Keyworker Provision - Nothing taught in school?

[Awcw1234]

Kids have a place at school as I’m a keyworker and don’t work from home.

School have informed me that they won’t have access to any of the live lessons and they won’t be doing any of the set work with them. I’ll have to do it all at home with them at the weekend. 5 days of work.

Is that right? I’ve got no choice but to send my children in but feel like my kids are really going to fall behind now!

Do give your schools time. We thought we were opening less than 48hrs ago!

Schooling is breaching its legal obligations and OFSTED would be very interested in the idea that children are going into school but the parents have to do all the actual education at home at the weekends. I would have a quiet word with the Head about this.

Schools are closed
Why are people struggling to understand this.

Anyone advising complaints to governors on day 1 of a new lockdown sprung on heads the day before isn’t going to get far. Give it a week, then reassess if there’s a real need for complaint.

Exactly this.

Schools were given little notice by the government to put things in place and sort out VKW provisions but people want to moan because it is not perfect yet.
Don’t get mad at the schools be thankful they are offering these places so you can continue to go to work - many parents don’t get this luxury and many schools aren’t set up to provide it.

Ours sent this today

This is part of statement made by Gavin Williamson in House of Commons today and taken from Government website direct quote.

"Unwelcome though this latest lockdown is, and I am very conscious of the real challenges parents are facing with their children at home, we are far better placed to cope with it than we were last March. We are now better prepared to deliver online learning. This is an important step forward in supporting children to make the progress they so desperately need and we will also do what we can to help their parents. I would like to say thank you to all those parents and carers who are having to step up once more to take on the challenges of home learning.

We have set out clear, legally binding requirements for schools to provide high-quality remote education. This is mandatory for ALL state-funded schools and will be enforced by Ofsted. We expect schools to provide between three and five teaching hours a day, depending on a child’s age."

This is very different to the 1 1/2 hours online learning my foster child has been provided with.

@caringcarer what do you mean by 1.5 hours of online learning? To mean it simply means they give enough work to last ebtween 3-5 hours. It's not 3-5 hours staring at the screen in a zoom meeting.

I think in this situation I would buy the toughest possible case for my home tablet and send my child in with it. Hopefully there are enough parents in a position to do this, so that along with school devices everyone in school can have a device and can do the online learning at school.

All of us risk our devices letting KS1 kids use them - even at home! The device will stay at school I presume (at least Mon to Fri) so there’s not the risk from it being schlepped back and forth daily.

@toocold54

Anyone advising complaints to governors on day 1 of a new lockdown sprung on heads the day before isn’t going to get far. Give it a week, then reassess if there’s a real need for complaint.

Exactly this.

Schools were given little notice by the government to put things in place and sort out VKW provisions but people want to moan because it is not perfect yet.
Don’t get mad at the schools be thankful they are offering these places so you can continue to go to work - many parents don’t get this luxury and many schools aren’t set up to provide it.

The complaints procedure is halted in all schools

Handling complaints during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
From the start of the autumn term, DfE expects schools to respond to new and existing complaints. However, we do not expect schools to respond if a tier 4 local restriction is in place or school access is restricted due to localised cases of coronavirus (COVID-19). Schools should still, however, engage with parents and pupils where possible.

They should be doing online learning, the same as those who are at home. There should be no educational advantage, the provision is simply childcare to allow key workers to work. Lots of parents can’t supervise during the day and have to do it in the evenings and weekends.

3-5 hours teaching means just that, learning in the presence of a teacher as opposed to homework task go away and get on with it yourself.

Actually there was a question in House of Commons about during first lockdown schools used to look after children do key worker parents could work and Williamson said this time pupils should be taught for their time in school not just minded.

@caringcarer that’s not how I would interpret it. I have done online courses and no one wants to listen to a person talking for 3-5 hours. You are often given a short presentation or even just a slide pack. Then you are supposed to go off to work on the task for a specific amount of time. Then you reconvene at a agreed time. I see some schools here expect this with specific google meet time set. (This is very difficult for working parents). Others are asked to turn in work via google classroom by a specific time. (DC school has morning and afternoon tasks with different submission time). Some schools give longer and students can submit before start of next day (easiest to catch up for working parents).

