Crying over school closures

[Fuckallofthis]

Firstly I don’t want an argument or masses of people piling in with ‘think of the teachers’ or their vulnerable people. I fully understand WHY schools can’t/won’t open, I’m just so so upset about it all.

The idea of continuing like this. Working, homeschooling a young child and having a toddler. It’s just impossible. I saw the news about the return being delayed and burst into tears, am currently in the bathroom trying to compose myself for my families sake.

I’m struggling so much, I’m just so tired. I’m failing at home school and had a call yesterday letting me know that I have to send his work back by the end of the day, my toddler is just left to be entertained by the TV and my own work is slacking.

I can’t escape the feeling that when this is over I’m going to be left unemployed, with a stunted toddler and a child very behind in his learning.

What do you prioritise, how can you decide which person/thing is most important? I never thought I’d choose work over children but how else will I pay the bills. This feels like it’s never going to end and I just can’t cope.

It’s just impossible. I can’t be furloughed, school and pre school won’t take the kids and DH is out all day. I feel like I’m drowning.

On day four of home schooling and I got an message that my daughters wasn’t engaging enough (she’s 7, so in reality it’s me that’s not engaging enough)!

During that week I had sent in six pictures of work and commented every day in the blog and answered the daily question if one was set.

I had to point out to the teacher that we are both working full time out of the home and I had been working till 3am and then getting up for homeschool and that my priority is to do the work, not submit it for stats purposes.

She went on to tell me it was a requirement by Scottish government and even sent me a photo of the spreadsheet she had to fill in. I was very unimpressed by that point. We are doing our best.

Once a week I’m sending photos of work and the school will need to be content with that.

Some schools need to be more realistic. The same teacher did a teams meeting today (which was good) but one child was having problems and she replied he just had to try another device, like an laptop. No concept at all that not everyone has two devices to hand.

Nicknacky

That is ridiculous!
I don’t know what the schools in Scotland are like but that would be more than enough work for the secondary schools that I know of.

In class some will do pages and pages of work and some will do a couple of sentences so it shouldn’t be any different at home and even ofsted agrees that their attention spans at home are a lot less than in schools so they need to expect less work than what is normal for that child anyway.

I’m not sure if I missed what age your child is but if they are not in year 6 yet then I’d seriously consider moving them to a different primary school if they are that high ability.

In last few months going to a superselective secondary so really don't want to move to make new friends in lockdown just to move again.

In the classroom undifferentiated work is not such an issue as those who are ahead are given a reading book or sit and draw. Those who are behind get more teacher time. At home though at either end it can be very demotivating. Some children are still struggling with stuff covered in March yr5 whereas others take one look at some yr7 stuff and can just do it. A teacher can't effectively manage that range of abilities remotely with a few hours (or minutes for some children) of set work a day.

Nickynack
The teacher probably doesn’t really care about the spreadsheet and/or is in a similar position with their own children. They will have been told to chase up late or incomplete work. It takes a lot of time but if we didn’t, we would have people complaining they didn’t know their child wasn’t doing the work. I’d blame the Scottish government rather than the teacher!

@BustopherPonsonbyJones It wasn’t the government that sent me a photo of it and told me how stressed she was filling it in.

But when it comes to completely paperwork, then she is complaining to the wrong person, trust me!

I’m emailing parents and don’t mind at all if they ignore me or tell me to get lost. My responsibility is done in the telling and I understand why people might be struggling.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones But would you even consider emailing a struggling parent a picture of a spreadsheet and tell her how stressed you were completing it? I very much doubt that.

Especially when she has no idea what I do for a living 😂.