Teachers have expressed anger about parents using Facebook to “publicly shame” pupils’ online learning provision during the national lockdown.
As schools enter their second week of online learning this year, teachers have taken to social media to highlight how some parents have complained that their children are not being given enough work - even when they have not completed the work set.
The move follows education secretary Gavin Williamson’s announcement in the House of Commons last week that parents may report schools to Ofsted if they are unhappy with their child’s online learning provision in lockdown.
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Many parents have come out in praise of teachers’ remote lessons following Mr Williamson’s comment about reporting schools to Ofsted.
Coronavirus: Parents complaining about online learning
However, others have been openly critical. A teacher wrote on discussion website Reddit: “A parent has publicly shamed our school on Facebook, but their child hasn’t done their work.
“The parent has said our school isn’t giving their child enough work to do, and they are having to give their child work to do in the afternoon since they ‘finish it all’ in the morning.
“Well, I’ve just logged in to see the child’s online learning account, and guess what? They’ve submitted five things out of over 25 for the week. So infuriating.”
Another teacher responded: “We had the same in the first lockdown - the parent had never logged in to check for themselves, so the kid was only telling the parent about the work they wanted to do, and leaving the rest. Fortunately, other parents on the group chimed in to say their kids in the same year group had plenty of work, so the kid got rumbled.”
Some parents are also using Facebook to complain about the need for live lessons, according to teachers on the Mumsnet site. One teacher wrote: “My Facebook is filled with primary parents complaining and struggling...Luckily I am at a school that respects our decision not to Zoom teach if we don’t want, as long as we are teaching.”
Another teacher suggested that the online criticism should simply be ignored, writing on Reddit: “Parents whinge on Facebook all the time.
“Every school has a dedicated group of parents whinging about the school. You just need to ignore it. Has the parent come to you asking for more work? No. Is their child submitting completed work? No. So what they say to the mummy mafia on fb isn’t really any concern.”
