Only live ‘lesson’ from school is reading. I’m struggling.

[Mully78]

Primary school Yr4.

A quick zoom at 9am to take register and list the work set (10 mins) and then left alone until 11.30 when the teacher reads a chapter of a book via zoom (30mins). A catch up at the end of the day for 15 mins to hold up and show work done.

I’m struggling to help my DS with the maths work set even though they do send a Whiterose video link which we watch together. For the English work I have no idea how to help with explaining adverbs etc and I’m scared I’ll teach him it wrong.

I can do reading with DS but I can’t teach maths or English. I wish the teacher would teach the stuff that we as parents can’t.

I appreciate them coming on throughout the day but wish they would change what they do. They are only half way through the book being read so can’t see them stopping in that.

I’ve never emailed the school before. How should I word my email? Do I send it to the teacher or the Headmistress?

Any advice appreciated.

Hi @ Mully 78

This sounds horrendous! We are getting over half the timetable live streamed in Year1 + reading , circle time and registration.
The government has issued minimal remote learning time - that schools should be doing.

I would definitely complain to the Head and Chair of Governors.

Hope things improve.

There is no requirement for live teaching.

There is a requirement for 4 hours of provision given to KS2.

Those are two different things.

In terms of your email, just explain to the teacher (or Head) that you are struggling, and ask how they can help you with your child's English and Maths. See what they suggest, and if it doesn't work, go back to them.

Isn’t the White Rose video teaching the maths?

The white rose videos seem really good to me. Are you watching them too? Can you invest in a maths online program instead so at least they're getting some maths. I think maths factor is £5 a month and I bought times tables rock stars for £7 for the year so I don't have to mark them!

We have 5, yes 5 half an hour zooms a day. I find it a bit much if I'm honest, and my daughter is getting extremely bored of it all too. We have to do set work in between those too. grateful for the teachers doing it of course, but not always possible to join in every one etc. Struggling here, my daughter is 6, very disinterested in any sort of home learning, far too many distractions, her little sister is home too and her dad on furlough, so lots going on all the time. My head feels like it's going to blow up come 6pm, be kind to yourself, do what you can and celebrate little victories! This is a tough time.. xx

There maybe some further explanations for concepts you are uncertain of on bbc bite size or on the Oak Nation Academy.

@Joy93

Hi @ Mully 78

This sounds horrendous! We are getting over half the timetable live streamed in Year1 + reading , circle time and registration.
The government has issued minimal remote learning time - that schools should be doing.

I would definitely complain to the Head and Chair of Governors.

Hope things improve.

That's incorrect. The white rose have videos where it is taught. 4 hours of remote learning needs to be provided but it does NOT have to be live lessons.

It’s difficult because as demonstrated on a thread here yesterday, parents seem pretty divided into those that want lots of engagement/ online lessons with live teachers, and those that feel that such a forced schedule is a massively restrictive imposition. I’m in the latter group. To touch in once or twice is manageable but I find anymore is stifling when I’m trying to balance self employment with homeschooling. I thought the white rose vids tend to be pretty thorough generally though?

I found if you search on you tube ‘adverbs for kids’ for example, usually you will find one with more views than the others on the list and it explains new concepts. When he is listening to the story or engaged in something else on his own for 5 mins, a quick google of kids and then the topic you want usually gets what I need quickly

My y5 child is having a maths zoom 9-10am - it is white rose and the teacher is making the lessons interactive with all children (including the few in the classroom). They are using whiteboards during the introduction and he explains the slides and the work set. The children usually do most of the work (white rose work sheets that we print off beforehand) during the lesson, but the rest is finished in their own time to be sent in and feedback is given.

At 10.30-11.30, there is an English lesson. Very much the same, with interaction, videos and explanation. Then the children complete the work during the lesson, finishing it off after if necessary.

At 1.30-2.30 there is an afternoon session - a story, topic work or music.

They also have extra tasks set to look at independently.

