The Fortieth Republic - Schools are safe but they are vectors so go online

[SantaAssociationRepresentitve]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Do not give the staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

I'm getting them to scan/take photos of the work they've done and upload that. And also sending out a forms quiz as a plenary. They literally don't want to/can't be online at the right time for the lesson. There are quite a few of them who are sharing a device with a sibling (although I'm not aware of any who genuinely don't have their own smartphone, even if it is a bit old and crap).

We're sending out DfE laptops this week, but the whole school allocation is only just enough for each family to get one, not each pupil who is sharing. So they are doing the work at weird times, some are done as soon as I send the work out (usually just before 9), and they send me their work by 10, others aren't doing it til the evening and I get their work handed in overnight. It was a pain in the arse last time, and it's proving to be a pain in the arse this time as well. And that's before we even start on the kids who haven't even opened any of the work Im setting (every class has had at least 2 lessons with me, if not 3 this week). Id much prefer to have some form of live check-in with them every day, it would definitely be easier to keep track of who's doing what.

That DFE statement is truly awful as they are quoting data from Sept to October. Totally irrelevant. True gas lighting and will be used as ammunition against vulnerable (and I mean all here) staff.

I gave mine 30 mins writing time last lesson (which I would have done in the classroom ) and asked them to upload a photo via office lens to a one note page so I can mark their book work. Seems to be working so far.
But breakout rooms have suddenly vanished and the whole thing kept falling over

They don’t want live lessons, they want babysitting via Teams.

I concur.

Can I also lightly derail with a whine? I hadn’t realised how miserable I would feel, sitting in an empty classroom, speaking into a zoom lesson with no cameras on and not allowed to talk to other staff properly. It’s really lonely. At least when we worked from home, we worked on lessons together on zoom or on the phone. And DP was at home.

Our HT is really pushing us to go into teach - but I'd definitely feel worse doing what you are Herdy
It's not normal

Thanks everyone for all the advice, tried some of them this morning and it was much better, don't feel quite so sick of the screen.

This thread is much more useful than the training we had at school!

@Mistressiggi are you using teams? If so you can do the same as loom by using streams. It doesn’t limit clip length either.

They don’t want live lessons, they want babysitting via Teams.
I've switched sides today - having done online teaching til now, today is my 'day off' so I'm supporting DC (y2) w remote learning.
It's hell.
He's refusing to do any work, am having to bribe him to do anything (he'll get minecraft this eve) and his stamina is dreadful.
I feel comfortable just getting him to do basics (maths and English, a bit of reading and handwriting) but am sure that many parents see the hours of tasks and feel completely overwhelmed. They think that live lessons will make the impossible possible.
In reality, my pupils just turn up for the live bit but don't follow up by actually doing the task.

I could cry - logged onto form time this morning and for some reason nobody else was able to join the meeting - ended up rejoining and eventually the issue seemed to resolve. But then I was greeted by angry parents telling me that they had been waiting to log in for ten mins, they didn’t know their password, why had there been no maths work set (I don’t know not a maths teacher!) and so on - I apologised for the issues and did try to resolve them as best as I could in between virtual lessons and also sent a whole class email to say sorry for the problems but hopefully now resolved so look forward to seeing them for registration tomorrow morning but am already imagining them sending off emails to Ofstead to complain!

@Cantaloupeisland

Anyone else just received the most gaslighting bullshit email from DfE? This is a particularly good paragraph -

There is no evidence the new strain of the virus causes more serious illness in either children or adults and there continues to be strong evidence, to date, that children and younger people (those under 18 years old) are much less susceptible to severe clinical disease than older people. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey data from 2 September to 16 October showed no evidence of difference in the rates of teachers/education workers testing positive for COVID-19 compared to key workers and other professions. Additionally, the Schools Infection Survey (covering 3 to 19 November) found the infection rate among teachers to be similar to that of the wider population.

That's horrible.

I'd possibly be tempted to reply with the TES link showing a 300% higher rate of infection in teachers, or something like that.

Or maybe respond with a question of how many teachers can die in your workplace before it is considered unsafe.

But this is why I'd be a terrible school leader!

I came into school herdy because DP is at home

But, yes, it's very lonely this remote life.

@rainingcats

I could cry - logged onto form time this morning and for some reason nobody else was able to join the meeting - ended up rejoining and eventually the issue seemed to resolve. But then I was greeted by angry parents telling me that they had been waiting to log in for ten mins, they didn’t know their password, why had there been no maths work set (I don’t know not a maths teacher!) and so on - I apologised for the issues and did try to resolve them as best as I could in between virtual lessons and also sent a whole class email to say sorry for the problems but hopefully now resolved so look forward to seeing them for registration tomorrow morning but am already imagining them sending off emails to Ofstead to complain!

Wankers. Bet they love being able to leap into the Form time virtually and throw their weight about. I mean, I’d probably send an enquiring email after maybe a week of my child not being able to log in properly, but the first few days of this - what are some parents on?

I'd rip the DVD if I could. I think Santa's Little Helper is on it for me

Beeb website has article about schools possibly being overwhelmed by "laptopless" - new and not v elegant term - kids. ASCL says that some heads are reporting 20-30% of pupils in so far - presumably those heads with 70-80% in were too busy to let ASCL know?!

