Don't expect your school to educate those attending

[bjjgirl]

I am a keyworker as is my ex, we have 2 dds one in primary and one in secondary.

The secondary school is amazing and she is getting full lessons. Dd2 is at primary school where we have been told not to expect education but just childcare. they don't have enough electronic devices for the children to view the lessons on line. The teachers are at home streaming their lessons so the children have to view it on line only.

I can't believe it, that as a key worker, risking my health to keep others safe, my child is at a disadvantage due to having to attend school.

I am very close to taking annual leave so that I can home school but we are already chronically understaffed

I offered to send her in with an iPad but apparently she won't be able to access their WiFi.

Surely there must be an answer

I'm in my school, scienc teacher and I'm teaching a full time timetable to students who are in front of me and at home. Sometimes I only have 1 student in the class with me and everyone else on Teams but everyone is getting the same lesson from me, for better or worse I suppose. I just need to work out how to do chemistry practicals virtually now

I realise I've spelt the word science wrong...

[quote Silversun83]@NoSquirrels - surely the poster means the other class teachers in the year?

So in my DC's primary school, it's two-form entry. One class teacher and TA are in school teaching those children, the other teacher and TA are on-call at home, posting learning, responding to parent queries etc. Then next week, they swap over and it continues like that.[/quote]
No help if it’s a one-form entry! What I’m saying is that schools are doing it differently so people using their particular primary school’s circumstances isn’t that useful, really, to generalise about provision and what works ‘best’.

My son and daughter are in year 2&3, both are attending and having full lessons with their class teacher, those that are learning from home are zoomed into the class so everyone is learning the same thing. I think the teachers are doing amazing trying to do both classes and remote learning at the same time, I'd be completely lost without them and their doing a fantastic job under the circumstances.

We're not having live lessons it's all pre-recorded.

The children at school are in their classrooms and given the same work just pre-printed and watching on the whiteboard. One of my friends got a girl in and says she doesn't like it because unlike us at home we can choose when we do each lesson, they have to follow a set timetable.

@bjjgirl

It is the fact the teaching staff are telling us via emai that our children might not be able to view the online streamed classes in school due to lack of equipment and they will be at a disadvantage

Do you think the school can wave a wand and devices will appear? What do you expect them to do? The government promised laptops for those with none. Not the school's fault they lied.

You sound very angry. But at the wrong people.

You honestly think teachers who have their kids at home because they can't get a KW place are diligently homeschooling them?

Most of the parents I know are severely struggling to do the distance learning unless the child is independent. No sun this time, more working from home.

The whole thing is crap either way.

@Nonamesavail

Mines in school in year 3 having a full lessons with timetable with a class teacher?

Snap ☺️

Where do you live? Can my child have your place if you don’t want it?

Surely a secondary school child can stay at home, maybe even watching their sibling?
Obviously the schools shouldn’t be ”teaching” only effectively babysitting.

I'm a teacher. In our school children in school receive the same as the children at home - or as similar as possible. I'm pretty sure this is part of the new guidelines.

Sorry OP not read the whole thread. Could you buy a cheap phone that creates a WiFi hotspot or a WiFi dongle - the school can get providers to provide free data.

Then the iPad would connect to that for the learning.

That is so tough.

My 6 year old is being taught in school and receives her EHCP provision

I would ask why the streamed lessons can't be viewed by each year group on the interactive white board in their classroom. Lots of school have the class teacher at home streaming live, or pre-recording lessons, and then the class TA in school with the KW and vulnerable children watch on the big screen and then carrying out the work together with the TA supervising. It does depend though on how many children are in school, and how many TAs schools have. Some have one per class, but some don't (especially KS2 classes) so that idea might not work.

Just to add OP that another reason why it may not be possible for
Children to bring their own devices in and access school WiFi is that it’s likely the school WiFi’ won’t manage to run effectively with lots of devices accessing it.
Lots of schools just do not have the IT infrastructure to cope with lots of live lessons being steamed/broadcast on multiple devices. I work in a large secondary. We had a practise afternoon last term where all the kids went home and teachers ran tutor time on Teams to ensure all students could access it and staff knew what they were doing. It was absolute carnage. The school internet just couldn’t handle 50 tutor times being live broadcast at once. Lots of stuff couldn’t even get teams to load. Aside from safety, this is another reason our school can’t have all staff in teaching and simultaneously live streaming lessons all day. Our systems just wouldn’t cope. And sadly there no magic money tree for schools to access to get it. We are still waiting for our DFE laptops And have been since July 2020

@bjjgirl
can't believe it, that as a key worker, risking my health to keep others safe, my child is at a disadvantage due to having to attend school.
Well take annual leave and keep her at home then. I can’t believe that as a 52 year old, clinically vulnerable key worker, I’m having to risking my health to educate your child.

@BrummyMum1

Where do you live? Can my child have your place if you don’t want it?

I would LOVE to be able to home school and be able to take even annual leave but we have a minimum staffing ratio, which has been decimated by COVID and staff sickness with stress etc etc

[quote LadyPenelope68]@bjjgirl
can't believe it, that as a key worker, risking my health to keep others safe, my child is at a disadvantage due to having to attend school.
Well take annual leave and keep her at home then. I can’t believe that as a 52 year old, clinically vulnerable key worker, I’m having to risking my health to educate your child.[/quote]
But thats your job? Not with covid risks...but the world has to keep turning. People have to work! I don't always want to do my job. Sometimes I'm at risk. It is what it is.

Could you get a sim card in tablet for internet access or a dongle

This is sooo believable. Nice and today. No insurance would let them bring their own kids in. You do nearly hit the Mark OP

@Waxonwaxoff0

Our school has one teacher per year group on site teaching the key worker kids and the rest of the teachers at home teaching the children online. That way all the children are getting an education.

Same as my husband's MAT school. It seems a good solution.

Across the whole education setting there is a very mixed (and unfair) system going on.

At our school the in school group for my son are receiving teaching as normal from the usual class teacher, the home children are receiving 2 very short video calls daily and work that takes around an hour to complete. It's awful.

Combine with this the fact that over half of my son's class are in because the head has been VERY flexible about who is allowed into school - at least 5 in my son's class have a non working parent at home...

At my DC's primary school they are apparently being taught the same things that are set for home learning. They have 2 classes per year group, so 1 teacher is at home doing the online learning (setting work, marking it, answering queries, making prerecorded videos teaching the stuff, 2 zoom calls a day with the children) and 1 is in school with those who are attending (about 8-12 per day out of 60 in my DC's year groups). However, in the first lockdown there was no teaching/ education, just childcare, and I was incredibly grateful for it. It meant my DC were supervised while I worked, were able to interact with other people and had fun. It meant I had to fit as much of the school work as possible into my days off work as I work 13hr shifts and don't see them awake on my work days, but that was a lot better than other people's situations. It was hard and I felt guilty that my DC were losing out on education time because of my job, as the school set a lot of work, but I understood why it was that way.

Suppose it depends on school resources. My dd is in a bubble of kids in her year anyway. Her teacher is leading the class and the other teacher is doing the online video in a different room. So dd isn't on a device she is having lessons as usual