Have you done online courses as a child or an adult? I can understand a teacher spending first part of lesson explaining a tasks then children doing task while teacher is present in case of questions or problems then after say 20 mins going through what children had done/produced. If each lesson is only 45 mins how little time would s teacher want to be away from pupils during that time. Different teachers are teaching through the day so no child will be listening to a person talk for 3-5 hours. Pupils can also have discussions on topics during their teaching time or be read a story before being set a task as homework. Spending 5-10 mins setting a worksheet and then teacher going offline and pupil left on their own is not teaching for 45 Min lesson.

@caringcarer

3-5 hours teaching means just that, learning in the presence of a teacher as opposed to homework task go away and get on with it yourself.

We simply cannot have 'teacher presence' for 3-5 hours for our remote learning. It's physically not possible when we also have 50% of the school in the building too.

Our remote learning is a pre-recorded video which lasts 10-15 minutes generally, though can be made longer if the child/parent pauses the video where suggested. There is then a set task to do afterwards - this may be different formats. Any responses should be uploaded to the learning platform for feedback and acknowledgement. If the child at home spent the same length of time completing the tasks as they would do in school it would cover the normal lesson time. We do this for 4-5 lessons a day. Children also have a list of normal 'every day' learning activities they can engage with - daily reading, daily unstructured writing, access to an online english and maths website, etc.

Our key worker and vulnerable children do the same remote learning but via the IWB and work in books in the classroom. The rest of their time is engaged with more informal activities indoors and outdoors.

We are an infant school. Any more than this just simply isn't possible.

@caringcarer

3-5 hours teaching means just that, learning in the presence of a teacher as opposed to homework task go away and get on with it yourself.

No it doesn't.

The guidance says 3 (primary)or 4 (secondary) hours of work set. Now, it doesnt surprise me that Gavin doesnt know his department's guidance, nor would surprise me if they were updating it now to cover his error.

If you’re a parent WFH with a primary age child I fail to see how it would help to have a teacher ‘live’ all the time anyway. I much prefer the recorded videos and work set approach. ‘Live’ teaching is an absolute zoo, from what I can see, until you hit 13+.

Are they continuing with the curriculum this time? We're not entitled to key worker places but kids won't be doing school work while we work, so I'd be concerned if they seriously expecting all primary children to be able to progress.

Yes, they are expected to deliver the curriculum.

Actually there was a question in House of Commons about during first lockdown schools used to look after children do key worker parents could work and Williamson said this time pupils should be taught for their time in school not just minded.

How is it physically possible to teach a group of children in school at the same time as providing online work for those at home?
Especially as some schools are doing live lessons.

Most schools have the majority of teachers setting work to do online whilst the other staff members and some teachers watch the children in schools. Most schools will have computer rooms but if you’re in an area of high VKW children then there might not Ben enough devices to go around so you either use the childcare that’s available or keep them at home to do their online learning.

@nosquirrels. Oh no, ffs, where's the gin ☹️

Our key worker and vulnerable children do the same remote learning but via the IWB and work in books in the classroom. The rest of their time is engaged with more informal activities indoors and outdoors.

This is a really good idea to do it on the IWB.

But you can’t drink it, mumwalk - you’ve got no time for drinking! It’s not only a school night but a school-day-plus-teaching-and-working tomorrow 🙇‍♀️

Most primary schools have interactive white boards in each class so the kw children can watch the teacher’s live lessons too at the same time as the children at home. TAs are with them at school assisting them and overseeing break time etc

Well I posted the.link to Government website where it states this. It even suggests OFSTED will be policing this and parents should complain to OFSTED if their child's school does not teach it's 3 hours (primary) and 5 hours (secondary). Don't shoot the messenger. If a teacher uses white boards this can go out on Teams and key worker and vulnerable children sit in lesson also watching teacher on whiteboard/can hear what teacher days. The children in Room would not need a devise to see/ hear teacher. I don't see why you.need separate teachers got teaching children in school and at home. Normal teachers could teach normal lessons/sets on Teams and vulnerable/key worker children just sit in correct lesson for them.