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

428 replies

Billie18 · 29/12/2020 18:23

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.

OP posts:
WhoLettheCatOut · 29/12/2020 19:40

Our primary well equipped for online learning. During bubble closures they managed to cope. I however don't acquire 3x the hours in the school day to home school 2 children whilst maintaining my 32 hour working week...

DBML · 29/12/2020 19:40

@Dukekaboom

Umm..we are talking about the fact that whilst some schools and teachers have clearly
done brilliantly (including your child’s school) some have been incredibly poor and done the bare minimum - clearly seeing it as an opportunity for some paid time off. That’s what we are talking about!

Some local authorities REDEPLOYED teachers. They said set one piece of work a week and we’ll send you all out to fulfil alternative roles. It was a crappy use of our time as I have already explained, but teaching staff had no say. Some councils dealt with things very differently. My days were longer, harder but nothing to do with my timetabled classes. I certainly wasn’t ‘lazy’ though.

Abraxan · 29/12/2020 19:41

@Ymlaen

I agree OP, I have two children in primary school. They have recieved no online lessons. They were given tasks to do but any teaching was done by me. Their teachers spent their time teaching their own children or sunbathing.
I'm interested - how do you know they were sunbathing? Did staff really post photographs of them sunning themselves in their gardens? Or did you spy in them doing so?

I love these kind of comments. I can't imagine any of the parents of the children I teach could tell you what I was doing with my time any day, let alone when I was wfh in March!

Manteo · 29/12/2020 19:41

What do primary schools have to have in place now? Since October I mean? My DDs school had 3 classes off isolating in December and it was the same as lockdown: worksheets uploaded to the school website and nothing else. No interaction, no videos, no marking. Should I expect more than this?

TheAlphaandtheOmega · 29/12/2020 19:42

Thanks MrsHamlet. Sounds like similar to DC at home then.

Jennygentle · 29/12/2020 19:43

We went to full online teaching straight after Easter. Everything, including assemblies, pastoral time - even Zoom plays and concerts.
We taught all face-to-face lessons which followed the curriculum and progressed through the topics normally. Marked the work using Firefly. Wrote the usual full reports in June.
A lot of the kids said they preferred it to normal school.
We’ll do the same again if required.
Furlough, you say.?

starrynight19 · 29/12/2020 19:44

Are the key worker's children going to get taught when they are in school as they won't be at home for the online learning, how does that work. Sorry if it is already in the thread and I missed it.

No there would be no provision for keyworker or vulnerable in the op plan. As all staff would be at home on furlough.

MrsHamlet · 29/12/2020 19:46

@TheAlphaandtheOmega

Thanks MrsHamlet. Sounds like similar to DC at home then.
Exactly the same - that's the idea. It's actually much easier for me to sit in an empty classroom and stream to everyone wherever they are than it is for me to have 2 or 3 students with me and stream to everyone else. The students who have EHCP will be in school in a room with their TA who can support them there. It works pretty well.
Manteo · 29/12/2020 19:46

I know my DDs teachers were sunbathing/reading/baking/colouring etc, etc as they uploaded 'fun' videos to the school Facebook page telling us!!

SuperbGorgonzola · 29/12/2020 19:48

If my state secondary school closes this time, my colleagues and I will be live teaching the full timetable at the normal lesson times via Google Classroom. We've had twilight sessions on this as well as full Remote Learning Handbooks.

I already live-stream my lessons from school whenever any of my students are self isolating, and upload copies of all documents for them to hand in their work.

We have been getting children to photograph and upload their work for marking rather than hand in exercise books since September, so they are well versed in this.

My personal feelings as a parent is that some screen free lessons and flexibility about when work needs to be completed should be built in as I think it's a lot to manage at home, but as yet the senior team aren't budging.

phlebasconsidered · 29/12/2020 19:50

@Manteo so did I! I posted a couple of videos of my dog and a paddling pool. Amazingly, it didn't mean I wasn't also working. I was still goingbinto work on a rota and ALSO doing online learning. Next lockdown i'll be sure not to post any jolly videos to my class to cheer them up so I don't make your mouth go like a cat's arse at the fact I might have left my laptop for ten minutes. Ffs.

