School only providing 1 hour of live interaction a day!

[NotLookingTooGood]

What is everyone's school experience? I am going a little crazy. We have live online learning of 2 increments of 30mns (maths & english) a day + homework that we have to supervise.

What is everybody else's experience?
The school is relying entirely on us to do the work.

No live lessons, which is great. 3 children, one laptop. Well the boy doesn't do any work so the girls using it around each other. Live lessons would be impossible to manage.

No live interaction with DS junior school, just assignments posted on Google classroom. DD infant school is starting twice weekly zoom sessions next week but I believe they're just for a check in rather than actual lessons, work is posted online.

@NotLookingTooGood - you think all parents are set up to be capable of having all their children doing live lessons at the same time?! Or do you think everything should revolve around what suits you, regardless of the needs and expectations of everyone else?

Primary school - no live lessons, but some pre-recorded audio from the teachers.

Secondary - almost all lessons start with live session, then period of independent work, then live session at the end. Teachers online and available to contact throughout the lesson.

The primary teachers I think are too busy with the kids who are in school. Secondary keyworker kids are in computer rooms with headphones, doing the same online learning as their peers at home.

@TT23

I don't know why you want live learning??? It's a nightmare for young kids. Constant noise and interruption and technical difficulties.. younger siblings screaming in the background.. it's terrible. Waiting on the call why know it all little kids unmute themselves and should out the answers.. kids who constantly "put up their hand" to tell the class it was their dog's birthday. I get it's nice for kids to see their friends but personally my kids are just sitting around wasting time while other kids slow them down. I prefer recorded lessons with the option to contact the teacher by at any point during the day for further support.

Totally agree with this - live is a nightmare with young kids!

Short recorded videos that parents can access anytime are better.

Ha. Correction. Apparently some parents now want live lessons and some don't.

So now teacher daughter's school is doing -

• teaching live in school for key workers / vulnerable kids
• teaching via pre recorded lessons for those parents who want them
• teaching live for another set of parents
• multiple phone calls home to tutor group
• marking & replying to e mails

Totally stressed out 22 year old teacher in my house. Not enough hours in the day. Anyone got a cloning machine?

The good news is she had a covid test in school today (negative) and will be getting one each week (lateral flow).

She undertook training to do tests for children and ye Gods she was in full PPE!!!! Hurrah.

Daughter at primary: no live lessons just work set via teams.
Myself as a secondary teacher: all A level classes live lessons, lower school a mixture of live lessons and narrated powerpoints.
Am I complaining to Ofsted about my daughter's school ? Hell no.

Primary. About 2.5 hours, split across 3 lessons and a catch up at end of day. Lessons are teacher-led with instruction, interactive elements (eg Q&A) and online materials eg slides to support the instruction. Then a task the kids complete offline. Teacher replies on chat through the offline work. In between the kids have other work to do online by themselves eg spellings, grammar, tables , maths, reading, vocabulary building etc.

Frankly it's amazing and almost too much!

Apparently some parents now want live lessons and some don't.

This is the problem - we have to go with what works for most rather than what's convenient for some.

Full timetable of online lessons. But this is yr 12. And they already had a somewhat compressed timetable this year for Covid related reasons.

DS10 has two 45-min live online classes and the rest we work with him. He does need someone sitting next to him otherwise he drifts off track so my husband and I flit between him and DS12, whose online classes don't start till next week when he'll have 4 a day, so he's working through watching video lessons and writing up afterwards/quizzes at the end
I had to take my dad to the GP today then do shopping for my mum so I was doing that/driving to and from them most of today so my husband spent all day on the homeschooling (usually it works out I to about half a day each so it's definitely a full time job for one person!) yesterday when I was getting called by both kids and running to and fro I thought how on earth do people manage trying to work from home as well!??

Secondary teacher here. All lessons live following normal timetable.

I am on my knees setting work remotely (secondary) with two of my own children at home and one laptop between us. The expectation to deliver live teaching would break me. I can't do it. And if the government hadn't dithered about so long, perhaps I would have had a bit of warning and been able to seek some training beforehand.

Some parents really need to understand that their personal requirements for home learning may not be what all families in the school want. My primary school were prepared to deliver some live lessons but when parents were surveyed it was a resounding No. Not enough devices to share between multiple kids; parents trying to work themselves; not wanting to have to adhere to a rigid timetable.

