Lockdown (And Beyond) Hatchlings

[Luce]

Full day of live lessons for secondary here. Although a lot of those lessons are live at the beginning and end with school work inbetween.

In another absolute dick move from my eldest, he has decided to ask out my best friends daughter, after being secretly in love with her cor ages; they’ve been friends since they were 6. There was some ‘overlap’ between the last girlfriend and this one so now we’re dealing with lots of Snapchat drama. Because we need more shit to deal with. F thinks he’s 17, FFS. If your voice drops in year 7 then I think it makes you King of the Bellends.

Said best friend has just texted me and she’s at the end of her rope (not to do with the above). I don’t know how to help her. I’ve got nothing left to give.

[Ruby]

Oh no Luce.

4+ hours of live lessons? Really? J has 5 hours of lessons a day. As of this week, some are live (three yesterday and two today) and some pre-recorded (voice over Powerpoints). Doing a full timetable of live lessons would be really hard work!

I know. It's government guidelines - there should be some 'interactive' element apparently. My lessons are usually 35-40 minutes of me/reading task/questioning/Q&A and then 20 minutes or so of completing a task on e.g. Forms. We also have live tutor period, which is mostly me trying to get them to mute/unmute their mics and then I talk to them about wellbeing whilst one of them breathes heavily into their still unmuted mic.

I do think a more flexible approach would help but who knows?

[smalex]

F Hefner I'm sorry, its really made me laugh.


My friend just whatsapped me. They've had RE this week (bloody Catholic schools ) and its about St Paul. Todays was to make a poster and her son's is accidentally anti Semitic I'm crying laughing.

[Little My]

I was thinking this whole covid episode would probably put a bit of a damper on school romances. Just wait until they no longer have to physically distance and wear masks!

[Luce]

Oh no, the drama about who is ‘dating’ and who has ‘cheated’ on who(m) is still very real despite the fact that no one has seen each other since middle of December. Blithering idiots.

Oh no, Smal!

[happyhighlandcoo]

whilst one of them breathes heavily into their still unmuted mic.

Arggggh this! I told someone off today for constantly coming off mute and just breathing. She's a lovely girl, not doing it to deliberately cause trouble but I cannot stand the sound of her breathing!

The online romances, eeeek!

We're doing a bit of a mix with the live and remote. Probably 3/4 lessons a day live, usually a 20 minute input and discussion then go off the call to do the work then come back at the end to go through. If they get stuck, they send a message and we either write back or start a new call with them. I think it is a good balance and seems to be going well.

[wendy james]

For those with primary school Hatchlings attending live lessons/class sessions, are the school insisting on an adult being present in the room?

I’m guessing it’s safeguarding related, but Brownies/music teacher ask only that we’re there at the start/end, not the entire duration. Neither child is interested in attending and neither adult is going to sit in the craft room with them, so I’m mainly curious.

[Glint]

We don't have to be in the room during live video interactions. The camera doesn't need to be on either.

[purple_dress]

Only for reception, not for year 4.

[Texaco Shirley]

A (Y6) hasn’t had any yet, the first one will be tomorrow but there hasn’t been any mention of parents being present.

[Flora Poste]

Our guidance just says a parent has to be within audible distance.

I've just re-read the guidance apparently we have to 'Ensure everyone in the household is aware that a video call is taking place, so they do not pass behind your child and appear on the webcam, make excessive noise or say something inappropriate'. They are also not supposed to have a call in a bedroom, but we've ignored that if more than one of them are having a zoom at the same time as we don't have any other spare rooms (we're all open plan other than bedrooms/ bathrooms and as there are 5 of us it can get reasonably noisy!).

[viggy]

We have our first live session this week and we've been told ONLY the child is to attend.

[happyhighlandcoo]

For those with primary school Hatchlings attending live lessons/class sessions, are the school insisting on an adult being present in the room?

I’m guessing it’s safeguarding related, but Brownies/music teacher ask only that we’re there at the start/end, not the entire duration. Neither child is interested in attending and neither adult is going to sit in the craft room with them, so I’m mainly curious.

We ask for it, same with not being in bedrooms but we don't monitor or do anything if we don't see the parent or if they are in a bedroom. I think schools just have it in the user agreement as a protection for both sides but it isn't really practical at all and a decent school would understand. I guess if they were doing 1-1 it would be more important.

[Luce]

Theo is in year 2 and one of us needs to start him off and be in earshot for the duration. I nearly always sit with him because it’s lunch time anyway, for me. I wouldn’t be leaving him entirely since he’s 7 and given half the chance he would wander off because it’s pretty boring.

[Kleio]

No live lessons for either of my primary school children. They have Teams 3 times a week but it’s more of a catch up with no teaching.

In the last lockdown when they sort of did lessons we had similar rules that no one could appear on screen and advised there was no one in the room.

We’ve been sent no guidance for these Teams meetings.

The secondary school one doesn’t have 4 hours of live lessons He has a mixture of live and recorded but we’re told no one MUST attend the live lessons as they’re also recorded and go up after. He’s told to stay in a communal area of the house.

[Luce]

F gets to his desk at 8.30. He’s then on Teams (either lessons or breakout rooms for discussions etc) till 3pm. Gets a 20 minute break and then a 40 minute break for lunch. Attendance is taken and work needs to be submitted to a reasonable standard. His teacher in Year 5 was a renegade who set no homework and Year 6 was a write off. So this is a lot to get used to. No wonder he’s distracting himself with girls.

[Pippedydeadeye]

Squeak missed registration this morning. School have emailed.
Registration is “to provide your child with a structured and ‘virtual’ school experience.
This will help your child to make progress both academically, socially, and emotionally thus reducing the potential for feelings of negative mental health and isolation. The tutor sessions will give your child an opportunity to discuss any issues they may have. If your child’s tutor cannot resolve the issue, they will pass it onto someone who can.”

Yeah, as if any teenage kid with an ounce of street cred is going to admit to struggling in that forum.

[Skips]

I’m guessing it’s safeguarding related, but Brownies/music teacher ask only that we’re there at the start/end, not the entire duration.

I shouldn't be on this thread, but Guiding states:

Girls under 14 need to have parents or adult carers with them when they join a video chat. Their parent or carer can stay nearby in the same room or can stay present during the meeting. Girls over 14 should have an adult nearby.

Although that statement is quite vague we've had it rammed down our throats (by our district commissioner) that a parent needs to be in the same room for the meeting duration so it's interesting to see how it's been interpreted.

[wendy james]

Interesting! Thanks all.

They’d be downstairs and at least one adult would be next door, I just have no inclination to sit and listen to teacher/leaders (even if I wasn’t working full time during school ones).

[Skips]

Some of our parents join in, which I just find weird.