lockdown. Will the school provide them with a device each to access the online learning and someone to help KS1 DC with the tasks? And how will I manage both DC's online learning/ zoom meetings etc with 1 laptop?

Agree with other posters that it’s not just about the quality of provision (though understand OPs question was about minimum standards etc). We appear to have been one of lucky ones during Lockdown 1 in that our (state) primary provided v goid online learning from day one; but with parents who wfh FT it’s simply impossible to facilitate. Yes you can work outside your usual hours if employer is flexible but there’s only so long you can do that (crack of dawn start, midnight finish with healthy dose of home learning in between without burning out). Our D.C. were in years that didn’t get back in at all March -Sep and it nearly broke us. Will it be as bad this time if primaries shut? Hopefully not as a) vaccine on way so won’t be as long and b) we were ‘lucky’ to be in a position where I left my job and taken a lower paid, so can be around more. Has it screwed my career over? Certainly. And I’m the higher earner - DO would have taken the hit but his job is more specialist so no way would have picked up PT at close to my options.

Oh forgot to add, we were lucky that at least we CAN wfh! Really feel for those who can’t

So is there no specific minimum requirement for KS1? That's what I was wondering really.

I hope there’s something. We just got the twinkl worksheets last time. Really think there should be some live provision, it’s worked very well for DS’ drama group. Not all day of course for young children but an hour a day or something would make a huge difference.

God really bad proof reading. ‘Left my FT job to pick up a lower paid part time one’ is what meant to say!!

It’s not awful. We’ve already done it once because of a bubble bursting. It’s NOTHING like them actually being in school but it’s better than nothing.

We also had an increasing feeing of disconnection with the primary school, particularly in June when other years went back. Uploaded twinkl sheets but no live or video contact, for a prolonged period of time, is not actually school nor an education. Hard after 17 weeks (March- July) to muster enthusiasm for any of it.

So they do need some live interaction, otherwise we disengage.

Let’s put it this way. If my kids are sticking doing home learning until September thus losing most of this years learning to Covid, they are going to need to redo the year to catch up.

The DfE has been rolling out Google Classroom training. We've only had one of the two sessions so far though.

I set online learning daily last time for my lower KS2 class. Those who did the majority of the work are now on track to be where we would have expected without a lockdown. Some of this work did include Twinkl worksheets - which I carefully chose and which fitted into a sequence of lessons. Writing my own questions and answer key for, say, column addition would not have made the work any better than using a pre-made sheet.

Unfortunately there is no easy option if children can't be helped with their work (below around Y4 anyway). Children in school get constant teacher support, they aren't just left to it - there is simply no way this can be replicated even with the full time online learning lots of parents want. The input children get at the start of the lesson is a tiny, tiny part of how a teacher helps children learn.

There is an interesting thread about teacher laptops running at the moment. Many (most?) schools do not provide a laptop for their teachers so a huge amount of online learning is only possible through teachers using their own technology.

*stuck

When my 2 we’re isolating with me they had the same lessons they would have each day. They got a PE video and task, daily maths to complete online, daily English, science, history. It was well done. About 3-4 hours of solid work I’d say

@Manteo

So is there no specific minimum requirement for KS1? That's what I was wondering really.

It's extremely hard for KS1. They're not able to be independent yet. So independent activities have to be fun and simple.

Imo bbc bite sized if you have online access and very basic worksheets are the only way it can work for them. But not all are ready to do formal sit down work. Reading to them and encouraging reading is the best, playing board games helps maths loads.

Reading eggs is brilliant and has a maths section.

I do think it's worth remembering many countries don't start formal reading writing and maths till age 7. And often do better than U.K. kids do.

Oak academy is the other possibility.

As a teacher I would be providing online work and looking after a toddler so my own older primary aged child won't be doing much. I'm not to bothered. He's good at getting on with doodle maths and does reading eggs.

However, I don't think Primary will close tbh. Slim possibility for a short while in tier 4.

Whatever it is I am dreading it. I'm a secondary teacher and just like last time will have to share the laptop I bought in March with my daughter. Not sure how it will work this time if we both need it for live lessons on teams.

The Head at my dc’s school refuses to do online learning with children at home, keyworker kids will be taught in school, the rest of the kids will do work with their parents/not, it will b uploaded and not marked.

Inequality depending on your job. Again.

The DfE guidance for schools on remote learninng is here.

Scroll through the blue menu on the left to look for Remote learning expectations. It doesn't differentiate by age group, so basically the guidance is the same for Years 1 - 13. Talks a lot about using technology then sticks in a paragraph about providing printed resources like "textbooks and workbooks" for those who can't access online learning (so very secondary-based - not many primaries use text books).

Regarding younger pupils it says: recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum - meaningless drivel.

Every school has been legally required to plan online learning provision so it is imperative that you communicate with your school about what this will be (in January obviously not now).

Every school, as a PP has said, need to think about what will work for their cohort.

So while online lessons could work well for a year 6 class in an affluent area where every family has internet access for each child on a separate device and two parents wfh flexibly or sahp who can supervise, it would not work for a cohort with little internet access, parents who are working out of the home etc.

Some schools' provision was not good enough last time and if this is the case for your school you must proactively challenge them.

However some schools have planned work that may work for most families but not for you - depending on your own work situation, technology access etc. Please bear this in mind.

Last time, for example, half my year 7 accessed all the tasks, narrated lessons and it was all good. 1/4 had no online access so we sent out the work but got little back. Ok - a lot of these kids live in challenging circumstances and some ended up coming into school some days to work. Out of the other 1/4, some complained that we had set too much work and some not enough work - I set more or explained which tasks were vital for the first group and which were not. M

Just to try to show the vast range of responses I got.

A twinkl worksheet does sound a bit rubbish. We had 2 weeks of isolation for my reception child and they put a lot of effort in to trying to keep up with the lesson plans but it required a good 2-3 hours of parental input. We had the following:

• short introductory videos from the teacher each day covering phonic sounds and saying hello
• activities and tasks ranging from PowerPoint presentations to writing story maps
• content videos. For example, they got the older children to film a short PE class for them.
• there were always differentiated activities and extension tasks for the more able.

We had to upload pictures and give a summary of what the child had done each day. There was nothing live but the teachers responded and praised the work every evening.

I’m confident that we’ll get good materials from the school if we shut but am terrified how I’m going to fit it in with work. I’m really worried about the effects it will have on us all.