COVID-19 Schools Shutting

Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato

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I'm a nursery worker and special needs teaching assistant but am likely to find myself out of work for the foreseeable future unless I can get some care work. I'm aware some of you will be in the same situation or will be on the other side having to take on the challenge of home schooling through this difficult period. I would like to set up a thread where we can share advice, support and expertise on childcare and education related issues, resources, teaching methods .etc.

Although I'm not an expert I hope I can still find a way to be useful and I'm sure there will be others in my situation who will hopefully be able to offer support as well.

I know this isn't very guinea pig related but I think it's important that we can support each other as much as possible through this.
 
What a lovely idea.
We are on week one of school shut downs, and I have found that having a list and setting daily tasks is helping keep some semblance of a routine going.
I feel this is vital, as it looks like we will be at home for at least a month (in Switzerland).
My girls are 12 and 14 years old.

Our list includes:
Baking including at least 1 new recipe
Gardening
Nature walks including plant id and foraging for the piggies/buns
Bike rides
Letter writing to relatives/pen friends
Duolingo (free language learning app)
A new sewing project (find pattern, choose fabric, sew)
Read a new book and do a presentation about it
Menu planning - everyone must suggest and cook at least 1 meal and 1 snack per week
Learn to draw something new (You Tube tutorials are great for this)
Create an Easter tree/Spring nature table
Research and make a marshmallow/pom pom trebuchet
Camping in the garden
One class per week on OutSchool.com
Create a stop motion film
Choose 2 tours/expeditions a week to watch as a family Bring your lessons to life with Expeditions | Google for Education

I would love to hear what others are up to.
 
I'm still waiting to hear what is happening about work (I work in a nursery). Management are currently thrashing out the research/details of next steps. Lots of speculation, worry & paranoia between us staff as we don't know if we have a job after this week. Parents obviously want to know what is happening too and we have no answers.

Everything is up in the air but we carry on with smiles for our children until we know otherwise...
 
This is a very good idea. The girls’ school has set up online resources for us in preparation for this so that’s good. I’m not too sure what’s happening with my son’s school work, but I’m hoping what I give him at home will help keep him up to date.
 
Well piggy daddy's teaching assistant job has disappeared, but that's quite useful seeing as 2 little boys in the family age 5 and 9 now seem to need home schooling!
We plan to provide 2 days of "school" for them every week, I will be doing science lessons for them every Monday afternoon, I've ordered books, some basic lab supplies online (also I may have looted the student project lab a bit as I was leaving work today!) and actually the first lesson I'm going to do is about diseases and historical epidemics (the plague!) because the kids are obviously worried and I think information is very empowering! I am actually quite excited about adapting my curriculum for junior school kids :)
Also they can help me plant and grow some veggies and salad.
Piggy daddy will be covering maths and literacy.
Probably lots of arts and crafts will happen.
And board games, lots of board games- we might make our own!
 
I'm a TA in a primary school, we are closing tomorrow other than those in need as directed, it looks as if we may be in on a rota to help. I have spent my day trying to help organise home learning handouts, we are having learning put online but not everyone will have access to it so it's important to have some paper sheets to use.
My children are 13 and 10 so my daughter will not take her sats, which she has been working really hard for, potentially tomorrow is her last day at primary school! Or secondary will be seeing daily work so my son will keep working, I intend to keep to a routine as much as possible, we're not on holiday yet so we'll get work done. I'm concerned about how this will affect so many of our children, some I'm sure may do really well but I know some will fall so far behind I don't know how we'll get them back when we do go back.
As someone said the other day, it is unprecedented times. 😔
 
It's not been a good day for us today..... Daughter (15 - Year 10) has had 2 outbreaks today.. She is scared, worried and I think it has hit her hard about not being able to go to school for potentially 12 weeks.... I have not been able to focus on my work all day.. I have just been in to give her a hug and a kiss and said ' it will all be ok '....
 
Now have a couple of children in my room off due to self isolation. Makes me feel more scared!
 
My son is (was) due to take A Levels in a couple of months. I received an email today from his College today saying he will "be awarded" a grade whatever that means! I feel that this is very unfair as the kids that do badly on the Mocks and think "I've got to pull my socks up" and would have done well in the final exams won't get the grade the deserve!
 
Betsy said:
My son is (was) due to take A Levels in a couple of months. I received an email today from his College today saying he will "be awarded" a grade whatever that means! I feel that this is very unfair as the kids that do badly on the Mocks and think "I've got to pull my socks up" and would have done well in the final exams won't get the grade the deserve!
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It's not the same but my daughter should have done her year 6 Sats this time, which they look at for when she goes to secondary, she's doing ok luckily but if it had been my son that would be a whole different picture, he struggled (dyslexia & dyscalcula?) So his marks were not great but actually what he achieved was huge, how can they take mock or predicted as a true representation of what they can do? I'm concerned for my children's education but also some of the children in school who really do struggle.
 
Two of my nieces were due to take their GCSEs this year. So a difficult one for them and all those in years 11 and 13.
 
