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.

Y7 Dd follows regular timetable with live Google Meets, so 5 lessons a day.

However, the school i work in is in a digitally poor catchment, so just 1 period is live, the rest can ge done as and when.

I don't know if live lessons will work with primary kids but recording the teacher only explaining what to do to the physical class then posting it so the virtual class can see surely isn't too hard and would make all the difference. It's literally a lottery as to weather you get live lessons/ teacher interaction or are left to get on with it ( teachers not responding to messages on the live board until after 4pm etc) and just left with a few links to Oak Academy...I get its hard but we are on the recieving end of the worst if the examples and so I am not only taking time out from my job to teach (luckily very supportive employer but still stressful because I feel I need to catch up even though they say it's fine and they understand) but also to lesson plan ( because what we are provided with isn't great, and spend a small fortune on workbooks/ games/ reading materials etc. Obviously I am lucky to be in a position to do this, but so far it does feel like those online are being ignored.

You would not believe how long it takes to plan and then post online all the work needed for children at home, and this is all meant to be differentiated as well. Then on top of that having to plan and prepare what is going to be done in school (which is the majority of children). On top of this some children at home have requested paper copies of work only, so that also needs preparing. Then the entire day is spent teaching with no break because the lunch hour is used to deal with various issues. There's absolutely no way I could find time to record lessons unless I was released from a significant part of my teaching in class.

I think the fact that the OP has 2 live 30 minute sessions a day is pretty good.

As someone who works in a school, I think it is important to point out that differentiation makes lesson planning a nightmare. It basically means that you have to plan 4-5 lessons for every lesson you teach because the children in your class will be at varying ability levels. That means if you aim to do say 5 lessons a day, you could be planning 25 lessons as each group will need different work.

Education is nothing like it was 20-30 years ago. Back then the teacher would give you a book, tell you to turn to page 102 and then to answer all the questions in your book regardless of where you were at.

@Redwinestillfine

I don't know if live lessons will work with primary kids but recording the teacher only explaining what to do to the physical class then posting it so the virtual class can see surely isn't too hard and would make all the difference. It's literally a lottery as to weather you get live lessons/ teacher interaction or are left to get on with it ( teachers not responding to messages on the live board until after 4pm etc) and just left with a few links to Oak Academy...I get its hard but we are on the recieving end of the worst if the examples and so I am not only taking time out from my job to teach (luckily very supportive employer but still stressful because I feel I need to catch up even though they say it's fine and they understand) but also to lesson plan ( because what we are provided with isn't great, and spend a small fortune on workbooks/ games/ reading materials etc. Obviously I am lucky to be in a position to do this, but so far it does feel like those online are being ignored.

For the third time on this thread:

If I record what I do in a normal class, kids joining by video link would learn nothing. I'd be at the board. My slides would show on teams or whatever, but they wouldn't see the modelling I do on the board. They might be called away from the laptop just at the moment I choose to do a mini plenary because children have got to a particular difficulty in their work. Etc. Etc.

Have you ever been the only person on zoom in a meeting while everyone else is in the same room? It doesn't work unless they plan for your involvement. Same for a classroom (or more so, because a classroom isn't people sat around talking).

A video call lesson is a different beast to a normal classroom lesson. I've already been learning a lot about that this week, but I'm lucky enough to just have a handful in class so can focus on the majority who are at home.

Still only on live lessons for at most 2 hours per day. And a fair amount of that is most kids working silently without my help and me working with small groups in breakout rooms. Because thats a near copy of what we'd be doing in class as well.

Absolutely none for my year 7 & 10. Completely appalled with the situation. Year 10 had 30 mins works set today...

Genuine question - if teachers can’t do live lessons because they are teaching KW and vulnerable children in the classroom won’t they be 6 weeks (at least) ahead and everything will need repeating when the other kids get back?

Most schools are pre-recording lessons or doing them over MSTeams - then the students watch them during the lesson.
The VKW children and those at home are all watching the same thing at the same time so are learning the same stuff at the same time. (Eg My DC was on live learning today and the teacher asked who’s at home and who’s in school right now) however as a PP suggested the VKW children could be seen as slightly advantaged as they have someone helping them use the technology, keeping them focused etc.

We have a 30 minute live lesson once a week. Y4 and Y6.
The rest of the work is great but does require my supervision, so I can't get on with anything else.

