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.

This is the other side to it, of course. Thank you for everything you do 💐

We've had training from the lead in school, and people with her in a classroom and the rest of us at home.
I'm struggling to see why this is harder work to such a great degree?.
I could hear the voice, see the presentation as could the people on the room and it happened once?. No double teaching?

@SallyOMalley

This is the other side to it, of course. Thank you for everything you do 💐

Sorry - that was to @sydenhamhiller and all the teachers who are probably dreading this just as much as everyone else .

@bathsh3ba

Everything I've read suggests primaries would stay open, rates are much higher in secondary than primary. I'm still dreading it with a Y7 and Y8, I don't really feel they are old enough to be left the whole day.

Primary rates aren’t all that far behind secondary now.

Re own lap top

I didn't realise this was something I was supposed to be railing against? I used my own lap top without a second thought over lock down, I didn't even think to ask for one.

I only did because this term when we had a self isolation period dh said it would be better to use theirs because they would be under obligation to repair it or something.

I've got my own perfectly working good lap top, why wouldn't I use it?

[quote Lemons1571]@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.[/quote]
This.

My school sent home a weekly timetable for the 6yo which was constant for the 9-3 hours with small breaks. Quite how they expected that to happen when I'm also working throughout I don't know. We did what we could.

My eldest dd is a great student, self reliant, does her own work, trust worthy, reliable, self motivated.

Even she started to suffer last lock down, became a little miserable, reliant in her phone for entertainment BUT that's the nature of the beast. She would have been emotionally, socially and educationally better off if she had been taught on line like her friends at surrounding school.... But she wasn't sadly

Unfortunately, we can't have it all in a national crisis, what's ideal or not ideal really isn't in the equation.
It's not ideal to leave her on her own but she's safe and it's short term. She's

@Frazzled2207

Our school's provision during the first lockdown was absolutely woeful. However we had a fortnight homeschooling when my youngest was self isolating in November and the provision was substantially improved. So just because they were rubbish the first time it doesn't necessarily mean it will be rubbish again. I'm holding out to the hope that primaries will reopen, at least in low case rate areas. A bloody nightmare with work for a lot of us .

My DDs whole class had to isolate for over a week and we just got a one off upload of a load of Twinkl sheets. Again. So I guess I shouldn't hold out much hope.

Bernadette and what about us, we were given absolutely zero?.. Nothing for a 7 year old, not even twinkle so what do you think parents like me had to do?.. I spent hours and hours on here, trawling the natinal curriculum, trying to piece together what they were supposed to have covered, what they hadn't, what dd knew already.

To have been told what she was supposed to be doing would have been a gift in my eyes.

Completely agree that while of course kids need an education while they're off, some schools just assume there's one parent not working who can sit and help them for hours a day. Like many others, I'll have a work nearly full time and potentially keep a 4yo amused and vaguely educated too. Its unsustainable.

Ive already looked at the curriculum plans to see what my children should be learning in Jan. Provision was really poor last lockdown and according to the plans won't be much better this time. No live lessons, very little feedback and none actually furthering learning - just 'great effort' type comments. I have one child that is ahead of age expected in nearly all areas so he did the work set last time in about 5 mins, most of it just wasn't appropriate for him. Other child has possible SEN and over 2 years behind age expected, so again undifferentiated work is pretty much a waste of time and he gets upset that he can't access it and then gets stressed and self harms. So I'm not hugely bothered if he does it or not. Apparently this is not the attitude I am supposed to have!

@PandemicPavolova

Op we didn't even get given twinkle sheets, in the end I had to research the national curriculum myself, then assess dd, and go from there. I brought books, signed up to reading chest and In between supporting my own students, and dd on lashings of roblox I managed to teach her.

I appreciate very well tech and more so WiFi issues, however many children now have smart phones, tablets, lap tops.

Children can be taught on line, we are very lucky to have these resources at all. If other teachers are allowed by their heads to teach as closely to the timetable as they can... That frees up parents working from home to do their jobs.

It keeps everyone busy, you can monitor children you her concerns about as well.

There are many ways to teach on Google meet or zoom with the teacher presenting, asking the dc questions, setting work.

Primary certainly presents more challenges than secondary but many primary schools also taught the older years in line.

I did the same. Looked up the year 1 expectations, bought some KS1 workbooks, looked up KS1 spellings and did some early morning, evenings and weekends.

Got told she was exceeding in maths and English when we went back. Not thrilled about doing it all again though!

What was so frustrating in lockdown 1 was that our school seemed to put the full responsibility onto parents, as if we had nothing else to do, but also as if we had the expertise to do it.

I think it would help to differentiate between responsibility for providing access to education, and actually delivering it..... Access, as a parent wfh, I can do. I can get DD logged on and help her download or print materials etc. Delivering the education, I absolutely can't do. I'm not a teacher, and I'm working full time.

