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...?

in the last lockdown my children had live lessons 9-4.30 monday to friday plus homework. They worked bloody hard and actually did very well.

@SoDiorDarling

This is what I'm really really struggling with. I have a 6 yo who's supposed to be at morning registration via zoom in uniform for lessons. I work from home on said frigging laptop?! Just what am I supposed to do?

Does anyone know?

can you afford to by a chrome book or cheaper basic laptop? we had to invest in the last lockdown in new laptops, work stations, upgrade the wifi, create a new office ... the lost went on... but it was all worth it

@BogRollBOGOF Lol, I read is as all one lesson plan, and I was thinking how do they get from 'Jesus' to 'Je suis un kangaroo?' I thought they were making some linguistic connection and saying that 'Jesus' means 'I am'. The reality was way less interesting!

We've been told it's mandatory this time, whereas last time it was a case of picking and choosing what the wanted to do out of a huge amount of work uploaded to Google classroom. They were also told it was ok if they had a day or two where they didn't feel like doing anything.
This time they're setting 5 lessons per day and they all have to be completed. No mention of zoom or teams or anything, I think they will just set the work in Google classroom. A member of staff is planning to phone every day to check there are no problems. It sounds a lot more manageable this time, the last time DD got overwhelmed and panicked at the sheer vole of work that was there, because her brain tells her she must do EVERYTHING, and she ended up so overwhelmed and panicky she did very little.

If people don’t have laptops etc can you check with school if they have any spare. They might not. Government are supposedly issuing more but I won’t hold my breath on that one

I’m back for in service tomorrow so I’ll find out then what the plans are. I’m secondary maths (independent sector). We will be on Teams and my preference is to live teach but we may do videos for some. The feedback last year was pupils preferred live teaching in the main. We follow the school timetable. I plan to take attendance. We’re lucky in that all pupils have their own device. I’ll mark as much as I can but will also get pupils to mark their own work and they have access to a self marking website too. I will be available on Teams and email as I was last time.

My DCs school hasn’t set out the plan, although I know they’ve got one as we were all given logins to google classroom a couple of months ago. Mine are in R and Yr2 I’ll do what I can but I only have 1 laptop and I’m not stressing myself out about anything. I’ll read with them every day and get them to do what they’ll do.

As already stated, every school will be different based on a variety of factors.
My school provides full timetable of online lessons, with full attendance expected. I personally chase absences because it’s important all kids are supported and lack of attendance can flag up other concerns. I am in an independent school, so classes are smaller, all students have a tablet and generally a good space to work. I will make individual calls via Teams if needed during or after class to offer further support, I am available when the kids need me of they live in a different time zone, because that’s just how I work. I mark and give feedback. I live alone as my child is at Uni and school is pretty much my life in term time.

Expectation is for all live lessons from next week. Ihni how I'm going to do it. I'm keeping my own kids home as I'm vulnerable but they are KS1 so really needy.

As a parent I hope they get a few worksheets and a weekly one to one zoom with their teachers. I can't supervise any more. I would happily be furloughed at this point. DH less enthusiastic about this but it always falls on the women to do everything.

I don't even have a work laptop so there'll be 3 of us fighting over my laptop. I imagine 50% of the kids I teach won't log in to live lessons. 40% will log in, switch cam off and play their games machines, 10% will log on and be super needy. It's half past twelve and I'm still up because I'm dreading it all and can't sleep.

Our primary wasn't bad last time, some vids uploaded and used google classroom, but no marking/feedback which meant that those children who just lobbed anything down but seemingly completed the work (ticked the box) had fallen further behind than expected (like DC3, who required stapling to the chair to get any work done).

I am very pleased that they are having zoom calls to start the day as there is more chance of their teachers motivating them. Less impressed that they all take place at the same time as there is no way our broadband will cope with three of them on zoom calls, DC1 on live lessons and DH attempting to work. I am going to withdraw from the bandwidth fight and have to work in the wee small hours.... am hoping enough of us make this point so they rethink it.

Our primary pretends to do online live learning - teacher appears at 9am for half an hour and then later at 1.30pm for half an hour. He talks to the children.

There is a work sheet for them to do - which cannot be done without supervision. But the teacher explains none of it. It's still all down to the parents.

I'm doing the minimum required and concentrating on walks, exercise, zoom calls and playing

@BogRollBOGOF

I hope it's better than this useless shite from last time.

School has got plans for Teams... Not sure how I put the children in front of it? If I gaffer tape them down to stop them running away, do you think that's OK or will it count as a safeguarding concern? Actually, that would get them in as vulnerable...

I have not got the energy for this. I'm as empty as my 2020 diary.

My DCs are fortunate to have a SAHM former teacher to hand, but the work set was not accessible and certainly not suitable for a child with multiple learning difficulties. After a fortnight of trying to create resources to give DS1 a chance, I gave up and said that DS1 was doing bitesize and also worked on issues like getting DS to arrange the letters in his name correctly. Most working parents would not have stood a chance at trying to get a 8-9 yo to independently work at something pitched at a cover teacher. It simply was not viable to maintain a routine of having an autistic 9yo and 7 yo ready to learn while I resourced it instead of the teacher.

