Parents expecting work packs when we're still open

[Bridecilla]

My lessons are mainly interactive / powerpoint based so wouldn't have the same impact printed out.

I've started sorting online resources etc on the usual platforms and will obviously have more time to update these if and when we close.

Parents are expecting "work packs" which we simply don't have time to collate. Does anyone know what our responsibilities are to children whose parents choose to keep them off before shut down?

there has been guidance citing this will be necessary.

As and if schools close, say the unions. Not before then.

My DS is in primary school and that is my experience of it so far. Each school is different I imagine. Sounds good what your school is doing. I don't see anything particularly wrong with either set up for the next 2 weeks. If it is a long term closure then hopefully teachers will have had time to put things in place.

Do not respond until you have talked to your HOD. This is not for you to worry about, there should be a school response.

Agree. This should be a whole school response.

HCPs who work part time have been asked to go FT. Manufacturers are working round the clock, police and utility providers have had leave cancelled. It’s an emergency situation that require an emergency response.

I’m a full time teacher who, like many, is at school every weekday from 8-6 and will take work home with me in the evenings and weekends to do all of the planning/ assessment etc needed to teach my class. I still don’t ever feel like I’ve done everything on my to-do list! I don’t work part-time and I don’t have any leave booked to cancel so where should I find the extra hours to start making additional work for students staying at home? Yes, people should be stepping up where needed but a significant number of teachers have already been working above and beyond their contracted hours since long before this crisis just to stay on top of their normal workload so I’m not sure what more you expect them to give?

Go to the Twinkl website - www.twinkl.com/offer - and put in the code UKTWINKLHELPS. They are offering free Ultimate membership for all teachers and parents. It contains heaps of different things and you can search by topic or year group (or both!).

Most teachers who make 'work packs' will possibly just use this site anyway.

It’s not “choices”. People are beginning to self isolate because they, or someone they live with have symptoms. Would you prefer them in your classroom?!

I get you have a FT job. So do I. But I found the hours last week - up to 18 a day- because it’s an emergency.

Of course I forgot this is MN where no one works as hard as a teacher 🙄

Pegasus being at home for a week without a work pack isn’t an emergency. Especially not with Google.

Do you genuinely think 18 hour days are sustainable? Martyr yourself if you want but your immune system will be shot to shit in no time and you'll be useless to anyone.

I want to do my job to the best of my ability. Every single one of my students has a phone with internet access (we sometimes play kahoot in class so I know this as fact before you say I should be handwriting work and sprinkling it with glitter) and can google worksheets etc.

Why should I half kill myself preparing wirl packs that most people could Google anyway?

Education isn't an emergency. Teachers are not in the same league as police, nurses etc for this kind of emergency. Anyone who has skills which were useful for keeping the country safe and running should absolutely use them. At the moment, for teachers that means continuing to teach in schools.

The government are forcing schools to stay open, so teachers should focus on our normal job. When they close, we will switch to a completely different way of working to ensure as much education for our students as we can manage. Both of those roles are more than full time - it just isn't possible to do them at the same time.

If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. The kids and parents will cope until the inevitable school closure. Please don’t say they are choosing not to come in though. They will be either protecting you from their symptoms (potentially from giving you coronavirus) or protecting themselves due to underlying serious health conditions. It’s isn’t like they just couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed.

@oncemore sorry, part of my post is sounding off because actually, a couple of emails I've had so far demanding work packs are from parents / students (I teach young people and adults) who are rarely in and do little when they are in. Some people are using this to just stay in bed :(

Work Pack:

'Use Google. Find workbooks for the correct school year. Order online. Repeat for worksheets, apps, YouTube videos, etc. Use your initiative and common sense to find suitable work. Make up some tasks and projects yourself. Be resourceful and stop treating your child's teacher as a vending machine. The end.'

Fair enough to be grumpy with those ones!

Be resourceful and stop treating your child's teacher as a vending machine

I’m in ROI and my DC are definitely not “winging it”. They have full structured school days and have to log in every class as if they were at school. Detentions are being set for missing class as normal and teachers are available online throughout each class
Do they have to do the detention in their own home or something?

Be resourceful and stop treating your child's teacher as a vending machine

That did make me giggle!

I was moaning about this to my Mam earlier and she said "pet, if you worked on a checkout in a shop that didn't do deliveries and a customer called the store to ask you to take him some shopping round would you? No well there's your answer love"

Until staff are given time during the normal prep and teaching day, those packs are non existent.

I'd reply something like that.

We have an staff meeting which has been switched to preparing packs in our school this week. Sen so it's going to be challenging to come up with appropriate work. We use so much hands on equipment.

Someone I know has worked on this exhaustive list of online learning:

theeducationhub.github.io/

@NeurotrashWarrior thank you.

There are so many resources online - there should be no need for paper packs.

I was very pleased today when the HT of my school reported that a parent who had chosen to withdraw their child and wanted special work was told no; special work will only go up when the school is shut down.

Every lesson is up on the school's system anyway so all they have to do is check in, but hey ho, that's too hard for some.

OP I am sorry I didn't realise you had been contacted by parents on a Sunday!

So, just checking - we are already mostly working long hours, but we need to up this considerably to make workpacks, and then when schools shut we need to be online during every normal lesson (while caring for own dc), and accept that we should have summer cut short as we have had extra holidays (except they were spent doing online classes and virtual detentions).

I’m self isolating with my kids this week due to symptoms and coming up with useful activities for them myself - I wouldn’t dream of asking the school right now, how ridiculous. Even if we aren’t productive this week, it’s not going to ruin their education. Everything is going to be disrupted, a week without a work pack is of zero consequence.

My youngest DS is off with a cough (had a temperature but that's gone), I certainly don't expect school to send work for him. He can look on google classroom and do any homework that's due but I'm sure the staff have enough going on without having to send extra work home.