Teachers...are kids actually expected to properly remote learn this time?

[WallopDollop]

Genuine question... Is this going to be different to the last lockdown in terms of remote learning?

I know things were different at different schools but last time it very much felt like if they do the work they do it, if they don't they don't 🤷 and to be quite honest, a lot of the time ours didn't do any school work except a few online maths /English games for an hour or so.

Will this time be different in that will they be expected to actually complete proper work, will they be marked as absent if they don't etc...?

My eldest has a school day apparently live via Teams..(alot of screen time). We will see how well that works. The youngest who knows as 3 hours ago we thought she would be in school. I am working full time so they will be left to their own devices...I am not going to stress over that they do. I don't have the energy to any more....

Secondary schools ours have to be logged on.

Primary school - last time was awful no idea what teachers did but they didnt teach.

I know it sounds a bit annoying to say this- but for those sharing a device, you don't have to buy additional ones new. There are lots of sites which are well-rated that sell reconditioned laptops, ipads or whatever very cheaply, I haven't bought a new one for years, all my kids have good spec but two/three year old or older ones reconditioned. Just an idea and I know it will be out of the price range many anyway, especially after Christmas, but I do think people are sometimes deterred from getting devices (which can be just used for online school) because they see the prices of new ones.

It will be very school dependent I would say OP.

But overall, as schools are expected to continue with the curriculum (and key worker children in school will be mostly be taught what they would've been taught anyway), I expect there will be a more refined offering from most schools.

I would think the majority of schools understand by now the situation many parents are in, trying to support learning whilst also keeping their jobs. Don't forget many teachers are also parents themselves!

Please speak up if you feel under pressure. Only ask your child to do what you consider reasonable. You are (obviously) their parent, in charge of their education and wellbeing.

Don't forget, Teachers will be acting as their school directs them so contact head/deputy if you have specific complaints/concerns.

As others have said, some parents want lots of resources/direction whilst others want very light touch teaching so schools will be trying to strike a balance.

I think what I'm trying to say is - do what you can, don't stress about doing it all!

This is exactly why I posted. Do people think there will generally be more expectation that children will complete all the work set
Yes

Last time everything was optional and there was no formal feedback.
Today teachers have been personally calling parents asking them why they haven’t set up their google classroom accounts yet.

Thank you, I'm appreciating all the details from teachers as to what they are planning. I understand it's school specific but it gives me some sort of idea as to what I may need to expect. It does sound like expectations will be higher this time round- eek!!

I've not suggested they should do anything? I've not made a single implication as to what I think schools should be doing more or less of or whatever. I'm simply asking a question, I'm asking teachers what they are planning

I know. I was just responding to yiur question about whether there would be 'more expectation that kids would complete the work'. Schools will always state that they expect kids to do the work. I assume any school who set work during the last lockdown had an expectation that the kids would do it. As they will this time. Some kids won't though, and all schools can do is ring up and check if there's a problem.

Fwiw my dc's secondary school did a full daily timetable of online lessons/tasks (not live teaching) starting on day 1 of the last lockdown, which was excellent. They had a high level of compliance from the kids. This time they'll be doing live lessons, though not exclusively. They had a lot of positive feedback last time.

You can't compare primary and secondary.

Secondary yes I'd expect a lot more live lessons etc

Primary I really don't think it's clear what the best approach is because we all know that the best approach for small children does not involve any remote learning.

Seems there's a variety of approaches from 9am in uniform for full day Zoom timetable to maybe still just the worksheets with lots in between eg video lessons, Google classroom with feedback and check ins etc

Parental opinions and capacity vary so much. In this thread we have people vehemently opposed to/ worried by the idea of wall to wall live lessons and people just as up in arms about the lack of them.

School contexts are going to vary. Proportion of people with a SAHP or furloughed/ non working parent, proportion with access to devices, broadband speeds, proportion EAL or SEN etc etc The comparison with private schools is ridiculous. One thing you can say about private school pupils is they can all afford the fees so all their parents can afford to buy the whole family a laptop.

There just isn't one right approach and no-one can confidently say there is one so I wish people would stop acting like they know what schools 'should' be doing because it's never going to be more than your personal opinion.

This is a shit situation that no-one wanted not teachers, not parents, not employers just no-one at all actually wants this. The best we can hope for is that it won't be for long and we can pick up the pieces afterwards.

So let me get this right. On this thread alone you have the following points

1. Angry that children will be in live lessons

2 angry that there won't be a full timetable of live lessons

1. Angry that work won't be marked
2. Angry that work will be marked/needs to be submitted.
3. Angry that work sheets will be provided
4. Angry that no work sheets will be provided.

So how exactly can we win?

@bogrollbogof I totally agree

timetable including PE (!)

There should be no surprise, the curriculum is not suspended, every school needs to provide PE, PSHE, if it's just Maths and English worksheets the school is failing in their legal obligations. Schools have to have been ready for this since October, and I see little reason to believe they are not.

Yes it's very obvious that not everyone can be pleased!

I would like kids education to be as unaffected as possible and I'll appreciate any efforts made my school to ensure that. I'm concerned about me as a parent finding opportunity to do what I need to do to facilitate that but that's my own personal worry, I understand school can't cater for everyone!

We’ve just been sent this (and this is much the same as lockdown 1)

Remote learning platforms will include:
• Class Dojo
• Evidence me
• Mathletics
• TT Rockstars
• White Rose Maths
• NCTEM Maths videos
• Oxford Owl
• Oak National Academy
• BBC Bitesize

So my 6 and 8 year olds will need to navigate between 8/ 9 different platforms (whilst I work). This is going to be (another) disaster

Honestly, kids are resilient. They will pick up bits they have missed when they are back in school. The primary curriculum as it stands contains so much breadth that they will be ok even if they only focus on the basics for a few months.

