Primary school work load is too much

[confusedinlondon]

I am simply unable to cope with the work load that the teachers are sending home. My partner is out at work all day and I am working from home. I have a 5 and 6 year old and I need to monitor them to constantly. I need to sit with them to watch the videos and then explain the work. I cannot just them to get on with it and the work load is too much. My employer isn’t being flexible; they have basically told people to just do it which means working till 10pm. For Monday my son has white rose maths video, worksheets and plus 5 additional worksheets.
It’s not helped by the fact our school seems to have a number of stay at home mums who seem to be willing to boast about what their children have done. I feel like screaming at the teachers. They have shown no kindness or consideration, they haven’t phoned to check on the kids at all.

Don't do it all. We rarely get enough but when I'm too busy or my son doesn't get it I just don't do it. I focus on reading, writing and maths and have skipped many of the other things. My kids absolutely hate home school so some days they are really slow but my older son gets very little work so it's not so bad to get through his.

As a Primary School Teacher (KS1) I feel that we are setting too much too. Lots of our families aren't managing to do the work and I had one Mum tell me last week that she'd given up on it all and wasn't going to do anymore with her child.
We've been told by the government to set at least 3 hrs per day KS1and 4 hours for KS2. Please don't worry they'll be lots of families in similar positions to you and teachers will pick up the pieces and sort it out when we get back. Xx

I hear you, I see you, I feel you!

It’s so so so hard, not to forget to mention gruelling and frustrating too!

No advice, just keep going, just keep pedalling, if you have too prioritise maths and English

School is in a bit of a no win situation here

We surveyed parents last week one of the questions was

Is the amount of work being set
Too much
About right
Too little

The majority said "about right" however 25% said too much and 20% said too little.

OP, this is a vile situation all around. Nobody wants to be in it.
Is there a messaging system for parents,
e.g., dojo? Message or speak to the teacher. Be kind and calm. Perhaps you could do work one day behind so you can manage after work? Are you classed as a keyword under the new criteria - check first.

It is now expected that teachers provide 3 hours work. The teachers are doing this, even if they would prefer to set less. Plus I'm sure most (and probably all) teachers would rather be in school. It is much easier to teacher children in school. I'm sure the teacher will say prioritise maths and English minimum but may give extra advice or support. Does your child have high needs (not necessarily SEN)? If so, mention this.
Remember the teachers also have children and they will have sympathy. They will be teaching in school, setting work at night for school at home children and helping their own children to school work. They may even be working from home with their own children whilst teaching yours. Teachers are human and have to follow their manager's instruction which is to create enough work, as you should for a compulsory education. However, they of all people will understand if you say you are overwhelmed, as believe me, they will be too.

Keyworker (spelling!)

I work in a primary school and I agree with those who say do what tou can. Unfortunately, some parents will always want more, some less and some will find that what has been set is about right. At work we have one teacher per year group teaching those who are in school and on teacher conducting the live online sessions, setting the online work and recording the accompanying powerpoints. They are also marking and giving feedback on work that has been submitted. I am making calls home as well as running my own live sessions for different interventions. I am also sorting out suitable supporting resources that can be emailed home - not always easy as I have to work on the assumption that not everyone has access to equipment, apparatus or even technology that will make it easy for the children to get any benefit from the resources I send them.
I have suggested to some parents that they make a note of how long each task takes, and to make sure that a maximum of 30 minutes actual work on each task. They note this on the work they upload so the teacher can see.

Thanks all. I just needed to vent. I am not going to scream at anyone. I was printing out the worksheets for tomorrow and my heart just sank at the number they are expecting us to get through in a single day.
I know they are in am impossible situation. I am going to try to speak to one of the teachers tomorrow. I think I will need to focus just on the maths and English and skip everything else.

A teacher on Twitter posted that she'd had emails from two parents one complaining she was setting too much work, the other complaining she was setting too little. On top of that the government are setting unrealistic expectations for how much time children who are working from home engage with learning and asking schools to effectively monitor parents.
In a pandemic you can only do what is possible and shouldn't worry if it's not as much as others with a different personal situation.

I'm a SAHM and my Yr1 dc likes school generally and is bright. They're set 4 small pieces of work a day. And it's still a bloody struggle getting it done! DC is suddenly resistant to doing any writing no matter how I dress it up. I also have a toddler dc who loves to mash the keyboard on my laptop while dc1 is trying to watch a phonics video or whatever.

