Not bashing, school have not been in contact at all, what should we do?

[drspouse]

Highly aware that teachers are under masses of pressure.
DH is KW and currently he's quarantining in the spare room (due to upcoming hospital appointment not symptoms), DS has SEN and his school have been great, loads of work packs, calling every day.
DD has been in on average one day a week but will do next to nothing at home. She's in Y1 and has an IEP.
Today she screamed for 10 minutes then read four pages, took 45 minutes to find 3 words in a word search, did crafts (she'd happily do only crafts, ever),

I emailed her teacher 10 days ago to say she was not coping. No reply. Not a single phone call the whole time she's been off. No emails.

We can't read some of the work set on the school website and the rest is too hard for her e.g. phonics way ahead of where she is, she's only just doing one more/one less. School said they were going to give the class the same choice boards in class, we asked the class teacher to let us know what she had done (she never tells us) on days she's in. No answer to that either.
What can we do now? I'm trying to work, she's learning nothing and just getting upset, DH can't help but she won't do anything for him normally anyway, she was already really behind!

Khan academy is great it covers maths and other topics from reception to University level. Each lesson has a video to teach the content and then you complete the questions. Easy to use on a tablet and is free. Yes, some of it is americanised but it's more important to get her to be receptive to learning than anything.

Your school are simply not going to give you what you want. No, it's not fair but that's the way it currently is.

I've given up on the school provided provision for my Dd as after the younger years went back they stopped what was quite a good provision to just setting out 10 weekly tasks for all of KS2 with no feedback on work completed. I bought the appropriate book bundle from CGP we mark it together so she gets instant feedback and she prefers this to the work school we're setting. There's a minimum amount of home working she needs to do, 1 page from each book, 15 mins timetables rockstar and 1 hr of reading which we split 30 mins her reading and 30 mins sharing a book together and then she can get on with playing / skyping her friends.

It sounds like she is struggling with school invading her home environment which many of my students with SEN are also struggling with. If you have the funds it might be worth setting up a dedicated 'school' space where all work is completed and nothing else. A particular table or even a tent in the garden if you have one, with a very clear routine for her perhaps a visual routine. Focus on little and often, a 6 year old is only likely to really concentrate for about 10 mins at a time.

If you are working during the day maybe do the school tasks earlier or later to fit around the work day.

Sorry if I've missed it, but why isn't your daughter going in to school full time?

Does she have an EHCP?

Can you send her to school as a KW child?

If you can, I’d do that. Even if only for a week, to give yourself some breathing space and some time to look through sites and see what might work at home. I know all the stuff out there seems overwhelming but if you had a little bit of time you could probably find one or two that you think would work best.

Some suggestions:

Twinkl - free at the moment, lots of worksheets, teachers use them a lot
TheSchoolRun (14 day free trial) this will send you daily worksheets
Khan Academy (American, but mostly translates ok)
TopMarks (maths games)
BusyThings (paid for but you can get a free trial)
Teach your Monster to Read (phonics app)
OxfordOwl (free ebooks in the Oxford reading scheme)

Regarding work. You have a DS with SEN, a non compliant Y1 DD and a DH who cannot help. Work is going to be extremely hard for you, there’s no way round that. I think either DD goes to school full time or you will only be able to work after she’s finished school work for the day. Trying to do both at the same time is going to be impossible and stressful. Can you set the mornings aside for school work and in the afternoons you work while she does craft/tablet/ etc. And then do whatever you can in the evenings?

You haven't said whether she can go to school more often?
She's in the KW group (our LEA is one that isn't opening yet) and while they said "the children can choose from the choice boards in school" she won't learn anything there. Also with trying to keep DH uninfected I'd rather keep it down now - there are 80 KW children in. Once he's had his biopsy, we can reconsider.

@SandieCheeks see it's not in the slightest bit obvious that is how it works, but looking ahead to next week, it has counting to 50 in 2s. She can count to 6 in 2s. So we'd have to prewatch everything, filter out all the worksheets that are too hard, find new ones, find new explanations, every day for everything.
@Ickabog we let her play Teach Your Monster to Read after she's done her school work - but she's not keen - DS had Phonics Play from his old school but it only works on one laptop (which I'm trying to work on) and even then it's glitchy and frustrating. I started a thread about annoying learning apps and apparently it's not just me!