1-1 or supervised home learning takes much less time than full class learning so don't try to replicate a full timetable at home would be my advice. They will probably complete a lessons worth of maths for example in about 20 mins or so.

Start with a quick active session (Joe Wicked is starting up again apparently). Get them doing some maths, some reading, a bit of writing if they can manage it. School should provide some subject/topic work. Get them out for a walk after lunch and then let them follow their interest in the afternoon. Lego, colouring, screens, whatever.

DS12 has work set up on his google classroom which he has too complete, I haven’t heard anything different so I’m assuming that’s how it’s going. He has asd and has been segregated with 2 others and a teacher for themselves and that’s how they had been doing work anyway so not much different for him longer than sitting in his pjs 😂 dd8 has been set up on teams and is having 2 online check ins with her teacher a day. This is totally different to the first lockdown where work was just put in the school website for them to print off. Will see if my mental health survives this, it was hanging by a thread by the end of last lockdown. Teaching is not my forte.

Encourage reading, writing, maths and spelling, preferably using the work provided but if not, in some other way. The older the child in Primary the more I would encourage them to do the school work if possible.

This thread does show how teachers cannot win though. Not really sure what parents expect. It is not down to the teachers that schools are closed.

@Handsnotwands

We’ve just been sent this (and this is much the same as lockdown 1)

Remote learning platforms will include:
• Class Dojo
• Evidence me
• Mathletics
• TT Rockstars
• White Rose Maths
• NCTEM Maths videos
• Oxford Owl
• Oak National Academy
• BBC Bitesize

So my 6 and 8 year olds will need to navigate between 8/ 9 different platforms (whilst I work). This is going to be (another) disaster

Same as dd8, if she gets too stressed, I will be concentrating on 2/3 things per day. She actually likes school and the last lockdown put her off a bit, she flourished at the start of the year and I fear she will resent it again 😔

Can't everybody at least wait until they've actually seen what their school is offering before bitching about it. FFS.

@skylarkdescending

Honestly, kids are resilient. They will pick up bits they have missed when they are back in school. The primary curriculum as it stands contains so much breadth that they will be ok even if they only focus on the basics for a few months.

1-1 or supervised home learning takes much less time than full class learning so don't try to replicate a full timetable at home would be my advice. They will probably complete a lessons worth of maths for example in about 20 mins or so.

Start with a quick active session (Joe Wicked is starting up again apparently). Get them doing some maths, some reading, a bit of writing if they can manage it. School should provide some subject/topic work. Get them out for a walk after lunch and then let them follow their interest in the afternoon. Lego, colouring, screens, whatever.

This, a thousand times this.

Yes, there is an expectation that the curriculum will be followed. However, for the youngest children especially there is only so much that can be done and there will be a great deal of variety by school and by family. It's incredibly difficult to do things that suit all families. As we've seen from this thread already, there are parents that think only a full online timetable is sufficient and those that don't want that at all because of lack of devices.

My primary won't be doing live lessons, partly because so many parents said they couldn't access them (deprived area), partly because we have so many vulnerable/key worker children in our school that I'll be in with them 3 days out of the week, leaving me only 2 days to sort the remote learning for the rest of my class. I'll do as many pre-recorded videos as I can but there's only so much time in the day. A large proportion of our families request paper learning packs too either because they don't have sufficient online access or they just find it easier to have worksheets printed to work through with their children, so that all has to be sourced, printed and photocopied too.

It's completely rubbish and I'm dreading it. I also live in a major hotspot though where the infection rate is horrendous so I don't see an alternative.

@IfNotNow12 Are you fucking joking? You can borrow a laptop from school, or yanno, buy one for £200. Teachers earn a pretty good wage, that's just finding excuses, sorry. And before I get the horror about having to buy your own equipment, three of my friends who have lost their livelihoods due to lockdowns and bought cheap cars to run into the ground doing takeaway deliveries, because in the real world you sometimes have to do shit like that.

**

I'm not joking. My school don't have laptops, we have PCs and iPads. The latter most sufficient for all tasks and the former obviously not portable.

Teachers earn a moderate wage, however, I personally spend hundreds on my classroom each year just so I can do my job. Education under the Tories is in the doldrums. It is not a race to the bottom. That's unfortunate for your friends but it isn't relevant in this situation.

I hope you don't speak to people like this in real life, pandemic or not.

Our school is doing it differently this time. They are holding remote lessons in line with the usual timetable, via MS teams. The first half will be teaching and the second 30 mins will be children doing some set work. I expect that may carry on to become homework if not finished. I don't know about marking and feedback.

Assembly and tutor time will also be online, but I think dance, drama and PE will be doing specified activities away from the screen.

Interesting to see how it all works. I think it would be especially hard if you only have a phone to access the lessons - but then most kids seem happy to spend 10 hours a day staring at their phones anyway so maybe it won't be so weird for them....

I'm splitting my class and working with half at a time. Better interaction with the teacher in smaller groups.

That does mean they'll be online learning for half the day - I'm not double jobbing and creating off line for the other half of the class to do, never mind correcting said work. If parents kick up about it I'll just stick the whole lot on one Zoom lesson and get nothing productive done.

We are having work posted on google classroom, have to download, do the work and upload again when done. No live lessons but some video instruction on how to do some of the work. Dreading it tbh, last time there were daily tears, mine and his.

Contact the school and ask for a device for your child to use. There have been some supplied to schools to loan out to help with this issue

The devices are only being supplied for Year 3-11, so won't be any good for a 6 year old.