If the schools close there should be no pretence that they have switched to "online learning".

[Billie18]

If the schools close they are shut. Schools are not equipped to deliver teaching online. Teachers have not been trained to teach online. Children are not equipped to learn online. The curriculum has not been designed to be taught online. If schools close then children will not be receiving an education. It is dishonest to pretend that they are.

So if the schools close then teachers should be furloughed and children's education should be paused at the point of closure. Closing schools should not be disguised as something it is not. This would allow the damage to continue indefinitely. If schools remain closed for a longer period then teachers should be made redundant so that they are free to do other work. This of course would be terrible and would hopefully not be allowed to happen... But then schools have already not been fully open for nearly a year.

When individual years have been sent home near me in some schools they had almost no live teaching at all
Live online lessons are neither recommended or mandated.

well, I haven't read the whole thread, but from Monday my year 8 dd will be online.
They will be sitting at the computer having lessons on teams. Each lesson 30 -40 mins, then short break then next lesson.

Any child not present will geta phone call to parents.

My older onesare year 11 and 13, so they are expecting to go in, but as they are same school, if shcool closes, then same applies, they will be doing lessons on teams in front of computer.

I know not all schools do this. I also think it is only realistic for Secondary schools. I also think we may need to think about ditching some subject areas for a few months.

The biggest obstacle though is that if all 3 of mine are home, that means we need 5 devices in the house. Dh and I both work fomr home on our laptops. 3 kids on teams means 3 devices. Fortunately during last lockdown dh(who works with computers) bought 3 cheap second hand laptopsand upgraded/fixed them so that they do now have a laptop each.

I have 2 kids in exam years, I do not wnat schools to close, I want them to go online

Plus, good teaching does not mean talking at a class. It's a short explanation followed by plenty of time to explore and learn

This seems a very odd opinion. Do you really mean that in the ideal school teachers wouldn't speak to or interact live with children?

Live online lessons are neither recommended or mandated.

This does show that online schooling will be a poor substitute for many children sadly.

Talking at kids for ages isn't the best way for them to learn at all.
It's not like lectures at uni.

Awesome, I shall sell all of the teaching videos I made late at night and over the weekends between February and August last year. Might make me enough money to cover the cost of extra nursery days that I paid for so I could do key worker cover during (unpaid) Easter and half term holidays.

I think it should be acknowledged that parents cannot wfh in a full time salaried role that has high expectations of them, alongside homeschooling. I won’t stand for any more of the placating “do your best” nonsense as it just means I fail at both working and homeschooling.

It’s nonsense really. I’m sure if I said to the primary school “you do my job, I’ll homeschool my kids” they’d reply “that would be ridiculous, a teacher can’t cover a lawyers work”. Well, how the fuck do you expect a lawyer to cover a teachers role then?

Disclaimer- I’m not really a lawyer but have a similarly demanding role.

Not an issue in the area I live, the area I work or the area my family live, but okay, that doesn’t include big cites or very rural areas.

And even if you can’t or won’t move schools, you could have used the last few months to work with the school where your child HAS to attend. If you know you can’t move schools, you should have been proactive in June/July/August/September/October/November/December to push for the provision which would satisfy you.

Dd (yr 8 then, yr 9 now). Engaged well and continued to make progress through the first lockdown. She was online most days 9-2 ish with the odd bit of food tech or PE thrown in. Was it as good as school ? No Was it better than nothing ? Yes.

Talking at kids isn't the best?

You do know the tech has two way interactions...

So the teacher can ask students to mute then un mute and talk? So the kids arnt talked at.

She neither wants nor needs another month off

The other thing about measuring participation in online lessons is that it's apparently very easy to have Teams running in one window and Among Us running in another.

@Noellodee

The other thing about measuring participation in online lessons is that it's apparently very easy to have Teams running in one window and Among Us running in another.

So true! I’m a member of the Facebook Teams education page and this is an issue with students from all over the world.

Still, it pleases some parents to do live lessons, eh!?

@JM10

If schools close then my children's education will effectively be paused, our school has not provided good online learning so far. One of my children didn't even log on for a month in the first lockdown (a whole other issue) and school didn't seem to notice.

I've read many people's experiences of excellent online learning and support from schools though. The lack of consistency across schools concerns me, but I don't know how that could be addressed.

Rules and guidelines changes in October.. Since October half term has the experience of re,ore learning changed for your school? If not, then ask to see their remote learning plan as this is now compulsory.

If before October half term there was no real guidelines from the government. In lockdown 1 the curriculum was suspended so very different to what would be the expectation now.

I have two children in different schools - none of what you have said is true for them although I appreciate it is true for others. The problem is the online learning is inconsistant between schools.
If you said my children had to go back to online learning for several months that would not bother me although I know that would be less than ideal for others.

I'm always surprised when parents say their dc learned nothing during lockdown. A lot less, yes I would agree, but even if the school sent you precisely nothing (which no school I know of personally did) you had access to all the Bitesize stuff online and on your tv, you could watch half an hour or an hour of this in the evening with them, bit of a chat about it and - well, they've learned something

I wasn't trained to do my job online, but I have been doing it since March. I don't see why teachers shouldn't be able to do the same.

How many variables are you dealing with here @ChardonnaysPetDragon? It's so ridiculous of you to suggest that adapting to Zoom meetings with adult colleagues compares on any way with teaching children online.

@notevenat20

Plus, good teaching does not mean talking at a class. It's a short explanation followed by plenty of time to explore and learn

This seems a very odd opinion. Do you really mean that in the ideal school teachers wouldn't speak to or interact live with children?

You've shown your cluelessness here @notevenat20. Embarrassing.

I can't see how anyone can say that a recorded lesson or written instructions online can be better than a live lesson?

Pre recorded lessons allow children, and parents, to complete the lessons at a time which suits them. For many working parents, especially in younger years, this is an essential element of remote learning.

Our pre recorded lessons were interactive with suitable pauses left, etc. We made them as interesting and engaging as we could. The accompanying activities complimented them and the daily regular, albeit short (the children are only 4-7 here after all) was useful for many.

However there is no way round the fact that remote teaching and learning for primary aged children almost always will require a supervising adult/parent. I'm not sure there is a way round that - even live lessons won't get round that issue,

In lockdown 1 we had full bubbles. Almost all teaching staff were working full time in classrooms. They were not necessarily teaching their normal classes, or on their normal]al classrooms or with their normal teams. When dealing with young children it simply isn't possible to teach live to the class and be broadcasting live to children remotely.

No one is saying that remote learning is better than in person face to face teaching. Just like for dh, his legal work is more effective when able to be done face to face in person. However, at present, we all have to adapt and provide as good as we can through difficult circumstances. That is the same for all work places and jobs, and for all us us regardless of age.

I can, and have, learned to deliver a lesson on Teams.

Can anyone please tell me how to tell the difference between a student paying attention to me on Teams, and one who has a different tab open watching James Charles show them how to do perfect mask eyes?

We had poor online provisions from an outstanding primary- twinkl sheets etc not sure what teachers were doing tbh

You've shown your cluelessness here notevenat20. Embarrassing.

That is a maximally uninformative comment :)

I love the idea that in primary schools 30 children sit in robotic silence imbibing everything that we say while we lecture them like university students.

This isn't how primary teaching works at all!

If my uni teaching was just "talking at students" I would get my ass whipped by the digital education team. We have learnt s lot about online learning and teaching. If teachers were trained well, which takes resource, we'd be in a better place. A lot of our students prefer it to face to face.