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.

Looking at OP's posting history - they read as the goadiest of goady feckers - if there are any educators reading, please don't expend any precious headspace giving this the time of day

We have a bloody pandemic going on, I know how important education is but a few weeks of closures will help the spread of corona massively given the vaccine a fighting chance to help but no Boris wants to throw it all away before we have got anywhere

Actually I kind of agree. It is all a pretence I think

Me too. Not about laying off the teachers, just recognising that if the schools close then children are not being provided with an education until they open again.

I'm not blaming the schools (or even the government tbh). I just think it's better to be honest about what is happening and where to pick up when they go back.

Hmm. During the three sets of isolation I've had to do since September, I'm pretty sure I taught my full timetable remotely.
Over the summer I'm pretty sure I did the same. Plus hours of welfare checks. Plus the online enrichment programme I developed.

But sure - furlough me. It would be nice not to pull in those 12 hour days while also trying to wrangle my DC.
Great idea

@Cecily42 money probably. DS goes to a private school. We hardly had any reduction in fees but we had no complaints about the work provided.

I also work with state schools. Many teachers don't have a school laptop, so tricky to provide lessons at home when don't have school equipment, and for safeguarding reasons not meant to use your own equipment. Not all pupils will have the technology at home. Government promised laptop scheme was woefully inadequate, many laptops didn't materialise, many that did were not sufficient for purpose. Even if you have a laptop a pupil may not have the internet access, space at home to work etc

I’ll gladly take the furlough and not bother doing anything.
just for you op.

My DD's school were absolutely brilliant providing on line resources during the last lockdown - outstanding state schools. They tried various methods, asking for parental and student input as they went along until they found a system that worked. I've no concerns with heading back into lockdown with regards to that aspect. I'm aware that not all schools are like this though and I don't understand why. How can some doing it so well and some so horribly? It's very worrying.

I agree, all we got was links to work book pages which I had to try and do with two children while also working from home. There was no online teaching at all, and we got one phone call the whole time. I would not normally criticise the school as they are very good when the children are in school. But without doubt mine got zero online teaching and suffered for it as I had many friends who were furloughed and able to sit with them all day. Impossible when you are still doing a full time job but at home instead of the office.

@mac12

Eh? Have you ever seen an online streamed lesson? My son had some amazing ones during the disruption of last term. Yes, it’s not as good as in person teaching but frankly I thought the teachers were bloody amazing.

And here lies the problem. Education is a postcode lottery, and the things you describe have not been available to thousands of kids. No, I haven't seen an online lesson as none were done for either of my children. In fact, many teachers objected to them, certainly in my area that they were just not an option. Unions also objected to them. You just need to look at threads on here about online lessons to see the views of some teachers on them and to know that they were not available to all.

My youngest got worksheets 3 times per week, which were never followed up. I had to literally beg, almost in tears, to get some contact from the teacher as he was struggling so much. His mental wellbeing took a massive hit in lockdown.

My eldest was in the middle of course selection when lockdown happened. Zero contact to say whether he got his courses or not, until the new timetable started and the teams codes started to filter in.

You are lucky you had a positive experience but for many there simply was no teaching being done and thousands of kids were just abandoned.

Not any better now if a child is self isolating. Certainly no online lessons.

I don't fully agree with the op - but I certainly understand where they are coming from. In my experience online teaching didn't happen, and certainly not optimistic that it will be any different this time around. Education is even more a postcode lottery than it was before.

During the march lockdown both my children received an education. The youngest came along massively in his reading and writing abilities which her teacher commented on repeatedly. He really benefitted from the one to one. We did more at home than what was asked of us. Exactly the same for the eldest and we did our own research on topics in the curriculum which she found more interesting than what was posted online. I appreciate not everyone was able to assist children with their learning but it's wrong to state online learning works for nobody.

@mynamesnotsam

I'm glad some schools are successfully providing online learning but surely all schools should be. My daughter's primary school's online provision was abysmal. They say they have no plans to do anything differently should schools shut again. The work set took her about 30-40 minutes a day. There was no feedback or marking, no differentiation and no teaching whatsoever.

Same here at DD’s primary. We got sent home a whole load of worksheets but none of them were to be submitted so they weren’t marked. There was one video a week by mid May.

