So much school work...

[formerbabe]

So when I found out schools were closing, I got lots of supplies in to do loads of activities and stuff with my DC. I had lots of good ideas for arts and crafts, games, cooking etc but they each have so much stuff to do from school, there's literally no time to do anything. I keep seeing people put up on Facebook the activities they've been doing and ideas to keep their DC occupied but honestly I can barely keep up with the actual school work let alone doing anything else.

I don't want to sound ungrateful to the teachers and schools as they're doing an amazing job in difficult circumstances but I do feel a bit disappointed as there's so much stuff I'd like to do and feel like our time isn't our own.

If you need any help with that, I’m a Computer Science teacher OP and more than happy to help but also know it won’t matter if you didn’t do it. There’s plenty of time in the future when, hopefully, normality and safety reign!!

Hence my "you can't reasonably expect a parent to teach" because...we aren't teachers.

I agree with this. So will most teachers. Don’t like your little digs to teachers. further down your post though. Not really necessary.

Thanks for the offer @chloedecker
To be honest, I think I'm gonna leave it ..I can blag a lot of stuff and teach myself stuff pretty quickly but there's pages of it and it's like reading another language!

My primary DS10 yr5 has two maths workbooks, a couple of English projects and then a sheet of different activities to pick from. They are also expected to read and do a diary so I have been supervising an hour maths, an hour English, half hour reading and half hour diary broken up through the day, an hour playing footie in the garden and we will probably also do some baking and science experiments too but we have nt yet. Having a structure suits us as I am working from home but it definitely does nt suit everyone. Our school have been great and reassured us it is just about revisiting what they have already done and we are just to support in any way we can.

DD12 year 7 on the other hand has a full timetable of lessons online every day from 9am and she is expected to be present as if it is a normal school day. While we are still paying full fees however I would expect nothing less!

Please don't be too hard on yourself, do the crafts and stuff instead of the schoolwork, it is all learning and interaction, and spending quality time together or a mixture of both.We will all get through it in our own way. There will be so many families unwell, unable to support learning due to caring for other children or vulnerable relatives, working extra hours as key workers and also so many families that don't care.

My year 9 DD is ASD, under CAMHS and has not done any work. She won't even look at the the school email, won't show me the work and refuses to engage in any conversation about school. I'm a SAHM, have buckets of patience, ability & access to loads of resources, but I can't even 'bring the horse to water'. She's had attendance & homework & sleep issues for a few months. The SENCO said just an hour a day would be ok but she can't even manage that. I'll just have to put documentaries on the TV :(

Would some TED Talks from YouTube help anonnymummy?

There are lots of science videos on YouTube too. I wouldn’t push it - does she read @anonnymummy? My dd is 9 and when she was struggling socially at school she would meltdown at the suggestion of homework and things connected to school, I didn’t push it.

TED talks are a good suggestion. She does well with any Natural History type of programme as well.

DD has had meltdowns/shutdowns in the past at the very mention of school/homework from the same kind of age, lentenwonder - just shuts down the conversation now.

Sadly, she doesn't read much, just minecraft, youtube etc which act as distraction and keep her anxiety down. If she does read, it's the same simple books over and over, like Horrid Henry, although she's also very occcasionally reading Enid Blyton.

Motivation is a big problem. I'll try and get her to listen to the David Walliams free audiobooks he's offering just now. Missed the first two days - it's the World's Worst Children. She likes things of that theme :)

Audible have made their kids books free too - ah the repetitive behaviours - she may start to get more receptive in a while, has she tried the worst witch? My dd loves horrid Henry too.

Does she like making potions etc in the garden our of weeds or watching/feeding birds?

It’s early days, I see a lot of homeschooling stuff but calm is more important

lentenwonder"Does she like making potions etc in the garden out of weeds"?

Yes! LOL! She was doing exactly this yesterday when I was trying to encourage her do a little bit of weeding - she was making up restaurant meals out of weeds and sticks, and then presenting them to me. I played along as much as I could, but I was trying to get things done myself. I do need to remember to be more patient :)

I'll get onto Audible - and the Worst Witch sounds good. She likes Enid Blyton's 'The Naughtiest Girl in School' - there's a theme going on there which she obviously appreciates - she's actually very good in school (apart from attendance).

Ah dd loves that, she writes a menu too - that’s a good game. It’s hard when you want to get something done! There are outdoor science experiments if you look up kitchen science that are potion making really.

Things like yogurt paints can be good fun, they can cover the garden and then hopefully it rains...

Mine have had a high octane learning day, i filled some old spray bottles with water and they ‘helped’ me by spraying water everywhere and wiping some of it off...

Really? Are most teachers not getting paid now, then? In my school, the expectation is that we plan lessons, prepare materials for them, deliver them, take work in and mark it just as if we were in school

Well you aren’t following Union guidance then.

I am spending my time answering Qs that pupils have, via Classroom, and curriculum planning. It’s fantastic to have so much time to plan future lessons.

DotBall
Personally I'm surprised the unions have put that in (although given how some of my colleagues are professional moaners at the best of times I'm not surprised).

I can see how there's no need to be ticking and flicking and commenting on everything, because that's a waste of time, but if I have a GCSE class and they complete an extended response then I think it's entirely reasonable to expect that to be marked or have them looked at with whole class feedback shared. The last thing I'd want for my exam classes is to repeatedly do something wrong and get into bad habits. That's no use for them or me.

