Homeschooling better than going into school currently.

Trisher is right here.
Keep the children happy and stable and support them as best as you can with study without too much worrying.

Personally, (if I had to choose) I would rather have a happy, stable child who take time to get their maths than an anxious worried one with good scores.
They do know they are loved. In that they are some of the lucky ones.

My sympathies are with your GCs who seem to have an absent father, a combatative stepmother and a mum who is doing her best to cope whilst working in the care sector in a pandemic. They must be grateful to have your care and support. Don't worry about the maths, the school should have a system where if it is something too difficult they can have contact with a teacher.
If they are happier at home then they will learn better anyway.
Nobody will come out of this period unscarred and all we can do is work to lessen the impact on our children, which seems to be somethng you are doing.
Hope it goes well.

There are lots of areas growstuff who don't abide by the law in an attempt to (basically) bully parents.
Obviously it's easier to give in to pressure than stand up for your rights - and I do accept that you don't want the hassle and worry if you are home educating in good faith.

Hardly any areas cary out inspections - Nottinghamshire used to do so 30 or 40 years ago, for example, now they take reports. If they believe from the reports that the provision doesn't meet the educational requirements of the child, legally they have to prove the educationis inadequate. In the "old days" this was very hard for LEAs. Now, at this point I think they would justify an inspection on "safeguarding" grounds.

I suppose this just shows how different schools are coping with the current 'home schooling' whilst school is closed. My youngest, also year 8, is accessing the online curriculum with minimum supervision from me. They start with a registration group in the morning which is live and then they do PE (I send him out on his bike) and then lessons on line with breaks in between and in all honesty, it is working well but I am trusting him to get on with it with the hope he will be able to go back to school in the near future.

The other issues you mentioned, it really is not acceptable for your grandchildren's stepmum to slag off their mother to them! Can their Dad not be encouraged to have a word with her? Presumably she is an adult and has enough self control not to do this The other issue is the other child. It doesn't matter if the child has issues or a tough time at home, the school need to manage her environment better so she doesn't lash out at other pupils. You grand daughter shouldn't have to adjust her own behaviour at all and I would actually raise this with the school if it is putting off your granddaughter's eventual return.

How very strange! I know at least half a dozen people who home school their children and they have all been told that there is a legal requirement for some form of inspection.

growstuff

Local authorities make what is legally an informal request for information about a child’s education provision if they know they are home-educating. This is not the same as an inspection. Usually, if this request happens, it's responded to with a letter.
There is no legal requirement for
a home educated child to be seen by anyone - though some families/LEAs choose this.
Also, unless the law changed very recently, parents don't even need to register with their local authority.

Hope this helps.

Two of my GSs (13 and 15) follow their school's timetable. When they might be doing PE, they usually switch over and play an online game! I'm not sure how they manage with science subjects which involve practical work - dissect a frog in the kitchen? (OK only joking, I hope). The older one is in his GCSE year as his cousin was last year. He does seem to be doing quite well and can join in class discussions. When I stayed with the family back in August, I gave him an intensive tutorial on Macbeth which I think has stood him in good stead. Maths he is well able to deal with himself.

NotSpaghetti

This isn't actually correct, Growstuff:
Homes and the teaching provided are supposed to be inspected.

I'm not sure what you mean.

Children learning at home aren't being inspected, although Ofsted is still inspecting that schools are providing work.

The inspection of proper home schooling is patchy to say the least. However, those who de-register their children from school (ie proper home schooling) are supposed to be inspected annually.

I think a lot of the children can make or break this homse schooling

Deprived children aside, my 12 year old grandson is doing brilliantly Stunned his parents as he's a reluctant school pupil.

And my 4 year old granddaughter has a teacher Mummy so she's fine as well

My 10 year old grandson is struggling .

It's a tricky one.

I missed over a year with school as a child and didn't cause me any problems.

But life is very different to now as it was in the 70s.

Some confusion here between what OP means by home schooling as opposed to distance learning.
Distance learning is what my 8 and 11 y.o. grandchildren are doing. They are on their i-pads and connected to their individual schools 6 hrs a day due to schools being closed to all except key workers and vulnerable.
Home schooling is when a child is not registered with a school.

This isn't actually correct, Growstuff:
Homes and the teaching provided are supposed to be inspected.

My daughter goes into school every day to supervise her Year 7 pupils (key workers children and vulnerable children They all sit at desks at least two metres apart, with their own screens. All their lessons are set by the teachers. There is also a large screen at the front of the class, so the supervising staff member can see what is going on and can also be aware of those that may need some individual attention So, it is exactly the same lessons as those working from their homes. But these youngsters do have the opportunity some sort of socialisation, and lessons such as PE can all be done together (outside). Windows in the classrooms are left open, pupils can have their coats on. Several of these pupils do not have access to broadband and/or computers in their homes, About 25% of the normal year numbers are now attending. My daughters own children are all at home being supervised there in the work by their shielding father. Obviously, they could go in as she is a key worker. She did ask the youngest (Year ^) if he wanted to go, but he declined as he said that none of his own friends would be there.

