Provision during lockdown

[Mrtumblemustdie]

For those of you who have children in primary state schools, can I please get a feel of whether you are happy with what support your school has given you during lockdown?

(and I am currently making a decision between tutors or private school so it is a the other children whose parents don't have this choice that I am angry for)

My DD's teachers and school have been fantastic, admittedly she is only in reception year. The teacher posts the following day's work on the online platform each evening. Work is commented on quickly and lots of feedback given. There have been videos to watch of the teacher as well as class and year group Zoom calls. A variety of maths, writing, reading, creative and talking tasks throughout the week.

Initially we couldn't get through much of it as I was workng from home from 9am until 4pm however I've had some leave and during that I've really appreciated just how much effort the school and teachers have gone to.

@Stayfresh I am pleased to hear that. Because lots of teachers on Mumsnet are shouting at anyone who suggests zoom calls might be a good idea !

Looking at friends‘ kids schools, going private was the best thing we ever did.
Still loads of focus on wellbeing, but that doesn’t stop them teaching loads of new stuff. zoom lessons every Day, plus loads of fun stuff. and i can actually get my work done as well, even with a child with SENDs

Yep. All done through the Seesaw app. A nice mix of activities - English, maths and reading daily as well as some PE and art/topic. A lot of thought has been put into making the activities engaging, accessible and fun. Lots of emphasis on wellbeing and emotional health. Can’t fault them.

@pontypridd we are having exactlet the same experience. The provision offered by our OFSTED outstandingnschool has been abysmal, but when I complained, the school refused to respond to me. We also see a lot of the teachers out enjoying the sun every day and it makes my blood boil. The ones which I have confronted keep telling me that I don't understand and that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. They must think we are really stupid. My privately educated nephews are on Zoom from 8.30-3.30 every day and are really enjoying it and my sister tells me that they don't use any fancy or expensive teaching resources and the Zoom licence was £25!

they don't use any fancy or expensive teaching resources and the Zoom licence was £25!

There's also the access to computers. My DCs don't have their own computers, so if our school go to online lessons they won't be able to take part. DH and I need access to our computers for our own work! Don't think our internet would cope with 4 of us online either.
DCs school send home weekly sheet of activities across all the curriculum areas. They've called once and we can email in work. It is not marked, but a teachers reply with a positive comment.

Should add, I'm happy with school. I believe they are doing there best in incredibly challenging and unprecedented times.

We also see a lot of the teachers out enjoying the sun every day and it makes my blood boil. The ones which I have confronted__

How long do you see them out for 8+hours. Teachers are contracted to work 37.5 hrs per week, most work more. My neighbour is a teacher. She's in the garden all afternoon with her kids. Sometimes we chat over the fence. I'm working FT as well (not teaching) but we spend our afternoons chatting over the fence. We both hand our kids over to our other halves in the evening whilst we put in a late shift. Do you think teachers should be working and sleeping only. Is anyone not working they're usual hours taking the piss.
You've confronted teachers! Are they breaking current DFE guidelines. I bet they love you.

Our school has been great. Dd is in year 3, we get around 7-8 activities uploaded each day, we are asked to do what we can.
I upload photos or files of completed work to seesaw and everything gets a comment or voice message from the teacher. The comments are specific and show they have read the work. Sometimes they will say constructive things like "can you re practice connecting s's in the middle of the words "
In her maths there was a question she didn't know how to do, she recognised it was "bus stop" but couldn't remember how it was done so I sent them a message and an hour later we had two videos of the teacher showing us how to do it.
If I feel the work is too screen time heavy, I find a practical alternative and send them that, and they totally understand and love to see what she's up to. Our school is fabulous and I am extremely lucky.

@justible as a parent doing a full time job and having to teach my children because the school are doing nothing that is literally all I do. 6 am - midnight or beyond. It is relentless. I would love to take an afternoon off.

Never. I didn't say she was having a G&T and sunbathing! Her kids are 3 & 5. She's giving them an appropriate education for their age, lots of sand play, drawing and reading and games to wear them out. Mine are a few years older. We have a chat when the kids are engaged. Mine are a couple of years older so find it easier to get on with stuff. She chats for a few mins before she has to help rebuild the garage or fill the toy car with petrol.

I'm a teacher and a parent as are many others.

Our school don't do live teaching, use zoom or google classroom- we have access to it but parents were asked what they wanted remote learning to look like and overwhelming majority was no to zoom and google as lack of technology to access it. Those with high school children felt it was more important they had access to the laptop or device. They didn't want worksheets as the printing issue. Many of our children live in a deprived area so parents do not have the money to go out to buy laptops, iPads and printers.

On a Monday we send out a weekly timetable with a maths, literacy and topic activity for every day. They are also expected to do daily reading, times table practice and spellings.

The children were given exercise books to work in on their last day so when they return they will be handed in for marking - currently 7 weeks of marking which under the new guidelines I will have to do in school as books cannot be taken home.

I also send them a class email and they can email me with any questions or for a chat.

Out of my class of 30 - 2 children regularly email me with photos of their work, questions about what they need to do and 1 child emails me to tell me what they have been doing or reading.

