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?

Really bunsy? The gov was quite clear that key workers should have a space, as well as anyone that cant work at home. So much so that schools were much fuller than before. One near me is 75% full and blatently not all working outside the home.

I think anyone who was a key worker or couldnt provide at home was entitled to a space and would have been helped to complain if not given one. Def lots of threads about this as it was far less stringent than last time and headteachers can't go against gov guidelines.

But yes just Oak academy for all lessons would be a but rubbish but wouldn't have been hard to suggest other options for a year 6 if she had asked then.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay At my DC’s school they don’t do both. They created new classes so that some teachers are in school teaching the key worker/vulnerable children and others are at home teaching remote classes. Some teachers have moved to a different year group to make it work.

@BugsAndBeesAndBirdsAndButterfl Yes, absolutely! I am completely aware that the guidance has been far more flexible this time. My own DC’s school made it quite clear that any child who couldn’t cope with home schooling could attend school. However, there are many schools that have not followed the guidance. For example, a friend works for a major airline,
mainly picking up cargo at the moment. She’s away for one or two nights at a time. Her DH has a job where he is on calls for most of the day. His job also falls under the critical worker definition. She requested places for her DC. It was denied by the headmaster who basically told her that the school had a strict limit on places and that their jobs weren’t important enough for her DCs to get a place.

Yours is a private school isn’t it, Bunsy?

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

How long does providing teacher made videos for all core subjects and most foundation + 1 morning video and 1-2 pieces of feedback per pupil per day take? Presumably on top of being in school at least some of the time with KW or vulnerable children.

A lot of time.

I do all the overseeing, sorting of videos and scheduling. I know how long it takes me just to edit the videos to the right format, remove any background or white noise, add a common title page for year groups, etc to make them a consistent - important for younger children especially those with specific needs - look, and then to upload and schedule them to the learning platform add any links or accompanying worksheets or documents, etc,

The teaching staff have spent a lot of time planning lessons, planning slideshows or flip charts, recording them, etc - it's not the same as teaching in real life and something none of our staff had ever done before. I had enough time in March to show every member of staff how to so them in one or two quick sessions and that was it. They had to learn how to do it all as they went, often using pretty dodgy equipment and WiFi (as if often the norm for schools.)

So yes, it takes a lot of time and they aren't as professional and smooth as those from places like beside and oak academy- we aren't professional video makers. The teaching staff have learnt as they've gone and I've learnt more about video editing and how to use our remote learning platform than I ever thought I'd need in a lifetime this last year.

[quote BunsyGirl]@RafaIsTheKingOfClay At my DC’s school they don’t do both. They created new classes so that some teachers are in school teaching the key worker/vulnerable children and others are at home teaching remote classes. Some teachers have moved to a different year group to make it work.[/quote]
This depends on the size of the school and how many children are in, we have 40-50% in most days and have done form the start.

Abraxan you are wonderful. I wish the government would recognise the work you and your teachers have done more than they have!

I'm not too concerned about the professionalism of the videos. I'm thinking about the consequences of the workload on teachers and their work/life balance.

If you have 40-50% of the children in. When is that work getting done, unless you have the children in full size classes, which rather negates the point of having schools closed in the first place.

They are not obliged to do live lessons. That said, zero feedback or teacher engagement at all is piss poor, and I'm not sure why Noble is defending this. If all the school is going to do is send email links to Oak, well, it's not clear what the teachers are getting paid to actually do all day long.

By feedback, I don't mean marking all work, but offering some comments (praise, pointing out errors or things that need to be redone) on at least a handful of key pieces of work per week would be reasonable.

Live lessons don't work for all families, esp if parents are WFH and it's hard to fit it into their timetables.

@Abraxan Yes, so does my DC’s school. They have basically divided the teachers into two groups and moved teachers to other year groups where necessary.

@noblegiraffe Yes it is a private school and I have friends with DCs in state primaries who are doing the same thing. We’ve swapped timetables and they are almost identical. Likewise I have another friend with a child in a different private school who’s remote learning has been crap. Although her child has at least been given feedback. As you of course know as a teacher, there are good and bad schools in each sector.

I'm not sure why Noble is defending this

Defending what? I said that the OP should have said something to the school about wanting more variety/the answers to the worksheets/some support for her DS instead of just deciding to ditch the work.

But all this outrage about Oak Academy - my DD has Oak Academy lessons and they're fine. Some people moaning about Oak Academy are talking about the first lockdown and it has been completely redone since then too.

I agree that would be reasonable in terms of feedback. I don't think noble is defending a complete lack of feedback.

I think the issue is that the school provided something that is within the guidelines. The OP decided not to even do the work that was provided for no particular reason than it was less interesting than the other stuff there is to do at home and is now blaming the school for him not learning anything.

We only ever had recorded videos a few minutes long (at best) and worksheets. It was utterly dire. Even my children who love learning were turned off by it.

I made a decision to look elsewhere for the education- we found a fabulous local tutor who has taught them 1:1 maths and English online

We also discovered Outschool and it has been one of the silver linings of the pandemic. My children have learnt art, science, Geography, history , economics , astronomy, creative writing.... All in small groups with teachers and children from around the world. It has been wonderful and an exemplar of how lockdown learning should look. Link here for a free class - my son is still planning to do classes once school does back!

outschool.com/?signup=true&usid=oJXLafjD&utm_campaign=share_invite_link

I also used CGP workbooks, whizz pop bang, and got mine doing things like writing stories.

I totally agree that it is unforgivable for schools to have only provided worksheets and recorded videos but I am slightly surprised you have only just got annoyed by it!

@Kokeshi123 we had mainly pre-recorded lessons last year and the working parents have found the live lessons to be easier this time as the teacher is there to provide support and answer questions. Doesn’t work as well for reception/key stage 1 who need support with the IT but most of those are in school for that very reason (unless they have a stay at home parent).

@SeldomFollowedIt

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 😢.

That’s pretty poor to be honest, of both you and the schools. If my children’s school had been that crap I would have a) thought about moving schools and b) at least got them some workbooks to every day. Even a parent working all the hours godsends has time to do some workbooks with the children. The buck stops with you.

Poor Oak. They aren't perfect, but I don't think they are quite as bad as this thread is making out.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Poor Oak. They aren't perfect, but I don't think they are quite as bad as this thread is making out.

Not a patch on live teaching though.

A quality recording that you can watch at any time is always better than a live lesson you can't attend.

It's also better than a crap live lesson. And you can certainly have crap live lessons.

Watching a video is no substitute for being able to raise your (virtual) hand and ask a question.

Yeah Bunsy but they don't.

You can get crap classroom lessons too. Maybe we should just roll Oak into all classrooms instead of classroom teaching, to avoid that risk as well? Think of the cost savings.....

Recruiting and retaining good teachers by improving teachers' working conditions and stopping treating them like crap is another potential tactic to improve classroom teaching.

People on MN seem actually quite keen to have an actual qualified teacher in front of their kid so lets make more of an effort to sort the critical shortage of them.

I just wish teachers valued themselves enough to accept that a 2 minute video is a dire substitute for an actual lesson.

I can't put into words the difference between what my children get from a live lesson and what they have got from a couple of introductory minutes of video and a worksheet. They are incomparable. Any child still getting recorded snippets and a worksheet in lieu of actual teaching is being sold far short and I think schools that took this approach will have children much further behind that those that cracked on with actually teaching the children.