Temporary HomeEd if Coronavirus forces school closures

[LSmith789]

I have a child in Year 8 and I’m trying to think ahead about if the school is closed due to Coronavirus. This is the next planned phase (Delay Phase) PM has advised may be introduced in the next 1-2 weeks.
Anyway, anyone who homeschools their children. Would it be easy to home Ed my child on a temporary basis baring in mind we don’t know how long the closures could last?
The things I’m thinking about mainly is how do I get hold of the curriculum to follow in the main subjects, so thinking Maths/English/Geog/Hist/Science etc....
Please, I’m not looking for opinions here on whether this is the correct approach or discussions on whether schools will or won’t close. I’m just looking for practical help please.
Thank you.

Are you going to deregister your child? If not I am sure the school will let you know what to do.

I have a ds in year 7.
The school gave us an English Lit reading list at the start of the year, plus an outline of what they will be doing in Maths. I’m planning to help ds revise his French & German as well, plus work on his art.
I don’t know yet if they plan to post any work to do at home. I suspect they will.

The thing about home Ed is that you don’t have to follow the curriculum that schools follow and most don’t. I think that unless you’re going to deregister your child from school, your child will be in the same position as all of the others and they will tell you how to go about things?

Following the school curriculum at home and returning to school in a few weeks isn’t the same as home Ed really and most home educators won’t be able to advise you on that.

Would you want to do this if the schools sent out work?
Everyone I know who has had school shit through corona virus (China, Hong Kong, Saudi, Bahrain) have had work, and in some cases lessons, electronically.

Thanks everyone.

WallEsfriend - I’m not going to de-register my child.

Mintjulia - The school gave us an English Lit reading list at the start of the year, plus an outline of what they will be doing in Maths. Wow, I wish.. it would be nice if our school communicated at all. We get nothing. School gives out reports at end of each term in the morning of last day. They finish at lunchtime and all the teachers run as fast as they can out of school avoiding any questions, callbacks etc...
Generally if I have a query I phone and leave a message, I have never had a teacher call me back...

KittenVsBox - if they send out work then that is fab and I wouldn’t need to do anything.

I guess from what I’ve said above, I’m expecting nothing... and trying to plan for this.

Anything above nothing is a bonus!

😀

Ok, BBC bitesize.
CGP books for the subjects you want to cover.
Reading widely.

I'd be tempted to find a project to do together. Something that involves researching, practical, writing, maths, arts/craft. Follow your childs interests. We would probably end up planning and cooking or some niche science. Maybe music or a skill? But we are younger than you.
Imo, not much point pushing ahead with the curriculum if it's going to get covered later. Better to go sideways than forwards.

I agree with everyone else: if schools are closed for any length of time, I am sure they'll set some work. It would make more sense to follow that than something else.

If the school doesn't give you any guidance then your child won't fall behind, as the rest of the class will be similarly in the dark, and the teacher will pick up where they left off once school resumes.

So if you want to do some learning, why not go off on a fun tangent? Kitten's idea of projects is good. Watch Netflix in a foreign language with English subtitles, or do online gaming in a new language. See how far you can get on your bicycles - put the kid in charge of map reading. Learn to knit. Have fun: what does your child like doing?

Thank you everyone. Some great ideas.

Yes hopefully the school will have a plan, fingers crossed.

😀

Hi OP, I flexi school my son for medical reasons, I am an ex-teacher and do work with him in line with the curriculum so might be closer to what you are looking for! I am a bit sceptical of how well 'sending work home' will pan out, to be honest. It's all very well but the most important thing is the teaching input, which will be missing... Some parents will be very well educated and able to explain things to their children while others will have poor grammar and struggle with basic arithmetic, so the education children will receive at home will be very unequal.
Information about the curriculum is very accessible online, but a lot is covered in a year and you really need to know where your child is at and what his targets are before you can meaningfully work with him at home. Hopefully the school could provide you with this information if you had to self isolate? He might be able to tell you what his targets are himself, children knowing their own targets has become a big thing at a lot of schools over the last few years. Working to achieve some set targets would also keep you both focused. I agree that CGP books are very good, and there is a lot online. I wonder if subjects like history and geography might set a special project for them to do.
However, one big bonus I have found of having to teach from home every so often (similarly if it's just for a few weeks) is that you can tailor that time to what your child needs. If there is something he is really struggling with you can prioritise working on it - similarly if there is something he is really talented at then he will have the chance to push this a bit further.
If he does a foreign language I really like Duolingo, it's free online and lots of fun, French, German and Spanish are organised in a way which is not too different from learning at school ('CEFL accredited') and you can just let him get on with it!