DS1 (year 8) is being set work for the full timetable. It's taking longer to do because of eg printer issues / needing to email questions to teachers / me not being able to explain stuff as well as his teacher / etc. Message from school is how important it is to keep up with learning, do all the work etc. To avoid him getting too stressed we're focusing on the subjects he wants to carry on with and not worrying about less academic stuff like PSHE.

DS2 (Year 6) has hardly anything set, so needs lots of input as I have to find things for him to do.

Amongst all this I'm trying to work from home...

The kids are being stars and we're trying our best but it's far from a Facebook-friendly, relaxing time! I do think the high school have unrealistic expectations.

Dotball how on earth are you finding time to plan?
I naively thought I'd get loads of school work done while my kids did their school tasks. The reality is that I'm getting 10 minute bursts to reply to emails, check in on Class Teams etc then I get interrupted by my own kids! Not to mention the cooking and cleaning which has quadrupled since we're all in the house together! If i want to get any meaningful work done it's looking like it'll have to be after they're in bed, as per usual

OP I'm not building any dens either- I'm either cajoling my children into doing (very minimal) pieces of work, or abandoning them while i try to do my own work

DS1 (year 8) is being set work for the full timetable. It's taking longer to do because of eg printer issues / needing to email questions to teachers / me not being able to explain stuff as well as his teacher

@MegBusset

Yes exactly the same here. Two kids sharing the laptop means I'm having to switch between log ins, print stuff out which takes a lot of time. So much time is spent working out what resources are needed, what worksheets are needed, accessing videos they need to watch, working out what format the work needs to be in and how to submit.

He has work for every subject. We can't get through it let alone do any extra stuff.

Well you aren’t following Union guidance then.

No, and I'm very happy not to be. Couldn't give a shit what the union thinks I should be doing - I am still on full salary and thus am going to continue to fulfil the work I'm paid to do. Not to mention the fact that I genuinely care about the progress of the kids I teach and want to support them to the very best of my ability in these unprecedented circumstances.I'm presuming those teachers who are following union guidelines and who aren't providing childcare for children of key workers are taking an appropriate salary cut?

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross
That post comes across quite sanctimonious to be honest.

It's really out of order to start playing the "some of us care about the children" card. It's that sort of mindset that promotes a race to the bottom and almost competitive martyrdom that is fuelling workload issues. It also leads to "Mrs Blogs does X so why don't you?"

Providing appropriate learning materials and working in line with how each school has structured their provision/has allocated tasks is entirely reasonable for staff to be doing.

For example, under union guidelines it's totally fine to take your lesson content and provide that material in a format for independent study for students (and in my experience doing this is actually more work than teaching the lesson that would normally be a couple of PowerPoint slides, me and the class novel). To be planning and delivering lessons is problematic as it risks having gaps between those on site and not on site, it assumes students have access to devices to join online lessons when not all households have a device per child, it relies on all homes having WiFi or WiFi good enough to support two children studying online and parents working from home.
But it's much easier to pat yourself on the back and decide you care about pupils and others don't.

Agree that @TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross is being smugly superior. They care about the pupils, y’know.

Well I’m doing what my school has told me to do. I also care about my pupils and my school has said to set revision work on our homework platform that can be done independently at home (mymaths, videos etc).

And I won’t be taking a pay cut because I’m also doing what my school has told me to do in working my way through a list of curriculum planning tasks that need doing for next year.

If I really wanted to be pompous I could say that because I care about the most disadvantaged/vulnerable pupils in the school, I will not be deliberately disadvantaging them by providing new teaching that they can’t easily access.

But the decision about what to do wasn’t taken by me.

Why dismiss a genuinely felt post as smug, sanctimonious and superior? I'm doing what my school has directed me to do as you have both said that you are, so what's your problem? Clearly, you're happy with what you're doing, I'm happy with what I'm doing - what's the issue? I'm not going to lie about the fact that I don't agree with the union advice and am happy to ignore it - if others are happy not to do so, that's their right.

Yes, I genuinely care about my kids and in the school I work in, if I followed union advice, I would be disadvantaging them in relation to their peers in the school because that is not the approach the school is taking. So I choose not to follow union advice but to do as directed by my school instead. Hope that's OK with the rest of you - if you're not so much on the moral high ground that you can't hear another point of view than your own, of course.

Why dismiss a genuinely felt post as smug, sanctimonious and superior?

Because you said that you were doing what you were doing because you genuinely care about the kids. But it also just happens that it’s what your school has told you to do.

You also said that teachers who aren’t doing what you are doing should take a pay cut. Because they’re not as good as you, obviously. Not taking into account that they may be doing, as you are, what their school has told them to do.

Why dismiss a genuinely felt post as smug, sanctimonious and superior?
Because instead of saying you're happy doing what your school are doing and disagree with the unions (for what it's worth I disagree with their stance on marking and think it should be more flexible), you too the approach of 'i genuinely care about my students' which implies others don't, and suggested anyone who isn't doing what you're doing should take a pay cut.

There's two attitudes I can't stand in our profession:

1. I care about the students more than you, look at how much I care, look at how much more I do than everyone else... The extra mile? Why do a mile when I can do the extra 5 miles because I care so much. Who cares if this means SLT put pressure on other staff to match me, maybe those teachers should care a little more because if they actually cared about the students then they'd not object to anything that can be tenuously argued to be. 'for the good of the children'.

1. Everything is crap. Everything is awful. I don't care what genuine attempt there is to make things better, it will be crap before I've even listened. A new way of thinking? No, I've seen and heard everything and decided teaching is the worst and all ideas are rubbish so I shall wallow in my own self pity and be miserable.