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.

@Pitaramus - having RTFT I totally agree with your latest message.

🌷🌷🌷🌷

Clearly schools are never going to please everyone.

I love what our school have done. They have supplied a timetable of what they would have been doing at school with links to resources - PowerPoint, websites, online learning and activities and worksheets - related to each lesson, with an email to return any work or queries too. They have been explicit that everyone's home circumstances are different and the most important thing for parents to do with their children is read with them every day and to try to stay well and happy. They ring once a week and speak to each child, they respkd really quickly to questions, and have suggested tailored extension work for dc1 who likes structure and challenge.

A local school that's very tech fosussed has sent all children home with a tablet (they seem very well equipped as an academy chain) and requires everyone to log in for registration and then the children sit with headphones on for most of the day. Lots of parents are really pleased with this as they just 'plug their kids in' but this wouldn't work for us at all. I work and our household is following a timetable based around my and DH working pattern, not the school day at the moment and the dc having to be logged on and quiet at certain times would be a pressure I couldn't cope with. Plus the safeguarding issues - I've seen social media discussions of what parents have overheard going in other households, what they've seen, how other children have behaved etc. I would want no part in giving other people access to our home and family life like that and would opt out.

For my dc right now it would not work to pretend that their education is going to carry on as it would have done at school. I'd rather acknowledge this and accept it and think differently.

We are listening to audio books, I'm reading to them from chapter books we normally wouldn't have time for, they're watching Horrible Histories and nature programmes etc. We're looking up birds that come to our garden, butterflies we see on our walks, they're doing Oti Mabusi's dance workshops... They're playing in the garden for hours on end.

This to me is all preferable to accessing online sessions from their teachers. I would still have to support and facilitate and we'd all be under more pressure.

I'm really grateful to my dc teachers and school and feel well supported. There are ways of feeling better supported by school that doesn't involve interactive teaching of small children. Def speak to school about how they could be more supportive.

Thanks @KindKylie, these are some great ideas. we’ve done a lot of David Attenborough so far since school closures - our kids seem to like him! I will check out horrible histories too.

And great idea about the audio books. I’ve found Carrie’s war on bbc sounds for free and I might pay for a few. I normally read to the kids separately but I’m thinking of trying to find a book that suits both of them so I can read to them together while the toddler naps. I think it’s all about finding educational things to do that fit with the rest of our lives at the moment.

girasol

Your "discomfort" is often online harassment and bullying.

Ooo Carrie's War is on my list, thanks for the tip off!

How old are yours, may be able suggest some books that would work? I find that our audible subscription is great value for money so definitely worth looking into.

You're completely right, just find what works. Most things are educational with a bit of tweaking if needed :)

Mine have set an hour of maths and English each day - problem is it takes the kids 10 mins to do it and I end up having to try and find extra tasks for them to do. Frustrated already.

When I have gone onto my reception childs class and been shown their work, they normally have two pages per term.

Mine are 6 and 8 @KindKylie. My eldest has listened to the Harry Potter audio books over the last few years and they are great. Stephen Fry reads them and his voice is perfect!

If you've found Carrie's War on Sounds, War Horse is on the same page.

Our school has been excellent - and I have fed this back to my daughter’s teachers. Google classroom live sessions but with videos as well. Documents uploaded. Time taken to help in maths. And emails back having marked work. Plus phone calls to check in. Very, very happy with them - and I am working so am juggling this too, but they have tried very hard to make it as easy for working parents as possible. This is primary btw.

We’ve used some of the BBC Bitesize lessons today which went down well.

Thank you too for the Carrie’s War tip - perfect.

Got our instructions for the summer term. We have to do a bit of reading, a bit of writing and a bit of maths everyday.
Which is just great because that's what we've been doing so far and it's manageable to us.
I'm pretty happy with that.

@Introvertedbuthappy I'm surprised you can be told your working hours from home tbh. With young children this is so unmanageable for a lot of people. How many do you have live in the mornings then?

All of our work is uploaded to seesaw but I'm finding it quite tricky to mark some things off a screen rather than a paper copy. So feedback is more general than looking at specific questions.

@Pitaramus I haven't read your posts as being critical of teachers. It is other posters who are doing that.

If you have no joy from the school, keep looking at the BBC and Oak Academy online. I cast my eye over yesterday's Year 3 lessons and it looks like there'll be things to keep children engaged - Norman conquest in history, for example!

Us teachers want nothing more than to be back in the classroom properly. This situation is as frustrating for us as it is for you!