Hi thank you.
I’m not sure what the targets are and I feel that I wouldn’t get much out of the school if I asked.
The reports that we get every term have now changed and there is no grade for attainment where previously there was a grade in line with gcse 1-9.
Now it is working towards / as expected/ above expected / significantly above expected.
For music at end of Y7 we had 2+ against a target of 4- so clearly lower than where it should be. I contacted music teacher quite a few times trying to ask what the problem was. Tried to set up a meeting, teacher very evasive, pushed back when asked questions and did everything he could to stop having a meeting with me.
Very surprisingly, grade at first term year 8 was “significantly above expected”.
Again when I asked whether my child had jumped ahead or whether the targets had changed no response from school.
All teacher contact phone and email addresses now removed from website and all queries through reception.
Brick wall.
Parents evening not until May,

The schools will set work.
This week I am realising how many sites I must have registered as a teacher on during our home ed journey as my inbox is full of education websites telling schools how they can help them with 'remote learning ' if there are closures.

look at online schooling OP . Its live streamed classes via laptop/ipad.
We use it to home school ds yr8 anyway. It follows the same curriculum as mainstream. we use my online schooling . google it.

you do have to pay though.

there are other online schools . beware of interhigh, nasty contracts!! but theres a few.

OP this could be a great opportunity to take a break from the curriculum and look at more creative options for learning.

If no work is set, think about something your child is passionate about. If he loves dogs for example, get him to do a project on dogs. He can use skills from all of his subjects whilst pursuing something he is passionate about.

Give him a recipe book and let him experiment in the kitchen. Give him some household responsibilities whilst he is off school.

We have been experimenting with homeschooling for DS this year and will be moving to it fulltime next year. I have been amazed by how much work he gets through because he is not distracted but also by how motivated he is when he comes up with a topic or project and I merely support him rather than trying to guide his learning.

Kids are constantly learning and you can facilitate it for him but don't feel you have to prescribe everything for him. Schools do it because they have to but you can let him learn however works best for him

Yes great advice all thank you.

On a more direct note - and as predicted. Child came home from school yesterday saying Science teacher had told the kids the school would probably close at some point and they weren’t to go on computer games or their phones all the time. They need to do some school work. They will have their books at home in case this happens and they are to “teach themselves” online, apparently.

So as I said - no work will be set

Ooooh place marking for later. I just popped on to see if a thread was going about this.

It looks like there are a lot of things on Pinterest regarding fun educational things but I’m going to order key stages work books to work through in the morning.

I’m looking forward to it actually and we’re going to attempt to learn Spanish - in the hope we can still go on our holidays later in the year!!

I’ve kept mine off today - were in private school so they won’t make much of a fuss

twinkl (Educational resource provider that lots of teachers use) are offering a free months ultimate subscription for folks whose schools have closed to use while their kids are at home.

Go to www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and use the code UKTWINKLHELPS

They have masses of primary and a good amount of secondary resources, with lots of explanation and support about who should be doing what when. They also have a resource called twinkl go where you can set work to be done online that your child can complete on their computer (or tablet, I think). Lots of home educators use them.

Make sure you have plenty of printer ink to print stuff out!

You won't be home educating though, your child will just be at home and not physically at school.

There's a thread in Preppers with advice

MrsPMT
Sorry what do you mean by Preppers?

There's a MN topic called Preppers, it's in Other Stuff.

Alongside CGP and Bitesize etc, I have found Seneca to be really useful as the kids seem to actually engage with it for a lot longer. You can sign up as a parent and get weekly activity reports too!!