These zooms have been amazing. Dd is engaged during them, giving me time to get on with other things. She is also happy to do the work set by her teacher and enjoys the interaction too. I would definitely contact the school and explain your concerns.

My middle child is y3.

We have a weekly timetable with
-daily maths(links to white rose videos and worksheets)
-daily english which is related to their class topic(one day they had to write their own version of a conversation taking place in the story, following day was to rewrite a paragraph with more descriptive words)
Then there is either re, science or art.

Daily spellings, reading and numbots.

9am zoom which explains the daily English task. It lasts about 20 minutes.

I didn't know what a fronted adverbial was or how to do whole-part models but thats where Google comes in. If in doubt, Google is your friend!

We have nothing live, at all.

The teacher shares her planning for the day with the powerpoints, worksheets to print and so on. None of it is accessible without adult supervision, which DC can't have as I am working FT in a job involving being on the phone to customers 6+ hours every day.

We don't get any live teaching. They record a video on what to do but I don't understand a word so end up googling and telling them what to write. Seems pointless.

We have no live provision.

We have, on the average day, about 10 minutes of prerecorded video or audio content overall for my child in KS2.

Then worksheets.

We have no live lessons at all, ds in Year 2 is struggling with maths and imat my wits end

@Joy93

Hi @ Mully 78

This sounds horrendous! We are getting over half the timetable live streamed in Year1 + reading , circle time and registration.
The government has issued minimal remote learning time - that schools should be doing.

I would definitely complain to the Head and Chair of Governors.

Hope things improve.

No they haven’t. The DfE have stated how long children should spend on learning each day - it doesn’t say how that learning has to be carried out. I have just under 1/2 my class in as KW children, I have to teach them, I cant do live online teaching at the same time!

Ds is in year 2 and we get no live lessons or anything interactive, we dont even get worksheets just a few sentences of instructions or a few maths sums. It's all repeating stuff they did last year so a complete waste of everyone's time.

(I understand some kids are really behind but there seems to be no differentiation going on at all, my other child has the opposite problem as he is about 2 years behind where he should be in English and no extra support or different tasks set there either.)

Yep no live lessons here either. Just worksheets. It’s extremely annoying, especially introducing new mathematical concepts to the children, I wish the teacher could do a short video explaining, just so at least we would know we are teaching it correctly.

We have zero day to day interaction, and just have to upload one piece of work weekly.

Pathetic.

The White Rose videos are very clear in my experience - I would definitely call or email the teacher to say your child can’t follow the videos or understand the English lesson independently.
She could either call him, do a further video explainer or link to an Bitesize or Oak video on the topic.

You shouldn’t feel you need to teach him.

@Soontobe60 If you are teaching the KWs in school and cannot teach online live to the homeschooling kids - what provision are they getting and do you feel there is a risk that they will fall behind?

Yr 6. One half hour call a week.

Yr 2. 20 minute story time/chat a day.

I think your provision sounds fairly average. Not the worst i have heard and not the worst.

Why would you complain? Sounds completely reasonable to me. It isn’t the schools fault that some parents can’t do the maths even with the video help.

The thing is, children in school need constant help too. I run around like a blue-arsed fly in normal times trying to help everyone. The input bit of teaching is a tiny part of what teaching is, and some days I wouldn't even do an input - children get straight on with their work (carrying on from yesterday's topic) and I help as needed. I just don't know how anyone - teachers, parents, the government - expects most primary children, or those below Y5 anyway, do achieve much without an adult available fairly regularly to help them. The curriculum is just too challenging. I do think a lot of the issue parents have with homeschooling is not realising quite how much support children get across a normal lesson. I know many parents are working themselves so don't know exactly what the solution is! I offer live sessions where I'll just help with any questions children have or even just sit and do a worksheet remotely with them to try and give their parents a break, but uptake of them is low. Maybe worth asking for?

Agree with other posters that quality videos like White Rose meet the government definition of what is required, it doesn't always have to be the teacher themselves talking.

@blue25 that sounds a bit harsh when someone is asking for help.