Not using half term to catch up am I wrong?

[CatAndTheChild]

NC for this.

DD is 6, year 2. I am a single parent and she is an only child. She also has some health issues, although I am furloughed.

School do 1x live lesson a day for maths or English, then 1x prerecorded maths or English (they alternate so one day it’s Maths with A Class/Bubble and the next it’s English with B Class/Bubble). Then the other topics/subjects are set a task and/or worksheet to complete. Live lesson is uploaded in the hour after the lesson to watch back/again at leisure. All worksheets/tasks are uploaded to an online system at the end of everyday for the next day. School are also good at printing anything off in advance and posting it through letter boxes/letting you collect from school.

DD is about 2 weeks behind with maths and English and 3-4 weeks in all other subjects. She’s had zoom medical appointments during this lockdown which take much longer than normal in clinic appointments so those days she’s done 1 or 2 tasks rather than the recommended 5-6, and she’s also had a few days of doing nothing as she’s needed to attend blood tests or go to the actual hospital/clinic for tests that can’t be done at home (they’ve closed all the local clinics temporarily and keep sending us to the big hospital 25 miles away so a simple blood test can easily take all day when I’d usually be able to pop with her to the clinic in my town and it take an hour).

Teacher called me today and very apologetically told me that DD will need to use half term next week to try and catch up. She fully admits that if DD were at school she’d be having extra support to get her through and she’d also be setting much less work in school because she’d be able to assess the childrens understand and adapt tasks.

I do feel for the teacher, she’s doing her best. But I don’t want to use half term to catch up. Selfishly I was looking forward to some time with DD where I don’t have to consider her schooling for a bit, she has no appointments so it’ll be my time to run around with her, bake, play games etc. I am happy to play maths or English related games with her.

My DD doesn’t have an EHCP as she doesn’t really need one (class TA can keep her up for now) so doesn’t class as vulnerable. But she is getting a really raw deal atm, she has me teaching her, no siblings to play with and is still battling her medical issues. We’re spending all day 9-3 working on schoolwork and sometimes still not getting it finished. Even cutting out other subjects and just focusing on Maths and English there’s just too much to do.

So do I use half term to catch up? Or just pick up where are at when the new half term starts?

@TryingNotToPanicOverCovid

Yes we do the main bit in an hour - but if OP is working on homeschool 9-3 they must be doing something

What though? We can easily do what would take 3 hours at school, often in under an hour. I supplement extensively to ensure as much as possible the areas I know my child needs further work on are covered. It's a travesty to not be working nor covering the absolute minimum.

I wonder if school are setting just a lot of "stuff" if it takes 9-3 to do it. Which is why I wondered if its possible to choose the important bits to do.

We've not found it hard to keep on top of it for the same reason as you I assume - its been easy to keep on top because there isn't much set.

BUt OPs school seem to be filling the day so its easy to get behind - schools really do vary. If we had enough to fill 9-3 every day we would be behind too.... I'd def have to prioritise.

Yes OP - do tell us what exactly you're doing and maybe we can help prioritise? If the school aren't doing that?

My ds is same age, no medical conditions or additional needs. I do maths and English, and ask him if he wants to do any of the optional stuff. We do 1 maths worksheet, 1 English worksheet or PowerPoint, a bit of reading, might do his spelling practice. They have just started live zoom lessons and get a prerecordee either maths or english video.

He might chose to do a science worksheet or geography etc.

I am definitely looking forward to half term, and definitely wouldn't be doing anything. We are definitely behind as we haven't done lots but I have no fucks to give tbh. At 6/7 maths and English are key, the rest will come when they go back. Half the stuff they set is busy work anyway, just designed to keep them busy in school for 6 hours. We can do the maths and English in an hour and he's grasped some key concepts during this lockdown so I'm happy he's progressing.

Bloody nora. My kids are year 1 and year 3 and a lot of stuff is being sent but it’s being made clear that we do what we can. Mine won’t work independently hardly at all so it’s taking me all day to get most (not all) of it done. I know many parents who are working ft at home and their kids are not doing much above the very minimum.
I’d be really shocked if school expected any kind of catch up over half term.
I’m surprised you say she’s so many weeks behind. It seems like you haven’t managed to actually do all the activities (like most of us) but that definitely does not mean your dd is “behind” just that she’s not done as many activities surely.
If school are that worried they should offer her a place back in school.
Have the week off.

I would be astonished if the school is on your case because you haven’t done topic or making a lantern or whatever. No one is behind if they are keeping up with maths, English, phonics, reading. I doubt the school is really referring to the OP’s need to do anything but get up to speed on the core essentials

Sorry just come back to this thread.

