Online learning in primary schools

[swagstar]

Hi all i've been told by a school that you are not allowed to do online learning (ie giving lessons online) in primary schools for safeguarding reasons. I appreciate it may be down to budget as I've heard of multiple private schools that did this during lockdown but wondered if anyone knew of any state schools that had done/are doing it? I have gone on the govt website and couldnt find anything saying it was not allowed.

Thanks so much

[fishbiscuits]

Do you mean real time video conferencing (e.g. Zoom?) I've not heard of state schools doing that, and not sure how if would work in a class of 30 children.

But during the spring lockdown our school were giving the kids daily videos (usually on YouTube) as well as PDF work sheets, etc. We submitted the work every day by uploading a photo to an app. It worked well, but took up a lot of parents time, so quite tough when working from home.

[Pugwash]

My daughter who is a teacher in an exclusion unit was permitted to Zoom a couple of her students during the 1st lockdown to clarify any queries they had about the on line lessons, but the link was set up by her academic body due to safeguarding.

[Jellybeanz]

It's true, the local authority advised primary schools against it. I felt and feel like you - i.e. that if private schools can offer zoom lessons and enable kids to keep up with schoolwork then why not state primaries? The whole thing is absurd. In France they had a central system whereby all children could log in and do their work. Why can't England be as organised?! Government shambles.

[Neoralp]

Training during the pandemic changed its format very much and very often it was not for the better. But our school gave the children daily videos and tasks. It was quite effective, because every day the children passed their assignments, but this format of education took a lot of time from parents, so it was not the best.

[Khind]

Our state primary did zoom lessons for the kids every day pre Christmas during a two week isolation. There were a lot of kids on the calls but it worked pretty well. So it is allowed and possible!

[Ossito]

That?s interesting to hear. Our son had two weeks self isolation in December and just got worksheets. No teacher-pupil interaction at all.

[Jellybeanz]

Update: our primary now going to offer interactive lessons using Google classrooms twice a day from what I can gather.

Live registration twice daily has worked well, very good for the kids to see each other albeit briefly.

[lbsmith73]

Most state secondary schools are using MS Teams for their live lessons. My daughters have their full timetable delivered live on MS Teams plus registration periods