What should we expect from a primary school during school closure?

[Pitaramus]

Its clear to me that schools won’t be back for some time. I’m trying to work out what I should expect from my children’s school during this time without being unreasonable and expecting too much.

Me and DH are working and have 2 primary aged children and a toddler. We’ve been cobbling together work for the older two during the days to keep their routine over the last two weeks of term and the holidays and taking it in turns to do homeschooling / childcare / our actual day jobs. It’s tricky!

I was hoping that from the beginning of this coming term the school would provide some online teaching to actual teach the children rather than just send them off to get on with worksheets but we’ve now been told they’ll be setting a bunch of work a week at a time. I don’t think it will be marked, just set and then they will be left to get on with it.

This leaves me as the teacher which would be fine if I didn’t have a two year old and a job! In the circumstances I was hoping for a bit more from the schools.

Both my children’s teachers are child free and from what I can tell they are on a rota to be in a local school with key worker children (I think once a week). So this isn’t a question of them not having the time to do more. They are both really enthusiastic teachers and seem to enjoy their jobs.

Is it unrealistic because of the age of the children to expect them to be able to teach the children remotely, say by sending videos and then setting work and marking it and providing feedback? Obviously there is no perfect solution but I need to understand the reason why they are approaching it the way they are and not doing more so as to decide whether to contact them / the headteacher or whether to just leave it and carry on as I am. I don’t want to be unrealistic or unreasonable in my expectations.

I’d be grateful if any teachers could give me an insight into why they are approaching things in this way or whether they could be doing more.

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I don’t think a trainee teacher or NQT would be dumped on like that.

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I think the best we can expect from teachers is that they look after keyworkers kids and make sure FSM kids still have something to eat.
It's a national crisis and those are the priorities.

My daughters nursery phones once a week just to check we are OK and even though we always are, I really appreciate the gesture.

That's going over and above though. We're in a deprived area and I think they are really concerned about some of us.

I'm really pleased to see that the BBC are providing resources. That should help.

If people are looking for Zoom classes, there's a company called Outschool which I'm using. The content geared towards the US curriculum but there's still plenty of interest.
DS(7) has enjoyed "Introduction to China" and "The Human Circulatory System" .
DD(5) is going to start on "Circletime" next week.

My son is also academically behind so I sympathise with OP there. For us it's been a blessing to be left to our own devises a bit. I feel like, in school, he was always being pushed along to the next thing in order "keep up" with the class. Perhaps without a solid understanding of what he'd just learned.
I'm treating this as an opportunity to go over some basics with him, at his own pace.

Our primary school teachers have been doing an hour a day. Small group of kids in each hour. They are singing their times table song, bit of drawing, general chat asking what they are doing etc. It's been nice for my dd to see her pals and her teacher. I still have to support her though. I can't just leave her to it. It also means I can't use the computer for my work because the internet isn't very good here and won't work for more than one thing.

We do a page of maths, a page of writing and a fair bit of reading. The rest of the day is spent playing.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-online-education-resources-for-home-education

I teach in early years and we have provided a rough timetable and then each week we upload activities as we would in school so we give a step by step ‘teaching guide’ to how we would teach whichever maths aspect we are focusing on, a phonics guide with links to videos to help and PowerPoints to follow for writing. We generally start with a book and base all our activities around this and then also send out ‘busy bee activities’ for what would be independent learning. It is all sent as ideas and suggested activities. There is absolutely no pressure to do any of this. I am a bit cross with the schools who have just sent links with no explanations, I know lots have done this with white rose maths which is useful but quite dull!

But I’m not going to lie. This is hard, I would say my school is doing far more than my children’s school. I am trying to home school but also respond to many, many emails from parents and head, ensure google classroom is updated and plan for my own children because quite frankly, their school has sent us rubbish or nothing at all!

@Isitandwatchastearsgoby I agree that as a teacher I am disappointed that some schools have just given a list of websites and nothing more. What a way to lower people's opinions of teachers although I bet even in those schools there are some teachers want to do more but need to follow the whole school approach.
We don't expect children to be logging on at certain times as we know others in the family will also need the computer, but we do expect work to be uploaded regularly. Having said that, we can't enforce it from a distance.
For those who have not had much guidance, hopefully now the holidays are over you may get some clearer tasks.