My yr3 DS has 1 hour live split into 15 morning registration a 30 minute lesson + 15 minute sign off. he has work set between 9-2.30 which roughly follows the school day. Maths, SPaG writing, reading then art/re/history/geog with breaks. He did really well with it this week but it is very hard work as I need to sit with him all day and I have a 2 year old to entertain and work 3 days a week out of home too. Just wish he could work a bit more independently.

teachers not responding to messages on the live board until after 4pm etc)

If teachers aren’t replying until after 4pm then they are obviously so busy during their working hours that they told have time to message back.
Most professions once you clock off that’s it your done for the day and don’t check emails until the next day. But you’re moaning that the teacher has replied to you afterschool in her own free time. Most people would be grateful for that type of commitment.

@willandgrace I am teaching the lesson to the children at school then a live session for the children at home while the in school children play ( usually I’d be modelling observing etc in play) This is repeated 3 times a day which is our usual timetable. I then try desperately to comment on all of the work submitted (a follow up for each live lesson), deal with anyone who is struggling (we are on a strict timetable across the school in case people only have 1 device so if they’re still stuck at the end I message them privately), offer feedback for each piece of work and deliver 1-1 remote sessions for children who are struggling to access the group live sessions. This alongside preparing the paper pack for the next week without any PPA or any lunch break as my school doesn’t have any lunch staff in. We have about 25% of the year group in with children being taught by their own class teacher in their own class so I am needed in school each day. The children in school are getting exactly what the home children are getting as I’m basically delivering everything twice.

@bobisbored to be totally truthful, the only comment I’ve seen on social media are teachers and TAs complaining about families with one critical worker sending their kids in (entirely in accordance with government guidance). I personally don’t think that is professional at all - they have no idea at all about the pressures that those families are under.

DD is on Year 2 and we've had no online learning at all in either lockdown. We just receive worksheets etc. We didn't even have to hand any work in during the last lockdown but we do this time.

Absolutely none for my year 7 & 10

Take it up with the DfE, they were the ones who said only exam classes needed work set this week.

@Redwinestillfine
I don't know if live lessons will work with primary kids but recording the teacher only explaining what to do to the physical class then posting it so the virtual class can see surely isn't too hard and would make all the difference.

If I tried to do this I would have the following issues:

1. Possible safeguarding concerns with regard to showing children in class. If the camera was just pointed only towards the front of the class, I wouldn't be there half the time as I would be interacting with the children in front of me and moving around.
2. Impossible to follow and concentrate on for children at home (primary) because of a) nothing to see as I don't just stand still and b) no meaningful engagement with children working at home, particularly no eye contact. Children don't only respond to the sound of a teacher's voice.
3. No one to actually hold a mobile or tablet while recording. I suppose it could be propped up somewhere, but it took me so long to film myself reading a book to children today (couldn't both hold my phone to record the book pages and see what I was reading - eventually managed to prop up my phone and sit sideways to the book) that I realised that I couldn't do this every day and keep on top of everything else.
4. Too long to upload content to online platform. It took me nearly half an hour to upload a 5 minute video (slow school laptop and poor wifi). Goodness knows how long it would take to upload a 30 - 50 minute lesson. And while this is being done the laptop is out of action for other tasks, like teaching the class.

Years of underinvestment in schools mean that they may only have the barest minimum in the way of technology - just enough for normal teaching, not nearly adequate for a online learning.

Our school confirmed today that they will not be doing any live sessions. I'm not sure how I feel about that and whether live would better.
We are given white rose for maths and oak academy for English each day and one other subject.
But I do think we need some form of interaction with the teacher. Hopefully next week we will.

@Fallingrain
they have no idea at all about the pressures that those families are under.

I CAN'T BELIEVE that anyone would say this. Teachers are keyworkers and have their own children! On numerous occasions since March 2020 I have found myself trying to work while home schooling my own children.

As a keyworker with a partner who is working from home I took the decision that my kids and their teachers were safer if my children stayed at home. When I am at work my partner is there for them, although he is incredibly busy. When I am working at home I am available to them so am often working while trying to help them with school work.

I really object to putting myself and my family at risk because other people are not prepared to make the same sacrifices that I am making.

