Thank you, BikingBear, kind words.
And Wax, you are right. In the case of young children, it is very difficult to create meaningful online content which does not rely at least to some extent on an adult assisting the child with their learning, or even with operating the technology.
In addition, as I have said before on threads like these, the reality where I teach is that many parents, despite being offered opportunities for learning how to access online learning platforms, are not able to do so, whether because of language barriers, insufficient access to sufficient technology in the houlehold, or chaotic lives.
And don't get me started on printers. For so many of 'my' parents, who struggle massively financially, owning a printer is extremely low on the list of priorities. Thus is is important to create learning experiences which do not require a pupil to have access to a printer. We offered to print weekly learning packs for parents to collect during the spring / summer, and it was the only way many of our parents were able to stay on board.
Many feel like a solution should be to kerp schools open for those who need them to stay open for a variety of reasons, while providing online content for parents and pupils who choose to remain at home. I completely get how worrying it must be to send your child to school if you or a member of your household is vulnerable; try as we might, it is impossible to keep schools covid secure. I'm glad our parents weren't able to see exactly how 'covid secure' things were in my bubble, despite our best efforts and following protocol to the letter. But unless the government puts in a massive additional resource to support schools in creating online learning for pupils remaining at home, such as appointing supply teachers to take this on (which also isn't ideal) it'll break the teachers charged with putting this into practise. When the schools began to welcome back Reception, Y1 and Y6 in the spring, my school deemed we had capacity for me to return to school to teach a bubble of my class, which was not one of the aforementioned year groups, as my class in particular had a large number of vulnerable pupils who had not been classed as vulnerable enough for SS involvement (the criteria for accessing a school place as an 'officially' vulnerable pupil during the first part of lockdown) but who were in danger of falling through the cracks.
It was a bonkers time; in the days I was teaching 12 pupils in the classroom and in the evenings, often running into the nights, I was creating online content for the pupils who were still learning at home and preparing classroom lessons for my in-school bubble. My own kids didn't get a look in.
So when people suggest running an elective in / out system, logistically it'll be a major undertaking.