MN and making them do their work

[Alkaloise]

And not just MN, my other social media platforms are full of it, too. People refusing to "make" their kids do the work assigned by school in order not to stress them (and themselves) out.

I have spent my week in self-isolation preparing hours of work, as directed, and am required to phone EVERY CHILD who doesn't do their work. Potentially 450 of them in a week if they all decide not to (of course, they won't, but a significant percentage will).

I have prepared tests, adapted work to include information and instructions, made work as interactive as possible while still being quality.

I'm online and responding to questions 10-12 hours a day.

And how many will just not even look at it. How many will fall off. How many will switch off their phones.

I'm dreading the next few weeks for lack of support.

Are you in a union? The good news is the NEU (can't see anything from NAS yet) seem to be beginning to take an interest in some issues and will try to protect us on some of the things we are concerned about.

There seem to be some schools making silly, unreasonable (and, frankly in some cases, unsafe) requests of staff.

I'm not in the UK, but would imagine that staff are protected in the use of screen time. It's not about replicating every teaching hour by the same amount of time in front of a screen, that's not how the job works. The requirement to phone students seems entirely unreasonable. Is the school paying your phone bill? Ask them. Who's paying for your internet access? Ask them.

It's well worth checking out your schools' responsibilities when you work at home. As an example, in Australia, should my school be closed down, my home is covered by WorkSafe. While my home must conform to certain safety standard, e.g. lighting, smoke alarms, I and my income am protected against accidents/harm caused while working. Also I can claim internet and phone use against tax.

Lots of Au law is based on UK law so check with your union.

We've not had much from school - we've had some "oh go do baking with them... and go on these websites" - was actually expecting more guidance so I'm sitting piecing together where the kids are up to in terms of curriculum coverage myself at the moment.

I'm not going to make the kids do LOADS - but mine need some structure.