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.

I know this isn't a staffroom thread, but to those teachers saying we shouldn't be marking because of union guidance, how would you actually push back on this if your school were asking you to mark work.

Our marking policy is (imo) pretty reasonable- one formative piece of work with feedback every 3-5 lessons, plus an end of topic test at the end of each topic (or every 8 weeks in KS3). They have asked that we carry on doing this whilst working from home- we've split departmental planning/organisation up, so I'm only sorting lessons for 2 year groups for the rest of the term. Obviously there are Y11 grades to sort out and pastoral things to do, but my workload is lower than if I was in school.

I'd feel completely ridiculous saying no I won't mark because the union says not to- and I'm normally someone who really wants to support union advice.

Obviously we shouldn't receive or mark any physical work, but if a student sends me e.g. a typed up exam answer, it doesn't make sense to me not to provide feedback? It may not be in the usual style of marking, but there are lots of features on Microsoft office that make remote marking possible.

However, I also feel pretty uncomfortable throwing colleagues under the bus by marking if we are not meant to!