What online provision is your primary giving?

[WhatWillSantaBring]

My primary is stating that it is complying with DfE minimum guidance. We are getting worksheets and lesson plans uploaded, links to online lessons (from third parties) and one zoom call a week.

Am i being unreasonable to expect more? The KS1 lessons need almost permanent adult support and the lesson plans are really hard for me (as a non-teacher) to follow.

If it makes a difference, we're in an affluent area, the school is a pretty well funded faith school. I know we're on day 1 but I want to know whether we should be asking for better.

@Nikhedonia
Two form entry-.one teacher doing online, one teaching keyworkers etc. Same stuff but yes live teaching. It would be insane surely to zoom the children in front of you?!
One form entry, one teacher has to manage the children in school and those at home.
I don’t know of any schools where teachers are home but TAs supervising in school. There will be a rota system in place.
There are no perfect solutions. I’m sorry. It’s shit. It just won’t be perfect but I can assure you most of us are trying.
You also have to timetable an adult to zoom in as back up. For safeguarding reasons but also to register etc. Like many things, it’s not that simple.

@Bluewavescrashing

They've had months and months and months to prepare 😂😂They were desperate to close 😂😂

No. Until the end of December we were teaching in person, setting work for isolating children alongside this and also dealing with difficult working conditions eg staggered starts, increased teaching time, increased duties etc. In my school we wanted to prepare for home learning over the Christmas holidays (which we are not paid for, incidentally) but were told not to by our head as he was sure we'd be back in class with our full cohort this week. So we planned and resourced this week's lessons for in-school teaching. Adapting that to go online, for infants, is time consuming.

And also, fuck off.

Standard excuses... not even slightly surprising.

Slow clap for the teachers who have managed to "upload worksheets" must be very challenging.

[quote Toastybutt]@Nikhedonia
Two form entry-.one teacher doing online, one teaching keyworkers etc. Same stuff but yes live teaching. It would be insane surely to zoom the children in front of you?!
One form entry, one teacher has to manage the children in school and those at home.
I don’t know of any schools where teachers are home but TAs supervising in school. There will be a rota system in place.
There are no perfect solutions. I’m sorry. It’s shit. It just won’t be perfect but I can assure you most of us are trying.
You also have to timetable an adult to zoom in as back up. For safeguarding reasons but also to register etc. Like many things, it’s not that simple.[/quote]
Sounds great for the key worker children. Significantly reduced class sizes and quality teaching. The rest of the class who are isolating at home are being given worksheets which parents need to complete alongside working at times, a full day of work.

No wonder so many parents are bending the rules to get key worker status and their children into school. With such small class sizes it practically private education,

@Bluewavescrashing don’t worry, most of us are reasonable adults who understand how shit this is for teachers. @Nikhedonia is definitely one of those mothers just absolutely raging she actually has to look after her own kids again cus she can’t cope with them and is probably panicking about having to help them with the work.
Let’s sit back and wait for her “standard excuse” now....

Just want to mention a few things.

As someone else said, the decision on what remote learning is provided in primary schools is not decided by the teachers. It’s decided by the SLT. If they decide no zoom/live lessons/phone calls or whatever, teaches can’t just do it anyway. They’d be subject to a disciplinary.

Many, many children are in school under the key worker or vulnerable provision. At our school, unless you are shielding you are in full time. Some people are teaching/supervising, some are setting remote learning and some are isolating due to waiting for Covid test results.

Equity in provision is a massive deal. If primaries were all required to do a full day of zoom/live lessons, many children simply would not be able to access them. You might say, get all children in school who can’t access their own device under the category of ‘vulnerable.’ But that would be hundreds or thousands of children and would make the ‘bubbles’ too big and require more staff, and then who is supposed to work on remote learning?

Zoom is actually not very secure. Many LEAs have banned it being used. There are absolutely safeguarding concerns with using it.

People also seem to forget that primary school children are not, in fact, having academic lessons for 6 hours a day. There will be an hour for lunch. Another half an hour or so for breaks. Transition time. Lessons that can’t easily be replicated for remote learning.

Learning isn’t passive and expecting kids to sit and listen to a recording for hours isn’t practical. With live lessons, if 30 7 year olds are on a zoom or teams call, it is difficult to manage.

Lots of primary learning is group activities, discussion, physical movement, etc. It’s not easy to replicate that.

If children with EHCPs are in school then many LSAs will be (and should be) supporting them.

I am both a teacher and a parent and I absolutely 100% agree that Twinkl worksheets and a lack of interest is not acceptable. I agree that there are some teachers and support staff who used the last lockdown to have an extended holiday. (Not at our school). But please, please stop assuming all teachers and TAs are sitting around doing nothing. Most of them really are not.

I can tell you are frustrated @Nikhedonia.
I can only answer for my school really and I don’t think it’s ideal for any of the children. I would MUCH rather be teaching my normal class. It’s crap I know. Is there anything I can help with?

