Realistically, what provision would you like to see for your child at home

[Ravenclawlass]

If you are having to keep your child at home,
What would you realistically like to see the school provide in terms of provision? What would impress you or make your life easier?

What do you expect to be getting?

As a teacher I'd like to know how to make this easier for the parents of the children in my class.

I have very young kids (6 & 4 now, 5 & 3 in lockdown). Our school were pretty great last time. The kids were sent home with exercise books that had been filled in with various activities to complete like what they’d typically do in school. Additional worksheets were emailed out every couple of weeks as well as links to various resources like you tube videos on marine life (a topic they were covering in KS1 last year), a garden school guide suggestions on how you could do a mini forest/beach school at home, simple but colourful science experiments & arts activities. The school stressed what was most important to do for eldest (read daily, try and do 3-4 maths & 3-4 English exercises weekly) & youngest (lots of imaginative play basically) Any questions, concerns or feedback needed email staff and to please send in some pictures and details of any activities you’d done to share in a weekly newsletter to the class. There was no pressure to have specific things done on specific days but plenty of help offered if you had questions. For us it was perfect as we were pretty stressed out generally and not having to complete specific things while having lots of materials to use meant school work didn’t become a battle ground. Our eldest really cracked reading in lockdown and the youngest learnt how to do various sums and her 2 x table as she wanted to join in

Don’t think that one rule suits all.

What would help me is flexibility, so no deadlines, get the work in when it’s done.
Tbh, I’d like the teachers to trust me that he has learned the topic, not need every piece of work emailed, photographed or posted back. Just in his book.

Lots of online stuff I’d have found much more stressful as we’d have had to get kids engaged to do specific things at specific times. The one thing not offered I think would have been really good was a 1:1 catch up with the teacher once every couple of weeks on zoom or it’s equivalent. The eldest in particular really missed having the chance to show someone from school what she’d done and get their feedback it was right (or what was wrong). That would have really impressed me but suspect it’s almost impossible to manage given number of kids in a class

Thank you for the responses :) I was definitely thinking that flexibility is the way forward. Everyone is so stressed at the moment trying to earn money for their families and trying to give the best to their DC as well.

I think most people are doing a great job and we all need to be less harsh on ourselves!

It depends on the age of the children you’re teaching. DS is in year 7 at a Grammar School and he is getting 20 minute Teams sessions for each subject at their usual time and a 20 min exercise to complete, plus homework (usual lessons are 40 mins long).

This is perfect for us. I don’t want him to fall behind and this way, I don’t have to provide any work for him myself.

whatkatydid2013

I'd love to offer this to my class, with me. What we are doing instead, is offering a zoom clinic each afternoon where you can get feedback from a teacher within the year group (might not be your teacher)

An attempt at some sort of active teaching or guidance each day. I don’t expect live lessons from 9 - 3 each day.

I would also like for there to be an attempt at marking handed in working this time around too, so it doesn’t just essentially “count for nothing”.

Are you able to use google classroom to set lessons, do live registrations, where you catch up with the children daily on camera and provide some live lessons? It also gives the ability for the children to turn work in and receive feedback.

We had this for the last isolation period and it was excellent and keep children engaged and was low on parental involvement, much easier than printing and going to different websites etc.

PS, in DS’s school, there is no flexibility. They’re expected to be in lessons, fully participating and hand in assignments by the deadline or they’ll get a misdemeanour. This is fine by me as my work (from home) is flexible but could be difficult for some parents. I guess all the boys should be motivated though as they have to be to get their place.

No crafting or making stuff - I always end up doing it as the children won’t.

Id like, although ill be at work and it is dh wfh, teams with teaching in the morning for a welcome and lesson and then telling them what the online / independent learning for that day is. Id then like another teams class meeting in the afternoon to see how everyone got on.

@Mixingitall

Are you able to use google classroom to set lessons, do live registrations, where you catch up with the children daily on camera and provide some live lessons? It also gives the ability for the children to turn work in and receive feedback.

We had this for the last isolation period and it was excellent and keep children engaged and was low on parental involvement, much easier than printing and going to different websites etc.