So a typical day will be:

7am up, eat, physio
8am/8.30am (depending on if she drags her feet with physio) brush teeth, feed cat, read book which she struggles with. School have said thats quite typical for her, she doesn't like giving up until she's understood and at school she will choose to stay in at playtime to catch up if she's not understood her maths
9am* Log onto system, for online registration. Check days tasks. Do maths which is her weakest subject so that can take us until lunchtime some days as I have to explain, then rexexplain. If we get time we do handwriting practice or phonics practice with.
12-1pm is lunchtime.
1-2/2.30pm* I do English task usually it's handwriting or reading which she can do quite quickly once she gets going but if it's writing a story/facts she needs help and reminders (school think she has processing issues but she's not officially diagnosed it could be related to her health condition). She struggles with spellings so if she gets stuck on a spelling it can take awhile to get her going again
2-3pm Either finish off English or do a topics work if we have time
3pm-3.30pm physio again
3.30-4.30pm walk

*The live lessons are usually 45-60 minutes long so need watching. We often watch the explanation try it then if we have questions look at the rest to see if anyone asked the same question. If not I have to write a question on the system, send it and wait for the teacher to respond, which can take half an hour or so depending on whats happening at school.

Then it's eat again, bath, teeth bed. She has to be in bed by 6.45 to have any chance of getting her up by 7am. If she was at school she'd be in bed by 6pm as she'd need to be up at 6.15am.

Apart from reading she's getting less playtime than she would if she was at school which I think is really affecting her as well.

I am so proud of how she's coping. Yes we're not getting everything done but she's always been known to keep trying and not move on until she gets it. I just wanted a few days break to let her play with her toys and spend some time not helping her with work. She would struggle to do any of it alone.

I am not criticizing her teacher at all, she's been brilliant and I am impressed with the way they've adapted the work for online learning. I just feel a bit helpless.

Sorry bit about school should be with 9am.

DD is 6, year 2

There's your answer - she is only six.

Play loads and loads of games with her, read amazing books, go on nature walks and run around.

Our children have had a terrible time. Only Tory MPs think they need yet more school work - and that is because they are almost all emotionally weird.

Personally I would probably do 30 minutes of maths and 30 minutes of English a day just to catch up a bit.
I wouldn't bother with topic work.

Going forward, I would only do the maths & English.

I've gone through to work out which activities are maths, phonics and reading/comprehension as I think those are the most important to DD (handwriting/spelling is important but her writing is very neat and most of her friends still need help with spelling so I'm less worried about her not really being able to do sentences yet). I will do those first.

At 3pm on Friday I will be stopping work with her until no earlier than Wednesday 9am. At least she gets a bit of a break. I'll then do Wednesday to Friday as school days focusing on Maths, Phonics and Reading and give her the weekend off (I've usually been doing a bit over weekends but she can have next weekend off). So she still gets to have some fun.

If we get anything else caught up then thats great, if we don't, we don't.

You're furloughed, your child is off school for a week and you can't really go anywhere. Why not just keep to some sort of routine and complete the phonics work, read a story and the maths. Spread it out, incorporate it into play if you can. Alot of children found it difficult to go back to online learning after a school break last time so I think routine is important.

Unfortunately even when back at school it is likely your child will be behind the rest of the class if regularly missing school for medical appointments. I would get in the habit now of doing a small bit everyday during holidaysand continue this throughout their education to try and help them not fall behind.

That sounds a plan! Hope it works out okay.

Do school know its taking you all morning to do one lesson? I don't think it should be and maybe they aren't pitching it right/differentiating properly?

@HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime

You're furloughed, your child is off school for a week and you can't really go anywhere. Why not just keep to some sort of routine and complete the phonics work, read a story and the maths. Spread it out, incorporate it into play if you can. Alot of children found it difficult to go back to online learning after a school break last time so I think routine is important.

Unfortunately even when back at school it is likely your child will be behind the rest of the class if regularly missing school for medical appointments. I would get in the habit now of doing a small bit everyday during holidaysand continue this throughout their education to try and help them not fall behind.

I usually do a bit over the big summer holidays but don't bother at all for half terms and Christmas and Easter are usually pretty packed with activities so I may do a few little bits but not much. Over the summer I do 15 minutes a day Maths or English.

She's usually not too far behind in class because she's in the group that works most with the TA and they're very good at catching her up but I obviously don't want her to fall too far behind.

