TP-14.4

W ith very short notice and very little guidance, schools were told inMarch that they were closing but staying open for key worker children. Countless phone calls weremade and hundreds of messages were sent out to parents to find out howmany children would be attending school. It was a tremendous effort. On top of this, schools were dealing with staff self-isolation, anxious parents, free school meal provision and ensuring safeguarding concerns for particular childrenwere being addressed. Book scrutinies and learning walks were immediately cancelled. Good leaders sensibly balanced the need for education provision alongside pupil, family and staff wellbeing. However, I was also inundated with teachers concerned withwhat was being asked of them. My inbox had never been so busy. It was very clear that some heads didn’t want teachers to be at home doing nothing, so they set out some very clear guidance as to how they should spend their time. Firstly, some schools told all staff to come in even though they knew only a small number of childrenwould be present. Surplus staff were asked to tidy cupboards, update display boards or complete curriculummapping. Soon, some schools devised a timetable for when staff should come in (to cover Easter holidays too). Part-time staff were told that they had to come in on days they wouldn’t normally teach. In addition, teachers were given CPD tasks to do at home and had to complete evaluation sheets when they’d finished them. Chapters fromeducational books were sent out to read. Some heads were asking for September planning to be completed by Easter. In one school, teachers had to email a daily summary of the work they’d done at home by 3pmand state how long it took. On top of this, teachers were being asked to plan for both childrenwho were not coming to school and those who were. Online platforms were quickly set up so children could upload work for teachers to look at. A friend of mine was told she had tomake comments on anything a child had uploaded within 24 hours. A very upset teacher toldme that the head had informed staff he wanted to moderate some of the online work being uploaded by Y3 pupils. Some teachers were suddenly expected to provide online lessons using platforms they were unfamiliar with. One teacher toldme she was put under enormous pressure to provide video calls with pupils to ensure ‘progress doesn’t slip’. Another complained that his head unexpectedly appeared in a live online video lesson he was teaching with students. He didn’t say anything – just listened for a fewminutes and then left. Later, it transpired that the head was carrying out quality control observations to ensure childrenwere still receiving a good education. Madness. As a parent myself, I appreciatemy children’s school. They uploaded some ideas for pupils but said it was voluntary. If we wanted to, we could share work on the school’s online platform. Parents areworking at home too and trying to homeschool is not easy. One teacher anonymously sentme a copy of a letter sent to parents, encouraging themto followa 9am-3pmroutine at home. The letter encouraged parents to teach all the subjects as normal to ensure ‘consistency’. The teacherwas furious. The letterwent on to say that workwould be sent back to pupils if it wasn’t good enough. As a teacher, I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching my own children over the last fewweeks. We do a bit of maths and English and a foundation subject. Some days we don’t do anything. I haven’t had to follow a long list of non-negotiables and nobody is dropping intomy lessons with a clipboard to scrutinise every second of my teaching. It would be great if some leaders could use this time to reflect on their micromanagement ways and think more about reducing workload, excessive scrutiny and accountabilitymeasures, ready for when schools open again. It’s going to take a long time for schools to recover from this, but some goodmight come out of it. Fingers crossed. TP Some headteachers are still finding ways tomicromanage staff – and parents – during the school shutdown HOME L EARN I NG “Some heads were asking for September planning to be completed by Easter” @fakeheadteacher headteacher-newsletter.com The writer has taught in five schools across a 20 year career. www.teachwire.net | 33