The other teacher set much more appropriate work including the actual links to power points not photos of the laptop screen in a twiddly font. He also checked in with a weekly zoom quiz rather than the single phone call in 4 months. I have no criticism of his efforts.

I would have appreciated the children being sent their workbooks rather than being sent photos of their workbook, copy them out and then get sent a barely used glossy workbook at the end of the year. I would also have appreciated work set on the preceeding afternoon/ evening rather than àt some point between 8:30- 9:30 so that we were ready to learn and could maintain a routine.

Realistically there needs to be a mix of delivery to suit different learning styles. I was flippant about the gaffer tape and teams, I'm not actually against it, just the threats of unauthorised absence if I can't get an autistic child to engage with it when it overloads him to process what is happening.

I've been a teacher for over a decade. I know teachers can never win. I know the DCs' teachers' laptops are ancient and barely fit for purpose, which was why I quietly stated that bitesize suited us better rather than kicking up a fuss. But the fact is that that particular teacher was having a nice reprieve from a teacher's real workload on the majority of weeks when she wasn't on the in-school rota which was about twice in total.

Ours wants them to register on the live classroom morning and afternoon and call in sick if they won't be doing work that day.

Ours have said they will use purple mash.
If you have every used purple mash you will know it is truly awful in so many ways.

My two were self isolating (due to school contact) last week of term. Nothing provided.

School did not return yesterday - nothing was provided.

They have said they would have work - nothing published - but they will post something on purple mash.

Only about 4 pages of worksheets were provided last time around to my then year 5 child. My year 2 child had a more organised teacher but then she was told she needed to put work on purple mash - so it went downhill.

I have not and will not be chasing any work this time. I had to work so hard to get my year 5 kid up to scratch for secondary.
They were not interested at all last time. I got quite stressed when I would ask for work. My eldest wanted work to do. It was a real eye opener.

I ended up buying in some tutors - spending a ton on books and worksheets. It all worked out. I have taken more of an interest so it is fine.

But I am not blaming the school. I always knew academic rigour was not their strong point ... well I could not have imagine it was as bad as lockdown exposed them to be, however they have provided a generally safe environment when they are open.

They have other kids which I hope they will look out for.

I did try provide some feedback to head but she was not interested at all and pretended like she didn't know they set next to nothing during covid.

@kattekitt - we've been waiting since Lockdown 1 for a laptop for my DS. There have been problems galore with the government's laptop scheme.

Many of the pupils at my school do not have home internet access or devices. We applied for devices from the DfE and they gave us 8 to share with another school. Utterly useless. We have a limited number of sun cards that we are handing out to our pupils and will print anything we can for those with no other means of accessing but consequently we can’t do live learning in our school because many wouldn’t be able to access it. We also have a large numbers of key workers on shifts and households with multiple kids who have to share devices so again live lessons wouldn’t work.

We are offering our normal curriculum hence why I am still up at 1.30am trying to adapt my planning to make it suitable with precisely 1 day’s notice. We would never fine our families for not completing tasks as they are struggling enough (we have to feed a lot of them) but it is noted and we will be using home learning as evidence of progress.

And my kids thrive on live lessons.

I was lucky enough to be able to buy some.
I used up some savings on the resources but now I have found loads of free resources so hopefully it won't be such a financial hit.

I never expected the school to provide live lessons either. I don't expect them to get anything together now either. They made it clear they could not undertake anything live and they also did make it clear that they would not be able to provide feedback either and that work would be adhoc.

*SIM cards not sun.

And the teacher that was awesome for my younger child (before she was directed to use the shit purple mash) did actually suggest some ideas and stuff for my older Child to do - and as a result of that he actually really did some deep learning.

I fully agree teachers can not win.

I am up planning their week of learning just now.

I can only imagine it is full on if you are a teacher planned to differentiate work for your entire class and get it online. Good luck!

Oh and we used mobile phones - which was a nightmare but have a lap top this time around.

Didn't really think schools would provide any.

I knew the scheme wouldn't be very workable.

Also as I understood that govt did not make teaching of the curriculum during the last lockdown - March to sept 2020 - mandatory. So again no point worrying about the kid's school as they were not required to provide children with learning or education against any curriculum.

Good luck teachers.

I think the whole thing has been a fiasco.

Glitterblue is it a private fee paying school?

Our school is being strict. We are taking the register and we set work that is live so we can check how much they've done as the lesson continues. We've been asked to check homework as well Not the same as face to face but it's what we can do given the circumstances.

Twice a day registration seems a little much to me, they aren't going anywhere in those three hours. I guess it's for safeguarding though. I've heard of schools wanting pupils in full uniform for live lessons .