My DS is Year 5 (9 years old) and was given Maths, English, History and Spelling today, work uploaded to google classroom and he's expected to download, complete it and upload it. Oh and a few videos from the teachers. The maths alone took 2 hours and he is unable to work independently - I personally think its way too much given we are 2 full time working parents and there are no online lessons being provided. This is going to be tough to keep up with.

Let's not forget that key worker children are in school to allow their parents to provide what the government has deemed an essential service. It's not because we prefer them! Mostly they will be doing the same work as is set at home and with multiple children of different ages to manage, it isn't as if they're getting 1-1 tuition.

All schools and teachers within them will be very different with their provision - there will always be pockets of excellent practice and poorer practice.

But I am absolutely fed up of my profession being called lazy. PLEASE come and do our job, we welcome you with open arms. You’d be out the door within a few weeks once you knew the reality and the expectation. I wouldn’t dream of presuming I had even an iota of understanding about what goes on behind the scenes in other professions so why is it okay for people to do it to us so broadly? Does having “been to school” make you an expert?

We got told at 8pm last night that this was happening. We have worked most of our Christmas break preparing lessons (which actually look more like 3-4 lessons each because they are changed and different for different needs of children, extra resources for different needs, adapted work for EAL.) Each lesson also has a starter which recaps prior learning which is almost a separate lesson. It can take hours, particularly for new staff, to create one good hour long lesson.

These are now useless because online provision can NOT look the same - lessons are designed to be delivered in person, with children’s input and activities built in for discussion and support. Teaching is not chalk and talk anymore it is designed to be interactive.

EVERYTHING needs to be adapted, 12 hours before the start of the first lockdown day.

Please forgive them for sending you a few worksheets while we get our heads around doing this all over again!

There has been “Time to prepare” in terms of some things, but without knowing when it’s going to happen we actually couldn’t prepare online lessons in advance because we have to teach lessons that match our curriculum at the point we are at NOW.

We have been in today and spent the whole day, as SLT, trying to ring every parent in school, Find out technology access, pin down key workers and timetable them in, timetable staff fairly and according to expertise, get video recording software working for all staff, sort out free school meals, sign out laptops to families, re-rota dinner staff, produce online learning timetables and expectations for staff, print out and distribute online logins, manage anxieties and mop up people’s tears.

We have comforted and calmed our key worker children who are anxious.

I had 5 minutes for half a bowl of soup at lunchtime because there was just SO MUCH to do. I’ve put my 3 year old to bed and will now begin planning my own classes lessons for tomorrow, and I haven’t even thought about dinner.

So please just cut us some slack. This is not about asking for sympathy - I chose this job and I love it - but I can absolutely guarantee you most of us are not “sitting on our arses”.

[quote SendHelp30]**@Bluewavescrashing* don’t worry, most of us are reasonable adults who understand how shit this is for teachers. @Nikhedonia* is definitely one of those mothers just absolutely raging she actually has to look after her own kids again cus she can’t cope with them and is probably panicking about having to help them with the work.
Let’s sit back and wait for her “standard excuse” now....[/quote]
Oh no some one with the user name sendhelp30 thinks I can't cope looking after my own child. Oh dear

@Toastybutt

I can tell you are frustrated *@Nikhedonia*. I can only answer for my school really and I don’t think it’s ideal for any of the children. I would MUCH rather be teaching my normal class. It’s crap I know. Is there anything I can help with?

No, it's fine. But thank you for offering.

I'm getting through the worksheets and am hiring a private tutor to support DD as I have absolutely no faith that the school will do anything more than worksheets.

@lavenderlou

Let's not forget that key worker children are in school to allow their parents to provide what the government has deemed an essential service. It's not because we prefer them! Mostly they will be doing the same work as is set at home and with multiple children of different ages to manage, it isn't as if they're getting 1-1 tuition.

Take a look at some of the threads on here which are discussing what constitutes a 'key worker' across some schools. Parents are taking the absolute piss and putting genuine key worker children and teachers at greater risk.

Virtually nothing. Some rubbish on seesaw like "count all the cans in your kitchen". Great, how many seconds did that take them to think of.

So far lots of primary school teachers are still in school teaching the kw/vulnerable children. There are a lot more children in school now than there were in the March lockdown. A lot of primary teachers are trying to do 2 jobs at once, teaching in person and online. Give them a break. Let them get into the swing of things. They definitely need more than one day to provide fantastic remote learning.

Also just to add - Oak Academy, White Rose Maths, Twinkl etc...it’s all really high quality stuff. We utilise it in schools - it isn’t just a cop out.

We can't win.

If we set worksheets we are seen as lazy, even if we make them ourselves and differentiate to all children, eg making 4-5 versions of the same thing.

If we set PowerPoint to look at, it's too boring.

If we set recorded videos, it's too hard to stream it.

