What is your school providing during lockdown?

[TwinkleMerrick]

Hello

I'm a secondary teacher and I'm really interested to know what other schools are providing for home learning.

I've had terrible teacher and mum guilt this week. A single mum to a almost 3 year old and I feel like I'm not doing enough for my child or enough as a teacher but can't see how I can do any more!

I teach 2 half hour lessons a day. Set enough work for 2 hours of independent learning. Then in the evenings when DD is in bed I assess what students are submitting via google classrooms, do all my planning, answer emails ect ect.

I have been in contact with most of my exam students chasing them for work but it's starting to stress me out knowing I can't help them more.

Mum guilt because I'm always juggling teaching, house work and being a mum.

Teacher guilt because I'm finding hard to do keep my head above water just doing the basics and wish I could offer more support to my students.

I think it would help me to know what other schools are offering?

Thanks

My DC's secondary school is doing the full timetable on Teams - all live lessons.

@Borogroves how are they managing that if they have kids at home? My DD ran into me the other day shouting 'mummy I've done a poo' I was mortified (potty training) but my students thought it was hilarious. I can only imagine what would happen if I had to do all 5 full lessons every day

My daughter is yr 8 and when she was self isolating before christmas they were given fulltime live lessons all day. Since lockdown this year each subject Teacher teaches 50% live and provide the other 50% as independent learning over a two week period. So the Teacher decides how best this fits their area of the curriculum. So on any one day my daughter may have mostly live or mostly independent but usually a good mix of both. The school made the conscious decision that this was a better fit. Personally I feel it works well. My daughter fits two music lessons within the school week as well so she is able to mix and match when she does the Independent tasks within the day. I would assume it works better for the Teachers as well which can only be a good thing all round.

Potty Training story made me laugh, good luck!

My niece in secondary - Y10 - has live lessons all day, she was showing me the calendar on Teams a couple of days ago (via FaceTime). Although she was finished by 2:30pm, so maybe it's 4 lessons a day?

Her brother in primary - Y4 - receives 2/3 Zoom calls/sessions a week and a woefully poor offer in general. I FaceTime him every day to do maths (weaker subject) and check he is okay with the rest of the tasks. It's all Twinkl stuff and videos from YouTube (not always the best - some US ones aren't good), the occasional Oak Academy link (one had a serious mistake in it).

Their mum is working full time (not education) from home and is in-and-out to check they're okay and what they're doing, but she can't do both at the same time (hence why I'm assisting with maths, where he really needs the support).

It's frustrating, because I know of 3 other schools (other family) who are providing a much better offer for their primary pupils.

Hopefully it's won't be for much longer. 🤞🏻

We are teaching all live lessons (secondary). Mixture of children having keyworker places and at home across the staff.

My dd is in y6, she has a full day timetabled on teams. All her extracurricular is on teams too.

@Borogroves

My DC's secondary school is doing the full timetable on Teams - all live lessons.

^ This.

DS is Year 7...

Full timetable of lessons daily (five lessons) via Teams

Any necessary resources such as PowerPoints or Work Sheets are uploaded to Satchel1 beforehand for students to save ready to work on during sessions

Report each Monday which gives grades for attendance, effort and submission of work

Pastoral Support have called to check in twice since Christmas

Each week they are given a different lesson (one per week) off with instructions do spend an hour doing whatever makes them happy

DS does the same as above 50% live teaching and 50% activities. That could be 20 mins of teaching and a 20 min activity, half a double lesson of teaching and half doing an activity or one lesson live followed by the next doing an activity. They also get homework. All work is marked and returned promptly, even little activities have a well done type comment on them.

I’d expect to be doing more than and hour’s teaching during a school day TBH...

OP I'm a secondary teacher and single mum to two primary aged kids. I am doing live lessons all day to timetable. I'm shocked some schools aren't tbh. No wonder the government are talking about extended hours and weeks into the summer holidays.

I'm answer to your question about how I'm managing? It's bloody hard work. My kids are getting a shit deal but I'm trying my best. Often working until 10pm at night. I do out them in school one day a week as a bit of a break for them and I have to be in school myself that day. I have stated setting the odd lesson as assignments now as the students are feeding back that they need a break from the screen too.

You’re a key worker so you can send your child to childcare to enable you to focus on your job?

Full timetable on Teams for the whole school.

Secondary English here - I teach my full timetable. Sometimes the lessons are full periods of activities with me there, sometimes I register and set them off on some independent work, but we are supposed to be available to answer questions, etc, for the full duration of each lesson.

Lucky you, only having two half hour lessons a day!

What is stressing you out about your exam students? Mine get all their contact time and all their work marked and returned to them in the same way that they would in school, so although I'm massively worried about the bigger picture of what the exams will look like this year and what the TAGs will involve, I know I'm doing the best I can by them that I can do, given the situation.

I have DC in Y11 and Y7. They follow their ordinary timetable so are busy with school work from 8.50am until 3.30pm. Y11 receives a decent balance of fully live lessons, presentations with live audio talk-through and independent work. What the school has excelled at is acknowledging every piece of submitted work and the highly specific feedback being given. If teachers are not doing a live lesson, they are available online at that time to respond to emails immediately which has been critical as it allows the students to get on with the task rather than fretting about it for hours whilst waiting for a response.

Y7 DC seems to have no narrated presentations so everything is a mix of live lessons and independent work. That's harder because they need more support with things like DT and art but don't have the same relationships with their teachers at the Y11s do because they've not been at the school very long.

My DH and I are both teachers and are in school every day. He does a full timetable of narrated lessons or prerecorded audio lessons and is then available to respond to work or queries during the timetabled slot. I'm teaching in my school, a mixture of in class and live, remote sessions.

What do you normally do for childcare when you are teaching? The teachers I know who have younger children are using whatever they normally do.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross I teach engineering. I have 3 exam groups that haven't been in the workshop all year. The exam board told us they still have to do all the practical elements....I have no idea when or how I will get that done!

Also, it's not really 1 hour a day. I am online from 9am-2:30pm I teach 2 lessons but have to be available for support. Lessons range from min of 30mins max of 60mins. I do between 30-45mins each lesson. Perhaps I didn't explain myself clearly.

My ks3 and 5 groups have been great, getting all their work in. But ks4 have been difficult, lots of emails and phone calls home. If I was in school I could stand over them and make them do the work. You know the drill.

I sit with my DD as she has SEN. Her secondary school provides all lessons online. Teachers do PowerPoints usually and then ask questions/give short tasks. Students do tasks, then discuss or put answers into chat or submit results later online.
Some children did appear on screen. Teachers usually muted themselves to answer child's questions, a few time small children waved hello, once a child sat on teacher’s knee. No harm in it. I should say all teachers stayed calm and professional and I was very impressed. I actually think it’s a great example for students how to stay calm, polite and respectful to others. I admire those teachers who are doing such a great job in difficult circumstances.

It's good to take into consideration to add as well online sessions to boost literacy skills and give your children time to enjoy the learning even during this situation. For instance, drama and performing arts sessions, classes that are cross-curricular, tying in well with the national curriculum.