3-5 Teaching Hours for remote learning?

[Ohbabybab]

I heard Gavin Williamson say this is the Commons today.
Anyone know what that means in practice? Is there any guidance yet?

Offers will change depending on the needs of the school, the cohort of children and the wider community.

My school is in a community who often have limited devices and a number of children so live lessons won't work for them. They much prefer pre recorded videos they can watch with their child/den at their own leisure and complete the work this way. We are going to try some live lessons next week and get feedback to see what the majority of parents, carers and pupils prefer and will move forward that way.

My y5 son is getting 3 x 30 - 45 minute live lessons per day (his teacher working from home, with his children at home) plus the accompanying work, plus reading, TTRock stars and Mathletics. Everything that needs marking/feedback has been done promptly. He is plenty busy enough and I think the provision is impressive.

DD yr7 is getting set work online according to her timetable, not quite a full school day but apparently live lessons are to start next week. Again, very quick and detailed feedback and I'm very happy with it so far.

What will change is if I find out that the kids still in school are being physically taught using proper school based resources, equipment etc rather than having the same as the kids at home. Then it will become something else. I don't begrudge any child an education but not at the expense of my own. So far, no sign of that happening but judging by the sheer amount of threads describing schools full of kids, it could only be a matter of time!

[quote Ohbabybab]@BertNErnie I’m going to give them until next week as I do appreciate it’s hard all round but if it continues then I will.[/quote]
Definitely contact them if you are are unhappy or have questions around what is happening. We have an open door policy at my school and are open and honest with the families of those we teach. If someone raised a concern it wound be looked into immediately.

I teach secondary pupils (11-18) and our school are doing all live lessons.

There is some flexibility. Teacher's have to teach for a minimum of 30 mins. The other 30 mins can be oak/other independent tasks.

I teach Science and have been doing full live lessons as this works for me. I am using the teams chat thread, cold call and Microsoft forms to get responses from students and assess learning/give feedback as well as I can. Going forward, I will be asking my Y11/A-level students to submit work I can mark on Microsoft teams so that they are getting detailed, individual feedback.

I would think the above would be too much for young primary children. Work set that would take about 3 hours would be plenty for that age group I think.

[quote Ohbabybab]@TheFallenMadonna that sounds like a good offer. Unfortunately (and I know it’s early days but my understanding was schools should have an offer ready) we are just getting worksheets and links to bitesize[/quote]
Same here. I have a year 6 who's had a maths worksheet and two bite size clips to watch today. It's the same provision as the last lockdown, I'm so disappointed I thought it would be better this time round.

Then I read on here about other primary age children having live lessons & a more structured timetable and it makes me so disheartened.

I'm also going to give it till next week and will contact school if it doesn't improve.

There ha to be some sort of consistency across the country or there’ll be an even bigger attainment gap between school. DS is very lucky that he has a full timetable with 50% live Teams lessons and 50% offline paper activities to reduce screen time. He’ll be miles ahead of those who’ve had a few links to BBC bite size and it’s not their fault!

Teaching in my opinion means minimum of tea her being present, not just download a worksheet and go away and do it on your own. That on my opinon is homework, work done alone without teacher about. The document stayed teaching not homework. 3 hours primary and 5 hours secondary and parents are told to report to OFSTED if school is not offering online teaching. I would have thought at secondary level that would include 4 or 5 separate teachers each doing one lesson each. At primary obviously more likely to be the same teacher.

@UghNotThisAgain36

My y5 son is getting 3 x 30 - 45 minute live lessons per day (his teacher working from home, with his children at home) plus the accompanying work, plus reading, TTRock stars and Mathletics. Everything that needs marking/feedback has been done promptly. He is plenty busy enough and I think the provision is impressive.

DD yr7 is getting set work online according to her timetable, not quite a full school day but apparently live lessons are to start next week. Again, very quick and detailed feedback and I'm very happy with it so far.

What will change is if I find out that the kids still in school are being physically taught using proper school based resources, equipment etc rather than having the same as the kids at home. Then it will become something else. I don't begrudge any child an education but not at the expense of my own. So far, no sign of that happening but judging by the sheer amount of threads describing schools full of kids, it could only be a matter of time!

