Anyone supervising key worker/ vulnerable students in school?

[OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow]

Anyone going slowly mad? The TAs, technicians, cover supervisor are on a rota looking after the kids whilst they are online.(I’m one of these) The kids, god love em, are doing well, they come in, get in teams, do their work.(most of them, a couple of ks4 boys do everything they can to disrupt everyone else). And I know it’s hard for them , but we’re struggling too, all our admin is more than up to date. We can’t support (or don’t need to) in class because of space. And the monotony. Dear god, there is nothing to relieve it. Apart from the weekly testing. We can read or craft or draw when we’re there, but there’s only so much of that you can do. If there’s any little jobs we can do in class we are scrapping over them!
I know - grateful I have a job and it’s not taxing, but I’m thinking of tomorrow and could cry. I’m just praying for a snow day.

I'm an LSA in secondary. We are in 5 days a week because of the nature of our jobs and the pe teachers are also in covering key worker provision for the most part. Other teachers are in to cover in on a rota basis.

I'm only going mad because of the set up and the odd teacher who sees fit to tell us they're having some much needed time off so cannot provide the requested differentiated work...

All our send students have been moved out of keyworker provision and into the learning support department, which means we are full on supporting groups on students with no teacher support and minimal from year group heads. We are running interventions and doing home contacts amongst other things. We are the busiest we've been since I started about a year ago.

But I do love my job and wouldn't change it for anything.

Oh yeah, pe, ours aren’t in. They have set some quizzes and worksheets, un differentiated and not suitable for ks3. So apart from their gcse groups, what are they doing?
I’m not a ta, but ours are supporting specific students, not their full time table, in break out rooms. Differentiation for other send students seems to be minimal. We’re doing welfare and attendance calls, but obviously not during class.
We’ve loads of snow, but still open.

I’m in Primary where all the TAs are working full time teaching/supervising vulnerable & key worker children. The teachers are working from home, teaching online but come in one day a week. It’s hard work for the teachers but also really hard on the TAs as their are definitely more vulnerable children in school than key worker children and they tend to need a lot more support.

Yep. Every week here. In school with Keyworkers for longer than normal days (starting earlier, ending later than usual) for more than half the week, managing the online learning as well as the kids I'm in class with and spending the other couple of days doing meetings and trying to catch up with the online marking etc and planning.
Really looking forward to half term!

There not “their” in my post. Autocorrect is to blame!

We're 3 form entry. I'm in with 21 Y2 kids (more vulnerable than key worker I'd say), and my 2 colleagues plan lessons/ make phone calls, with the support of 2 TAs who mark Seesaw. I'm so tired, and not sure why: think it is the unrelentingness of it, no PPA or NQT time off perhaps that's it.

In the first week I was doing the on line stuff, but then my colleague had covid so I had to come in and teach. We've checked with each other a few times, but I'm in my 5th week of teaching now and think it's been great for me and more importantly the kids to have some continuity.

My daughter (school a couple blocks away) has teachers doing 2 weeks in/ 2 weeks remotely, it's been interesting to see how people are doing it differently.

In my secondary school, teachers are on a rota to cover key worker/vulnerable bubbles. I've done one day so far but it was a royal PITA trying to teach live with them in the room, even though they were spread out and wearing headphones for a lot of the time. I work 0.5 there. PE teachers are doing more supervision but I think that's reasonable as 3 are heads of year so it's fair to make them supervise their year group.

In my primary, there are just over half the number of bubbles as classes. The normal class teachers have partnered up and take it in turns to do a week in then a week from home. However, they work from 8.30 til noon. TAs and specialist teachers (me & PE) cover afternoons from noon til 3.30. I end up with more face-to-face time than I do normally, but with a maximum of 16 kids, it's not too bad. Another birthday party this afternoon - I'm getting good at 10 year old boys' parties!

We're a one form entry primary and are averaging 25% kids in over a week so about 50 kids.

We're all on a rota, Teachers 1/2 a week and TAs slightly more.

I'm the Y2 teacher but our bubble is a mix of 2/3/4 which is a hard group to teach as varying levels.

Teachers are setting their own work so my Y2's have to wait whilst I input with the others

It's just hard work and the days are long. Being at home is also mind numbing and I'm getting back and neck pain from sitting at a laptop all day.

TA in primary. I am really busy. I am in every day doing a mix of class supervision, online supervision and zoom lessons. By far the most difficult is class supervision. I am upper KS2 and the children we have in are mostly key worker with 1 or 2 SEN. It is beyond frustrating that the key worker group seem to have lost the ability to work independently. They sit staring at laptops waiting to be told what to do. The lessons have been pre recorded by the teachers with PowerPoints as well. All they have to do is watch and listen and refer to the PowerPoints. They ask constant questions which when I look at the PowerPoint presentations are answered in the first couple of slides if they could be bothered to actually read them. I am afraid I told them all today that they were not babies and needed to figure it out for themselves. Funnily enough they managed just fine after that. Our SEN children have really flourished this term because class sizes are small and they can concentrate as it’s not as noisy. One child who hates English and refuses to participate on a normal school day has actually written a couple of really good stories this week.

