Schools’ support ‘is varying greatly’
EDUCATION: Parents have voiced frustration over vast differences in levels of support being provided by schools during lockdown.
Some schools in North Yorkshire have been heralded for “going above and beyond” in engaging students, while other teachers have been accused of doing the bare minimum.
PARENTS HAVE voiced frustration over vast differences in levels of support being provided by schools during lockdown.
Some schools in North Yorkshire have been heralded by parents for “going above and beyond” in engaging students, while other teachers have been accused of doing the bare minimum.
The Department for Education has said schools should consider the approaches that best suit the needs of their pupils and staff.
To encourage schools to offer more support, the Government has backed Oak National Academy, an online collaboration between teachers and organisations across the sector to provide 180 hours of free video lessons a week.
In addition, the Government has this week highlighted schools which offer daily videos of staff explaining a topic and to encourage pupils to pause the video and complete tasks such as questions, fill in the blanks, or research activities.
Numerous schools in North Yorkshire, including ones with
The school is going above and beyond. Teachers are providing lessons.
Claire Sharp, a parent of two children at a school near Boroughbridge.
lower resources, have taken this approach since the first week of lockdown.
Claire Sharp, a parent of two children at a 60-pupil council-maintained school near Boroughbridge, said: “The school is going above and beyond.
“Class teachers are providing lessons each day, whereby they film themselves, usually at a whiteboard, taking pupils through certain tasks set for the day to give extra support. We also have chapters of the class story book read by teachers, posted on there.”
However, parents at other schools in the area say they feel like they have been “hung out to dry” by schools.
They say they have only received “a few minutes’ contact and brief, typed messages from teachers”, alongside some website links for educational resources. One parent of pupils in the Thirsk area said: “I have been left wondering how teachers can account for their working hours at the moment. When the kids have completed work there’s been absolutely no interest in marking it, so the children’s incentive for doing it has dropped off.
“My children have had minimal contact from their teachers and that has left us as parents facing huge pressures while working. As a result of a lack of any structure or useful support, we have had to really limit our younger child’s education time.”
When explaining to parents why her school was limiting its support to pupils, one headteacher highlighted “staff availability, as a large number of staff are caring for and home schooling children themselves”.
Anne Longfield, the Yorkshirebased Children’s Commissioner, has issued safety recommendations to teachers, ‘locking’ the classroom – so no one else can join – using the ‘virtual waiting room’ feature, and stopping private messaging.