I definitely need to monitor dc1 and let toddler run riot while doing so, it takes all day to get 3-4 of the tasks done and then I feel guilty if they haven't been for a walk. I simply can't imagine trying to work a full day as well op, you have my sympathies.

I don't think our school necessarily expects everyone to do everything. Can you make sure you start at 9ish and focus on getting one piece of work done, then anything else is a bonus? If you're spending an hour trying to do one thing then honestly I'd give up on that and watch BBC Bitesize or alphablocks or something.

If you screamed at me at the moment, I would probably cry, and then resign.

Ring the school now and have a calm chat with the head-tell them the situation and see what they say.

It’s shit for everyone at the moment-i totally get it. Now, it’s about finding ways to copy on a day to day basis-I think the head is probably best placed to talk this through.

I'm a SAHM and I'm doing all the school stuff because it engages my DD more than random playing, doing stuff on her own - and the teacher's ideas are better than mine.

Reception aged so not good enough at reading to "work" on her own and a bit prone to a panicky strop which is quicker and easier to prevent rather than solve so apps she can almost do alone don't always work!

I couldn't work with or without the school provision - when bored she's pretty destructive!

Do other schools differentiate the work? Ours is setting 3 levels- they call it core, challenge and super challenge. Depending on your child’s abilities, could you just do the basics?

Is the expectation that DS has to do all the sheets? The worksheets provided by school for DD are graded at 3 levels. At school she would rarely get to the hardest one ("deepen") so we only do this part if she has covered the first 2 easily. It's worth checking if your school is doing something similar.

Worksheets and five additional worksheets? That’s more than a day at school for a teen, surely? So what like 7+? That sounds mad for a 5 or 6 year old.

My 5yo has 1 English, 1 Theme and 1 Maths. So 3 worksheets really. I mean, there are level 2 and level 1 sheets provided, so perhaps as a previous poster suggested, your child has ended up doing these too when they’re actually meant to be options for difficulty? I know a couple of kids in our class originally did that, bless them! I can’t see why a school would set so many and I’m sure no teacher would expect them all to be completed. I think I’d phone the school and chat to the teacher as it might be a misunderstanding. Are they doing morning zoom style meetings with a register? Ours have a question time at the end where we can check in with any issues and overwork would definitely be an issue I’d mention. Did you get any feedback in the Autumn-winter term about where your child was in certain subjects? If you did, you might be able to see from that which level sheet suits your child best in each subject eg. Matching words to pictures/reading a sentence and writing a basic sentence/Writing a more complex sentence with adjectives etc.

I can’t see why a school would set so many

Government said minimum 3 hours of work provided per day.

The problem with a blanket 3 hours is it doesn’t account for family circumstances. If people are working, 3 hours with an infant age child in primary is 3 hours of parental teaching and that is too much if there are multiple children. Equally families with younger babies and toddlers will often struggle to provide good input. The 3 hours a day probably works fine for a sahp with 2 older primary age children but there are so many circumstances where it is just very difficult for lots of families.

@Tiquismiquis I completely agree. Unfortunately schools are legally obliged to provide it.

The trouble is "talking to school" isn't really the solution is it? I'd happily tell school we aren't going to get through everything but I'm not happy about my DC falling behind or running feral all day while I WFH. It's just impossible to multitask like that. I'm a keyworker but don't have a school place because WFH so I just feel like I'm failing at everything.

@longestlurkerever It's a solution in that they will tell you what to prioritise.

I get that it's rubbish. But please don't blame schools for this.

My husband and I both work full time and the home learning is just really difficult. I am focussing my 2 kids attending the online sessions and then doing a couple of hours with them each on Saturday and Sunday. Reading is done just before bed - they read and then I do. Do what you can and don’t beat yourself up.

I haven't mentioned anything about blaming schools but on Mumsnet there seems to be a view that teachers are in somehow a more difficult position than anyone else. There were threads and threads full of people bing called selfish for wanting schools open or using keyworker places. Actually doing the work isn't my biggest issue. It's being expected to leave my 5yo unsupervised in another area of the house all day.

@longestlurkerever

I agree

The work is as good a way of occupying a 5 year old as anything else we've got available... School work or no school work there's only so long that a 5 year old will be occupied without parental input so it might as well be school work...

I’m a PT teacher teaching in school 3 days a week as well providing home learning for my class in my ‘days off’. My husband is pretty much glued to Zoom for his work so I have to cram all the home learning in for my own kids on the two days when I’m not at school. I’ve told their teachers and they understand we can only do what we can as I’m sure your childrens’ teacher will too. I experience this from both sides and it’s bloody tough on both.