Siikibam said:
Two of my nieces were due to take their GCSEs this year. So a difficult one for them and all those in years 11 and 13.
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Tom was due to take his A Levels this year too. I think it's unfair as some children won't get the grades they would have achieved had they taken their exams. There is no end of year Prom, no signing of T shirts, no anticipating the results of exams, no opening the exam envelope to see what results you have got.... A lot of milestones that are important to teenagers won't be there.
 
A very sad set of events. Especially those who would have done better on the exams than they did the mocks. One of my nieces had the t shirt signing thing. All so abrupt they didn’t have time to prepare.
 
yes it is very upsetting for young people.i am seeing 1st hand how this virus is effecting people,it is mad and truely awful if you need to go to hostpital.we all need to keep safe.maybe all that want to resit there exams after it is all over.this will be a big event in our history.
 
I think it will have an impact on exam results for years to come. some parents will be proactive and really take the roll of home schooling on board and have the resources, money, will power and know how to give their children the best chance but I know plenty of children who will almost certainly spend the next 3-9 months on games consoles and in front of the TV because they "refuse" to do the work set by the teacher and parents won't or can't make them and don't know what else to do so they will just do what keeps them quiet and out of their parents way. I have so much sympathy for parents but no doubt we will see a huge divide in attainment when schools return and I wouldn't be surprised if some children will never catch up.
 
I’m worried because my youngest is the youngest in her class - born into the cut off date. She was a little behind as it is, so I will have to work with her to make sure she doesn’t slide even further back.

I’m planning that my children do some work every day. Maybe two hours at least. The older one may need to do more (secondary school). We will see how it all goes.
 
Sweet Potato said:
I think it will have an impact on exam results for years to come. some parents will be proactive and really take the roll of home schooling on board and have the resources, money, will power and know how to give their children the best chance but I know plenty of children who will almost certainly spend the next 3-9 months on games consoles and in front of the TV because they "refuse" to do the work set by the teacher and parents won't or can't make them and don't know what else to do so they will just do what keeps them quiet and out of their parents way. I have so much sympathy for parents but no doubt we will see a huge divide in attainment when schools return and I wouldn't be surprised if some children will never catch up.
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I agree, I work in KS1 and I can already see which children will be even further behind when we do go back. I worry for my own and they are older but I'm unsure about my ability to help them, I have however worked out a rough daily schedule so we all have some routine, obviously it's open to change and isn't a strict we will do this at this time etc but I think it will be easier for all of us to have some sort of normality, I'm working two days next week so will alter it as I need to, unfortunately my husband company hasn't said people have to work from home, although he is very keen to do so to protect the people he is in charge of, so I might have to take mine into school with me. Not ideal but we do what we have to.
 
I think a few hours a day of structured learning is certainly good enough but I think screen time should probably be limited to a few hours as well especially for younger children. hands on learning through experiences and play, projects, making, baking etc. seems like a good way to go it's what we aim to do as much as possible in schools and is a great way to inspire a love of learning that they will take with them for the rest of their life.
 
I limit their screen time anyway (except for when they’re doing work) but will relax it a little.
 
I'm going into full on teacher mode. I've no work currently as self employed & have faced a rather dramatic cliff edge so I shall throw myself into this. My kids think I'm joking but we are having a proper routine & schedule of learning.

They have google classroom so school will be setting some work already but I'll suppliment it with extra 'classes' to include forest school (den building), river explorers (collecting rocks to paint & dipping for bugs), pet care (guinea pig grooming & mucking out), home economics (room cleaning, learning to iron, dusting & change bedding), cookery, PE (Joe Wicks on youtube daily session), Art (making bird boxes) ....the list will be growing but I'll try to have a schedule so we know whats happening and when.

Fortnite banned until evening (after i have inspected the dusting).

If i get a clean house at the end of this then all the better 😂
 
Darcey15 said:
I'm going into full on teacher mode. I've no work currently as self employed & have faced a rather dramatic cliff edge so I shall throw myself into this. My kids think I'm joking but we are having a proper routine & schedule of learning.

They have google classroom so school will be setting some work already but I'll suppliment it with extra 'classes' to include forest school (den building), river explorers (collecting rocks to paint & dipping for bugs), pet care (guinea pig grooming & mucking out), home economics (room cleaning, learning to iron, dusting & change bedding), cookery, PE (Joe Wicks on youtube daily session), Art (making bird boxes) ....the list will be growing but I'll try to have a schedule so we know whats happening and when.

Fortnite banned until evening (after i have inspected the dusting).

If i get a clean house at the end of this then all the better 😂
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I've included household jobs in our routine! If we can get on top of things it'll make things easier- hopefully.
 
The older two already have a cleaning rota. One empties and fills the dishwasher and changes the piggies’ water. The other sweeps the stairs, dining room and clears the table. They also wash, dry and put away their own clothes. I’m thinking they should do a room tidy every evening - 5 min blitz. I need to find something for the youngest to do. Maybe changing the piggies’ water as she can do that quite easily. Today she hoovered the hallway upstairs. Maybe she could sweep the kitchen daily.
 
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