Any ks1 teachers had their class bubble isolating for 2 weeks?

[Bluewavescrashing]

How did you find it? Did the children complete the work you set? Which platform did you use to set work? Thanks.

Yep. Y2 class self isolated. We set work on Teams including 3 'live' lessons per day.

Trouble is, the children needed a lot of parental support logging on, getting to the right bit, submitting work, etc. Most children did it though.

Bloody nightmare to teach. Lots of children were very excited by the novelty factor and kept unmuting themselves. Very very challenging. Herding cats is the phrase I'd use....virtual cats as well.

Hmmm my class are y1. I shudder to think how they'd cope with teams!

Judging by the Y2s, they won't without a LOT of parental support!! 😫

We've had a year 3/4 class go off. The year 3s haven't been able to access Teams lessons easily at all. Our KS1 class that has gone off is a 1/2 mix, and they haven't tried to do anything live. They went home with workbooks though, and have been sending more work in for marking than the 3/4 class.

The 5/6 class hasn't had live stuff because the teacher herself was ill.

If the teacher is too ill to set work and give feedback, what happens to the class? Does SLT step in to set work?

@TheLuckiest you can set it up so that only you can I mute people? I think that's true on all platforms, google it for yours.

Nice that they were excited though !

Ha! You're right August. Trouble is, the teacher trying to deliver the online lessons wasn't that tech savvy...which is a whole other issue about training too!!!

Does SLT step in to set work?

SLT set the work, but was in class full time in school. TA, also at home, did some feedback, but little work was handed in.

We have - twice!

EYFS though, so we set a simple phonics, maths, literacy and topic lesson a day, which parents then upload videos/pictures of to an online platform. Engagement has been good, but it’s such a shame they’re missing so much when really it’s the socialising/play they need the most in Reception.

We used Seesaw very successfully. Zoom ‘check ins’ daily but they turned into utter carnage even with my Year 3s!

Yes, twice 😂

My Year 2 bubble has burst twice...with only a week back in school between each 'pop' 🤦‍♀️ I used Seesaw to set work and feedback, and also upload pre-recorded 'live' videos of me doing an introduction/model for each activity. We did phonics live on Teams each day. Great feedback from parents but bloody exhausting keeping up with everything...making/setting the 'Seesaw Friendly' daily slides took hours and filming myself talking and modelling skills, particularly for maths, for the videos was daunting (took several retakes for each one 🤦‍♀️).

School policy is every piece of work is uploaded and marked on screen, with written feedback for both child and parent...again, this took hours!! I used to dread looking at the app icon each morning...there would be between 80-100 uploads overnight, as some parents would add them in a bulk 'job lot' in the evenings. So these had to be cleared even before I started my first session at 8.40, as over the course of the day I'd be getting up to 300 uploads 😱😨

It will seriously finish me if I have to do it again!

My DD's Y2 bubble was off, and it was due to staff illness, though TAs so I think the teachers just had to handle it.
We only had 2 live sessions in the week (the second week was half term) and only a few children could be unmuted - I think they just muted everyone anyway.
I don't know how much other children did though! We did a fair bit but some was beyond DD even with intensive help.

Recorded lessons definitely work better than live ones as parents can decide when to do them in the day. Really challenging for parents to have to login to live lessons if they’re working, or only have one computer in the house. We had a short live check-in each day for Y2 (10 mins) just to set expectations and then three recorded lessons. Teacher recorded Maths and English and used Oak Academy for other subjects.

Dd's y2 class has been home twice. They send out pre-recorded videos setting tasks and accompanied tasks via OneNote on Ms Office. It was good stuff but we managed to complete very little of it as I was in school and dp was home but in Teams meetings himself most of the day. I don't think live lessons would have worked, the recorded lessons meant she could use them between dp's meetings.

DD’s year 1 class was off a couple of weeks ago. The school used a platform called BGFL 365 to upload the work. There were videos of the teachers explaining the maths/ English and demonstrating the handwriting each day, then worksheets to print off and do. There were also activities on there for history/ geography/ science/ R.E/ art etc, but I didn’t get round to them as I had to go to work some days so prioritised English and maths. The videos were very good for making sure the work was explained in a way the children were used to rather than me attempting to explain a maths concept or an English writing task. Each day the class had a zoom meeting in the morning where the teacher talked about the work and the children got an opportunity to interact with the class and chat to the teacher and each other (I guess about half of them were there each day). In the afternoon there was another zoom meeting where they had a brief chat and the teacher read a story. As a parent, I was impressed with the provision. I don’t know how many parents didn’t engage, but the school understood that parents were doing as much as they could with no pressure to do everything when parents were also working/ looking after younger siblings/ generally at breaking point. DD appreciated still being able to see her friends on zoom and I appreciated zoom story time so I had a bit of peace for 10 minutes. I never worked out how to upload completed work to BGFL in the entire original lockdown, but the school now also let us ‘hand in’ work by sending a photo in an email, which even my lack of technological skills and rubbish phone could manage.

I clearly jinxed myself in my PP...my bubble popped AGAIN last Friday! 3 times now since November...this time 3 children in my class and their siblings in other year groups tested positive, which meant that we had to close 4 year group bubbles 🤦‍♀️ Nightmare scenario...but if you listen to the media, Primary Schools are quite safe!! Makes me so cross and sad 😔

My kids school use Seesaw for KS1, I use Teams for secondary - I would say Teams is clunky for Primary. My 6 year old daughter can navigate Seesaw on ipad easily, she has only done it on a tablet at school so doing it on PC is trickier. We get videos from school for them to watch and then send work in.

I ran (voluntarily and nothing to do with the school) 2 Christmas parties on Zoom as both Reception and Yr 1 had to isolate and miss the ones planned in school. I run Guide units and help with Rainbows - have done Zoom meetings since May. Oh my word the Christmas parties were hard work - I used mute all a lot! Yr 1 slightly better but to try and teach would have been a nightmare and I am used to teenagers daily!

Y3 but close enough given they only had half a y2...!

My sons bubble closed for 2 weeks and they did seesaw. It was great as he could fit around our work and complete the activities on see saw or in an exercise book.

Teacher added films of herself to see saw which was useful too, again so it was as and when.

Ask helpful of teacher has her own small child at home; I'd hate to try zoom.