Why so little actual teaching in lockdown (state secondary)?

[CatOnMyLap]

My DS (year 8, London state secondary) is getting almost no live teaching during lockdown. Lots of powerpoints, YouTube videos, worksheets set by teachers, but the kids are expected to work unsupervised at home, including tackling complex new topics. Also very little feedback/homework marking. Friends with children at other state secondary schools have the same experience. Yet I am told that private school teachers are doing daily live teaching via Zoom/Google hangouts etc.

I understand that it's unfamiliar, that some teachers may be ill or have small children at home, and that not all kids have sole access to a device. But after 10 weeks it is so clear that the kids need some actual teaching/discussion/group work, and this is doubly true for children whose families can't support with learning. I would love to know why teachers cannot be live say once a week per class per subject for half an hour minimum to explain a new topic or lead a discussion. Are there any teachers who can explain why this is?

Also don't really get why a pastoral telephone call would be wanted. My kids are fine and nothing helpful would be added to their lives by a call from a teacher. They would be embarrassed and barely speak I think. I know teachers ARE calling pupils but it's the ones in need, almost certainly not those with parents on mumsnet. I'd rather they concentrate their efforts on those that would benefit.

I teach in a private secondary and I am teaching live lessons but there are a few points that I want to raise.

1. all teachers at my school have school laptops - this is not the case in most state schools. If the teacher at home does not have a laptop they might not have a webcam of their computer. Teaching from a tablet/phone would be extremely difficult. Most other professions provide online working equipment, teachers have not been.
2. we have an amazing it support team, 3 members of staff, again most state school do not have this. This supports us as teachers and the students. There have been a lot of tech issues.
3. creating online lessons is a totally different skill to teaching face to face, it takes at least 2 hours for me to create one 40min lesson (longer at the start of all this) the lesson can run live and stand alone if the student misses the time slot. I have less lessons in my timetable than a state school teacher, plus taught several exam classes, so have the time to do this.
4. marking feedback and chasing students takes a lot of time, we have a strong house pastoral team to help with this (again not in most state schools) *pastoral team that have time allocated to this not that state school don’t have strong pastoral teams. My max class size is 18 which makes a huge difference.
5. even with all this we don’t do video lessons, we use teams on audio only. I also don’t make my own videos, people with a lot more skill have done a better job of this than me (maybe I am lucky with my subject) so why would I spend time to make an inferior product!
6. I have 2 teenagers and space to have my own room to work in, not all teachers do (this isn’t a state private thing), so can pretty much just get on with my day.

@WokeUpSmeltTheCoffee

Also don't really get why a pastoral telephone call would be wanted. My kids are fine and nothing helpful would be added to their lives by a call from a teacher. They would be embarrassed and barely speak I think. I know teachers ARE calling pupils but it's the ones in need, almost certainly not those with parents on mumsnet. I'd rather they concentrate their efforts on those that would benefit.

Just because the mum is on mumsnet does not mean a child is not vulnerable. Abuse in all forms happens in all walks and classes of life.

I get that but what I'm saying is that I expect schools know who is at risk and target their pastoral phone calls.

If you are on Mumsnet moaning that your kid did not get a phone call then realise that schools are prioritising those in need and take it as a good sign that it's not you!

The govt suspended the curriculum, gave no guidance to schools about what, if any, teaching and learning they should provide from when schools closed on 20th March.

HTH.

The problem is that schools can effectively do what they like because they haven’t been given any guidance on home learning. As a consequence some are doing lots and some are doing fuck all. You’re not allowed to bring that up on here though because every teacher on mumsnet is working very hard.

Having seen the DfE guidance on returning to school I'm not sure any guidance from them would improve the situation!

There is a divide and some schools are shit (sorry to say it but primary schools putting out resources once a week and nothing more seems far more common than secondary).

My DS private school is only having 1-2 calls a week. The rest is as youve described just worksheets and videos.

I also think that training is an issue
Why should teachers not be allowed some training time to learn how to effectively teach via these online platforms? It isn't something they were trained for and yet someone upthread felt that this was a silly excuse.

I just had some training to do a Zoom teaching session for a large professional audience that will be recorded and I am bricking it a bit. I am much more daunted by the thought than by giving a normal lecture at a conference as it's something I never had to do and the thought of any mistakes I make being immortalised is horrible.

We were given tips on background, lighting, optimising sound and video quality, managing the chat (for which it was suggested you actually need another person so you are not distracted), using the tools effectively eg hand raise, feedback, polls. When I give the lecture the conference organiser will be online too troubleshooting any tech issues, letting in late arrivals, deleting anything inappropriate on the chat etc

I have attended meetings and lectures that were really rubbish because people had no idea how to use it and we were getting lots of background noise, feedback, echo, people accidentally taking control of the meeting, people accidentally sharing all their personal emails instead of their slides, talking over one another and the speaker, writing stuff in the chat that they didn't realise everyone could see...
Some colleagues are going to struggle more than others with this as some are a long way from digitally native.

These things only work well when ground rules are agreed and people know how to use the tech effectively. I think it's absolutely fair that teachers should get training and IT support for this and I can understand this would take time to organise.

We are in Scotland. Our local council has put a blanket ban on ALL live teaching. No video, not even pre-recorded.

it's really not good enough.

@WokeUpSmeltTheCoffee

All of your posts on this thread have been fantastic and helped people to see teaching in the context of another profession, thank you.