Apple40 · 29/12/2020 19:52

Rubbish my kids schools have been taught online and have no problems with it, in fact there Pc skills have really improved they can navigate around, google classroom, word, excel, teams and zoom very easily. They do karate in there spare time and have no problem switching to zoom lessons.

tigger1001 · 29/12/2020 19:52

@Manteo

What do primary schools have to have in place now? Since October I mean? My DDs school had 3 classes off isolating in December and it was the same as lockdown: worksheets uploaded to the school website and nothing else. No interaction, no videos, no marking. Should I expect more than this?
That's what's happened at our school too. Worksheets and generic work provided
TheAlphaandtheOmega · 29/12/2020 19:52

Thanks also Abraxan

Teachers wouldn't be furloughed, aren't they key workers.

hedgehogger1 · 29/12/2020 19:54

Yeah I'll take the furlough. Much better than the stress of being online 7 days a week helping kids online. I'm only paid for 3, felt on the verge of a breakdown constantly. In the meantime do f*ck off while I carry on replanning next week which I'd already done before the announcement

Abraxan · 29/12/2020 19:54

@Manteo

What do primary schools have to have in place now? Since October I mean? My DDs school had 3 classes off isolating in December and it was the same as lockdown: worksheets uploaded to the school website and nothing else. No interaction, no videos, no marking. Should I expect more than this?
Your school should have a remote learning plan in place and should be able to share that with you if asked. We sent our updated plan out to all of our parents last half term, though it actually wasn't that much different to March. We just clarified our bubble isolation and individual self isolation plans really.

We are in infant school. For whole school/class bubble closures we provide (and did from March to the summer too) daily core subject lessons with pre recorded teaching videos made by our teaching staff with accompanying tasks and/or work sheet activities. Sometimes we may also refer and link to external learning videos if we would have used these in class too. On top of this each day there are 1-2 activities uploaded for the other non-core subjects. These are a mix of activities (worksheets, onscreen activities, off tech activities, Kahoot! quizzes, etc) and may have been produced by our staff or be linked to external providers such as oak academy or bitesize, where appropriate. There are also standard weekly tasks which are uploaded every week, regardless of school closed or open such as reading diaries, etc. Copies of all work are also uploaded to a google drive for those parents who prefer to print them out and complete offline.

The lessons provided match what was due to be taught in classes at that time. In the case of class closure it will replicate, where possible, what the other classes in the year group are doing in school.it may not be exactly the same but will link to it as much as possible.

We do not do live lessons as these are not felt to be the more effective or appropriate format for our school catchment and it isn't some]thing our parents wanted. We also have a high number of KW and vulnerable children so many staff are in school full time so live lessons aren't really an option.

All work is uploaded to the learning platform and class teaching staff will monitor this and provide some feedback. Our children are very young though, so the feedback is fairly restricted in order to be suitable for them. We have a messaging and email service for parents if. there are concerns or more feedback needed.

For longer term closures we would have some telephone contact with all pupils, but not many as our feedback was that it wasn't particularly required. If someone wasn't seen to be engaging with remote learning we would be in contact though. Our vulnerable children have regular telephone contact, and some doorstep contact, as required.

For individual SI cases it's a slightly different.

Manteo · 29/12/2020 19:54

[quote phlebasconsidered]@Manteo so did I! I posted a couple of videos of my dog and a paddling pool. Amazingly, it didn't mean I wasn't also working. I was still goingbinto work on a rota and ALSO doing online learning. Next lockdown i'll be sure not to post any jolly videos to my class to cheer them up so I don't make your mouth go like a cat's arse at the fact I might have left my laptop for ten minutes. Ffs.[/quote]
But the teacher wasn't doing online learning. The school uploaded a set of worksheets once a fortnight. They took the time to film and edit a video of them doing lots of fun activities.

