Google Classroom schedule - a bit much?

[NiceandCalm]

Not sure if there's a more specific place to post this.

My DS should have been back at school but was informed after Xmas that it's closed til 18/1 (possibly longer having seen the news). I've just received his schedule and it's a full on day, just like a school day, even down to the 40min lunch. Some lessons will be live. All work to be completed etc.
My DS is Year 7 and I think he's going to struggle keeping his attention at home. Do I sit with him to keep him focused?
Last year at Junior school they had work packs and had to submit the occasional piece of work online. After leaving him to it initially, I realised he was skipping through a lot of it so ended up spending 2 hrs a day with him and acting like his personal TA.
What is it looking like for everyone else? Do you trust your kids to get on with it? Poke your head round the door to check they are OK?

I teach overseas, & we have been doing online learning since last March (we were in from September until early December, but with at least one year group out & online all the way, due to bubbles bursting).

What we have found works is 50/50 - so I teach 4 lessons a week for most year groups & the expectation is that 2 are live on zoom, & 2 independent work. Or the equivalent - eg each lesson has 30 minutes live input then 30 to crack on - usually this would be 20/30/10 to do a plenary & check understanding at the end. Which I do depends on the age/ability range/topic.

All zooms are recorded & posted on Google Classroom, as we're in a developing country with iffy internet. Our students are pretty privileged, but if they live rurally, their connections still go down! Everyone goes through a lot of phone data.

It generally works well. My own teenage dc say that the zoom lessons are much more engaging & enjoyable, but 6 of them in a day is too much, so if on a given day all their teachers have chosen to teach live they're knackered by the end of it...

"Lougle

I can't see that it matters what the kids wear if they have their cameras off. As long as they are dressed in clothing (as opposed to pjs), that should be enough.

Ours have to have their cameras on. We found in the spring how easy it was to "register" for the meeting using the class's entrance code, (which then for the downloadable attendance lists has them "in" the meeting, but with a blacked out screen with their name on it) but until they click through to the "join with video" stage, they actually aren't in the meeting, only their icon is.
This wasn't, and isn't, to police attendance or anything like that. It's to make sure kids aren't slipping through the net, and that kids whose parents didn't know they weren't attending could be made aware.
Because now the curriculum is effectively a normal annual curriculum complete with tests etc, all cameras have to be on."

@SOLINVICTUS that's interesting. Our children have a verbal register taken, where they either have to unmute and say that they are there, or type in the chat box. If any child has their camera on, they are specifically asked to turn it off.

Mine did that from day one last time.

The school realised that full on lessons all day were exhausting and so introduced a fortnightly option of a consolidation lesson per subject where work was explained then set and marked.

Also did slightly shorter lessons so could have a stretch.

Games/PE not covered so used to send mine out for a run/ swim during those periods which made them feel a lot better ( was beautiful sunshine though)

@GlowingOrb

Teachers won’t necessarily be assigning days upon days of worksheets . Dd has had fantastic projects. She has written papers, built dioramas, read books and broken out into discussion groups, designed paper airplanes and documented the experimental process, and on and on. Her teachers have been really great about trying to give a good balance of rote work and project based work, just like they would at school.

So far, all worksheets or videos accompanied by worksheets here. DS's concentration is flagging.

My DS is y9 ASD and I have to do all the lessons with him as he will only communicate with me and won't read or write so I need to log-on for him, read it and write it and goes mute with staff /students. My y10 DD can manage pretty much all by herself. I have to adapt quite a bit for DS. If I just left him he would do nothing.

It'll vary by the level of SN what is best - if he can manage by himself I'ld leave him to get on with it. If not I'ld help as needed and let school know the issues. Our school can't help with anything but they want to record issues.