Teachers, would you work?

[Liveandletlive3]

Just read an article which was stating that schools may run half days over the summer holidays due to missing so much from school closures.
Teachers, would you back this if you had the option to opt in or out to work over the summer holidays?

@starrynight19

The trouble is the two or three in each class who haven’t engaged in line. Who’ve been provided with a laptop and still don’t attend online lessons. Whose parents “can’t do zoom” despite step by step instructions given over the phone. Whose parents have refused a place in school. These children are falling desperately behind but they wouldn’t attend summer school either.

Exactly this it won’t target the children who haven’t engaged.

But in normal times there are tens of thousands of Children that don’t engage with their lessons. Lock down is no different, except those children don’t get to disrupt anyone else

And how many more times - live lessons are not the gold standard. In many situations they are inferior to properly prepared pre recorded lessons. Even the DfE say they're not always right in many cases and for many schools, and they truly don't support schools and teachers these days.

You want live lessons but you don't know if that is what is right for the rest of your child's school families.

We don't do any live lessons bar one half hour weekly show and tell. That's because it's right for our school. A lot of our children can't even manage the half hour weekly live session for a range of,reasons.

Schools aren't there to manage the expectations of one individual family. They quite rightly have to consider the needs of everyone in the school,community - all the children at home and at school, including the vulnerable and disadvantaged children, the families of the children, the teaching staff both in and out of school, the tech provided in and out of,school for children and staff, etc.

It's shit for everyone. Try and have some empathy
This hits the nail on the head.
Almost nobody is winning in this situation.

[quote CallmeAngelina]@CountessFrog, You found the thread yet, where I'm meant to have said I was handing in my notice?[/quote]
To be fair, maybe there was a poster called CallmeAngela who DID hand in her notice

If I had the summer off with my children I wouldn’t want to give it up either, that’s fair enough. Possibly people without children would want the extra pay. Some practical subjects like dance, drama, PE, textiles, art are much more difficult or very restricted about how much can be done remotely. I can imagine that maybe those will be more keen to teach and catch up course work over the summer for GCSE/ a level. Otherwise it’s not only the children who will have a difficult time next year, the teachers are going to struggle to get it all done.

I don't read every thread. I'm too busy working full time and home educating my own kids - you dont see me on here moaning like the teachers about my profession and how exhausted I am .. etc etc

You turn up like clockwork to snipe at teachers, Remmy...can't be that busy.

@Liveandletlive3

Just read an article which was stating that schools may run half days over the summer holidays due to missing so much from school closures. Teachers, would you back this if you had the option to opt in or out to work over the summer holidays?

Honestly, it depends. I'm on a fixed term contract that runs out in August (not unusual in teaching these days) but it might yet be renewed. I'm also applying to other jobs though.

If I'm changing jobs, then I will probably give notice on my flat in July, so that I can move in the summer holidays. So it wouldn't be practical for me to work in my current school.

If I stay in my current school then maybe- depending on pay and depending on if I can just opt in for the days I want to do, etc etc. The pay would have to be very competitive, though.

The thing is, though, it's not just about individual teachers opting in and out- you'd need SLT, first aiders, safeguarding leads and so on on site. If they didn't opt in, the school couldn't open, and I wouldn't agree to do it without e.g. a first aider around.

I am a TA. Next academic year I am doing my teacher training, on a course where I am teaching up to an 80% timetable from day 1. It is a lot of work and I would prefer to have that summer break to relax and do things I enjoy. Right now I am a week in school and then a week supporting home learning, which with KS1 is pretty difficult as they are not very good with computers. In school we have about two thirds of a full class, and many of the kids are grumpy about being there as they know their peers are at home with their parents. The kids in school are a bit needier than usual because this is a lot to process.

If there is to be some summer provision I think it should use school buildings and hire practitioners from the arts, sports, etc to run fun supplementary activities. Because of covid they didn't have the normal drama, sports day, music, art classes and activities as usual. I certainly wouldn't make it mandatory, but it would also be a good way to employ people who haven't been allowed to work for a year.

I have no objections to the idea of catch up over the summer. I would have an objection if I were expected to partake on an unpaid basis or if I were put on a rota or in some way obliged to take part.

I would do a few days if paid. No more.

The really big issue is the fact that those who would turn up wouldn’t be the ones who needs it.

@Remmy123 extra work comes from:

Making videos of lessons. Then being online live for those lessons to help kids with questions, help those with SEND, etc.

I have to call any student who is absent. Average 7 calls per hour.

I have to test my year 11s every 2 weeks to collect evidence. I have to prepare these and assess them. Then make spreadsheets.

I have to rewrite existing schemes as they’re not suited to online learning, and create PowerPoints and resources for each.

I call vulnerable students each week and write up any referrals, etc.

Last week I had 5 after school meetings and 3 morning briefings, so working 8-5/6 before I even start prep.

Colleagues are absent due to illness so we have to cover their lessons.

I would actually worry for the state of our school building if we didn’t have a decent chunk of time when it was unoccupied for maintenance and renovations this summer. It is badly neglected and needs a fair amount of work-that just couldn’t happen if it was being used for most of the holidays.

We teach 4-5 hours a day online.

None of this is whinging- I am answering your question with factual info.

@Watchingbehindmyhands

I have no objections to the idea of catch up over the summer. I would have an objection if I were expected to partake on an unpaid basis or if I were put on a rota or in some way obliged to take part.

I would do a few days if paid. No more.

The really big issue is the fact that those who would turn up wouldn’t be the ones who needs it.