DDs secondary provided electronic lesson packs via email from March to May, added in some prerecorded lessons sent by video and online learning on Satchel1 in May/June and some live lessons in July. In Sep she was back at school and had full timetable live lessons during isolation periods (one 2 week and one 1 week). Her maths and science teacher also offered live after school lessons daily which was taken up by almost all of her classmates.

I know schools differ, but I have been very impressed with DDs.

Arf, op it sounds like you had an awful experience with your dc school first time around?..

We did too, so I do sympathise that trust maybe gone.
My dc two school, one primary and one secondary really dropped the ball and let us down..
Primary didn't even give us worksheets! We were told at the beginning to collect '' work packs '' that teachers had been working hard to put together and it was an empty exercise book and a maths book.

Dd at secondary did have work posted on line, but barley no interaction with teachers, they were terribly slow to respond to emails.. By June we had a few live sessions and it was heart breaking to see how she perked up during these.

However, my own setting was proactive, did a tech audit before lock down and proceeded to fill that gap, solve problems and make arrangements. We had a short intro to the tech and went on line within 2 days.

Pupils who did not log on were chased within minuets of registration, or their parents called. We were able to closely monitor their wellbeing, keep them learning and achieving and plugged into social contact.. Lessons were delivered pretty much the same, pupils could speak and interact and discuss.

We followed the same timetable, did the same breaks. We didn't miss a beat and yes sometimes, small snags occurred, sometimes unexpected things happened but 99% of the time it was business as usual.

Op, many other schools also managed to train teachers on the tech swiftly and get on line. Did anyone hear the head of tollworth girls school? She said they did very well on line, and students who really couldn't be helped to get on line, went into school with key workers.
She said going on line at the moment, is preferable to having burst bubbles and in and out education over the next few weeks.

So, whilst I totally understand your frustration, I do feel this time around, now it's been clear that actually, schools can get on line easily, they won't be able to get away with anything substandard again.

It’s fascinating how one of the most important issues to parents on here is school and yet the profession they demonise and attempt to belittle the most is teachers.

DD’s school has already proven they can do a good job of online learning, including Zoom classes. I think the OP’s issue must be with a specific school or teacher rather than a generalisation.

My daughter has had to isolate and had fantastic online learning. Shame you've not had the same experience!

About the first lockdown.

Many teachers were REDEPLOYED.

That means that we were NOT teaching the curriculum, in fact we weren’t all teaching, unless you were lucky.
Many of us were redeployed to local primary schools to support the vulnerable children and care worker provisions. I was working 8am - 5pm, in a play scheme type of role, with 8 staff present and often only 5 kids. But hey ho, that’s what we were told to do at the time.
Yes, my time could have been spent better teaching my own classes on line, but in lockdown 1 that wasn’t an option.

*popcorn,
Many of our students have sen, sn, or mh issues and they did extremely well in the main learning from home. Of course being back they love physically being with friends but it wasn't this supposed disaster for many of our pupils...

I taught live to timetable in the first lockdown and have done so since when we have closed due to high numbers of staff absence so unsafe to open.

I would be more than happy to take furlough! I could then have the ‘holiday’ this time that apparently so many of us had last time!

Although to be honest I could do with being furloughed for a while! Worked bloody hard during the first lockdown doing school for key worker and vulnerable children! Would quite like to stay at home and decorate like loads of my friends did

Erm my son has full timetable as normal starting with registration at 8.45 and if they miss a class the form teacher will be in touch

It does seem to vary massively - our school is normally brilliant and was crap at remote. It really was almost nothing (this is primary). Laying off teachers is obviously a stupid suggestion.

My ds ( teacher 11-18) taught his full timetable online during the original lockdown , it’s just a pity that a maximum of 70% of any class bothered to tune in and I’m sure lots of the parents of those that didn’t take advantage are probably moaning about a lack of education for their children . It was as though school had suddenly become optional , during the really hot weather he had children emailing him in the mornings to say they would be missing his lesson because their parents were taking them to the beach .

My ds has been learning via teams.

Schools I know locally all taught via teams, sending reading and questions to answer, streaming lessons to children off isolating. More so since September but they weren't required to and the curriculum was suspended from March.

And furlough? You do realise teachers are paid by government already

That's a broad set of generalisations in the OP.

My kids (state school) issued every student with an iPad so that they can continue with classes online. It was planned before lockdown, tbf, but it means that they don't miss a beat if they aren't physically in school.