I had a vague charitable thought about Gav earlier . Perhaps he told parents to complain to Ofsted because his DW is fed up of all the remote learning not good enough threads on MN?!?

Can I ask what is normal now for home learning in the state sector? My children are at an excellent local school which so far isn't providing learning materials for every lesson. There have been hints that something else is to come but so far, nothing live. Nothing live at all last time either.

I teach in a private school so we have been live for 6 lessons a day, every day. I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of contact my children's school is providing including no phone call at all during the last lockdown. To make matters worse, my children are PP following a short period of unemployment after feeling domestic abuse and they still haven't been checked up on at all.

Are most schools now at least doing some lessons live or is that really not happening very much at all?

@rainingcats

I could cry - logged onto form time this morning and for some reason nobody else was able to join the meeting - ended up rejoining and eventually the issue seemed to resolve. But then I was greeted by angry parents telling me that they had been waiting to log in for ten mins, they didn’t know their password, why had there been no maths work set (I don’t know not a maths teacher!) and so on - I apologised for the issues and did try to resolve them as best as I could in between virtual lessons and also sent a whole class email to say sorry for the problems but hopefully now resolved so look forward to seeing them for registration tomorrow morning but am already imagining them sending off emails to Ofstead to complain!

Do you have a system for parents to communicate with the school? I'm guessing it's not via teams during form time?

I would actually absolutely stonewall this, and say it's not the right time for their complaints and to raise them via x channel.

@Watchingbehindmyhands

Can I ask what is normal now for home learning in the state sector? My children are at an excellent local school which so far isn't providing learning materials for every lesson. There have been hints that something else is to come but so far, nothing live. Nothing live at all last time either.

I teach in a private school so we have been live for 6 lessons a day, every day. I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of contact my children's school is providing including no phone call at all during the last lockdown. To make matters worse, my children are PP following a short period of unemployment after feeling domestic abuse and they still haven't been checked up on at all.

Are most schools now at least doing some lessons live or is that really not happening very much at all?

I'm at a state secondary in deepest darkest Cornwall with the resultant poor broadband.

We are going to offer 1hr per subject live from next week as a supplement to the resources/tasks we are providing via SMHW for every lesson.

We have a lot of students whose home internet simply won't cope with 2/3 people trying to access teams at the same time, so we can't offer a full timetable this way. We haven't properly announced this to parents yet as we are still trying to work out the timetable- but if you contacted the school and asked we would let you know.

I don't know if this helps at all, and I know it's not ideal!

My DC have paper packs supported by stuff through Teams (so the facility to upload work and get comments from the teacher all day). The school seems to have settled on a common timetable as one is in KS1 and the other KS2 and they have the same blocks -

9.9.30 - PE with Joe/Cosmic Kids/their own Wake and Shake
9-30-10.30 - Morning maths (sheets or a booklet - also they have Education City and TT Rockstars logins)
10.30-11 - break
11-12 English (booklets, supplemented with video links of stories either online or from teachers)
12-1 Lunch
1-2 Topic work (booklets but also some stuff on Teams, interesting links to look at - DS just showed me a timelapse of deforestation that was really cool)
2-2.15 break
2.15-2.30 Circle time on Teams (chat)

I think this is plenty tbh, it means they have time to get outside to play or go for a walk with DP or me if I have time, they have some free time before my day finishes too. They don't need live lessons although I guess they might get some later. As it is DD's yr2 class only seem to have 4/5 students even using Teams at all.

@JanuaryChill

Beeb website has article about schools possibly being overwhelmed by "laptopless" - new and not v elegant term - kids. ASCL says that some heads are reporting 20-30% of pupils in so far - presumably those heads with 70-80% in were too busy to let ASCL know?!

I thought that!!

20/30% doesn’t sound too bad but that’s not what I’m hearing from actual teachers I know!

My dd is in year 6, and her school aren't planning on doing any live lessons at all. I think that's fine by me. There are some prerecorded things, links to white rose maths every day, and plenty of tasks to keep dd going. She's done maths and English each morning, then other subjects in the afternoons. I think it's plenty, and far better than live lessons at this age.

I am at a secondary school with a fairly rural catchment in Cumbria. The kids/families on the whole don't want live lessons because a) lots of them are sharing devices so all children can't be live at the same time, and b) their internet connections are as dodgy as they can be, some have poor WiFi and 4G is almost non existent in some villages. So we're mostly doing prerecorded lessons, with activities and worksheets to complete independently. I'd personally prefer, as a teacher, to be doing live lessons as it would give my day a bit more structure and make it easier to keep track of who's doing what. But if the pupils can't access that, then we need to provide what they CAN access.

rainingcats - if they came onto the actual meeting talking to you like that I would be ringing the head and asking them to have strong words. Or I'd pen a very polite but clear email asking that if parents have concerns they email you privately but that obviously teething problems are inevitable and it will help their children if they can model patience and resilience to their children. FFS! How rude!

I'm getting very close to telling a parent to watch their tone with me in their messages, which are meant to be from their child but clearly aren't, even though their child also has an issue with tone

This obsession with live lessons and weekly phone calls!

@Piggywaspushed you could start a Google meet, record the meeting, mute your mic, share your screen by sharing an application, and then play the film. It should record it well enough for those who should have bought it anyway