This isn’t necessarily true, there are a lot of reasons children fall behind at the moment which aren’t due to a willing lack of engagement. And whilst the norm is to concentrate on those who have fallen behind ‘average’ that’s not really a fair approach. It should be open to all children who are doing less well than they were before, or that they would be predicted to do. There’s much less differentiation in younger children with remote learning and there’s a lot of bright kids coasting along. There’s a lot of kids who just don’t have enough self motivation for remote learning, they do much better in school unless they’ve got a non working parent. As I mentioned there’s some practical and group work that just can’t be done at home. So I think there is potential that targeted support would be helpful. Less for childcare because it’s the older children missing out academically and they don’t have time to catch up. I suspect secondary will continue to be out of school longer one way or another. If the government doesn’t do this I suspect those that can will look for tutors but that really is driving inequality, as it will only catch those who are motivated and have enough money to pay £30,40,50 an hour

We have major building works planned for the summer, that will improve the education of our pupils.

It would be a shame to put them on hold (or as is more likely scrap them altogether as the grants are more often time limited).

@Abraxan no I don't want more work I want him to be taught the work that is set by his teachers not a brief over view then a story at the end of the day? He is 10!

It is me teaching him and and it's impossible/ stressful when I have my own work commitments.

I start live lessons at 8.30am with registration and finish at 3. Have 2 short breaks when I make phone calls to parents. Then I plan and mark until about 8pm. Start each day at 7.30 so can download the days work before start. Today I've spent 4 hours so far uploading next week onto Teams. Almost there. Then have to mark the rest of the 120 year 10 tests from last week. I'll finish about 6 I reckon. Happy Sunday

These threads always go the same way.
Someone posts that teachers are doing fuck all.
Teachers respond by saying, well no, actually we're doing a, b c >> x, y, z.
Response: bloody teachers whingeing again.

I think some people need to understand that teachers aren’t actually at liberty to decide what provision they personally think is acceptable. We have to do what our SLT say, because I can’t, for example, go and teach a full day of live lessons and then have kids in year 3 not getting the same thing. We have to do the same throughout the school or it’s unfair.

We also don’t really get a say in it (in my experience). We are told “this is what we’re providing, this is what you’re going to do”. So many people seem to think that we have a personal choice about what we’re giving - we really don’t. Obviously if the plan was utterly dire I’d expect staff to raise it with SLT but that doesn’t even necessarily mean it would be successful. I don’t love what we are doing at my school but do you think I’m able to say “sorry guys I’m actually going to do XYZ instead”?

If you’re unhappy with what your child’s school is providing, take it up with SLT. So, like, 5-15 people. Not the entire teaching profession.

CallmeAngelina
Now there is an accurate summary of Mumsnet this year.
year5teacher
Well said.
Genuine concerns should be raised with the relevant schools. If an appropriate resolution isn't found and provision is poor then it goes to complaint proceedings.
Whining on mumsnet about a whole profession is pointless.

Do you ever wonder how many of the people moaning on here have actually raised formal complaints about the standard of provision? (I'm not talking about those who've had terrible provision and sought advice on how to follow it up here because they are totally reasonable)

[quote Remmy123]@Abraxan no I don't want more work I want him to be taught the work that is set by his teachers not a brief over view then a story at the end of the day? He is 10!

It is me teaching him and and it's impossible/ stressful when I have my own work commitments.[/quote]
I presume that the school is supplying resources such as links to Oak / BBC plus Powerpoints and tasks, then introducing all the tasks for the day 'live'?

That will probably be a decision by the school based on e.g. access to devices (we only do 2 'live' sessions a day, because we have many families where 3 children are sharing the same device, sometimes with a parent or older sibling with full-time lessons, and that allows us to stagger the different year groups).

However, it sounds like they either haven't quite 'pitched' the resources right for your child or in general. If you think that it is likely to be a general issue, then feeding back to the school that e.g. more explanation or worked examples on Powerpoints would be helpful or that a particular subject on Oak seems quite hard, would be useful to them and to you. Or if your child needs differentiated work, then an e-mail conversation with their teacher would be indicated. Or if you feel that the 'story' session would be better replaced by a 'discussion and feedback' session where children can raise queries (one of ours is like this), then you could make that suggestion.

Demanding that the school provides full-time 'live' online schooling, ready to respond to your child's every question at the moment it arises is, unfortunately, unlikely to be productive. There will be good reasons why the school isn't providing this.

@cantkeepawayforever thank you. No I absolutely do not expect full time live lessons. I have raised my concerns to the school already, no change.

[quote Remmy123]@cantkeepawayforever thank you. No I absolutely do not expect full time live lessons. I have raised my concerns to the school already, no change.[/quote]
What are you hoping for? I thought from reading your posts you were keen for full time live lessons.

[quote Remmy123]@cantkeepawayforever thank you. No I absolutely do not expect full time live lessons. I have raised my concerns to the school already, no change.[/quote]
What is it you would like? Can you articulate it? It's hard when your feedback seems to be essentially 'I want you to teach my son because I don't have time, and I don't think you are working hard enough'.

If it is 'In the morning session, I am finding that the introduction to the task isn't sufficiently detailed. If each day 1 key subject could be taught in more detail, maybe by doing a voice over the Powerpoint that you are already sending', that would be more helpful.

Or 'Please could the story session be replaced by a Q and A either each day or a few times a week?'

Or 'As x, y and z are not accessible to my child, please could you either direct me to appropriate resources or, if available send me the differentiated resources they would use in school?'

Most of my live lessons need a parent at the other end too. Live for primary is not the same as live for secondary.

Chat or story sessions are 'digital childcare'.

That's what I've found in having my child at home, and that's what it feels is happening on my live sessions too. I teach English and maths live each day - same stuff as on the videos we've already uploaded. Some kids just come for the feedback after doing the work with the video. So, they've needed support.