This morning I watched my son\u2019s teacher expertly handle 17\nYear 2 children on a Zoom call. Teaching them the possessive apostrophe within\n30 minutes when all they wanted to do was show off their teddies and talk about\nwhat they did at the weekend (some giving away details their parents probably\nwish they hadn\u2019t which at least raised some smiles!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 10am she quickly wrapped up the call and went back to her\nclassroom where the Teaching Assistant was covering for her while she had the\ncall. She has 13 of the class still in school due to the rules this lockdown\nmeaning many more families qualify for key worker or vulnerable places for\ntheir children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as the morning Zoom call we have an afternoon one\nfor the foundation subjects or assembly. We also pick up a massive printed work\npack every Monday morning and can find a weekly grid on the school website each\nSunday night. It doesn\u2019t go live until then so I know staff are working all\nhours to get it ready for the week. It is really well organised and it ensures\nwe have everything we need to homeschool for the week. Even my nursery-age son\nalso has a weekly timetable with suggestions of Numberblocks episodes and\nactivities we can do at home with him to support his learning and development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have seen the government directives on how much work\nshould be provided for students. I have seen the rules for which children\nshould be in school. I have seen advice on what kind of lessons should be given\nlive, how often and when. I have even had my own little moans from a parent\nside about how much school is invading my home and affecting my work. Because\nit is hard – balancing work with two young children who need supervision at\nleast, and motivation and inspiration at best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet my heart mostly goes out to those teachers who are working behind the scenes on what we see at home. I think our sons\u2019 school is sensible in the way they have planned each day and week. Yet it still feels like the teacher is suddenly working two jobs without even a tiny bit of overtime pay. How can this be sustainable? I know of teachers who are taking 2 hours to record and resource each online lesson, which may only take a student less than one hour to complete. They are often doing this in the evening as during the day they are teaching the bubbles of children in school, delivering food parcels, checking in on vulnerable children, giving feedback to online work, calling homes, and any numbers of other tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This does feel very sustainable and I hope that soon I see\nsome rules put in place about what teachers can be expected to do if this\ncontinues much longer. I know many parents will want more work, and many will\nwant less. This is a situation in which it has never been truer that \u201cyou\ncannot please all of the people all of the time.\u201d It is a truly unenviable\nposition which schools are in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All I see, though, is every teacher and school leader\nstepping up. The workload is incredible and so is the output. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All we can offer from a school website perspective is to say we are your original learning platform! Feel free to use your school website to put your links and worksheets and planning on for parents, and we will continue to ensure parents can access those quickly with the minimum fuss. We take our hats off to each and every one of you. And if we can support you in any way with advice on making it quicker and easier for staff to add resources then please let us know. We want to help. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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