So when are we going back to school?

[RaraRachael]

I was under the impression that NS had announced that all schools in Scotland would start back on August 11th. I have had surveys from my local authority asking when we would like the week's holiday in lieu and if we want 1 or 2 in-service days before we start back in August.

Last night a colleague posted a piece showing all the start dates from the different authorities - some were 10th August, !1th, 12th up to the 18th and 19th.

I am totally confused

off the record a teacher friend sent me a text "we are preparing classrooms for something that may well be redundant in August and it is giving her a headache!!!!"
exclamation marks hers!

Thanks it's not the uniform I'm stressing about so much, it's the part time schools, blended learning and juggling working from home with a dp who works shifts in a hospital. I just felt it was a bit rich sending a letter telling parents to buy uniform and gym kit when we don't even know how often or when our children will be attending school. The school do allow supermarket plain uniform but prefer school logos. Why tell us to purchase PE kit when it's clear they won't be doing PE for long time yet!

Absolutely no sign of when wraparound might be able to open or grandparents/friends can help with childcare. I feel completely stuck and abandoned by the government and school, we're not struggling enough to qualify for any support or interventions but it doesn't get away from the fact this is a massive strain on working families, I feel constantly near breaking point (whatever that looks like!) and it can't continue.

To those who say that the council/government have forbidden video teaching, do you know that as a fact or do you surmise it?

We were told that Education Scotland had forbidden it. However when I asked Education Scotland, I was told that they had approved the use of video lessons in both Teams and Google classrooms. It is down to the councils' 'risk appetite' whether they allow it.

I see, @sodor .
We had 1 conference call with some pupils, but the whole thing was scrapped immediately after (so not all pupils got on the call). We were never told why.

We had 4 weeks of video lessons (1 per week). But it changed every week. The first time the children could see their teacher. Then the next week they couldn't - she'd been forbidden from using video, then the next week after we all gave consent she was visible. In the final week it was audio only. The reason behind all the changes was said to be child protection. But it was pretty confusing and poorly explained.

Glasgow forbade Zoom but not video lessons in general.

Child protection? Where was the danger? Someone that would hijack the meeting with porn or something, even if the lesson is preregistered?
I though that the zoom hijack were a thing of the past.

Email from school said:

"Though the idea of video lessons may be appealing, we have considered the evidence and priorities for pupils. The Education Endowment Foundation’s rapid evidence assessment on distance learning indicates that there is no difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences for pupils, provided there are opportunities for explanation, scaffolding and feedback" (fabulous use of plain English there)

There is a times article quoting the policy - you can see the summary but I can't see the whole article without subscribing.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-parents-and-children-left-to-struggle-after-councils-ban-online-teaching-sl66vvmlf

We were very keen on live online classes because our son's in Gaelic medium and the classes gave the children the opportunity to speak Gaelic with their teacher. For learning to speak a language, interactive classes seem essential. We've resorted to setting up our own arrangements with fluent friends.

Arkadia it's a fact where I work (council ban though not government).
I'm not really interested in rehashing the live teaching argument though it's been done so often.

I have to say if their blended learning model is therefore more Twinkl sheets, bite size videos and the like with no direct interaction with the teacher via live video then this is even more of a joke than I thought.

Pootle the teacher wouldn't be able to do live teaching as will be teaching the other portion of the class.
The direct contact will come on the days in school.

No 'live' teaching I can live with but please no more twinkle worksheets and dire purple mash activities, its fine short term but my p5 son is learning absolutely nothing.

All my p1 gets is colouring in and dot to dot sheets to print. I have been doing entirely my own things with him but I need to work too, I'm not a teacher and I need support from school.

I just don't see how this blended teaching approach is going to work, especially if classes are going to be split into 3 groups. My useless council has given us absolutely no idea of what it's going to look like and we now have 3 weeks to get whatever it is, ready to start in August.

Originally the word was that we would have half in Mon'/Tue, closed on Wed for cleaning and the rest of the class in on Thu/Fri. Presumably teachers are meant to use the Wednesday to set online learning for the group that are not in school and prepare work for the group that is in . Not asking a lot of us in one day then

Thanks @mistressiggi

I'm still satisfied therefore that's what being proposed is not blended learning-blame not directed at you-but rather it's part time education and parents working full time will be doing almost no education on the other three days.

What I anticipate is that pupils will be set extended 'homework' while they're in. So introduce new concepts, try to cover them as fully as possible, then set all the consolidation work to be done independently (with online support from shielding teachers), then go over it when they're next in class. This is for secondary, btw.

God knows if that's what will actually happen though, I'm a lowly classroom teacher.

I just don't see how this blended teaching approach is going to work, especially if classes are going to be split into 3 groups. My useless council has given us absolutely no idea of what it's going to look like and we now have 3 weeks to get whatever it is, ready to start in August.

Class teacher will take 2/3 groups and another member of staff has to be used for group 3.

Presumably teachers are meant to use the Wednesday to set online learning for the group that are not in school and prepare work for the group that is in

We've been told that will mostly be done by the teachers who are shielding and can't be class-committed. Murmurings of 'something' being online too, whether that's Education Scotland or not I don't know. TBF, if you have all of Wednesday off, you are getting a lot more NCCT.

@RaraRachael
If classes are split into 3 groups over 2 weeks then I don't think class teachers would be able to set any online work. They would have 9 days with different groups of the class. Surely that one day a fortnight would then need to be non class contact time to cover the 2 weeks. This would be at primary, Ive no idea how it works in secondary.

@Invisimamma, you have been blessed. I would pay to get some twinkle worksheets. We get primarily "emotion work" ("cogs" and the like), RE (Catholic school, but there is a limit...), the daily random poster/project and finally perhaps some worksheet.

Our school (state Scotland) are doing bits of video teaching not live lessons but videos on see saw and youtube. Only the KS1 rather than KS2 now I think of it though. So it can't be entirely banned.

Besides, I was thinking, say you do go to school 2 days a week (let alone 4 days in 3 weeks), would it be worth getting up for? We are at primary, so can't speak for secondary, but I suspect that most of the "learning" will be a lot of faff because the teacher won't really be able to do much with so much discontinuity. The homework will be, I fear, more of what we've been getting so far (and why would it be any different) and will get pretty much ignored.

Ok the parents will get a breather and the kids will get to "socialize", but that's all it is going to be, isn't it.

Well wow, that really encourages me to bust a gut in school or out.

@Mistressiggi, the hurdles are objectively there. Restarting school after the holidays is always hard and being in a perennial state of quasi-holiday won't help.
We have been doing distance "learning" for almost 3 months, so it is hardly a novelty anymore. Why should what happens next be any different from what goes on now? What will have changed?

Why should the homelearning "pretty much get ignored"?