I'm a school governor so I have learnt to see it from teacher's perspective more than most

Thank you WokeUpSmeltTheCoffee and TheletterZ for such realistic and sensible posts!

I don't buy the "survey " thing because surveys can be phrased in a way that pushes people towards particular answers.

Ah. Interesting that you disregard valid opinions that don’t conveniently match yours with the ‘don’t buy it’ line. What about those posters on this thread who have also said they don’t want to follow a live timetable?
We get from these many threads you are on that you love live video lessons, which is fair enough but at least acknowledge not every parent wants that right now.

Yes, to reiterate what WokeUpSmeltThe Coffee says re: needing training and support to transition - if necessary - to using live teaching platforms.

My usual face-to-face training was moved online when lock down started. A crash course on how to use fucking Zoom nearly sent me over the edge, while also trying to work out the multiple log ins for my children's school work, sort out my elderly mother's needs etc.

And I teach adults, who are considerably kinder than children when you make a mistake (chucking everyone into and and out of breakout rooms like those weather men things) and don't have parents moaning about you, and there aren't the same safeguarding issues.

A few months later, I'm more confident with it, but don't think online live training is great. In terms of actually teaching or consolidating material, I'd prefer short amounts of information/video clips backed up by self-directed learning, with a teacher/trainer available to answer questions etc in writing eg email/chat function.

People can then access it when suits them and, just as importantly, work at a pace that suits them.

The live format is useful for 'building rapport' with people who you haven't met before, so it's not necessary for teachers who know their pupils already.

Both of my children have had live Zoom 'check ins' with their class, which they've really liked, but didn't happen immediately as teachers obviously needed to learn how to use the platforms and safeguarding and other policies needed to be drawn up.

The necessity of this became apparent when one of my children's school tried to teach a live lesson and had to stop when a child started drawing on the whiteboard and the teacher didn't know how to stop them (or that she could have disabled them from using this function at all).

I am a teacher using my own device to do lessons. Yesterday I did a live lesson with my sixth form group. Half way through the lesson, one of them took a photo of the screen. I’ve no now no idea where that photo will end up.
That’s the end of live lessons for me.

Yep that's the reality of live lessons with tech savvy kids.

It is utterly extraordinary how fast and loose some parents expect teachers to be with safeguarding remotely.

@WokeUpSmeltTheCoffee and @Hercwasonaroll

It's really helpful to hear other views. I'm also a Dr so am giving a different angle on it all from a professional view.

I think if a child has had no contact for nearly 3 months it is impossible to say if they are vulnerable or not. Initially it clearly made sense to focus on known vulnerable children but i think we have now reached a different phase.

@TheletterZ
I think your comments about the differences between state and private schools are helpful and i was aware of these which is why I waited over 2 months before getting concerned about what is/isn't happening at my child's school.

I think the phonecall thing is very school context specific.

If your school is in an area of high deprivation then teachers/pastoral staff will be focusing on the most vulnerable. Possibly even feeding/clothing some students. However a different demographic of school may not be spending time on this so should be contacting all students.

I know some of our parents have asked not to be contacted, they are fine and the students are in regular online contact with their teachers via teams.

If you feel your school has not been good enough, contact them and ask why. You may find out more information.

@helpmum2003 I agree. And I am not sure how teachers can determine which children are vulnerable unless they are talking to them. Vulnerability is not just about deprivation. Awful abuse or stress can affect children even in the wealthiest homes. I keep seeing teachers saying theu are focusing on the vulnerable children and I just think, 10 weeks into lockdown, how can you possibly know who these are unless you speak to all of them.

@NeverTwerkNaked

It's very unlikely for a child to disclose abuse on the phone. You can phone and ask closed questions if need be, especially with younger students. Older ones are more savvy and won't say much. They're more likely to email or message a friend who will hopefully pass it on to school.

Most abusive situations won't have just arisen over the last 10 weeks. School will already be aware of households with safeguarding concerns.

It's poor for a school not to have made any contact. But a phonecall isn't a magic bullet that will automatically tell you about abuse, stress, neglect etc.

@Hercwasonaroll I have a child who was badly abused. I am aware they won't disclose in a phone call. But without even a phone call, even a mundane one, there will feel very alone in the world. And actually lockdown has exacerbated abuse in households - DV deaths have risen and that is the extreme (but visible end of the wedge).
I know through friends and family of scores of children all over the country who haven't spoken to their teacher once during lockdown. This is a national disgrace.

I'm more than aware DV has increased, but probably not at a number of household level. It will be the same children (sadly) getting more abuse.

I
At Secondary the students are more than happy with an email or a spoken message. They have overwhelming voted they don't like the phonecalls.

Primary may be different. They generally only have one teacher. However staff don't generally have school phones to take home. I wouldn't feel comfortable phoning a child from my personal phone.

Teachers can phone a childs landline or parents mobile from their own mobiles. If they dial 141 before the number the number doesn’t show up. I get free minutes and I make calls in this way from home. Also many of the larger secondary schools have admin staff in on a rota basis so they could maybe a generic call round. If the parents answer they might get more information as to whether the child won’t get out of bed on a morning, whether the home hasn’t enough devices, whether the child is ill, whether a close family member has died, etc.
DD was doing really well to start with then my dad got really sick and died in hospital (which led to her starting to get behind).

Our school records all phone calls to protect staff and students. Hence why I wouldn't be making them from home. We've also been told we aren't allowed in the school building unless we are on the rota to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Just explaining some reasons why some places aren't making calls. My school are but it's pastoral staff on a rota. Most students are happy with online chats.