Virtual classes and Covid 19

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yoyo123
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by yoyo123 »

A friend of mine, head of a primary school replied to criticisms
As she said, they had 2 days notice that they were “closing” apart from the fact that they haven’t closed, they are still open for key worker’s and vulnerable children, they are providing meals, they are delivering food parcels. One of her teachers isolated fom the beginning because of her husband’s extremely vulnerable status (the teacher provided online advice, planned lessons and checked in on vulnerable pupils - from her home using her own phone- daily)

Teachers, TAs, midday supervisors are at work every day, small children do not “get” social distancing and there is no PPE whatsover.
KS10
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Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:39 am

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by KS10 »

And let’s not forget the students who need support. They wouldn’t have that support with online lessons and so would be further disadvantaged.
yoyo123
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by yoyo123 »

Exactly, not all families have multiple laptops/tablets. Parents may be working from home
My friends have said that only a small proportion of their pupils are picking up work.

My background was primary but I am well aware of how many children returned after the Summer holidays not having picked up a book or a pencil during that time. They started each year at a disadvantage.

This virus is going to just reinforce the social divide.
Children from literate homes will be actively learning, with or without online lessons.


I worry about the pupils who don’t have support at home.
I once had to phone a yr 5 child’s mum- asked him if she would be home.

His reply was “What time is it?” It was 11am..apparently that would be ok because she would be in bed, drinking wine and watching Netflix. He had got himself up and got himself to school every day since he was 5
Moon unit
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Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:14 am

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by Moon unit »

One of the reasons I think private schools have been so quick to sort out virtual classrooms is they were well aware parents would be questioning this terms fees if they didn’t.
Our local indie is running lessons for year 11 as per normal timetable up until 24/6 the gcse contingency day.
Parents of girls who are high achievers and unlikely to want to resit are particularly fed up with this.
They feel the state school year 11s who have started A level bridging work will be at an advantage.
Some work sent by private schools has required a lot of parental input ie measure a 500m course and time your child running it and submit time to the PE department.
That’s for an 11 year old. Both parents working from home.
I’m very happy with what my DD has been sent.
In one of her a level subjects she has some work to do each week up until mid August and has been sent an online CGP preparing for A level book to use to help from her school.
I’m very impressed.
hermanmunster
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Location: The Seaside

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by hermanmunster »

Moon unit wrote: Some work sent by private schools has required a lot of parental input ie measure a 500m course and time your child running it and submit time to the PE department.
That’s for an 11 year old. Both parents working from home.
.
Doesn't sounds particularly educational - quite hard for many to find a running course like that and sounds like the PE dept want someone to do the work for them. This can surely wait until they are back at school
ToadMum
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Location: Essex

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by ToadMum »

hermanmunster wrote:
Moon unit wrote: Some work sent by private schools has required a lot of parental input ie measure a 500m course and time your child running it and submit time to the PE department.
That’s for an 11 year old. Both parents working from home.
.
Doesn't sounds particularly educational - quite hard for many to find a running course like that and sounds like the PE dept want someone to do the work for them. This can surely wait until they are back at school
There are phone apps for that, surely? Pick a marker to start from, walk to measure 500m, set stopwatch function, run back to marker. No need for parental input. Finding somewhere actually to do it might be more challenging for some, but presumably, the PE department knows all the pupils well enough to know that 'down the middle of the road' / 'along the pavement, annoying the **** out of other pedestrians' isn't going to be the only option for any of them?

Does it have to be done in 'real time', though? What about those pupils whose parents are both still working, but not from home? If the school insists that a parent must be involved, for those pupils it would have to be before or after work.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by loobylou »

Oh yes they have loads of lessons, a full timetable for both years. And good timely feedback from teachers.
But very few "real time" video lessons.
At dh's school they don't allow any video lessons because of safeguarding concerns. Also not everyone has access to good enough wifi for that and so it would disadvantage some students.
I've been really impressed with what the teachers are doing with my children's years.
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by loobylou »

I sadly agree with those who think this lockdown period will widen the gap. Some of my teacher friends say that very few of their students, even in year 10, log on and do the work; they aren't really able to start new subjects or teach new things because it's too difficult to ensure everyone understands. At other schools they can be much more sure that students are engaged and also they can be more confident about starting new topics.
Tinkers
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Location: Reading

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by Tinkers »

DD is year 13 so probably not a good indicator, but she has been set numerous pieces of work to do to finish her A level courses and has been getting good feedback from teachers. There’s been a lot of communication from school about what is happening and the HOYs have being emailing students regularly. They also tried to ensure that any students who would struggle with IT availability or internet access at sorted out before the schools closed and provided school laptops to those who might need them. They have repeated the offer for those who were ok but might not be now their parents are wfh.

There has been a couple of attempts to do some real time debates/discussions for DD in a couple of her subjects and the teachers have put it to vote on the date/time suited most students the best, but with the added statement that it wasn’t compulsory. I believe other years are getting set work to do, but no real time lessons, but I’m not sure

Without company laptops we might have been struggling in our house for equipment for all three of us at once. Both DH and I are wfh. At times both of us are on Skype or Teams calls. Not sure if our broadband would manage to cope with all three of us at once.
PerpetualStudent
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:52 am

Re: Virtual classes and Covid 19

Post by PerpetualStudent »

DD’s school started off trying to maintain a full school day of lessons for year 10 but then switched to allocating a ‘week’s’ work on Mondays. However a week’s work is only 3 hours a day max. Assignments and test papers are emailed in and returned with marks and comments.
So DD is learning to manage her time and study (with only occasional lapses). I’m sure this will stand her in good stead for the future. Unfortunately there are wild differences in work load between subjects: Latin 20mins vs history several hours.
Only one teacher records a lesson and delivers it as a lecture. DD was delighted when the lecture was disrupted by her teacher’s toddler requiring a cuddle :D
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