@drspouse nothing is going to work for you and there will be no option you're happy with.
There are no easy answers, no one can give you what you want at the moment.

It's a shame about phonics play, but there are other apps out there that might be better suited to a tablet. If you started a thread i'm sure lots would be recommended.

She can count to 6 in 2s.

With this in mind I would look again at the reception work that the school are providing. You said it's too easy, but it sounds more suited to her ability levels. Also the explanation video from the teacher is something you've repeatedly said you think she will respond to.

She has an IEP but no EHCP. Until all this, I thought she was keeping up OK because you never see what the other children are doing! So someone must be explaining things to her in school and setting her work and giving her feedback. I don't think a bit of feedback in 11 weeks is unreasonable! There are two Y1 teachers and at least 3 TAs, surely one of those could subdivide the ideas into 3 or 4 levels, one could do phone calls home, one could check who hasn't sent anything in?
If she went in full time I'd be seeing to DS (his school can't offer full time), doing my work to get them off my back, and sorting the house out. Not doing lesson prep.
We only have the dining table for her to work at.

There are only 5 more weeks until the summer holidays. I would continue to do bed time stories. You could do simple maths quizzes when on your walks (whats 2 add 4?) When your cooking dinner ask if your child wants to write a menu for it? Just add little bits in throughout the day. Focus on you and your child enjoying your time rather than stressing, it’s unlikely (crossed fingers) you will get this extra time together again so just enjoy, and if you can get a word search in or a game involving ANY maths, reading or writing your a winner x x

nothing is going to work for you and there will be no option you're happy with.
I've repeatedly said what is working for my DS and that I think something similar would work for DD.
@Ickabog
I started a thread about apps, remember, and everyone said yes, they are all glitchy and impossible to work with. I really don't know how teachers put up with them TBH! We use Teams for work and it's bad enough with a load of superficially competent adults!

@drspouse

nothing is going to work for you and there will be no option you're happy with. I've repeatedly said what is working for my DS and that I think something similar would work for DD. *@Ickabog* I started a thread about apps, remember, and everyone said yes, they are all glitchy and impossible to work with. I really don't know how teachers put up with them TBH! We use Teams for work and it's bad enough with a load of superficially competent adults!

OK, so call the headteacher and request her school does the same as your DS's school.

If she says no, then either send your DD to school more, or stop stressing about learning at home.

I started a thread about apps, remember, and everyone said yes, they are all glitchy and impossible to work with

You started a thread asking about annoying leaning apps, so naturally the answers would be negative. If you asked about apps which work well, and have been useful you would get a lot of positive replies.

Not every app is glitchy and impossible to work with.

I remember before your DS started at the PRU you were adamant a PRU would be totally wrong for him and there was no school anywhere near you that could possibly meet his needs. Your DD will not get they type of individualised service that a specialist setting will provide and it's very unlikely that the school could set anything that will keep a Y1 independently engaged for long enough for both parents to work uninterrupted for most of the day.

You often start threads like this where people try to be helpful and you shoot every single one of them down.

I'm in the same position op, no contact from school and DD plus several others in the year behind due to staff issues. Tears at the thought of reading/maths. I have been using Oak Academy and have seen improvements, she much more positive now than at the beginning. Skip the quiz and go straight to the video. The English videos where the teacher reads the story (Monday's) might be a good place to start or geography or history. There's no difficult tasks on those videos but obviously they're still learning something and gets them into the habit of listening and learning again.

There are only 5 more weeks until the summer holidays.
So she's lost 3 months of learning, it's 3 more till she goes back properly. She was already behind and everyone just says "don't stress, do crafts".
Yeah ok.

A mainstream class teacher (30 children) cannot provide the same as a PRU, sorry. If the teacher planned for each child's needs she'd probably be doing about 15 different plans and don't forget, she is probably teaching at the moment, either full time if she's year one or on a rota.
Your DD is at reception level, one more one less,counting, simple addition but you don't seem willing to do that.
At my school we are not allowed to give our emails out and have had a shared account set up since covid for any enquiries about work already set, anything else we have been told to ignore and parents have been told to not expect a reply about personalised work.
All you can do is call the school if you aren't willing to take on and try some of the great advice given here.

