Freddie eases back into online schooling
“Did you know there are rocks made from lava from inside the earth – what are they called, ig, igneous?”
That’s Freddie Jones’s response when asked about the project he has embarked on during his first week of remote schooling.
The seven-year-old had been expected to be back full time in his classroom at Ellesmere Primary School.
But with the new lockdown announced just a day into the new spring term, Freddie – like schoolchildren around the country – is having to again get used to learning online.
He is able to do his lessons from home on the days when his mother, Alison, is also able to work from home. The first online lessons this week were, he said “a bit scary”.
“It was a long time ago when we last had them, before the summer holidays,” he said. “The first lesson was about a book called Stone girl, Bone girl.
"But it actually wasn’t scary after all and I am enjoying the lessons now.”
Alison has nothing but praise for Ellesmere Primary School and the hard work of the teachers and the support staff. She said: “There are regular, lessons that Freddie joins in online.
“The teachers and support staff are live streaming the lessons that they are teaching to the key worker children who are sitting in the classroom, and the children at home are able not only to see the lesson but to join in.
“What is lovely is at the beginning of the lesson the children all get the chance to wave and say hello to their friends.
“Freddie’s face just beams when he sees and waves to his classmates. Lockdown can be very difficult for children if they can’t see their friends and to have that individual attention means everything.”
Alison said that as well as the regular lessons there was plenty of work set by the school to see them through the rest of the day.
She said: “I understand that the children should be having between three and five hours of education a day – Ellesmere is going above and beyond to ensure there is enough work.”
And she said she understood the problems when there are siblings all trying to use one laptop.
“Freddie’s school knows that it is not easy for a lot of parents and the resources that are sent home are very flexible. Every parent and every family is different, it is not one approach fits all.”
“We have been given homework books and the work that is set can be adapted for paper and pencil. Not all children are happy with or able to work on computers.
"And someone is always at school to offer advice, not just with the learning but with the technology side of it.”
Freddie said his favourite thing at school at the moment was the ‘mini mission’ – a project that encourages the pupils to do independent research.
This half term it is all about rock classification and his mum said he was finding it really interesting, scribbling notes down in his book.
He said: “There are different types of rocks like the ones that come from lava under the ground, ig, igneous. And the ones where you find fossils.”