Lucky thing too. I am in school 3 out of the 5 days with a group of mixed age children so couldn't possibly deliver daily live sessions. I have to prepare all my remote learning around that, including all feedback and communication with parents. I am managing one or two pre-recorded lessons per day as well as supplying work in 3 different formats: printed/emailed/uploaded to digital platform so that families can access it in their preferred way. Plus differentiated activities for SEN children of varying abilities. It's hideous and I would 100x rather be back in the classroom as normal. Unfortunately the Covid rate here is 1200+ per day so probably best if as few of us mix as possible. We are a one-form entry school so God knows who will do everything if I have to go off with Covid or anything else.

We had 2 x 1 hour yesterday and 3 x 1 hour today (which is the plan going forward). Kids were set assignments to do in the gaps, so:
9am-10am online
10am-11am Morning assignment
11am-noon Online
Noon-1 lunch
1-2pm online
Afternoon assignment

Lots of IT teething troubles but I have faith they will work out over the weeks to come.
Last lockdown it was all print outs and occasional
phone calls.
The children in school are in the room with the teacher, who is then on zoom for the kids at home.
I thought it was ok, considering. Obviously not ideal but one of my kids has missed a whole year due to sickness already, and if something like this had been possible them, it would’ve been great.
I think this kind of blended learning has a lot of potential for kids with long term illness such as cancer etc.

(Year 3, btw!)

Sorry, Covid rate is 1200+ per 100,000 not per day!

Glad I'm not the only parent finding this home schooling a bit adhoc. Son logs in at 9am till 915am. Then is given a task. Logs back on at 1030am. Then given a task till 11am. Then logs off till 1pm. Then log back on for about 15 mins. Then logs off and logs back on at 230 for story time. Then that's it...... Days finished. 🤔🤔🙄

DS is in reception

Primary: daily tasks across the curriculum via google classroom. No need to print anything. No live teaching, teachers are in class with children who are in. Comments on work daily. Weekly phone call. Some short video ‘lessons’.

My DS (7) has no live lessons at all. Some of the other parents are now asking for it. I'm getting fed up of the pointless and ridiculously easy tasks they're setting him, and frustrated that they're not interested in the effort he's making into the bits he actually struggles with (handwriting). Tempted to give up!!

Dd is getting check ins 3 times a day which last 5 mins or so, and for the entire class. Work is set at the beginning of each day and the ask is to be completed by the final check in at 3pm. I dont think it is being checked or marked though, perhaps they think its our job at home to do that (which i appreciate as the teacher also has her own kids to teach too!).

DS is in reception so getting 1 phonics session in the morning and one story zoom call in the afternoon, again daily and with the entire class. Work is set the evening before and we are expected to crack on. The teacher is checking work and feeding back, which is surprising tbh as she is quite senior and still working in the school.

They are doing the best they can given the circumstances and tbh it is so much better than the first lockdown, clearly thought about it more and definitely more organised.

Trying to be positive in this, its going into the unknown. However not sure if can go on long term.

No live lessons here for my two in primary. I’m glad as it would be way too hard to manage that with our work.

But the teachers have done very well adding tasks and videos to google classroom and recording teacher messages everyday. I know they are working their arses off.

I’m actually finding it too much because I am supposed to be working as well and we only have the one laptop for the kids to use. And they can’t just get on with it really, it’s too fiddly and they need constant guidance/ encouragement (5 and 7) to do the work. I know those whose kids are at private school have constant live lessons.

They are setting 5 different tasks each day and there’s no way we can get through them all so I’m stressed that my kids are getting a substandard education only doing half the work set when the key worker kids in school are doing it all and getting a proper education! Especially if this goes on for months and months!

@MellowYellow101

Dd is getting check ins 3 times a day which last 5 mins or so, and for the entire class. Work is set at the beginning of each day and the ask is to be completed by the final check in at 3pm. I dont think it is being checked or marked though, perhaps they think its our job at home to do that (which i appreciate as the teacher also has her own kids to teach too!).

DS is in reception so getting 1 phonics session in the morning and one story zoom call in the afternoon, again daily and with the entire class. Work is set the evening before and we are expected to crack on. The teacher is checking work and feeding back, which is surprising tbh as she is quite senior and still working in the school.

They are doing the best they can given the circumstances and tbh it is so much better than the first lockdown, clearly thought about it more and definitely more organised.

Trying to be positive in this, its going into the unknown. However not sure if can go on long term.

Teachers ordinarily would not mark every piece of work any way. It's just as effective to look through, see what the most common problems were then feed that into the next task. So just because you're not getting individual feedback on all work, doesn't mean the teacher won't be providing feedback during subsequent lessons and tasks.

No live learning. Some recorded lessons. All on teams with work set to do during lessons and teachers on teams for questions

I have no complaints. It's way better than the summer term when left to own devices

Year 10