It is quite hard going at my school.
We are in school full time.
As a TA:

• One week is spent doing live lessons, welfare calls, marking Google Classroom submissions, creating content like assemblies and story videos, as well as marking paper workpacks that are returned to school and photocopying the packs for the following week.
• One week is spent working with a vulnerable/key worker group of 20, which has seen me teaching 50% of the time atm and supporting the rest of the time. We are obviously delivering the full curriculum, trying to do one-to-one interventions and so forth.

I'd much rather be on one side or the other, but this weekly switch is quite tiring. You just get into the swing of things again and then you change over. It is also hard for the kids as we all have our own styles so they are having to deal with two teacher/TA teams each fortnight.

Pupil behaviour on site has been challenging. A child threw a table across the room yesterday because he had come into school in a bad mood. Everyone just feels very stressed with the situation.

Do you have a laptop? When we get a chance, we are doing online free courses. I've just done an Open University Teaching Maths Level 2 course. Another TA has done a Future Learn Supporting Young People with Mental Health course. I did an Autism one a while ago. University of Reading do a Secondary School TA course which is good. There are loads if you do a Google.

In our school there's a TA and a teacher in daily.

The TAs cover break and lunch times to release the teacher. And the rest of the time are there in case they are needed for some reason, but otherwise sit with their devices and undertake professional development courses, sometimes in the same room with the kids, sometimes in the next room.

The teachers get released for their lunch and break as above, but then spend the rest of the day supervising the kids, recording videos (I end up doing mine on my morning break when it's quiet) and trying to keep on top of the emails when get a minute. Then the feedback at the end of the day.

It's relentless!

The teachers are generally in school full time, teaching via zoom to those at home and directly to Keyworker/vulnerable children in school. TheTAs are also in school, either supporting those working from home or working 1:1 with children with an EHCP. It's only on PPA days that the teachers stay home, teaching via zoom in the morning and PPA in the afternoon. We have a couple of more vulnerable staff working from home, either covering PPA or providing online support

Everyone is in full time in my primary. We have ~50% of children in school so I am teaching face to face in the classroom and covering all breaks during the school day (except half an hour at lunchtime when my TA covers - we take turns to cover the hour).

I'm uploading recorded lessons daily to the online platform for those at home learning remotely, and then providing online feedback/telephone support after school finishes for home learners. My TA is occupied all day with supporting a child with significant additional needs.

It is a real juggle to keep up with it all and I am exhausted.

So strange to see how everyone's doing it differently! We've only got about 10% in (20-25). The TAs who can come in are teaching those in school, those shielding are doing 20 min reading sessions with every child online. As a teacher we're not teaching the online learning but running 25 interventions a week and 2x daily check ins. KS2 teachers can do this from home as there's only 8 KS2 children in school who can all use the laptops. I have 6-8 Y2s in and they can't cope with laptops so I have to come in on the bus everyday to try and teach both children on TEAMs and those in the classroom at the same time! I also have to plan my home learning pack which is differentiated 8 ways and is 30+ pages. I am beyond shattered.

We’re two form entry so do alternate weeks of being in school teaching the keyworker children or at home remote teaching everyone else and planning lessons for the following week. It’s just about manageable but quite hard. I’m still expected to do some live lessons for children at home when I’m with the keyworker children so have to leave them with the TA while I go to another room to do that. My DC are only in the keyworker group when I’m at school so my weeks at home are quite tough too, trying to balance my work with theirs. Life was so much easier before all this!

I’m a HLTA so am in school supervising a bubble, not my normal year group but I know the kids. I am going slowly mad from the isolation. I am either with the children or in a small room on my own wolfing a sandwich in record time (normal for school) trying to face the rest of the day.

We have an interesting mix of KW, vulnerable and those who have convinced the head they can’t have their child at home.

Teachers set all the work and we have live lessons twice a day but the general view (when I do speak to an adult once the kids have left) is these don’t work for us at school. Anyone else find that? One on one with a screen is great but we have to use the whiteboard and the sound/image is awful.

Class dynamics are messed up with smaller groups and children are miserable when they aren’t with friends.

Am not looking forward to tomorrow. It was better in summer as we had 2 adults per bubble, effectively teaching and support. Now I struggle with a smaller, more needy mix and can’t deliver interventions, support class work plus challenge the more able.

That was a complete whinge fest.

I feel your pain & even with a laptop each, live remote teaching was not working for a lot of our children, so the TAs are teaching them themselves. It’s tough. I can’t wait for the whole class to be back. 🤞 for March 8th.