Our school has live online lessons for all 5 lessons every day, every year group. Kids in school too if vulnerable, or the children of key workers. Teachers working harder than ever and support staff all doing a lot of work in very trying circumstances, but not prioritised for vaccination. It's the support staff with the kids in school so teachers can live teach.
They all deserve medals

We have a complete timetable morning and afternoon all week.

they have no idea at all about the pressures that those families are under.

I CAN'T BELIEVE that anyone would say this. Teachers are keyworkers and have their own children!

Exactly this!
Why do you think teachers have no pressure?
How do you think they’re coping with the extra workload?
How do you think they’re coping with wfh with a full timetable and homeschooling?
Do they not have worries about how COVID/school closures affect their own children?

Not only do teachers have the normal pressure of balancing work, home life, children, relationships etc and now of course COVID but they also have the extra pressure of everything being their fault!

@blackwych I wasn’t referring to the issue of working whilst homeschooling, though I would say that teachers are probably more equipped to do it whilst working than many and almost certainly have a sympathetic line manager, if not the parents themselves. The teachers/TAs in question have no idea what our specific workload is, whether we really need the money financially because of debts etc, the pressure that our bosses have put on us to take up a school place, which vulnerable people we are supporting, whether we have mental health issues ourselves etc. Everyone has a different situation. Of course people should carefully consider whether they need a place but there may be many reasons why they do that are not obvious. It goes back to being kind on social media.

@toocold54 I absolutely sympathise with teachers in general. The vast majority are doing an amazing job and hats off to the ones who are managing to homeschool and teach. The ones posting sweeping generalisations about selfish parents (including by implication many of their own colleagues who are using their school place when there is a parent at home) on social media aren’t, in my opinion, acting professionally. The circumstances are awful all round. My issue is with teachers (or indeed anyone) who feel that everyone should make exactly the same decisions as them and not take a place. It doesn’t take into account the circumstances which are entirely personal to their family. Take issue with the government guidance if anything. THEY decided that families with one critical worker could access a place.

@Fallingrain
The teachers/TAs in question have no idea what our specific workload is, whether we really need the money financially because of debts etc, the pressure that our bosses have put on us to take up a school place, which vulnerable people we are supporting, whether we have mental health issues ourselves etc. Everyone has a different situation. Of course people should carefully consider whether they need a place but there may be many reasons why they do that are not obvious.
This is all true but what really worries me is that people are losing sight of the fact that as a society we want as many children as possible to stay at home, in order to bring cases down and get over the pandemic.

I wasn’t referring to the issue of working whilst homeschooling, though I would say that teachers are probably more equipped to do it whilst working than many
This is not necessarily the case During the first lockdown my youngest only wanted to see me as mum and was not interested in anything I said about his schoolwork. It was ridiculously hard, but I'm still not sending him to school now.

We got two 30 minute zoom sessions this week which wasn't really much of a lesson more of a quiz and a chat. The rest was videos, worksheets & tasks. This is year 4. Luckily my employer has been brilliant and has full time furloughed me so I can be an untrained teaching assistant. Pausing the videos when they tell you to, do number 1 and 3 on worksheet, continue with video, explain anything she doesn't understand and check and correct her work. At least the school has provided enough material this time round that I can actually follow the curriculum if I sit with my daughter the entire time to understand what they explain in the video so I can do what a TA would in the classroom. Honestly it's a joke. No idea how my daughter would cope if I was working. Knowing that some class mates are being taught properly in school and everyone else gets thrown under the bus is heartbreaking. Thanks to my furlough we will be ok, but many many others won't be. For two weeks fine- but not for months on end.

@blackwych yes I know but I still think it’s too simplistic. My DH works for the NHS in a covid related role. His boss has told him he must take a school place because he is critical and needs to be able to work whenever and wherever without worrying about his kids. I’m a key worker too though the nature of my work is that I only need a school place sometimes (maybe 2 days a fortnight). My school can’t accommodate that as they say they need a regular pattern (though the teachers and TAs send their kids in only when they are at school). This means I have to send my kids in every week. To be honest, I’d probably have to even if I wasn’t a key worker because of the explicit and direct instructions from DH’s boss. I could be criticised for taking a space as on the face of it we are not two key workers every day. But it’s not that simple. I’m mindful of the needs of society but our circumstances make doing the bare minimum impossible. So what do I do?