I am worried about the situation you describe in your last paragraph. My year 5 has two short zoom class meets a day. You can see the teacher and keyworker / vulnerable kids interacting in the call.

Yet I emailed the school at 10am to ask how he gets help when he’s stuck and have had nothing back.

Very disappointed and wondering whether to jack it in. They can stick their zoom and attendance check ins.

Which sounds a tall order for 4-6 year olds. I’m not sure mine could work that long without adult engagement and encouragement. Certainly not independently.

I would assume there is a presumption that a 4, 5, or 6 yr old is interacting with an adult at home, and not home alone.

That's about right and maybe more concentrated work than at school. Fewer distractions, breaks and lesson changes.
Three hours is plenty for Primary and then between 3-5 hours for secondary.
My dd is Y12 and does about 4 hours a day. (Only 2 A levels, though)

I'm hating it all. I'm an ex-home educator and a lot of this way of teaching is soul.destroying.

'3-5 hours' is about ticking a box, not ensuring any engagement is happening.

I'll cry if my kids get too much zoom, it is so draining.

I really wish announcements would only be made when the guidance is published.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/education-secretary-statement-to-parliament-on-national-lockdown

Link from government website new today.

It's important to remember that the guidance for input in 1 minute for each year of age.

So 5/6 yo would only get 5/6 minutes input (maybe 10 as year goes on and they tolerate sitting still more). Then they have tasks to do and extended tasks.

Lessons for infant age children aren't ever an hour long. They don't have that level of concentration. That's the length of a secondary lesson and I would expect them to be enraging independently or being made to learn pdq (send aside)

My ds college lessons are sometimes 2-3 hours. They get 10 minutes movement break after every hour.

I did 5 hours teaching live today-ks3,4,5

@inquietant

I'm hating it all. I'm an ex-home educator and a lot of this way of teaching is soul.destroying.

'3-5 hours' is about ticking a box, not ensuring any engagement is happening.

I'll cry if my kids get too much zoom, it is so draining.

Unfortunately 'ticking a box' is what most education is about nowadays.

@Useruseruserusee

I really wish announcements would only be made when the guidance is published.

As if that will ever happen!!

DFE: We're replacing GCSEs and A levels
Teachers: with what
Dfe: dunno

Brilliant.

my year 6 isn't getting any live lessons but its better than lockdown 1 where he got zep, just a few links after a few weeks. now he gets 3-4 hours worth of interesting varied work a day, video introductions by his teachers, reading materials, form a variety of sources etc. he still needs a lot of parental input though

@Ohbabybab

I’m concerned about DD falling behind compared to the key worker children in her class who are being taught by the teacher. So just wanted to see if new guidance would help this or not.

This is my big fear as well. Although last time school provided really good classes online, it was obviously down to parents to supervise the follow up work and motivate the kids to do it (DD was 5). Not being able to just drop work at the drop of a hat means she'll lose out compared to kids with sahps, furloughed parents, or key worker kids staying in class with the teacher. So stressed.

@caringcarer Thanks for this. He says ‘teaching’ which to me means active guided teaching not just activity to do independently but I guess we’ll have to see when the guidance is released

@BackforGood

Which sounds a tall order for 4-6 year olds. I’m not sure mine could work that long without adult engagement and encouragement. Certainly not independently.

I would assume there is a presumption that a 4, 5, or 6 yr old is interacting with an adult at home, and not home alone.

Yes but there is a difference between a 4-6 year old working at home whilst their parents are wfh and a child who has a parent available to support learning and keep a child engaged in what they should be doing. A child this age could not easily access Teams independently or sustain self motivation for tasks totalling that time.

I did a live lesson on Tuesday with some associated work, in total an hours work. I got an email from a parent saying it’s too much...... ffs we can’t do right for doing wrong.

Teacher perspective- do what you can do. Half hour of something reading/writing and half hour of maths. Get outside for a bit. TV is fine when you're working. We have a flexible 3 hours only between 8 and 6, the rest is a bit more about screen time. Ah well, it's not forever.

GCSE and A level is Teacher Assessment this year but BTEC apparently going ahead.

BTECs and Cambridge Nationals and Technicals are up in the air. Do the exam if you want, you wont be penalised if you don't... The forgotten qualification, just as last year.