How are your dc being taught next term at prep school?

[MarthasGinYard]

Morning all

Just wondering what learning plans have been put in place at your schools?

We still haven't heard, although are hoping to hear today. I'm optimistic it will be interactive in some way.

Summer term fee is discounted by over 20 percent. Many staff have been furloughed.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Not heard yet. Also no discount for the next term yet, although it's been promised for the final term.

We have teaching set up on Teams. The staff will upload videos for students to watch and set work which can be scanned and uploaded for marking. Year 1 and year 3.

Polly can I enquire about 'Teams'

Is this a software type learning area?

Woolly

Does your dc go back next week?

What are you hoping will be in place?

Yes, back on Monday.

My child is extremely self-motivated so I'm not too worried about it (year 4). Last term they were set work using google drive/docs but they didn't have any actual online lessons. I have an older child at the senior school and they had online tutor groups and online lessons so I'd expect more of that for the younger one.
I'm furloughed from work so can spend my time helping and supporting them, which makes life a whole load easier.

We went back weds (yr1)
Daily work set on firefly. Mix of videos, pre set work and existing learning apps.
Send pics of work daily to subject teacher for marking. Is quite reliant on input from a parent though.
We've had 25% rebate on fees

Thanks Woolly

The last week of term we were sent emails, some word documents and PP's from each subject teacher.

It was quite a task deciphering it all as all sent/returned in different ways.

Hoping it will be more streamlined.

I appreciate the staff are dealing with so much at the moment.

Thanks all

We still have heard nothing hopefully we will be given some indication of teaching methods over weekend.

Your school sounds a bit slow off the mark Martha. Is it a very small school? DS's Prep had put on training sessions for parents about online learning before school closure and DS (Y5) knows how to run it all himself because he says they practised 'loads' before being sent home. We had two 'trial days' of online teaching during Easter so they could iron out glitches before Monday.

They have Microsoft Teams. For this each child needs a school email address and the school 'adds' them to 'teams'. DS has a team for each subject and his form and the whole school.

From Monday his teachers will put lessons into Teams each morning to be completed during the day. There was going to be a daily timetable but they've decided against that as families have more children than devices, so they need flexibility. The lessons involve either a video or written input from the teacher, stuff to follow up online (video clips to watch etc) then written work to 'turn in' for marking.

The Head master is going to upload assembly each week and DS has 30 mins face to face form time with all of his class and teacher every day on a schedule.

We have had to buy a laptop for DS (much to his delight) and I do expect to have to help/ supervise quite a bit.

School is also giving 20% discount.

Thanks

Yes it's Microsoft 'teams' but not that much guidance and feel very late in the day. Passwords being sent Monday.

All rather vague

Our kids will be using Microsoft Teams. They set it up last term and got the children to use it prior to the lockdown so it does sound like your school is 'behind the curve' OP. Even our year 2 will use it from Monday.

Yes the kids haven't used it. We were only sent info today. We get passwords etc on Monday and then off we go.

Not too happy with the time it's taken. Think it will take a while to get it up and running.

How do you find it? Is it very child friendly to navigate?

@reefedsail
Can I ask how the first few days of lessons on Teams for your DS?

I really wish my DSs' school would do a lot more than 'read X' (can be a vast amount of text), then 'do Y'.

DC1 is Year 3, his school is using Teams - one team set up for each subject. They follow the daily timetable and click into each team for the lesson, sometimes their teacher gets on and talks to them for a bit or sometimes there is an assignment posted for them to get on with (watch a video/go to a website/do this worksheet/do an activity).

DC2's school is using Google Classroom - they have set up a website for each year group with links to pages for each subject. Each day there are 6 "lessons" but they aren't live so you can space them out through the day, do them all in one go in the morning, whatever works for you. The only thing that is live is form time with the class teacher for half an hour every morning. He is only Year 1 though so as far as I'm concerned this is perfect for him, he wouldn't cope with a whole day of taught lessons like his older brother.

It's been quite a bit of info and organisation to get our heads around, but 4 days in, we have both their devices set up with all the passwords and stuff saved, my Year 3 is coping mostly independently with just reminders about when the next lesson starts and he has to move to the next team. My Year 1 is needing more handholding of course, but he's only 6 and today has been much better than the first day when there was some IT teething troubles. I think next week will be much smoother. The class Whatsapp groups have been a godsend for parents to discuss stuff and help each other!

30% discount and in reception. They have set work daily and a few videos of tutorials. We then have to send videos / pics and put them on a EYFS app (tapestry) so her teacher can keep track of progress and give feedback.

They have set quite a lot but said just to do what we can and not to worry if we don't get that much done.

Well TBH we are finding teams tough to navigate. No video's or virtual tasks. All just word documents etc that it's quite tricky to alter and attach thus far.

Only 3rd day though so still learning.

Martha has your school provided a timetable or a schedule? That's how we're navigating between the different teams. We click into each subject when we're told to on the timetable and do the task that's assigned there. It might be a word document uploaded in assignments or into the class notebook - you have to click around to find it sometimes - and we follow the instructions. Sometimes a team meeting will start with the teacher on video, or the teacher is present in the chat for the kids to talk to them about the task. Other times we just do the assignment set and turn it in.

Are you guys having any live teaching at all? Or is it all self-directed?

Thanks Xia

No videos or anything interactive with teacher thus far just powerpoints and attached worksheets mainly Word documents etc. Have had some issues attaching work all seems very trial and error at the moment.

No set timetable just the work set each day to 'turn in'

I think it's a tricky platform for primary kids really.

It's only the first week though.

we have 2 Google meet sessions with the teachers and half of the class very day. And another 2 or 3 recorded teaching videos. I'm happy with it so far. Only down side is the screen time.

We have four lessons a day. With differentiated work set for each and then marked. The teacher is available on a google meet for the hour long lesson to answer questions and sometimes the kids are required to be there for part of the time for class discussions but the rest they just go on the google meet if they're stuck. There are also class meet ups organised just to chat and keep in touch each day. They also have a scheduled time to read to the teacher over google meet once a week. They also have an assembly three times a week (the kids send in videos, pictures and bits of work they've done and they do singalongs).