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.

I don’t think the primary provision was due to poor teachers, I did try to understand on here what the downward pressures might be in a school that did little.

I think it may be that we had a large proportion of KW etc students and not much other resource spare. Or maybe the LA gave advice? I think we had this at one point re years coming in.

But not the class teacher no.

That’s primary, secondary has been excellent throughout.

I also recall a questioning on class WhatsApp from some parents and there was a reason from rep actually which did make sense but was a while ago.

Depressing thread.

What percentage of households do you think have a laptop per child and working adult with enough rooms for them all to work at once and enough bandwidth for everyone to be streaming live lessons and work zoom meetings simultaneously?

Recorded lessons work far better for the majority of our students. I record lessons so that they can be paused, rewound etc to ensure comprehension (we teach youngsters with very varied ability levels and some would fly through a task in the time it takes to repeat the instructions 3 times for those who need that) also so they can be accessed at any time for those who need to share devices or eg have parents who work night shifts and would rather the kids weren't streaming lessons at 8am.

I can also then ensure I'm available during my working hours to answer email queries and help students who are struggling or respond to welfare concerns during school opening hours. Known of that can be done if everyone is live streaming all the time. You're actually getting better value for money because I record lessons in my own time and am available for other tasks eg minding Kw and vulnerable kids, answering your email about htf do you submit work on google classroom or phoning the students you've asked we call because you're struggling to get them to do any work. Etc etc and believe me there's a lot of etc in our work.

The obsession with live lessons is misguided