If we set live lessons via zoom, parents can't attend at that time as they have meetings of their own.

If work needs to be printed, not everyone has a printer.

If we set practical work, it's too much for the parents to supervise.

If we set links to bitesize or similar we aren't doing original learning activities.

If we record voice overs for presentations it's too noisy with others working in the house.

If we use online learning platforms loads of parents moan that they can't log on, even when we send out passwords, step by step instructions, videos of us logging on to show them what to do.

If our timetable is packed, it's too hard to fit it in. If there's not enough, we're setting the bar too low.
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I cannot please everybody.
I cannot teach my own class full time which is what I desperately want to do.
I know some children will not engage and will fall behind because of many reasons.

?!

@WTAFdoodles

Virtually nothing. Some rubbish on seesaw like "count all the cans in your kitchen". Great, how many seconds did that take them to think of.

That's part of the issue. I've rearranged my whole work schedule to be available to teach DD and the worksheets we were given took all of an hour to complete. I think the only answer for me is a private tutor who will work with her on the stuff she would have been learning if she were actually at school.

@Bluewavescrashing

We can't win.

If we set worksheets we are seen as lazy, even if we make them ourselves and differentiate to all children, eg making 4-5 versions of the same thing.

If we set PowerPoint to look at, it's too boring.

If we set recorded videos, it's too hard to stream it.

If we set live lessons via zoom, parents can't attend at that time as they have meetings of their own.

If work needs to be printed, not everyone has a printer.

If we set practical work, it's too much for the parents to supervise.

If we set links to bitesize or similar we aren't doing original learning activities.

If we record voice overs for presentations it's too noisy with others working in the house.

If we use online learning platforms loads of parents moan that they can't log on, even when we send out passwords, step by step instructions, videos of us logging on to show them what to do.

If our timetable is packed, it's too hard to fit it in. If there's not enough, we're setting the bar too low.
.
.
.
I cannot please everybody.
I cannot teach my own class full time which is what I desperately want to do.
I know some children will not engage and will fall behind because of many reasons.

?!

In fairness, I'm possibly not appreciating that parents will complain no matter what you do.

My frustration is being given work which is taking such a short amount of time to complete.

I also feel that DD's school is repeating the same mistakes as the first lockdown and providing very little for her to do. Reading this thread and seeing how much other schools are doing is incredibly frustrating.

Just to add, you won't see what work other children have been set. So please don't assume we've chucked a random worksheet at everyone. It will be chosen to support learning in a particular sequence of lessons, at that child's level, to help them develop their skills in whatever area.

If you have issues with home learning, please be conatructive and politely ask the school what you would like. Some parents don't really know what they want home learning to look like. Some parents want to plug their child in for 6 hours and get on with their job from home or look after siblings which is understandable. But don't just say it's crap without realising how much time and effort goes into maling it avaliable.

This is what's expected:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#res

2DC at the same primary. Last lockdown, apart from 3 worksheets and 2 musical clips, made by teachers at school, it was nothing. This time received an email from school asking to go on google lessons. DC2 did theirs in 5 minutes, DC1 had nothing in their account. SE London primary.

[quote MrsHamlet]This is what's expected:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#res[/quote]
Thank you for that. Primary schools are expected to upload on average 3 hours worth of work a day. I'll be pleased if that volume starts to come through.

Full day between 9-3 some live lessons some independent learning activities some activities set on education city

Ok some schools are crap. That's always been the case. But many schools aren't and given the fact that Boris didn't announce lockdown until 8pm last night I think it's a bit soon to be outraged about an entire profession because some schools haven't hit the mark on the first day. I would give it until next week at least before getting angry about it. During the first lockdown, my DD's school were crap for the first week, ok for the second week and were then bloody amazing from that point on. It just took them a couple of weeks to get going and to find out what works and what doesnt and tweak it. I couldn't fault them at all. This time round schools should be better prepared but I'd still give it a week or so before it runs smoothly. If it's still shit after that then definitely speak to the school and hopefully they will take your concerns on board and try to find ways to improve their provision.

Anyway, my DD's school is a 'requires improvement' rated school in a low wealth area. They have absolutely gone above and beyond for the children during this pandemic, and been incredibly supportive to all families but particularly the vulnerable kids (of which there are a lot). They are doing three zoom meetings a day to teach English, maths and a topic subject. These are also recorded and put onto the website so that they can be accessed later on if working parents want to access the work at a different time more convenient for them. Work is uploaded onto Seesaw and the teacher gives verbal feedback on all work. They are hosting weekly assemblies and have said they will be phoning all families on a regular basis for well-being checks (they did this first time round as well).

DD in year 6 is on Google classroom. They are being set one maths, one literacy and one foundation subject per day.

30 minute class meet at 11:30 and second registration at 3pm

Teacher uploaded a 10 minute video on them giving a presentation.

I am able to support so this is perfect for us.