What we seemed to get last time (which was very much along the Twinkl worksheets line), was some sort of weird assumption that access = delivery, that if you sit a child alone at a table with Twinkl worksheets, that learning will then magically happen. This simply isn't the case. Delivery absolutely has to happen and is the responsibility of the professionals trained and paid to do it, and pretending that sending some worksheets is in any way delivering education does the while profession a huge injustice.

And yes, I realise some schools and teachers did this very well, but the reason so many parents are angry and frustrated about this issue, is because many didn't.

I hate that these threads so often descend into parents vs teachers, because really, we're all on the same side, but with that I'm mind, I think it's important to be honest about what went so wrong for so many last time.

All schools have a plan, but they won't all be the same. Schools will use different platforms and will expect different things from their staff.
Ours will be video lessons following the curriculum with work submitted and marked the same day and also daily Zoom check ins. Hopefully we won't have to use it. This is essentially what we do when classes go off to isolate at the minute.

We use Seesaw in ks1 and have provisions in place in case of lockdown. Learning continues as it would in class and we teach through videos and upload work everyday. We have a policy in place which states that the work given must be a continuation of whatever we were teaching in class not lesson fillers. The problem with this comes when we have no response from children or parents for the full self isolation period. Out of a class of 30 children, 15 respond. The rest dont bother. We ring everyday and apart from knocking on every door and putting an ipad in their hands there is little we can do. Those that respond come back stronger as they have had a parent "assistant". Those that dont respond come back worse as they havent put pen to paper for two weeks. We then have the huge struggle in getting them to catch up which is impossible as we end up self isolating again and so the cycle repeats itself. Working parents are the ones that always respond or ensure that their child catches up whenever they can. Ipads for those who have no access to technology have been given. I prefer to be in school then out as it means more work for when we get back in.

Really dont know what the solution is. Hoping school dont close as I'll have my own children at home with me too. I have huge respect for working parents.

@Deliaskis

What was so frustrating in lockdown 1 was that our school seemed to put the full responsibility onto parents, as if we had nothing else to do, but also as if we had the expertise to do it.

I think it would help to differentiate between responsibility for providing access to education, and actually delivering it..... Access, as a parent wfh, I can do. I can get DD logged on and help her download or print materials etc. Delivering the education, I absolutely can't do. I'm not a teacher, and I'm working full time.

What we seemed to get last time (which was very much along the Twinkl worksheets line), was some sort of weird assumption that access = delivery, that if you sit a child alone at a table with Twinkl worksheets, that learning will then magically happen. This simply isn't the case. Delivery absolutely has to happen and is the responsibility of the professionals trained and paid to do it, and pretending that sending some worksheets is in any way delivering education does the while profession a huge injustice.

And yes, I realise some schools and teachers did this very well, but the reason so many parents are angry and frustrated about this issue, is because many didn't.

I hate that these threads so often descend into parents vs teachers, because really, we're all on the same side, but with that I'm mind, I think it's important to be honest about what went so wrong for so many last time.

This. Absolutely this.

I would also add that the argument that “teachers can’t do two jobs at once” works both ways. You can’t do it because it can’t be done. So why on earth are you expecting the parents to do it?

Nothing against teachers by the way. It’s just the big elephant in the room, that the government / dfe don’t address except by stoking parental guilt.

You can find the requirements here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#res

They have changed since lockdown 1.

Key points are:

-set work that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, and as a minimum:

primary: 3 hours a day, on average, across the school cohort
secondary: 4 hours a day, with more for pupils working towards formal qualifications this year

-provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos.

-gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum using questions and other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly, using digitally facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate

It will be tough for parents if schools have to close completely, but hopefully we can find some sort of half way house which will enable schools to be partially open and meaningful online learning to take place.

Don't forget if your child is not self isolating, you can use a childcare bubble as well- they don't have to be at home with you!

@SansaSnark

You can find the requirements here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#res

They have changed since lockdown 1.

Key points are:

-set work that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, and as a minimum:

primary: 3 hours a day, on average, across the school cohort
secondary: 4 hours a day, with more for pupils working towards formal qualifications this year

-provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos.

-gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum using questions and other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly, using digitally facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate

It will be tough for parents if schools have to close completely, but hopefully we can find some sort of half way house which will enable schools to be partially open and meaningful online learning to take place.

Don't forget if your child is not self isolating, you can use a childcare bubble as well- they don't have to be at home with you!

These requirements are hard to assess and measure though. Our school would likely argue that spag.com, mathletics and twinkl with feedback once a week are high quality curriculum resources, and that any live / interactive videos are not a formal requirement.

