Work sheets and oak academy ?

[SeldomFollowedIt]

Bit late in the day now but I just wanted to get some opinions. My children’s primary school have provided work sheets and emails directing us to oak academy lessons. No zoom lessons and their work sheets do not get marked. Zero feedback.

This is poor isn’t it?

To top it off we have been informed some classes might not go back at all next week as some staff members are awaiting test results.

Am I being unreasonable to feel so deflated with the school?

We’ve had a lot more from my DC’s school.

Typically 3 live online lessons a day (English, Maths, and the other live lesson rotating around other subjects).

Tasks set after each live lesson related to what was taught in the lesson.
Feedback on work submitted, mostly just “likes”, but also some corrections / praise.

No live lessons here either, answers have been provided with worksheets with parents asked to mark. Feedback has been 'well done' usually.

It has been fine. Anything more would have been too much.

Oak academy is awful.
Our school used that for a while, me and my child were bored to tears with it.
We have done one live maths lesson a day for the last few weeks, before that we had set work that we had to update onto the seesaw app.

My primary aged dc had three lessons mapped out on seesaw with feedback on everything the same day and some pre-recorded story times. I'm happy with that.

I’ve done zero home learning for my kids because oak Academy is ridiculously boring and they’re not motivated enough because the work isn’t getting marked. I’ve made sure they have read books extensively throughout this lockdown, but that’s it.

Tons of outdoor exercise/park trips and the kids are fine, so I haven’t mentioned anything. I guess it’s because they still might not be back on Monday. I presume this is because there will not be enough staff.

Just feel like it’s been so long since they learnt anything properly 😢.

I actually was relieved when it was an Oak lesson. A lot better than the PowerPoint only lessons we sometimes got.
My only complaint about Oak was some of the 'courses' of lessons were so long... Everyday my DD asks if it's still bloody Aladdin in English! 4 weeks (20lessons) on it. She liked the first half...

The feedback (or lack of) is what has caused the most angst. Logically speaking, if the teacher spent 5 minutes on each child's work, that is 2.5hrs. 3 minutes would be 1.5hrs. It is a lot of marking and feedback to give daily. But on an individual basis, neither of my children care anymore. I don't think they've submitted anything since before half term. No follow up from school on it. They've actually done all of it, despite the boredom of it.

They leave the current school at Easter.

Just feel like it’s been so long since they learnt anything properly

But that’s because you decided the school offering was too boring and didn’t make them do it?

Bit late now really?

My child has had check ins every day and three recorded lessons - no outside organisation links since the first week. They get feedback, but it takes ages. She hates all of it and barely engages at all. I've been teaching her as a teacher using various resources. Lots of reading.

At my school they get live registration + an English input lesson, then a live maths lesson, then recorded lessons for foundation subjects. We ask for two pieces of work a week to be handed in (even then, it rarely arrives, even if children are doing the work), and we feedback within a day or so. It's arriving so sporadically that I've stopped checking the email address this week. Should probably do that before tomorrow.

My DD is in year one. They provided us with fortnightly packs, a mixture of work sheets, 2/3 live lessons a week and Oak Academy (which we didn’t enjoy. The closed captions are woeful too). She also had a morning teams meeting, and daily detailed feedback about the work I had emailed in to them.
We had to drop back the completed work every two weeks when we picked up the new pack. We received a detailed email assessing the work and then we were able to pick the completed packs back up, along with marking and feedback.

I thought this was standard but now I realise we were lucky!

OP why did you not complete the worksheets with them?

@noblegiraffe

It was/is boring. They didn’t provide any work just directed us to oak academy. My son is a year 6 very able mathematician. I cannot help him with his maths I have dyscalculia. It’s difficult to get it right and schools cannot please everybody but at the same time you cannot deny that the schools provision has been poor in comparison to other schools.

@Luckyrabbitfoot

Because they were the same worksheets from lockdown one. I also didn’t understand many of them myself.

It's not the schools fault if some of the staff have had to have tests.

Maybe they've caught COVID while at school with the key worker and vulnerable children. Poor staff!