Before this whole covid 19 started I had been thinking about removing my dd (year 2) from her school as I was disappointed with a particular aspect of her education. I'd got as far as making appointments to look round other schools. However, despite my misgivings last term, I have been really impressed with my DD's school during this time.

Prior to the Easter holidays, we were given access to 2 different maths apps, given a curriculum overview so we know what should/would have been taught during that period, directed to White Rose Maths which has a number of online lessons, given 5 literacy and maths lessons each week, detailing objectives and activities to do that need neither huge amounts of difficult to find resources, printed worksheets or technology. They have given information about the topic they would have covered over the coming term with a huge number of suggestions of activities, things to make, research etc. They are producing a sound recording everyday of the teacher reading a story for children to listen to. The Headteacher films himself each day, talks to the children and sets a daily challenge. I have had a phone call from school checking in with us and making sure we're all happy, healthy and happy to discuss any issues we may be encountering. They also sent home learning packs for each child. Online reading books are being set on a regular basis. I am sure there are other things I've missed out. I feel thoroughly prepared to teach my child based on what we've been given. The school have also emphasised time and time again that we can do these activities but it's not expected as they know many parents are also trying to work from home.

In my town this seems to be the norm. I have lots of friends with primary aged children at various schools around the town and they are all receiving a similar amount of work in varying formats. I only know of one school that is creating teaching videos (my sister-in-law's workplace) and after the first two lessons were viewed the school was bombarded by emails from parents complaining about what they'd seen, and suggesting better ways to do the daily videos. From my DD's class WhatsApp group, only a third of the class parents are doing work with their children, as many are either working long hours or they want their children to spend their time playing.

If your individual school isn't doing anything at all then you need to speak to them tomorrow.

You think your kids would be motivated to complete worksheets if they thought their teacher would be seeing them.

Easy. Tell the kids you're sending their worksheets in to their teacher.

They've only missed a few lessons, along with every single other child. Relax

I think children respond better to things their teachers have told them to do than things that mum and dad have told them to do!!

This is only ever said as an attempt to pass the buck. It's usually said to me by parents who have trouble controlling their children's behaviour and used as an excuse as to why they don't do anything to address the negative things their children do.

That's pretty unfair @LemonRedwood. Both the head of reception at my children's school, and a teacher friend of mine have commented how much easier they find it to teach a class of 30 kids than it is to teach their own, because their own don't listen to them in the same way that a class of kids will.

I suspect you don't have children of your own - if you do, I can only presume they are immaculately behaved and follow your instructions without any objection 100% of the time. If so we would all love to know the secrets of your perfect parenting!

I also think children would benefit in these very unsettling times from continuing to have some kind of face to face contact from their teacher, even if this is in the form of a non-interactive recorded 'lesson'. My DS in Y1 had had no fewer than 5 different class teachers (I'm talking about in Y1 alone) by the time the schools closed so now he's onto his 6th adjustment in two terms.

It's a shame some teachers on here are suggesting that their own 'discomfort' at the prospect of doing a recorded YouTube type lesson is more important than the potential educational and psychological benefits for children.

@girasol

Point out to me where I said I had all the answers and the secret to perfect parenting? I am neither the perfect parent nor the perfect teacher but I am heartily sick of parents who tell me, "You need to tell him/her to do it/not to do it because they'll listen to you/they don't listen to me."

Context is everything. Yes, as a teacher, I'm pretty good at getting the vast majority of children to do their work, conform to classroom expectations and follow the rules - in the school and in the classroom. I have less success when they're at home, because their parents are in charge there. When children are younger, the threats and bribes of Mrs Lemon won't be pleased with you doing that, or Mrs Lemon will be so proud of you, will hold some sway. But I resent being used as either the carrot or the stick to get children to do what someone else wants them to do. And children very quickly learn to see empty threats and bribes for exactly what they are. I'm sure other teachers will be able to recount times of when they've encountered, "My mum/dad said I don't have to."

The part of the OP's post that I quoted is too often thrown about when in reality, the context matters hugely. When it comes to directing children, the teacher has more authority and responsibility in the classroom; the parent has more authority and responsibility in the home. That doesn't mean they can't work together to develop effective strategies for both but just saying children listen to the teacher more is rubbish.

It's a shame some teachers on here are suggesting that their own 'discomfort' at the prospect of doing a recorded YouTube type lesson is more important than the potential educational and psychological benefits for children.

Unbelievable. Now I know you're on the wind-up.