DS is KS2 and his whole class were isolating recently. The home learning was much improved with regular live meetings to explain work and let the kids chat to each other. (Which I think is really important. DS is an only child and under Tier 4 rules, the only opportunity he gets to socialise with another child is at school.) Work was uploaded regularly and the teacher provided feedback.

I'm concerned that if a full closure happens, the need to provide key worker places will impact on the quality of home learning for everyone else. Our school were unable to get Y6 back in June due to the number of keyworker children and hardly anything was provided for those at home in June/July as the teachers were busy with the children that were in.

Ds Y9, struggled towards the end of the first lockdown. He found it hard to muster up the enthusiasm to complete the same type of work day in, day out. Think he only had two maths Zoom lessons throughout that first lockdown.

Dread a long lockdown for schools again but what alternatives are there!

Hoping against all hope that this vaccine gets rolled out quicker and testing in schools possible!

But on a positive, Ds has had a few isolations since returning and there were far more Zoom lessons, so I’m hoping this will continue.

It takes a huge effort from all sides to make it work. There are so many issues that get in the way. I would have liked to have seen part time learning focusing on core subjects in high risk areas rather than full closures. Teachers could have increased the level of progression with smaller classes and it would have been easier to social distance and minimise disruption. Even with this there are problems for working parents.

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.

Realistically, what do you expect them to come up with though? It is the nature of young children that they cannot do much work alone. The younger they are, the less likely they are to have their own device. For every parent that wants a timetable of live lessons, there are those who desperately don't want that because they can't access it or are working from home. Some just want packs of paper work which revise work already taught so the kids can work through them fairly independently, but that doesn't address new learning.

As a primary school teacher, it is incredibly difficult to find ways to present things, especially for the younger children, that will suit all families. I end up coming up with about 3 or 4 alternatives, plus separate provision for SEND pupils and still some families aren't happy or don't/can't engage. I agree that closing primary schools must be a last resort, but in areas (like mine) where the spread is absolutely out of control I feel like it might be necessary, hopefully just for a short time.

@lavenderlou

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.

Realistically, what do you expect them to come up with though? It is the nature of young children that they cannot do much work alone. The younger they are, the less likely they are to have their own device. For every parent that wants a timetable of live lessons, there are those who desperately don't want that because they can't access it or are working from home. Some just want packs of paper work which revise work already taught so the kids can work through them fairly independently, but that doesn't address new learning.

As a primary school teacher, it is incredibly difficult to find ways to present things, especially for the younger children, that will suit all families. I end up coming up with about 3 or 4 alternatives, plus separate provision for SEND pupils and still some families aren't happy or don't/can't engage. I agree that closing primary schools must be a last resort, but in areas (like mine) where the spread is absolutely out of control I feel like it might be necessary, hopefully just for a short time.

I’m a Year 2 teacher and I totally agree with you, @lavenderlou

@lavenderlou

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.

Realistically, what do you expect them to come up with though? It is the nature of young children that they cannot do much work alone. The younger they are, the less likely they are to have their own device. For every parent that wants a timetable of live lessons, there are those who desperately don't want that because they can't access it or are working from home. Some just want packs of paper work which revise work already taught so the kids can work through them fairly independently, but that doesn't address new learning.

As a primary school teacher, it is incredibly difficult to find ways to present things, especially for the younger children, that will suit all families. I end up coming up with about 3 or 4 alternatives, plus separate provision for SEND pupils and still some families aren't happy or don't/can't engage. I agree that closing primary schools must be a last resort, but in areas (like mine) where the spread is absolutely out of control I feel like it might be necessary, hopefully just for a short time.

I don’t actually want much. I suppose my minimum would be:

• to be included on the weekly zoom assembly. That was for the keyworker kids only, and uploaded to the school website for us a few days later. No prompt that it was there though, just had to try and remember to check.

• some kind of live contact at some point. We had two phone calls in 5 months, nothing to do with the work set, just welfare checks. So maybe a class zoom call for 15 mins once a week.

• signposting to some form of video teaching. Not just endless twinkl worksheets that need printing.

• some kind of feedback on a timely basis. Not on Friday at 5pm, when you did the worksheet on Monday and can’t remember what it was about. In fact, not on Friday afternoon at all when I’ve worked a full week juggling everything

• some form of weekly newsletter that is not aimed at the kids in school. Don’t mind if it’s really brief. I don’t want to hear about the wonderful things (and see the photos) the keyworker and vulnerable kids are doing with the amazing staff in school, when I feel like we’re criminals if we even approach the school gate. It just makes us resentful and disengaged

• some recognition that parents, just like teachers, cannot so two jobs at once. Also recognition that parents earning a wage to keep the roof and food on the table, actually is a priority over uploading twinkl worksheets. And no, I am not arranging with my employer to work until 1am every night so I can “fit it all in”.

Is that too much??