October 11, 2024

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It's Your Education

Homeschooling concerns as ‘several’ Hull pupils ‘not logged on once’

A Hull teacher has shared his concerns as he revealed several of his pupils have not even logged on once to access work for homeschooling.

The teacher, who teaches a Year Five class of 29 pupils at an inner city primary school sets work daily via Google classroom with requests for the work to be “turned in”.

Unlike in the first lockdown, homeschooling in lockdown 3 must be be a “direct replacement” for the learning which would have taken place had schools not been forced to close.

However, as week five of homeschooling comes to an end, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson closed schools to all but key worker and vulnerable children from January 5, the teacher says “several” pupils have not even logged on yet.

He said: “There are some pupils who do all the work, some who do a fair chunk of it, but my concern is that there are several who haven’t actually logged on yet.

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“The parents who are completing the work with their children would probably be quite surprised to know that other children in the school are not engaging with the work in any way.

“We know what a difficult time this is for parents, and we know each household is different and we appreciate that not all of the work might get done, but it’s a real concern that some are just not engaging at all.

“As teachers we care about our pupils a lot, this is not a witch hunt on parents, it’s a genuine concern for those pupils who are at home all day, but not completing any learning.”

The teacher said as the weeks go on, the gap between students across the school is widening.

Joanna Lovell is Hull Live’s Parenting Reporter.

Follow her new parenting Facebook page here for all the latest family, parenting and education news and views.

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He added: “We suspect we will have to repeat much of the learning which has been set during lockdown because there is a high amount of pupils who, for whatever reason, are not doing the work.

“The gap is of course widening between pupils, those who have not done any work are obviously going to be behind their peers.”

The teacher spoke out after a Hull mum revealed she had received an unannounced home visit from a teacher to check on her daughter after she failed to return any work last week, due to her own work commitments.

It comes as parents are told, unlike in the first lockdown, their children completing work in the second lockdown is not “optional.”

The Year 5 teacher added: “At [name of school], we don’t do home visits, but we do contact parents via Google Classroom and call them, but some don’t even answer the phone, so we’ve not had contact with some pupils since before Christmas.

“It is a real worry, a real constant worry.”

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Some Hull parents have called for children to repeat the academic year, saying no child should be left behind due to the pandemic, however other parents who say they are completing the work with their children strongly disagree with keeping children back for a year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said reopening schools fully is the main priority, and in a press conference on Wednesday night, said he believed March 8 was the “prudent” date to begin reopening schools in England.

The Prime Minister has said that the Government will set out a “route map” out of lockdown on February 22.