home schooling!

[strictlymomdancing]

Any teachers on here with links and tips for home schooling? DD is in S1 and seems to think she's going to be on one big holiday!

All I can seem to find are stuff for English education.

Anything online for Scottish secondaries?

Not sure yet if our school are sending us anything via Google classroom.

Also is anyone doing online tutoring or teaching perhaps, and where could we find this?

BBCScotland channel is scheduling a lessons geared towards different subjects and stages from today.

DAY2 - It is, understandably, taking a bit of time for work to come online. Either because teachers are very busy or because some teachers were also experiencing technical problems.

Day 1 assessments for ds (S4) were a bit of modern studies research and a report due in for friday. Then some chemistry questions on nat5 work. He did in around 3 hrs.

Day 2 was just physics that came through. It was higher syllabus (eek!), a PowerPoint presentation and 20 questions (vectors?). He needed a protractor, thankfully found one in the house!! Suggested he also look at a couple of youtube videos on the topic too.

Household logistics is getting difficult, ds in office for school work on desktop pc, me WFH with laptop in open living room/dinning room at the table (no other tables). Dh wandering about quietly and aimlessly which is no use longterm. might need a bit of a shuffle (or an extension!)

Lidlfix Get her to do some writing. The Higher English folio is very similar to the N5 (1300 word count instead of 1000) so she'll have a bit of an idea what to do. Doing some reading of short stories should help with the creative writing and some good research for her discursive piece. The best discursives are where a student writes about something they're genuinely interested in so she's got ages to either find something she cares about, or to do loads of background reading.

I know English teachers are always banging on about it but reading (quality) newspapers is so valuable. If she wants to go a bit further she can use her RUAE skills and try to identify techniques in the articles and (vital for Higher) consider why the writer has used these techniques and whether they're effective.

Sorry, just realised the original question came from thereply

Thanks Sam, much appreciated. Am trying to encourage her to do something as otherwise it's going to be a very long few months...

We have been having major issues with IT over the last few days as many council employees trying to work from home and crashing the system. Teachers trying use their own devices to access Glow etc but hopefully things will settle over the next few days.
Household logistics also proving to be challenging here with many of us trying to find a quiet spot!

I have no idea how to do the Netflix party thing... sorry.

We are doing OK here, my P7 and S2 both have lots of work set by school and have a clear idea of what they should be doing each day. It's my S5 who is at a total loose end without the Highers and fairly sketchy information from teachers about what he should be doing. We're signing him up for some free courses from the likes of Coursera and FutureLearn.

There's a free history lesson today from the Battle of the Atlantic Western Approaches centre in Liverpool at 1pm - will be watching with my youngest and then working through the worksheet they released yesterday.

DD is doing okay. Science, social subjects, English and Maths done today. Home Ec was to bake something so we cheated and sent a picture we got off Google lol cause no ingredients for baking.

DAY3 and ds realised the teachers were setting work in chat and not just as assignments so he had missed some and he had to do:

modern studies research online and write report,
pe 🙄
English close reading assignment
French past paper listening/a reading assignment
chemistry questions

School sent a message to say to make sure they did it as some of the work could potentially be used as grading evidence 😮

English critical
some Maths on sumdog
PE (walk with dog)
drew a rainbow for the window (she initially said it was for babies but she's clearly very bored now)
Drew the top of a coke can for Art I think it was or talk about the coke can design. Can't quite remember but left her to it.

She's now face timing her friends but it will be lunch soon.

critical essay I mean

WeAllHaveWings is that really what your school is saying? That their work at home will help decide their Grades? Is that for N5, Higher or AH? Because at the moment I’m trying not to put too much pressure on my child as they are still reeling from the whole situation. They’re exercising and doing some music composition and I’ve asked them to tune into Microsoft Teams/Glow to do some Maths and History which they’ll get round to doing at some point this week. But if this is going towards their assessment grade then how is that fair for kids who don’t have the same kind of online access or have to share it with a WFH parent? Or who are actually suffering with anxiety because of the pandemic? My child worked really, really hard over Xmas holidays. As a family we did very little because we prioritised their revision. This was a huge and pleasant surprise to us as they’ve not being at all focussed until now. They did really well in their Prelims as a result and they worked hard on their course works and assignments. Their impetus and focus has taken a real knock with all this so I don’t want them thinking that they have to get stressed out about completing arbitrary tests and papers now. By all means they can do them and practise but for them to count towards anything? And how meaningful will this work be if they can Google and get the answers online? I think the SQA have to be fair and really clear on what teachers base their final grades on. Perhaps to make it fair there should be a cut off date as the last day that schools were open as this will be roughly the same for all (except even then some kids were off in self-isolation before this)

@Sowerehere no one knows yet what they will use. Headmaster said in today's message they are still waiting for guidance from sqa, he is hoping there will be something tomorrow.

His message, which I think essentially is his opinion at the moment as they don't know yet, is -

In the meantime, please ensure S4/5/6 pupils continue to engage/submit work to their teachers online; this work could potentially be used as evidence for estimation of grades (TBC).

I guess some schools might use some of this work, if allowed and required, if they are struggling for evidence.

Yet other schools have been telling pupils to stop as anything they produce now
Could come from anywhere and been completed by anyone.

How on earth can there be consistency?