I'm glad I've convinced you not to do this in the future. I spoke to some other mums who were struggling with trying to work from home whilst helping their children with the worksheets and we were all stunned at how tone deaf it was.

TheEchtMeaningofChristmas · 29/12/2020 19:55

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

Being culpably thick should be a MN banning criterion.

Daffodil
Iamsodonewith2020 · 29/12/2020 19:57

All 3 of my children received fantastic quality of education during lockdown and subsequent isolations since September. OP needs to remember that schools got less than 48 hours notice that they were to close, identify vulnerable and key worker students, sort out timetables and planning for this “childcare” provision whilst also providing some element of home learning. They also had to check up on vulnerable students and families who stayed home. If your school did not provide this, take it up with your school, not the whole teaching profession.

Manteo · 29/12/2020 19:58

@Abraxan that sounds amazing! I'm not optimistic we'll receive anything like this as they hadn't managed it by the last week of term before Christmas. I just don't want to be 'that mum' and complain. Hopefully DD will get a keyworker place if schools close again.

BustopherPonsonbyJones · 29/12/2020 19:59

I’m looking forward to the furlough. Can’t wait to get the bikini on and start sunbathing. Anyone want my logon details for Twinkl???

Whyarewehardofthinking · 29/12/2020 19:59

Ah, I've missed you and your posts @Billie18. You seem to not understand (still) how these processes, or many other things in life, work.

I think last time I posted on one of your threads I pointed out that we do not want schools closed, just safe. This is still what we want. If you hadn't noticed the government have failed to have any degree of control of the virus and now we are in this situation.

During the first lockdown I set work online, assessed it and had some live lessons with my 6th form students. I also recorded multiple videos/narrated powerpoints for students to watch when they had access to equipment. I also bought my own equipment to do it (I needed a new laptop, bought a visualiser etc). To the point of where I have amassed 53 online lessons that I am sharing with my department to give to their students (I don't have the same A Level splits this year and am not teaching Physics GCSE this year). I have also recorded lessons for students isolating since September as we have not been able to have many students join the lesson live from home due to internet access issues (both us as a school and them at home).

Now if you want to furlough me, go for it and I will not do any of my teaching (GCSE and 2 A Level science subjects) or my SLT role, as that would be illegal. You as a tax payer will pay me around £32000 net for sitting on my arse. If you would like to make me redundant it will cost my school at least £27000 for the minimum statuatory redundancy package and I would not return to teaching. Is that honestly what you want and was thinking when you came up with yet another ridiculous, misinformed and quite honestly slightly worrying (in terms of your fixation on a job that you know nothing about) idea?

Abraxan · 29/12/2020 19:59

@Manteo

I know my DDs teachers were sunbathing/reading/baking/colouring etc, etc as they uploaded 'fun' videos to the school Facebook page telling us!!
For the whole day? Wow. Very different to every school staff I know that's for sure.

Mind we did have some fun videos linked to tasks.

Baking - yeah, we did have a bit of a fun baking competition/activity one week.
We definitely did reading videos as we do this in normal times too - we have a lot of reading initiatives so regularly have photographs and clips of staff reading, as well as 'secret readers' etc.

We had weekly fun activities - so staff were showed attempting them too. How many 'keepy uppys' can you do? Make an assault course and go round it as quick as you can? Build a reading den. Etc.

And a couple of staff had fun activities as part of their learning activities - their dog was sniffing out phonics sounds for the children to engage with, with the aid of doggy treats, as an example.

So maybe some of our parents ,ought have thought we were having too much fun and not working enough, who knows?!

Iamsodonewith2020 · 29/12/2020 20:00

Also schools were shut to most students for 1/2 a term. Not 6 months, not a year but 1/2 a term!!! After may half term schools were open for 1/2 the children at school plus the vulnerable and keyworkers children.