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Work sheets and oak academy ?

183 replies

SeldomFollowedIt · 04/03/2021 14:16

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?

OP posts:
Scarby9 · 05/03/2021 09:19

As @Justajot says, there are many factors at play here, not least the children in school.

In a local one form entry primary, each class has had between 11 and 17 of the key worker and vulnerable children in each day. Beyond Y2, the only TAs are 1-1s whose children were in school, so all the teachers and TAs were involved in teaching face to face all day every day.

They set daily work for children at home with links to White Rose, BBC and Oak Academy as appropriate - live lessons just weren't doable. However, while in the classroom with their KW/V class, the teachers were also responding to Class Dojo queries from parents and giving feedback to work sent in that way.

They also rang every remote learning family at least once a week in the hour after school, and the HT spoke daily with the families of pupils on the SEN register or that hadn't been sending work in.

Each teacher recorded a ten minute daily story and a weekly catch-up (which all children, including those in school) watched. The HT also recorded a weekly assembly.

The staff are absolutely exhausted, and any suggestion that they have not pulled their weight because of not providing live lessons is just so unfair. The suggestion of lengthening the term or a summer school had several in tears.

It is perhaps also worth raising that the safeguarding and other welfare work has also gone up massively this lockdown. DV has come to light in seven addirional families with all the attendant meetings and work ongoing, and school staff have also been involved in food distribution, supporting parents with benefits claims, emergency loans etc.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 09:23

They also rang every remote learning family at least once a week in the hour after school, and the HT spoke daily with the families of pupils on the SEN register or that hadn't been sending work in.

You see, this is what the op could have done with, right? This could have been the difference between doing something useful everyday and doing nothing at all.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 09:30

Maybe the teacher read the class WhatsApp where they were clearly being slagged off and decided it wasn’t worth it?

Who knows, but ‘I didn’t do the school work with my kids because the school didn’t phone up and make me do it’ wouldn’t be a great look either.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 09:37

Maybe they did? Let's hope no nurses get hold of the whatsapp messages of their patients and slip into apathy and decide not to give a shit.

Meanwhile, we know that there is a huge disparity in the home lives of children and that some families need more support than others. And yes, some people may have needed a phonecall to direct them to other resources if their children were not engaging with any of the work set.

No doubt, that is why some schools did just this rather than simply do the very least they could get away with.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 09:43

No doubt the school should have phoned and asked OP why they weren't doing the work.

But if they didn't doesn't mean that it was fine for the OP to ditch the work, nor to make any effort themselves to contact the school. Nor to not make any effort to find alternative resources that were less boring.

If the OP were massively stressed juggling work and homeschooling with no time and literally at the end of their tether then that would be different. But they weren't, they were prioritising being outside.

RedGoldAndGreene · 05/03/2021 09:46

I'm a secondary rather than primary parent but I've read enough posts about this to know that online lessons for primary is not the amazing experience that people expected. During Lockdown 1.0 it was common for us state school parents to complain that private schools were doing online lessons but I've read a lot of posts regretting pushing for it.

Firstly, many people found it hard to commit to sitting with their child at a specific time of day with siblings out of the way and no work during that slot. (A parent has to be in the same room and doing the typing etc for the very youngest kids )

Secondly kids at home get a glimpse of friends at school which upsets them. Many didn't know that their friends were in and it's shit when you can't play with them while others can.

Thirdly a parent needs to sit with the child, listen to the lesson and make sure that their child understood the teacher's instructions. If they didn't then it's up to parent to explain. Teachers on Zoom are more dull than teachers irl according to my older kids.

Also I saw a post on here where somebody said that the school sent the answers to worksheets home and asked parents to do the marking. I understand why lack of feedback from the teacher is demotivating for kids and how much mine would have appreciated some if they were in that situation.

I think you're right to focus on keeping them reading so there's no slide when they go back to school. I would do some maths like times tables/number bonds too.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 09:51

How have we got to this point where the education of children is not the responsibility of parents in the slightest?

If the worksheet was boring or the school didn't phone or they used a government-funded resource or they didn't do live lessons, then it's the school's fault when the parent decides not to care about their children's education for a couple of months?

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 09:53

It's easy enough to point at an individual and be aghast that they didn't demand that their children did the work or why they didn't speak up but these parents exist. They exist in about every class in every school. Where was the plan in the op's school?

It's not a surprise to any teacher that some of the parents of their students would have been overwhelmed by this situation.

And that is all recognised before you even get to the fact the op's child was dumped in front of oak academy, day after day for months.

RedGoldAndGreene · 05/03/2021 09:56

I assume that the government funded Oak because they thought that it was needed. It's one of the few investments that they've made in education this pandemic so I assume it's widely used.