Were not using Google classroom but we are having live registration with teachers and we have teachers not on class with KW who are running live English and maths lessons each day, then running clinic zoom in the afternoon for 1:1 questions and support

I was going to say, online teaching, work set all in one place instead of across four or five different applications, and feedback when I upload work to be assessed!

LadyCatStark that’s sounds bloody brilliant to me!! ☺️

Just read pp say about printing! Yes! Ffs what is it with primary schools and bloody twinkl pdfs!

Dd is in year 5 and our primary school have been excellent since last March.

We have an individual learning pack at school available for collection tomorrow which is a folder with booklets and worksheets in, tailored to ability.

Also we’re on Seesaw which is constantly being updated and teacher comments a lot. Work is set there daily too with 3 levels of difficulty. We have our teacher’s email address and she rings twice weekly to speak to dd and myself.

What I think is key is communication. We have also been told we can email the head teacher directly at any time with any issues/worries/queries and our school has said all along that doing work is important but so is doing other activities at home and reading is key.

I couldn’t fault them at all. The one thing I would love is for there to be more zoom classes but we’re in a very deprived area and not everyone has access to devices-yet.

I have a primary age DC, who realistically needs some support to do the work. Therefore, as both of us (parents) can be on work calls at once, live teaching isn't ideal (nor is it offered by the school). I am happy (and able) to support work in a variety of ways - last year when the worksheets were on volume/capacity, we got lots of measuring things (jugs, syringes, bottles) etc. out and looked at real examples, which certainly helped DC engage. However I appreciate not all parents can provide that. Perhaps optional tasks which do include parental support (at primary level).

Actual feedback beyond 'I can see you've at least looked at this task' would be good.... Perhaps even constructive criticism?

Zoom clinics sound great.

A trampoline

I would like some time for my children to be able to interact with their class.
Eg a Microsoft Teams call with a whiteboard where they can draw something/a fun poll.
Our school on feedback from parents are now pre-recording 2m class intro videos so almost anything would be an improvement to be fair!

some video teaching - not live.
Just a short introduction to worksheets would be great - eg 10 minutes reminding the DC about what they've done on the topic previously, what the new learning is, and how it all fits together.

Feedback given on work submitted.

Perhaps a couple of optional 15min social zooms each week for everyone to keep in touch? Different times each week though to accommodate different working patterns as much as possible.

No craft/baking/big projects or other parent-intensive work please.

Zoom clinics sound amazing to me too. I may suggest this to our school

I don't know anymore. I felt terribly let down in the 1st lock down and were weren't, we didn't even get given a twinkle sheet.

However now I'm not sure what would work best because I've sort of set myself up now with work books and targets!
Infact I'm looking forward to working with her and targeting some crucial areas and I don't want the oak academy interfering.

Ideally I'd prefer her own teacher to teach the concept, record it, ask questions, so dd can see and hear her teacher and her friends, I think that's the most vital part actually, to see life and her community and feel contention.

Nothing that needs printing! Had a 16 page document today that only had 30 maths questions on!

Ideally a pack of worksheets each week- or recommended workbooks that could buy from Amazon.

Maybe use the bbc education shows that are starting next week? Don't know if they are providing a timetable or anything to back up what they are going to do.

Shared lessons online so that the class still feels like a class and the children know that they are all experiencing this together. Perhaps a Friday afternoon social for 20mins with a shared dance class or mindfulness activity.

I would say either a) live teaching, so parents don’t have to supervise full time and explain/find links/crack the whip or b) be flexible, have low expectations about what gets done, use fun apps and bbc bitesize rather than worksheets.

DCs’ school is following a) for Maths and English and b) for everything else, this time round.

Last year they used a “pre recorded 10 min video then a task to send in” approach for every subject. It was very stressful as there was a lot of work expected but relatively little supervision/motivation from the teacher and no chance to ask questions.

As regards feedback, a weekly feedback call would have motivated DC a lot more than brief electronic comments on the work. Also would have been able to mention overall themes eg the fact DD1 keeps missing out words or the fact DD2 never finishes anything...

Oh and maybe a cheat sheet for parents! Things like what is a LO etc and how to work stuff out, especially for maths as we learnt different ways hundreds of years ago.