Does anyone have exam year kids getting Teams/Zoom/Skype classes in the state system?

[Lilliput]

We are in Scotland and our ds is in 4th year going into 5th so about to start Highers. Up until this week there has been next to nothing in the way of work for him. Monday saw 4 lots of higher homework come through a homework app.
Dh phoned the school to find out if there were to be Teams/Zoom teaching set up. She said not, council would not allow it.
Is there any virtual learning using these apps going on in your kids state school at all?

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Safeguarding? How is it only a problem for state schools, not private schools?

Not here. Apparently only 18%of schools are using them and the data shows they dont actually make mich difference to learning its just parents feel like their kids will be learning more since from looking at it they are "with" their classmates and teachers. Not sure how true that is. Our school isnt doing it as too many have no access/poor access to internet and it just makes the playing field even more uneven.

DD's English Lit teacher is running a weekly Teams call as she says it's important for them to read the texts out loud (this is DD's only Live lesson). Though thus far the attendance has been below 10 (out of a class of 30). I realise this is for a variety of reasons, but if this is the take up in an average state school I can understand why schools don't rush to use it more.

Y11 dc’s school is doing Teams lessons for years other than y11 and y13.

Exam years seem to have been filed. Under ‘things we don’t need to bother with’. Dc has emailed the head of sixth form directly to ask for support with A level transition work, and has pretty much been fobbed off with a few links to public websites.

Luckily the 6th form college dc will be going to in Sept has sent out packs with transition work and are starting Zoom lessons for y11 in June. Which is brilliant of them, since those kids are not actually on their roll until September, so they won’t be receiving any funding for this work, but I’m sure It will pay dividends in terms of enrolment numbers and in terms of helping kids hit the ground running in the autumn.

Both state schools. Dc is also continuing to receive music lessons via Teams from the school’s peri teachers, paid for by us, but through the school. We had to give specific permission for this, which I assume the school think covers their safeguarding duty.

As far as I’m aware, most state secondaries that I know of are delivering some kind of live online content.

More or less normal timetable online here for the whole school here. State school in England. It's amazing. But the school down the road has nothing live, because of safeguarding.

I don't know about the impact on their learning, I'm more worried about their mental health. I do think that live interaction with their teachers and peers really helps with that. Hearing her favourite teachers' voices really helps my teen get through the day.

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Thanks EweSprouts - I’ll look into it but I’m in Scotland so DS is doing Nat 5s so might not be suitable.

we’ve been told no school till August in Scotland. I genuinely can’t believe that 3 months off school in such an important year and the school has sent a couple of emails as “support”.

Presumably maths, science & mfl content not hugely different?

I'm a secondary teacher in England. My school's policy is that we can do video lessons only with sixth form. Students' cameras must be off.

I'm hoping to do some video lessons with year 10 if we can't get them back, but I'll have to see if the school's stance changes. I teach MFL so being able to speak is pretty important!

I know one department are recording youtube videos and sending links to younger students as a compromise.

Please remember that if you’re in Scotland and your child was in S4/5 about to sit N5/Higher exams, they would most likely not have been taught any new content during study leave so they have missed possibly 2 weeks of teaching (the weeks just before and after the Easter holidays) that would have been focused on exam prep. A lot of schools would not have moved to the new timetable until June, when they would start the new courses.

It must be frustrating to have kids sitting around with no work, especially if you’re hearing of others getting work, and it will soon become more of an issue if that continues for you, but it’s not like they’ve missed heaps of time where they’d usually be getting teaching. I’m not saying this to excuse not getting any work (I’ve been setting online work on timetable for my classes since March 24th) but to hopefully make you feel a wee bit better.

(And I’m not doing video lessons. Before the pandemic one of my colleagues had her photo taken by some pupils and a social media account created with absolutely vile comments. I’m not opening myself up to that.)

Dd year 10 (England) school have assemblies & form time on teams (we can see the teacher but they can’t see dd) she also has a number of live lessons where she can hear the teacher but not see her.

Safeguarding apparently, although the staff and governors have been having zoom meetings weekly apparently.

That's because you can be fairly confident your chair of governors won't take an image of a teacher's face and photoshop it into porn sites.

Sadly something you can't always be entirely certain of with some teenagers.

I'm aware that he had finished all coursework and would have been revising in the lead up to exams. But it's his brain switching off that is obviously a concern.
To be fair to my ds he has started to crack on with work he's been set, he'll probably not get it all in on time but he's doing something at least.
After us having a chat with the excellent depute head she has spoken to ds twice this week to give him a pep talk and also to let him know he can't just slink under the radar.

Yeah, I understand that. I think a lot of kids right now are hoping they can just keep their heads down and get away with not doing very much. We’re starting a more formal system for recording those who haven’t completed any work (obviously taking into account those without access/other family issues, etc). Some are going to get a bit of a shock!

I am live teaching (via Teams) my year 10 and 12 classes.

My son has been having some lessons via Google Meet at the usual timetabled slot but not for all subjects.

It definitely helps to have the structure and interaction with classmates. Whether he's actually achieving what he would if he were in college all the time remains to be seen, but he doesn't feel like he's falling behind in the subjects he's having lessons in.

Maybe some other students are happier just getting on with learning by themselves, or indeed being left to do b**ger all.

DS is using Teams for some of his yr10 lessons. We had to agree to him signing in and follow strict guidelines regarding clothing, where he was at home etc.

A few lessons plus form time via Teams for DD’s Y10 state grammar. German lessons particularly benefit from a live session and the class for German is small. Majority is delivered via Satchel One (was Show My Homework) and teachers send back comments and marking via Satchel too.