Volcanoexplorer · 05/03/2021 09:56

Yes, this is poor. My dc have a live live maths and English lesson every day and the work is marked and returned. The other work set is from Oak Academy and not marked, but I don’t mind this because Maths and English is done really well. Plus the school still has around 45% of the kids in as keyworkers so they wouldn’t have time to do more. They’ve been great.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 09:57

I would have described my child's primary online education as good. Three lessons a day on seesaw, feedback within an hour or so. Pre-recorded bits and pieces from the teacher so he "saw" her a couple of times a week and still felt connected to class. No phonecalls but then we completed all the work.

But against the op's experience, I would describe it as amazing. We would never have faired so well on Oak Academy.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 09:57

Is there a guilty conscience here or something, Four?

'Dumped in front of Oak Academy'? You mean the government-funded online school set up specifically for lockdown?

Is this the new 'they sent out endless Twinkl worksheets'?

My kid has had twinkl worksheets and they've been fine. She's had Oak Academy and it's been fine. Of course she's moaned that the work is boring and that she doesn't want to do it but that's because she's a child and would rather be on Roblox. She has to do the work regardless.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:02

Did you read any of my posts Noble? Guilty about what? Cutting down on my hours at work to support my kids or completing all the school work?

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:04

Bit of a shit's trick to play that card though noble.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 10:10

It was a cross post about where you said you completed all the work.

Good for you. Why you are so keen to put all the blame on schools and let parents off the hook when you yourself have made the effort is more confusing then.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:13

Oh yeah, well I suppose I sat next the my ds3 long enough it felt like I did it all Grin

Because struggling parents are inevitable. Schools knew they needed to provide for all their children knowing some parents would be struggling. So, where was the provision for op?

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 05/03/2021 10:15

Although our home learning hasn't been the best, in no way do I blame the teachers. They've been hard at work.
Every teacher had a KW bubble (probably 12-15 of their usual class).
The learning had to be designed to be flexible around parents work and pupils sharing devices (the limited laptops available were one per family in families with none, priority for the eldest pupils). They also gave out SIM card with data so work could be accessed on phones.
3 methods of getting the worksheets... Printable, on screen or pick up from school.

Yes it was Oak Academy, White Rose and Twinkl. Some of the lessons were boring. Some would have been a lot better if they could discuss it. But under the circumstances, it was acceptable.

My children have learnt stuff. Maths especially. Their writing has improved. We've had geography, history, Science, DT, art, RE, music, computing, pse.

Just wish we could have had some interaction and feed back.

BogRollBOGOF · 05/03/2021 10:35

@noblegiraffe

How have we got to this point where the education of children is not the responsibility of parents in the slightest?

If the worksheet was boring or the school didn't phone or they used a government-funded resource or they didn't do live lessons, then it's the school's fault when the parent decides not to care about their children's education for a couple of months?

How did we get to the point where teachers on full pay get to abdicate responsibility for teaching and learning?

Not all teachers.
Not all schools.
But it has happened.

And yes, I'm bitter that I've had day after day of battling a child with multiple SENs (EHCP pending, diagnosis too soon before lockdown #1) trying to tread the line of extorting something educational out of him/ not triggering meltdowns, and producing no written work to submit. School seems to be cool about that. They didn't give a toss at the lack of work in lockdown #1 wasting 4.5 months. They ignored my email explaining why with this history with not engaging, his ASD, his severe dyslexia and his dyspraxia, he needed to be back in school and the awful social and educational consequences upon DS2. So we've just squandered another 2 months of learning time balancing some attempt at learning and sanity with even less mental escape valve of the time of year.
And every time I've spoken up it's "just do your best".

It's a shame we reached the headbutting the windows stage this week. It's a bit late now. If only DS had reached the sensory self-harm stage a few weeks ago. Hmm

I wish school had done their blody best. There was capacity to let in a vulnerable child and not make him and his sibling suffer for their stubborness.

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 10:43

How did we get to the point where teachers on full pay get to abdicate responsibility for teaching and learning?

There has been plenty of criticism of schools and teachers on here, in the media, in WhatsApp groups and to schools about poor provision during lockdown. I’ve said that the school should have contacted the OP. They should have given feedback. Your DC should have been given a school place. Your experience sounds terrible.

But I am so fed up of everything being put on schools. The OP made a deliberate decision not to engage with the schoolwork because it was boring. So they did none of it and nothing else instead.

And again that is being framed as a problem with schools.

At what point is it ok to say ‘well, that’s on you as a parent?’ Ever?

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:49

When schools were told to organise a plan on how to educate children in lockdown and those schools went further than waving an arm at Oak Academy? Then it would be ok?

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 10:55

So you think it’s ok not to make your kids do work that is boring?

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:57

No, not in this house. But you are dealing all the children with all of the parents. Disengagement with learning was inevitable with such a dry and unrewarding platform for learning day in and out for months on end in some households.

This is not a great surprise to any teacher, surely?

noblegiraffe · 05/03/2021 10:59

Ok, so parents should make their kids do work even if they find it boring.

Good, we agree.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 10:59

No doubt the op's children have classmates who did have the support, grit and capability to slog it out. This doesn't make the provision any less poor.

FourTeaFallOut · 05/03/2021 11:00

I suspect you and I agree on very little.