It sounds like you know exactly what you want, and that is not something that people on MN can provide. You need to speak to the headteacher.

Please be warned though, that they may not be in a position to provide it. All teachers at my school are teaching a bubble full time and managing online learning for their class via Seesaw or Tapestry.

Having only seen my toddler for an hour morning and evening this week, I have spent every evening planning and resourcing next week’s home learning, and am spending today shut away in my bedroom filming videos for my class. I do have several children with SEN in my class, but we are struggling to provide entirely personalised learning for them while teachers are currently doing double duty. We have appealed to our LEA for support with this.

I think you would have been much better off raising this issue early on, when schools had teachers WFH full time.

@Ickabog which ones do work then?

[quote drspouse]@Ickabog which ones do work then?[/quote]
As i've already said, start a thread and ask. Obviously which ones work well will vary depend on your device and child's ability levels.

I think you have to accept this is not school at home, this is surviving a crisis the best you can.

If she is in Year 1 she is unlikely to work independently, you will have to sit with her. And you have another demanding child as well and the job that pays the bills to do.

I am working from home 5 (6,7?!) days a week but have some control over my diary and working patterns so I set aside a couple of hours in the morning for DS and the school stuff, and I work before DS wakes and after bedtime to catch up. Can you flex your hours in some way? If not you are going to struggle and need to send her into school to the key worker provision?

You want individual differentiated work that does the magic and engages her, without the teacher's presence to perform that magic, which is hard, but it looks unlikely the school will/can do all you want. So you are either going to have to prep work for her after bedtime, or accept less will be achieved for this time, and trust the school to help her catch up later. Yes it's horrible. Yes prepping takes time you don't have. It gets easier, if that helps. It takes me an hour on Sundays now; in April I was spending hours I didnt have on it and it was bloody demoralising because most of the activities didn't hit the spot with DS.

If you do have time to prep stuff, sneaking the learning in via her special interests is a good plan. That is what we have done with the history I mentioned. We aren't spending time on the non-core stuff because hey, look at us, we have all this time and energy for schoolwork we can do more than just the basics, go us. It's because it's the least stress way to get him to DO the basics. He won't do the maths the school send home but we can sneak a bit in via history, which he's motivated to engage with. Eg: Won't do number lines, no way no how, but we can get him to make a timeline cos it's history. Won't do measuring distance and weight, tantrum central, but we can get him to do it via a craft project linked to the history lesson. Etc. You have to apply low cunning. But cunning takes time and energy. Which is short right now. There are choices and compromises you are going to have to make and none are good. Which brings you back to my starting point - this is survival in a crisis, do the best you can is all you can do.

@drspouse

There are only 5 more weeks until the summer holidays. So she's lost 3 months of learning, it's 3 more till she goes back properly. She was already behind and everyone just says "don't stress, do crafts". Yeah ok.

What else do you want people to say though when every other option available is all wrong for you?

Have you got Sky Q?

Ah the minute, on the homepage, there's a bitesize option - with lots of home learning clips behind for different age groups; starting at age 5.

They've all different subjects, things are explained clearly and demonstrations shown on screen.

She might engage more if it's 'TV' rather than home learning?

It is frustrating. I always feel for you as you fight so hard for your children and believe there must be help or a solution. DS goes to a specisl school. 1 teacher and 1 TA for 8 children. They still didnt differentiate his work. We have found matheletics pretty good though.

It's literally as simple as clicking on the clip and watching the TV.

There's no planning, sifting, sorting needed.

@thunder any videos at all would be great and might make her feel she's doing something her teacher has asked her to.
But if normally the year group has at least three levels the children are working at, and there are 5 staff, I'm really not sure why suddenly they are all supposed to work at the same level.

At my school we are not allowed to give our emails out and have had a shared account set up since covid for any enquiries about work
I thought we'd have some official means of communication too, but you can't message via parent app, and her class teacher did reply to our query about a password, and the FB page is full of odd queries but I'm not using that!
The school is putting out endless YouTube videos (all either pep talks or children's home learning photos, again not somewhere I want my DCs photos) but maybe they've decided no email replies and not told us?

Why not do the Reception work if that is nearer her ability and has the teacher videos you want?
Or the teacher videos on Oak Academy?