As schools shut their doors once again, everyone from the Education Minister to the Chief Inspector for Schools has admitted remote and live online lesson provision varies around Wales.
Children are getting different quality and amounts of live online lessons depending where they go to school and how old they are.
School leaders said staff want schools open and are working long hours adapting to remote teaching.
But while some schools are providing live online lessons for all pupils, all day, others are not.
Parent campaign group UsForThemCymru said many members are angry about the effect of the latest school closure on their children’s learning.
Spokeswoman Kate Hughes said: “Live online learning is a mixed picture. It is certainly not universal and not all day in many schools.
“We are keen to see a more consistent approach. People range from being delighted to depressed about how much live online work their children’s school provides when classes are closed. We need a national online learning plan now.”
Eithne Hughes, Director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, said schools have been working hard to adapt.
She said: “It’s my understanding that schools provide remote lessons either live or recorded.
“I have no information that some schools are not providing live online lessons. My understanding is they have worked hard to make sure there is remote provision.”
But she said barriers for pupils and teachers could include lack of devices and wifi as well as worries about safeguarding.
Headteachers said that for younger pupils online live lessons by screen all day don’t work well and there can be problems with equipment, training and wifi. Families with more than one child but only one device may be affected by live lesson times clashing.
Teaching unions have also warned their members are also concerned about safeguarding issues while providing live online lessons from home.
And although some training for online and remote teaching has been provided by school improvement consortia, that is not universal and confidence and ability will vary.
Crickhowell High School is among secondary schools that will run live lessons online all day during closure. Teachers can go into school to stream live lessons, or do it from home.
Headteacher Jackie Parker said: “We are running a normal timetable running lessons, assemblies and catch ups on Microsoft Teams. The vast majority of lessons are live in Microsoft Teams. Work is marked and returned and all assignments are loaded onto Teams. Lessons can also be recorded.
“The day runs from 8.40am to 3.30pm with break and lunch times, exactly the same as school. We also run parents evenings and meetings and extra curricular activities remotely.”
Crickhowell High Deputy Headteacher, Claire Smith, said online and live online teaching is harder and very different to face to face teaching. Pupils don’t appear online, just their photograph. This makes it harder to see who is struggling and who is not concentrating. Staff have worked extra hours to train for and prepare live online lessons.
“Non verbal communication is an important barrier to teaching. You have to adapt to online delivery,” she said.
“The ideal would be to be in school. The job of teaching is harder when schools are closed. For the last nine months we have worked half terms and holidays planning this. It is easier to teach in person.”
Jonathan Keohane, headteacher of Roath Park Primary in Cardiff, said schools have been working hard to adapt to remote teaching but said a national remote and online learning plan from the Welsh Government would help.
“A national plan would be beneficial to lay out minimal expectations for all schools. A national plan would enable all children in Wales to have an equal opportunity to have a fair and consistent education. We don’t know now whether all children are getting that at the moment.”
Mr Keohane said his staff have been working hard and have been trained to provide online learning. They work normal, or longer, hours during closure, while pupils have three to four hours work a day, some of which includes live online lessons.
His pupils from years one to six get some live online learning in real time every week as well as other remote tasks.
The amount of live lessons varies depending on age but his younger pupils get two to three live sessions lasting from 20 minutes to 45 minutes a week while year sixes get between 70 minutes and 90 minutes of live lessons each day.
These live lessons are streamed from home by teachers, and some teaching assistants and the main focus is literacy, numeracy and some Welsh language.
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“It is impossible to recreate school conditions online because being in front of a camera all day would have a negative impact on staff and children. But they have enough work each day for three to four hours,” Mr Keohane said.
“Live online teaching is massively different to face-to-face teaching. One of the key things about being a teacher is picking up body language and expressions to pick up who is achieving and who needs pushing. That’s hard to do live.
“For that reason we don’t have whole classes learning live online at once but smaller groups of between six and 12 children. So teachers repeat lessons. I can only talk for my school but our teachers are working normal hours 8.50am to 3.30pm.”
Since the pandemic began, some school leaders and teachers have had training from American “synchronous live learning” expert Doug Lemov, arranged through the (school improvement) consortia Central South Consortium, and they have gone on to train others. Pupils can also speak to teachers via Google Classroom.
(Image: Matthew Horwood)
Education Minister Kirsty Williams said there should be no barriers to schools running live and recorded online lessons.
“We are aware there’s a mixed picture and we are also aware that many schools have made significant progress in their ability to deliver live learning for students,” she said.
“We discussed with directors of education today the need to work with all schools to understand what they are delivering and what barriers there may be.
“We know some local areas have more experience of this than others and have put in place professional learning with local consortia. We have also handed out significant numbers of devices.
“I would say to parents, if you are struggling with IT equipment, get in touch with your school.
“Safeguarding is not an issue (for live online teaching provision). It’s a question of schools setting expectations for themselves and staff being confident.
“I would encourage as many schools as can to maximise synchronous online learning. There is nothing to stop schools engaging in live lessons.”
In his annual report published last month Meilyr Rowlands, Chief Inspector for Schools in Wales, warned Wales’ persistent attainment gap has widened and the skills of many may have “regressed”, including in literacy and numeracy, thanks to disruption caused by the pandemic.
Some children still don’t have the devices, internet or space to do remote learning, Mr Rowlands said as he published the document.
Despite efforts by schools, local authorities and central government to provide additional equipment and support, a minority of learners were disadvantaged by lack of access to suitable computers or connectivity during school closures, the document said.
As they prepared to return to remote learning headteachers stressed that staff are still running hub provision alongside remote teaching. They said they want schools open safely and would rather teach face-to-face.
-- to www.walesonline.co.uk
