So, Tom managed 4 days at school and then at the weekend (luckily late on Sunday) we got the email of doom and were told that a classmate of Tom's had tested positive for Covid and that he couldn't go back to school until Friday 20th November. BUGGER! A number of FB messages later and we narrow it down to someone in his English class - not that it matters who it is, but it means that most of his form are still at school, Tom is 1 in 5 who isn't in class for general classes, I think this makes it worse as the work goes on without him and the teacher won't remember who was off isolating when they are working out report grades etc.
We were thrown into on-line learning, the school uses TEAMS for their on-line learning which is basically a database of resources. They don't have live lesson streaming (not sure why - it would mean less queries coming their way if so!) It is a nightmare system to navigate, mainly because every department uses it differently, files are all over the place, links don't work, there are hidden channels, worksheets that you can't download, basically a mess. How an 11 year old is supposed to find their work and then do it unaided is beyond me. Because he is isolating at home and wanting to do his work in the kitchen, I can't do any chocolate work. Not great with Christmas coming up, but it does mean that I can dedicate my time to helping him keep up. It was the most frustrating week ever. The worse subject by a long way was Maths, then all the sciences and then French. Some, geography (naturally) were very well organised and a dream to do. No subjects have asked for any work to be submitted and marked which I find extra-ordinary. Tom has filled in worksheets for Maths, but once again no answer sheets - how on earth is he expected to know if he has understood correctly, or are they expecting me to work out all the answers as well? He is missing 6 maths lessons, which is not good considering they were just beginning to learn algebra! In an email to Matt, Tom's old headmistress said that we should expect excellent on-line resources, and we would be well within our rights to moan to them... Then on Thursday we get a letter from the headteacher basically saying to stop moaning about home schooling, all the work is available, you aren't doing it properly. A red rag to a bull...the work wasn't there, so I spent Saturday whilst the boys were watching James Bond taking screen shots of the Teams system to prove that the work wasn't available and where it was available, impossible to find. I ended up with a 15 page letter, showing proof that the info they said was available wasn't available and trying to explain to them how difficult it is to navigate.
It made me feel better if nothing else - I had a lot of pent up frustration in me!
Despite the on-line resources being rubbish, Tom has yet again been brilliant, doing all his work as well as he could (although he is a stickler for having his breaks at exactly the same time as at school regardless of whether he has finished what he is doing or not). He has looked a bit sad though, it isn't fair on him, not able to have any fresh air, get some exercise etc. The school are very quick to send reams of children home, for example, for 1 positive case, 120 children in Tom's year got sent home (at Settle College - they only send home children who were within a 2m radius of the positive case). How can two schools read and implement the regulations set out by the Dept of Education so differently? Also at Settle they have live lessons and teachers who phone to check up on pupils, we've been told that is too much work for the teachers at Tom's school? How? The teachers wouldn't get oodles of emails and messages asking what work to do if they could log in and see the lessons in action. Also regardless of how big a school is, the class is still the same size. So a form tutor in Settle will have 30 pupils to check up on, the same number as a form tutor at Tom's school. Needless to say we aren't that impressed with the school at the moment!
I sent the email on Sunday, just before 9am on Monday I got a phone call from one of the Assistant Head Teachers, who firstly gave me a lecture saying I didn't understand how much work the teachers were doing and that it was extra stress on them every time children get sent home. I knew I would probably get a lecture, so I was ready for it. I didn't rant in the letter (as much as I wanted to) and I didn't mention any teachers names either and I kept the tone very neutral as I knew they wouldn't take me seriously if I didn't. Once she got that out of her system, she relented to agree that the provision for the sciences and French could be improved, but wouldn't agree that Maths was awful, apparently it is ok to have black screens, where you have to hit 'back' to load, hidden channels with hidden files, presentations that make no sense and worksheets that you can't read or download. Because the work was in the system, we should be able to find it...these children are 11 years old! She said that every teacher has in class shown the children where the files are - how you can expect an 11 year old to remember the location of files for 11 plus subjects is beyond me?! I kept the conversation positive, but inside I was boiling.
Anyway, I've said my piece and probably made a name for myself! Funny later in the day we get a one line letter from the Head of Year 7 saying how well Tom has done in his first half term at school...a coincidence? I don't think so. However, Tom was very happy to see it.
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