Home Schooling

[Domestic_Ginger]

My word its hard work!

I have 2. The older one has just started secondary school and is pretty much self sufficient; to the point that he is working when I get up and has finished by 9:30 in time to distract the younger one!

The younger one needs some help but is doing pretty well. He has got an online journal to upload finished work which makes a nice end to finishing a piece and getting itreviewed.

The first week was spent chasing them and stopping them playing Minecraft. We've got a routine now. 9am start and no games before lunch which is hurting me more than them!

How's everyone else coping?

[Kumagoro]

It isn't going that great. If I am honest we are being lazy but I work 9 to 5 from home and my wife is doing lectures using zoom, so my daughter doesn't get enough attention (junior school age).

In my opinion her school is doing a very poor job. They are using Google classroom and posting a couple of things for them to do in a day and that is it. They should have been able to get zoom up and running in less than a week doing say an hour or two everyday and ramping it up a bit. I think they just can't be bothered and can get away with it.

[DanceswithUnix]

I think that I am working harder than I did pre Covid, which makes helping harder than I expected. Thankfully my son is 6th form age doing a subject I couldn't help with anyway and seems to be getting good grades (as well as he seems to be going back to Minecraft as well ). My daughter's secondary school also seems to be struggling with doing remote lessons, but at least I can help with most of her subjects if she gets stuck and her brother can help with Spanish so she has some support.

[Jonj1611]

My daughters secondary school hasn't bothered with remote lessons, its a massive school with different ages and abilities, the one size fits all approach was never going to be really beneficial to any one person. But the work she is set is done within 30 minutes.

We have had messages from the school saying from the 1st they are doing 1 to 1 with tutors to re-engage and from the 15th splitting the year in half (year 10) and have them come in alternative days with revised schools hours from 10 until lunch then they go home

[neonplanet40]

It isn't going that great. If I am honest we are being lazy but I work 9 to 5 from home and my wife is doing lectures using zoom, so my daughter doesn't get enough attention (junior school age).

In my opinion her school is doing a very poor job. They are using Google classroom and posting a couple of things for them to do in a day and that is it. They should have been able to get zoom up and running in less than a week doing say an hour or two every day and ramping it up a bit. I think they just can't be bothered and can get away with it.

I am a secondary teacher (in Scotland) and while I can't comment on your specific school, we are all being hampered by GDPR and our professional bodies around the use of media to connect and work with pupils. There are rules which literally do not allow us to use them or we can lose our teaching license.

Similarly, Zoom is banned by our local council due to privacy fears. We are lucky as all of Scotland's local authorities have now set up Microsoft Teams to use with pupils. I am finding it quite useful for the situation we are currently in.

Finally, there is a balance to be had in terms of the work we set. If we set too much work, parents are complaining that we are putting them and their children under pressure to complete it. Also, some parents are really struggling (for a variety of good reasons). So while I can't comment on specific schools, I would give your school contact a call or message to tell them that they aren't providing enough work. I know I have sent extra work home for some pupils who have requested it. The problem teachers have, is that they have to do something that suits everyone. This is very difficult (often impossible). Hopefully contacting your school will lead to something that better suits your needs.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I really feel for the kids who are doing gcses and a levels.

I'm okay with no online lessons. But we're lucky (sort of) I'm out of work. For junior school we get a 2 week English project over 5 lessons (4 planning and one for the final piece), four maths lessons and a family Friday challenge every week and of course smelling with a Friday test. We have other lessons as well but these are not prioritised my me as much.

[giliko]

thanks for sharing your views

[JohnBlake3310]

I have spent lockdown home schooling my two and although it has been challenging, it has also been incredibly refreshing and a break from my career. It has been an immense period of time whereby I've sat back, relaxed and it's given me sigificant time to think.