Schools shouldn't close and it's all Twinkl

[wasgoingmadinthecountry]

Aaaargh!!! Why are some people so blinkered that they think every primary school sent out a weekly Twinkl sheet? Any why do they not understand that the curriculum was suspended? (OK, I like many of you carried on providing varied activities, speaking to my class/parents etc.)

I've spent most of the last few days getting to grips with Google Classroom (You Tube is so much better than our 8 hours of training in addition to our weekly staff meetings).

Mostly, why do I get drawn into this negativity?

No idea...it makes me so cross!! I didn't send out any Twinkl sheets! (Nothing against Twinkl by the way!) I used Seesaw and did 'live' (recorded...but they could access them on seesaw whenever they were able to) tutorials daily for English, maths and phonics. I also did a proper 'live' zoom meet every afternoon where I read a story. They didn't have to log into that if they couldn't, but honestly, most did 🥰 It was exhausting...and I was working 80+ hours a week. I thought it would kill me...I made myself ill. Same when my class bubble closed this past term...THREE TIMES 😱😢 By Christmas I was completely wiped. Nobody wants to see this happen again...but neither do we want to be working in unsafe conditions, so what's the alternative? I have no idea 😢

I do not know what Twinkle is but see some people seem to have an obsession with it. Also find it weird that parents go on about zoom lessons. Everyone I know uses Teams to teach ?

@mumsneedwine

I do not know what Twinkle is but see some people seem to have an obsession with it. Also find it weird that parents go on about zoom lessons. Everyone I know uses Teams to teach ?

Are you a teacher or a parent? I'm agog that if you're a teacher, you don't know what Twinkl is (no 'e' just in case you decide to google).

Zoom or Teams...doesn't really matter 🤷‍♀️ they both do the same thing at the end of the day.

The coronovirus board has exploded. I flicked through and thought about posting but the poison directed to schools and staff is too much. We're still on holiday but getting slated for the lack of on line learning already! Should we all just blank these threads and refrain from answering?

Yep.Made me very cross today, especially as I have worked non stop for the last three days.

The one that gets me is that so many do not understand that if it's relayed via a device, it's online, whether it's a worksheet, link or live lesson. For the hard of thinking, online only ever = live lessons.

The thing that annoys me with the demands for live lessons is that as a school we've had a complete lack of engagement with these when they've been offered.

We offered them at the end of the summer on a whole year group basis and maybe 20 kids would show up - now fair enough it was an extra to the work being set on SMHW, so maybe that's why.

When y8 went off, we bent over backwards to facilitate live lessons, and again, only a very small percentage of kids turned up and we had a lot more engagement when we set recorded PowerPoints and worksheets via SMHW.

So that is the option we have gone with for next week. It's a bit of a case of use it or lose it.

I need to turn off contact with the outside world now I think. Even my most lovely, educated friends are buying into the teacher hate. We're expected to work on the front line, surrounded by asymptomatic carriers, no PPE, no distancing, then get blamed for being irresponsible when we get the virus because how on earth could we have picked it up from a child?!?!! The stupidity amazes me. Home learning is so much better now than it was in the previous lockdown. A sheet to support learning is just that, whether twinkl or not. It wont be indefinite closures as we have a vaccine. Why does nobody see this?? So many people saying their school has no cases. Mine didn't either. Until December. In 10 days we went from 1 case to 8 out of 12 classes closed, no kitchen staff, and no after school club. It spreads like wildfire. Only staff cases in KS1 because no parents were getting kids tested as they were mild case's. In KS2 nearly 50% of the positive cases were asymptomatic. Bubbles don't work because there are sibling links and kids play together at home.
Sorry. Had to have a rant. And breath

Are you all joining the online union debate today at 11am regarding Section 44?

If you're with the NEU you should have received a zoom link, if not you can join in on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. It's being live streamed 👍💪

Yep, going to watch. Doubt zoom will work with so many people, but will try. Has anyone else been asked what their intentions are by SLT regarding next week. I'm NEU and am still not sure. I'm always the one that rocks the boat at my school and don't want to be the only one taking a stand. Action always makes us the villains but im genuinely worried about safety. I'm eyfs so no chance of distancing

@BumbleBeegui I teach secondary science so mainly use Chemsheets or Exampro. Do Twinkl do some good A level science stuff ? Always looking for new ideas.,

And zoom and Teams are v different. Teams has so much functionality like google classrooms to set and mark work. Rubrics are great and we proctor tests on it too. Can only do calls on zoom I think ??

[quote mumsneedwine]@BumbleBeegui I teach secondary science so mainly use Chemsheets or Exampro. Do Twinkl do some good A level science stuff ? Always looking for new ideas.,[/quote]
I think they currently only go up to KS4 but are in the process of introducing KS5.

I don't know what Twinkl is!

But what I do gather is that primary colleagues use it quite a lot under 'normal' circumstances so I don't understand why they have suddenly become the devil.

I think this might be like secondary when (in an astonishing lack of foresight) a few people declared textbooks were sloppy teaching, they pretty much died out and we were left in the pandemic with nothing easy to set work from.

@Piggywaspushed or the joy of online textbooks. Which the kids forget their log ins for every week. They never forget how to get on tik toc or Snapchat somehow.

@BumbleBeegu off to have a look at the KS4 stuff. Thanks. Always good to find new resources (although I do love Chemsheets).

I'm KS1 so I have no knowledge of KS3/4/5, but I agree...it's always good to find a new source 😂

In the times I taught live lessons, I never had a whole class attend.

Piggy I love Twinkl. If used as a substitute for decent planning and curriculum design it could easily deskill inexperienced teachers who become used to teaching from bought in materials. If used as a valid resource to pick and mix then it's a hugely useful time saving subscription.

The issue with it being the devil since lockdown is because some parents object to teachers using a high quality, pre made resource and instead felt that teachers should be reinventing the wheel.