The pack of feedback doesn't sound good at all though. But in a week or so they will be back at school and teachers won't be trying to do two full time jobs at once.

at the same time you cannot deny that the schools provision has been poor in comparison to other schools

First place to go for assistance with that, was the school. By maybe, week 3 of January.

We surveyed our parents and got about 70% response. Most were really happy with what we were providing - if they hadn't been, we'd have changed it. We also spoke to some engaged parents early on to find out what any issues might be - which is when we stopped wanting work in every day, it just wasn't fitting with how our parents were able to help their children with the work. Twice a week more manageable for us to give decent feedback too.

*lack of feedback

They didn’t provide any work just directed us to oak academy

But that is providing work. The department of education paid for Oak Academy for schools to use in exactly that way.

My DD did Oak Academy.

Do you think kids shouldn’t have to do things they find boring?

And yes, the time to give feedback was before you decided just to ditch it.

@rosesinmygarden

Yes of course it’s not the staffs fault for awaiting results.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Yes I know, bit late in the day. I guess most of the parents were happy with the provision but I know many haven’t homeschooled throughout. I didn’t want to be that entitled parent who demands that her kids are treated differently to others. I guess a lot of the parents have been happy to not have to do anything (and I know that’s true from WhatsApp groups). I think I would have been in the minority so didn’t speak up.

It is what it is I guess. Just wanted to see if there were any other similar schools.

Thanks all.

@noblegiraffe

I wouldn’t make them do boring things at home day in day out no. It’s definitely a balancing act between learning and keeping their MH afloat, not seeing friends etc.

Like I said they have been very happy as we are a very active, outdoorsy family.

In a formal learning environment they do well and get on with their work. They do homework etc. I’m not ashamed to admit I thought even some of the lessons on oak academy were above my head. I felt like they just weren’t learning anything on that site.

It certainly doesn't feel fair to children that the work provided by primary schools has varied so much.

My DD's school haven't done any live lessons, but they use the Showbie app to share lessons for each day - usually a combination of pre-recorded video lessons (usually a few mins long), PowerPoint docs, links and worksheets. They use Oak Academy for maths. Four or five subjects/tasks a day.

We mark the maths ourselves and they provide some limited feedback via Showbie - usually awarding class points or a quick 'good work' or friendly comment.

They've tried some social meetings using Teams but it's not worked that well!

I haven't given my DD (age 9) a choice really. She's done most of the work set, although generally rushes through it. I'm trying to work from home and her brother is working full days of live lessons from secondary school. It wouldn't be fair if she was just loafing about :)

I wouldn’t make them do boring things at home day in day out no

That’s the issue then. Teachers are not children’s entertainers and the work needs to be done regardless. Your DS will certainly find that at secondary school if he complains that lessons are boring he will get very short shrift.

@noblegiraffe

Of course some lessons are boring but not every single one? Just being redirected to oak academy doesn’t really inspire a child? It’s not engaging day in, day out. It is especially difficult when your child asks questions about the lesson, and you as the parent do not know how to answer them.

Plenty of his peers at other schools have been more engaged in live lessons. Like I said you can’t please everyone and I’ve seen others complain their children have had too many lives. Difficult balance.

You will not change my mind though.

Giving out the same worksheets that were given out in lockdown one with zero marking or feedback is poor. Just directing to oak academy is poor.

Oak academy is dreadful though, I wouldn't be happy with just that and some work sheets.
I used to dread having to do oak academy everyday as did others I know, so boring and repetitive my kid hated it, thankfully our school scrapped it and gave us more engaging work.
I used to supplement it with learning through play.
So they had something to look forward to.

@Pippa234

Ok thanks that’s reassuring. I know my children enjoy learning at school. They have completed home work to a high standard and have enjoyed doing so.

If you wanted more variety than Oak why didn’t you say anything to the school before ditching it?

Not doing live lessons isn’t poor though. There was no requirement for schools to do live lessons and they certainly aren’t the gold standard of engagement that you seem to think. They also come with massive issues in terms of technology availability.

Yanbu. DD 14 just gets directed to Oak academy work by her English teacher. That's all!
Not that English is a GCSE subject or anything 🙄