I wfh Monday and Friday. On these days I usually work from 5am -8am planning the following weeks work ( 3 individualised timetables and resources for SEN children in class plus whole class timetable is not a 5 minute job) I then spend the time parenting my own children.

At lunchtime I will check and respond to any emails.

We might go for a walk in the afternoon.

I do another couple of hours late afternoon when DS8 gets screen time. Then will work for a few hours in the evening- report writing, transition documents, planning for next term,

I work between 8-10 hours a day including weekends. I don't do it all in 1 block as like many other people I've had to adjust to having children at home.

The other 3 days? Working 8-6 looking after key worker children in school. I leave the house at 7am and get home at 7pm. DD16 is my childcare on those days. DS does no school work those days as he doesn't listen to his sister's efforts which is why I have to work the way I do on Monday and Friday so he can get an education.

I'm not a lazy teacher I'm a knackered teacher. I'm a fed up teacher and sick of the constant criticism

@ justible I think your post just reinforces exactly what I mean. Myself and lots of my private sector friends are working flat out all day and don't have time for jaunty little walks in the sun or chatting over the fence. My kids have to get their vitamin D in the garden and then we go for a walk after me and DH have finished work. We live ina middle class area where most of the kids have their own tablets, so access wouldnt be a problem. I really don't know how there is an argument against online lessons. Many kids I know in state schools are getting these without any problems. One school I know in quite a deprived area if London had it set up within 24 hours of the school closing. However, the schools which can't be bothered to offer it are coming up with every excuse in the book not to offer it. Our kids are suffering at their hands.

Mrtumble - you need to work on your time management. DH and I have full time professional jobs in the city. We timetable our weekdays so we each get 8 hours work time per day. I get all day Saturday to catch up on work, he gets all day Sunday. Between us our kids do 3hrs school work with reading on top on school days. Sometimes we play with our kids, you should try it, I find it a great stress relief, stops me being bitter about seeing someone enjoying a walk out in daylight hours. Id live for us to have more family time with all 4 of us together, which we have very little of at the moment, but that's how it is at the moment. Life isn't easy.

Sorry @justible, I don't believe this for a moment. Chatting over the fence all afternoon and fitting on your high pressure city job as well as home schooling successfully. I think you've made this up especially for this post.

Believe what you want. I never said home schooling was successful, it's distinctly average, I chat to my neighbour whilst outside as she's pretty much the adult I see most of at the moment. Sorry your not coping well. I'm not doing saying I'm doing brilliantly, just don't feel the need to take out my own frustrations on others - don't think it's healthy for me or my kids. I guess I'm a glass half full person.

@mrtumble

I notice you ignore any reasonable arguments offered by teachers if they don't fit your agenda.

Yay let's bash the teachers again!

If you want private school level support for your kids during lockdown, send them to a private school.

This subject has been done to death.

This subject is being done to death because it’s important isn’t it? It affects children and their future. It affects parents and their ability to work, and far more.

Ofsted and the government and media are turning a blind eye. We need to be able to talk about this somewhere.

Exactly @pontypridd . It is going to set back social mobility for at least a generation if we don't see changes.

My kids schools both primary and secondary state schools have in my opinion provided a good amount and variety of school work across the curriculum and been very responsive.
I think if you have a problem with the provision your school is providing you have several options

• move schools either within the state system or into private (although this probably isn’t practical until this is all over)

• email the head teacher and the governors with your issues and ask them to respond and put more education into place
• look up the variety of resources on the internet (many are offering free months worth) and fill in the gaps yourself. Not ideal but if you want your child to have continuous education and the school aren’t providing it as a parent there are things you can do yourself rather than moaning.

Sounds harsh but this is an unprecedented situation, once lockdown was looking likely and before I realised how much my schools were going to be providing I had signed up to various online school websites and resources, ordered craft and educational resources to be delivered and created timetables and list of activities.

I think the parents who are "moaning" are doing those things though. No one has suggested they are passively waiting for change.

But equally some of us are working flat out in our own jobs to tackle the emergency response. Both my husband and I are.

BrieAndChilli:

I'm one of those 'moaning' parents.

I signed up for Twinkle, IXL, Century tech and many more I've forgotten about and not used - when lockdown started. We had lots of books at home already. Work books and reading books.

We've spent a lot on keeping our kids educated (as the schools are useless during lock down). I'm not a teacher - so I don't know whether we're doing the right thing/learning the right stuff. I don't know how to help them when they're stuck. Motivation is hard to come by when school is not asking them to do this work.

And when we go out for our daily exercise we see their teachers doing the same - happily out walking in forests and spaces you can only spend hours walking in.

Why am I sweating blood trying to educate my children when their teachers are having a holiday?

That's why I'm moaning. We're doing our best - but I'm not a teacher. I'm not being paid to do this. The teachers are. But they're not even trying to teach.

And the kids that don't have money or parents to sign up for alternative educational stuff - what kind of education are they currently getting?

We have emailed the school. But had no reply. Tried different teachers - no response.

Are you really suggesting that we move schools at this current time BrieAndChilli?

We have drawers of workbooks I ordered before lockdown. We have tried all the web resources around. None of it has been a good substitute motivationally or educationally for actual teaching. (remote or in class) .surely teachers should be glad they aren't so easily replaced!