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 phone call home maybe once every 3 weeks per child (both mine are lower end of primary). Worksheets, endless boring worksheets. No live lessons. No creative lessons. No work marked, no feedback at all, and most annoyingly no differentiated work so it's been either miles too hard or way too easy, both those extremes just caused my kids to switch off. I used to teach so am not short of creativity and skills and did my best to liven the activities up and make them more accessible when needed, but both my DC were bored to tears. I specifically asked my DS' teacher to mark some work he'd tried particularly hard on, and just got a generic 'I really liked X piece of work, well done'. DS basically fell apart just before half term and I'm sure the lack of engaging work contributed to his decline in mental health. Such a contrast to my family and friends' kids' school provisions from what they say.

@Chimeraforce

Wow 😳

@AspergersWife

Agreed. That’s another reason I didn’t raise the issue. I didn’t want a tokenistic well done for my kids. If that’s the provision the school provide they are not going to change it, just because one set of parents isn’t happy. It is deflating.

You decided to ditch the school work. You decided not to ask the school for anything different.

You’ve got cold feet on that decision now they’re going back to school and are trying to make out it’s the school’s fault.

It was your responsibility and you didn’t make them do it. Just own it fgs.

In a formal learning environment they do well and get on with their work

That’s because the school have set the expectations. You get on and do it whether it’s boring or not. You gave him different options. Which is fine, he’s probably got plenty out of it. But you can’t then blame the school for him not learning.

@noblegiraffe

Own what? I already said it was late in the day.

That doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on the provision that my children’s school have provided up until now. It was a poor provision, and judging from other people’s experiences on here, that has confirmed it for me.

My children were not inspired to complete the same worksheets from lockdown one, with zero feedback or marking. Being redirected to national oak academy lessons every single day is poor. There wasn’t really anything to “ditch”.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

And I also noted that my children have completed home projects etc (in normal times). These were engaging tasks however, which my children enjoyed very much.

I left it too late. It is what it is. I just wanted to ask others if they too had had a similar remote learning provision and if they thought it was poor.

Mixed answers but in comparison to my nieces and nephews etc the engagement has been very low.

@Chimeraforce that's very poor. A lot of my friends are core subject teachers including English and have been in for full days to record and upload classes as well as doing timetabled live sessions and supervising kw kids. It's been harder for them than normal teaching days.

@SeldomFollowedIt yes, that's it. I've asked for feedback regularly and been in touch with school due to my DS' issues, but only when I specifically pointed out a piece of work he was proud of did I get any (generic) feedback. The school covid policy states that work will be marked every day as staff hours are 9-3, it's double form entry so 1 teacher is in with kw kids and 1 works from home each week swapping, so I'm not sure why marking has not been happening as there's always someone on duty in theory.

@noblegiraffe

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?

‘Making them do it’ that just about says it all! If you have to make a child do something then they are not really going to be learning much anyway. Properly learning means generating enthusiasm and motivation. Encouragement and reward. Boring oak academy and no feedback for weeks is not properly learning, and no amount of ‘making them do it’ is going to change that. That is why teachers (like myself) will tell you home learning is only a fraction of the amount of learning that usually goes on for most kids.

I found Oak Academy to be very mixed. Some teachers were pretty good (not the same as their own teachers of course), others dreadful.

DD1 did a lesson the other day and the teacher asked them to go and get one of their stuffed animals. She's year 6. She eye rolled so hard I thought she might sprain her eyeball :) - still it gave us a giggle.

They generally seem to be talking to children of much lower age group than the age specified. A number of times we've looked at the first bit of a lesson and wondered if we were looking at something for KS1 - but usually it picks up later on. They also often have a very fake 'I'm SO EXCITED to be giving you this lesson' at the start which I suspect they've all been told to do, which I find pretty cringeworthy, but maybe that's just me.

If DD was really excelling at something, I'd probably point her to the year 7 Oak Academy stuff. However she is getting bored in a couple of subjects and I asked her teacher if we could do something different and she said no because of teacher assessments - which she wouldn't be able to do if DD didn't complete the set work. As she's transferring in Sept we've plodded on bless her...

As far as DD1s school - no live lessons, a daily teams meeting. It's been ok but not great. DD2 (who is younger in a different school) has had better provision - more live lessons - more interactions with her peers -which has been quite a hard thing to see.

@Quit4me

I agree. I felt like they weren’t “learning” anything on Oak Academy. Pointless endeavour. So we pulled our wellies up (quite literally) and got on with it. If I had made all my kids do that day in day out they would be miserable, and no better for it educationally?

This isn’t about hard work or delayed gratification in children. My children were not learning on that site. They had no idea if they were doing the work correctly or not. I could only help so much.

Even the best provision in the world is just a fraction of what they learn at school, hence the need for fully qualified teachers, however I do think my children’s provision was on the lower end of the scale.

That is why teachers (like myself) will tell you home learning is only a fraction of the amount of learning that usually goes on for most kids.

And secondary maths teachers (like myself) will point out that it is not great for Y6 kids to have done no maths since January.

‘Reading loads’ doesn’t really cut it for maths.

Oak Academy is dire. My son’s primary used them in the first lockdown and he hated them. As did I. Luckily this lockdown his school have been brilliant- 3 live lessons a day. Can’t complain at all. Obviously you will have some on here that say no teaching during lockdown is perfectly acceptable, but in the words of Mandy Rice Davis ....

But I agree that you really should have said something earlier!

@noblegiraffe

I can’t help my year six with his maths. I have dyscalculia. He needed help with his maths during the oak academy lessons and I couldn’t provide it.

He completed the same worksheets he completed in lockdown one (no idea if he got the answers right or not because they were not marked) . We stopped doing the worksheets.

He needed help with his maths during the oak academy lessons and I couldn’t provide it.

Did let school know? Did you ask for the answers to the worksheets? Did you ask for recommendations of other resources?

Or did you just let your kid do no maths?

Because I didn’t want to be an entitled parent who moans and groans at the school at every opportunity. That was what they provided in terms
Of their provision so why would they change it for one child? They obviously deemed it acceptable.

So now you’re the parent who didn’t get your kid to do any of the school work.

Also @noblegiraffe that sounds like an awful lot of chasing up with the school which kinds of proves my point that the provision was poor.

I am happy to accept I focussed on keeping my children active and sane throughout the lockdown, rather than sticking them infront of the oak academy day in, day out. They were not learning on that site.

You will not change my opinion noble. We will have to agree to disagree.

Dishing out the same worksheets from lockdown one with zero marking and feedback is poor. Just directing to oak academy lessons every single day is poor.

I didn’t speak up, I own that, but I wanted to see if others had had a similar provision because all the people I know haven’t.

I am drily noting your lack of sympathy for teachers awaiting tests.

I am no real fan of Oak but you might want to mention it to the DfE who wholeheartedly endorse it, recommend it and signpost it.

So neither you nor he contacted the school at all to say that he was stuck and needed help?

If that’s the case, I think he’s going to have a huge shock in September and going into year 7 is going to be a huge step up.

@Piggywaspushed

No I said felt deflated. If they’re awaiting results I feel for them but I am still allowed to feel deflated.

Well if it was so good why didn’t every school just redirect to this fabulous oak?

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Well he will be in good company then because a large percentage of kids in his class haven’t done a single thing since January. (According to class whatsapp group) but thanks for your concern.

If your child is an able mathematician, there are heaps of great free resources for him online. If you didn't get on with Oak you might want to have a look at White Rose Maths, Corbett, Nrich, Parallel or Kahn?