My DS is 7 and we’re about a week behind with English and very behind in all other subjects except Maths, handwriting and reading. His teacher said to stick to the main subjects. My mum needs a lot of care and we have physiotherapists in most weekdays for her or zoom meetings and it really disrupts our day too. If you’re doing physiotherapy over zoom every morning I’m not surprised you’re both finding it hard to school work after. Have a rest

@FlatFace

My DS is 7 and we’re about a week behind with English and very behind in all other subjects except Maths, handwriting and reading. His teacher said to stick to the main subjects. My mum needs a lot of care and we have physiotherapists in most weekdays for her or zoom meetings and it really disrupts our day too. If you’re doing physiotherapy over zoom every morning I’m not surprised you’re both finding it hard to school work after. Have a rest

Physio over YouTube videos but they’re designed for adults not children so I have to stand with her and explain what to do so a 15 minute physio session easily turns into an hour or longer

@CatAndTheChild
She's usually not too far behind in class because she's in the group that works most with the TA and they're very good at catching her up but I obviously don't want her to fall too far behind.
Im afraid you may well be living under a false sense of security.
If my child was in the group that is always supported by the TA. That would mean to me that they're significantly below the expected level.

I'd be doing all I could to try and support her. And I'd say that little and often is better than 4 days off. An hour focussed a day would be my suggestion.

As for the set lessons, it really does sound as though too much is being made of these lessons to take 3 hours each.

I'm curious to know if you work OP. Mainly because I'm interested to know what the school expects parents to do when both parents are working over half term.

DH and are both work full time. We are doing the bare minimum of what we can for two kids on the days we're not working. I've explained this to this teachers that the work gets done when it gets done. The school haven't batted an eye about it.

Wr are using DH's nonworking days next week to catch up on some stuff. But is mainly English and maths tasks. DC are yet to complete one piece of artwork.

"Catching up" which essentially I don't agree with - education isn't a race - doesn't have to mean "completing all the bits of work set by the teacher". None of those worksheets are magic or intrinsically essential.

DC's school is very clear that the children should do what they can. They do not have to complete all the work that is set.

It would be helpful if the teacher could give some guidance over what to prioritise, but if not then you will have to.

If your DC understands the maths and the work set is lots of repetitive calculations to consolidate and practice, skip some of them - do half. Similarly with the English and other subjects. If some of the work is "busy" work - craft projects or similar, then skip it (or if your child will enjoy it then do some of the more fun ones together over half term).

If you forgot about "catching up" and just planned to start after half term with the live work, would your child have missed anything that would leave a gap in their knowledge? If so, cover that, but if not then forget about it.

Agree with the above, she's not behind. She's 6. She's learning at her own pace. Sounds like she's being pushed pretty hard to be honest.

@Onlineshopperforever

I'm curious to know if you work OP. Mainly because I'm interested to know what the school expects parents to do when both parents are working over half term.

DH and are both work full time. We are doing the bare minimum of what we can for two kids on the days we're not working. I've explained this to this teachers that the work gets done when it gets done. The school haven't batted an eye about it.

Wr are using DH's nonworking days next week to catch up on some stuff. But is mainly English and maths tasks. DC are yet to complete one piece of artwork.

I do work but furloughed atm although I’m due back at the end of February and I will have to focus on that.

"she doesn't like giving up until she's understood and at school she will choose to stay in at playtime to catch up if she's not understood her maths" - Well that is to her credit.

But I would say your day today sounds a bit punishing to me. I'd do less work and have more fun, and a lot more play and just do the mornings.

[quote MotherExtraordinaire]@CatAndTheChild
She's usually not too far behind in class because she's in the group that works most with the TA and they're very good at catching her up but I obviously don't want her to fall too far behind.
Im afraid you may well be living under a false sense of security.
If my child was in the group that is always supported by the TA. That would mean to me that they're significantly below the expected level.

I'd be doing all I could to try and support her. And I'd say that little and often is better than 4 days off. An hour focussed a day would be my suggestion.

As for the set lessons, it really does sound as though too much is being made of these lessons to take 3 hours each.[/quote]
Yes she’s below expectations in all areas but the teacher has said that it’s mostly due to the missed learning and she’s not too far behind in class. I haven’t seen any of her class work since March 2020 so I can’t say if that’s true or not school aren’t allowing anything in or out so I have no idea if she’s far from where she should be or not.

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

"she doesn't like giving up until she's understood and at school she will choose to stay in at playtime to catch up if she's not understood her maths" - Well that is to her credit.

But I would say your day today sounds a bit punishing to me. I'd do less work and have more fun, and a lot more play and just do the mornings.

The problem is is we’re already two weeks behind where we should be, if she was in school for either KW or vulnerable child (I can’t get her in so don’t suggest it) on the days she’s not in I’d have to be keeping her up as there’s no way she’d be able to do the stuff in school.

It’s a catch 22. I don’t want to punish her by making her do schoolwork but I also don’t want her to go back to school behind the other children.