Parents have voiced frustration over vast differences in levels of support being provided by different schools during lockdown.
While the Department for Education has stated schools should consider the approaches that best suit the needs of their pupils and staff, 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.
To encourage schools to offer more support, the government has backed @OakNational Academy, a 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 get 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 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.
“The art teacher has been posting videos of fun craft activities to try, and the special educational needs teacher, newly recruited, has introduced herself with messages, and is posting messages and videos providing emotional support. The teachers also post photos they’ve taken of their pets and gardens, usually to start the day as they greet everyone a good morning.”
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, whose name is withheld, 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”.
Following concerns over the security of live online lessons, Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner has issued safety recommendations to teachers, such as for Zoom sessions, locking the classroom – so no one else can join – using the “virtual waiting room” feature, and stopping private messaging.
Councillor Patrick Mulligan, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for education, said he had raised the disparities in support from schools with leading members, but the council had been left in “a difficult position as we have had no guidance from the government about remote learning”.
He said he appreciated some parents were frustrated about the lack of support some schools were providing, but the authority did not have the power to intervene and that levels of provision were down to schools and their governors.
Cllr Mulligan said: “Some schools are being quite diligent in trying to maintain a structure and other schools don’t seem to take it to that level. If we were able to do it we possibly would have some structure for the schools.”
When asked if there was a minimum amount of support that the authority expected, Judith Kirk, its assistant director for education and skill said: “The Government expects school staff to continue to support the education of pupils, and wider work of the school, in appropriate ways agreed with their school leadership team, but school leaders should be mindful of staff wellbeing and practical circumstances when designing these arrangements.”
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