“Education” during lockdown is making me worry about standards at my child’s school generally

[Pitaramus]

My child gets set some weekly tasks from school on a Monday each week - an email comes out from the head with a sheet of work attached. It’s largely links to websites like Sumdog, hit the button and white rose for maths but the teachers do set a couple of things themselves. There tends to be very little guidance from the teacher so the expectation is that the parents will “teach” but it’s often hard to understand the purpose of the activity so I often don’t really know what he is supposed to be learning. There are two year groups to a class and the same tasks get set for both years - no differentiation.

We were told to upload a selection of their work to an online platform. My child hasn’t had any personal feedback on any of the work he has uploaded or had any contact from his teacher since schools shut.

I’ve considered raising this with the school and I’ve typed out a few emails and then not sent them because I don’t really know what to say that would make any difference. I don’t think I can change the school’s approach so I’ve just been doing my best with the tasks that are set and trying to give my child the best education I can during this time.

But it’s got me worrying about sending him back to school. It seems to me the school is doing the absolute bare minimum and that most schools are doing significantly more (inc our other local
Primary). Does this mean that it’s just a rubbish school and that the head has the wrong ethos? Should I raise my concerns with the head or should I just cut my losses and move him to the other local primary?

I had concerns before lockdown about the school - it seemed the teacher didn’t have time for my child or any of the more able half of the class and I thought this was because there were a number of children with bad behaviour who the teacher was struggling to manage. But this Remote learning situation has really highlighted how little the school are actually doing in terms of lesson preparation and in terms of feedback to individual children.

I don’t really see the point in writing to complain about lockdown provision but equally I don’t want to do nothing and send him back in September to the same problems...

How do I raise something like this with a school?

I have no idea why you think raising it with the school is a bad idea. You're being asked to upload work so it should be looked at - maybe not super fast, but at some point! At primary parents will need to be far more involved in teaching to some extent the lessons will be what you make them. Some parents don't want to do any. I really think to view how they are copying under these circumstances as an indicator of how well they do normally is a bit daft.
Overall, you need to contact the school. Other parents will be!

Depends on the school and staffing levels
We aren't doing feedback to children.
Some of our staff are off sick and some working full time with Key workers children and uploading work. They also worked through the holidays. Some are planning and uploading work for more than one class.
Our SLT contact the children weekly but I know some teachers do it in their schools. This is a safeguarding check rather feedback on any work.

I would ask if anyone is checking the work so you know your child is on the right track.

Some schools have not opened at all due to risks to staff whilst other schools have a full healthy crew. I don't think it means anything is wrong we just don't know all the back ground problems staff are facing behind the scenes. They may have many staff unable to work from home and may have been short staffed before Covid hit us.

This will also be reflected in the amount of children that are starting back in June.