I cynically suspect they are using the potentially used suggestion in an attempt to keep the pupils engaged with some work.

His English teacher also suggested the ruae assignments they are getting could be potentially used, again I think it is just an attempt to encourage them.

I suspect that might be the intention then WeAll - to keep them engaged with learning? That’s fine but not fine to use this work as any basis for estimating their final grade. Hopefully the SQA will make that clear to the Headteachers.

Any more news expected from the SQA? My DS is really not engaging with school work. He’s doing online research into subjects that interest him that are educational but nothing to do with the N5 curriculum. But I really would like to know what the estimated grades are going to be based on. Is ANY work post-March 20th going to be used for this estimation. We need to be told. I’m not tying my DS to his desk to do school work if it’s not going to be used and he wants a clear idea of whether the work he’s doing matters. He doesn’t want to be ‘tricked’ into doing a past paper if it’s just a ploy to get him to study. He wants a straight answer and so do I.

Ds is getting loads of work every week from school :

English - one of each close reading, critical essay and set text questions every week + recommend to do some past paper questions - they never even finished the 2nd half of their drama book before finishing up.
French - one listening and reading paper + extra exercise
Modern - 2 Internet research and write a report each week (takes ages!!) - today's was to research and compare the UK and another countries law changes for the pandemic 🤦🏻‍♀️. Too hard!!!
Maths - consolidation question papers - this isn't being marked so he hasn't done yet.
Physics - sides starting higher work and 20 questions twice each week
Chemistry - full past paper + consolidation questions on topics that are important for higher next year
PE - thankfully that is just do Joe Wicks 🤣🤣

All that was without any teaching and due this week by thu because they are off Fri. It is tough going!!

Hope the sqa decides soon so he can stop putting effort into modern studies which he is dropping!!!

Is that a state school if you don’t mind saying?

Yes state, and not a high achieving school!! Very mixed intake with large % from deprived areas.

They told them the work should fit into normal timetable so 4hrs English, 3 hrs modern, 3hrs French etc. Think they are just trying to keep them busy during this

First day back at home school today 📚. Ds(16) managed to get out of bed and ready for school by 11:30 🤦🏻‍♀️. tbh after two weeks off I'm glad he's got something to do other than ps4 now. Today he was given English (nat5 close reading, critical essay and a set text question. Also some PowerPoint slides introducing the step up to higher close reading) to compete by Friday and a physics nat5 past paper to complete by Thursday.

Message from our school is - The S4-6 have done all they can now. Staff are beginning to work on developing online materials for S4/5 to start their new S5/6 courses, as far as is possible, earlier than the traditional date in June. He says they have been told they'll get their S5 "timetable"/new teachers for w/c 4th May.

So they are going to start giving them some higher work very soon. Wonder now what form online higher teaching will take, whatever way it is going to be tough going for students and teachers!

DD is finished all her work in just an hour. I'm not impressed especially as she's saying she's boooooooored for the rest of the day. I feel the school should be giving them a bit more compared to what I'm hearing from other schools.

Ours started back well with work from most subjects on the first day or two but it's since dried up. He gets some English work on a Monday now and told to do a physics past paper and that's it, neither are marked/any feedback given. I assume the school is working towards all the grading they need to do for his year, and prepping for when they do start higher work, probably like most places, with some staff absent or with commitments at home.

My patience is running thin with ds (and dh)!as they are sleeping in and sitting on their arses/playing ps4 while I'm up at 6am and working all week at home. Grrrrr. Just told dh he needs to get his finger out and do something productive with ds instead of wallowing in coronavirus TV like he had done the last 4 weeks.

I think (hope more like) engagement will ramp up from pupils next week. Many schools are taking Monday as the start of a new year and communicating that out. For my S3 into S4 (predominantly N5 candidates) I am looking at getting them through the prep for Spoken Language and their first Folio piece. I have clips and articles with tasks ready to share with them from Monday. My S4 into S5 (mostly Higher) I am working to the same outcomes but with more challenging and complex material and tasks. I have enjoyed doing this - selecting and creating for the young people I know and thinking about how they'll respond is the fun part of the job .

But... I have no idea who is fit and well or otherwise. No idea who might not be in a frame of mind whereby learning or engagement with it is appropriate. No idea who might be looking after younger siblings, be undertaking tasks for a shielded relative...
I can only let my pupil support colleagues know who doesn't respond. Not to mention ICT that might not exist or be shared among family members.

New S1 still under primary teachers' supervision. I have been working on short stories , poems, media texts that S2,S3 can access online with tasks to complete but again I can do nothing if the pupils don't want to access the work I set. These year groups all have

But it won't stop parents saying their children haven't been taught, aren't being given feedback even though I have provided tasks and stimulus and feedback. What they want is Zoom lessons on a conventional timetable.

Sorry but it won't be happening from me. Actually not sorry, just as I have no idea what factors impact on my pupils and their engagement, parents have no idea about me and mine.

Don't blame you!!! But you could be missing your calling 🎬 and be the next David Attenborough, for English 🤣

Ds is heading into S5, of course he'll miss face to face teaching and interaction with his teachers, but at 16, once the work starts coming through, he'll adapt and I'm sure the teachers will be putting in place measures to keep track as they go along in this new world as they learn too what works and what doesn't. He might even learn to be more organised and more independent at learning!!!