Sarnia, you said ‘They were happy enough but I found it incredibly sad.’

It is indeed. But it would be sadder still if one of them lost a parent or grandparent through picking up the virus at school.

Only my 4 youngest grand children (11, 8, 7 & 6) are still at their various schools. Without a doubt they would love to be back at school amongst their peers and friends. The social interaction side is as important as the learning, in my opinion. My 6 year old grand-daughter had a facetime call with one of her best friends from school. She asked her friend if she wanted to play Barbie. So there is my grand-daughter sat in the playroom with her dolls and her friend in her house with her dolls, chatting together on their Mum's phones. They were happy enough but I found it incredibly sad.

I jumped to the same conclusion as Baggs. Home schooling involves taking a child off the school role and informing the local education authority. Homes and the teaching provided are supposed to be inspected. What is happening in most families now is something different, although I've noticed some in the media are using the word indiscriminately.

Santana The school will direct the children's work, including maths. You don't need to be able to teach it, but (if you are involved) keep them motivated and organised. There are some excellent online resources available, including (off the top of my head) BBC Bitesize, Oak Academy and GLT Curriculum. The school will direct you towards those which are relevant and almost certainly follow up with other appropriate materials. From what I've heard, teachers are available as far as possible for helping with problems. You don't need to plan the learning yourself. If you want to help with maths, you could possibly buy one of the CGP learner guides - ask the school which textbook they would recommend.

I probably should have said on line lessons, so sorry for confusion.
They have decided to WFH, or my home.
I may need some assistance from GN if I get stuck with my maths.
Judging by my last attempt at working out a code to get a virtual child out of a castle, I could be in trouble.
We are planning some practical things as well, like woodwork and sewing, and will be nice to have some company on my short walks.
Not getting together with their friends is the big problem, but can't improve that one.

Um... seems I jumped in too quickly. The term homeschooling actually means something quite different from children doing set school work at home. I apologise for my confusion.

Homeschooling is great if parents are able to do it. That’s quite a big if for most people.

My sister homeschooled her kids for some years & they all did very ( very ) well when they eventually went into public education. But she had a whole network of other homeschooling families that the children interacted with and she worked with. I’m not sure doing it on your own in lockdown conditions would be quite such an easy matter.

If anyone is interested the organisation is Education Otherwise.

It sounds as if the OP’s grandchildren are essentially doing their schooling online from the school premises rather than from home because the parent is a key worker. If the OP wants them to do the same thing from her house instead of in school, that shouldn’t be a problem. From the point of view of minimising the spread of infection, the fewer children that are mixing with others, the better. I’m sure the school won’t object if the children remain at home until lockdown ends.

Thank you for your replies, even if one was a bit sharp. As I said homeschooling during current situation not permanently. DD is a keyworker.
GD is supportive of the other pupil holding handfuls of her hair. Her little group of friends are sticking together on line, and helping each other.
She has grown up considerably during the pandemic, and we are very proud of her. They are both responsible children and the situation will be discussed with them in the cool light of day. Feelings were running a bit high earlier.
We are in a support bubble so I will help out if they decide to WFH. Not sure how strong my maths skills are these days.
There are 12 pupils in year 8, 7 pupils in year 9, all plugged into a laptop taking part in different lessons. The teachers aren't at school generally, just the ones supervising each year group.
This is the reality of the situation, not a criticism of the school or the teachers.
Just using GN as a sounding board as I know there are some good opinions on here. So thank you again for your time.
And no it's not up to me is it..... nice reply, thanks for that.

So because of one unpleasant incident and a problem with IT in the middle of a pandemic you want your grandchildren to be pulled out of school and home schooled? Overreacting I think. It's not as if they are small children. Teachers will have been given instructions about how close they can get to pupils to avoid spreading the virus. It's not up to you anyway.

So you mean home schooling during the Lockdown?
My 2 GCs are homeschooling as are most schools and they don’t love it, the youngest has a full day of online lessons, the eldest has a couple of hours and then has online study.
They both miss their school friends and all the other social activities of school.
If you mean homeschooling as a full time option it’s a different matter, but our GCs would hate it.

griwstuff apologies, misread OP as ages 8/9. I believe legally they must be in school or working as much as they can on their school curriculum.

And, yes, they could have problems reclaiming their places, if the school is oversubscribed. Once they're deregistered, other children can take their places. There are a number of cases where that's happened.

I don't understand why they need to be deregistered (home-schooled) anyway because they don't have to go to school at the moment.

Jaxjacky

Santana firstly, who would homeschool? Secondly, have the children voiced any wishes, our GC, aged almost 8 much prefers to be at school, if they’d prefer to be at school I’d suggest a weekend trial so they know the reality.
growstuff children that young can’t be left at home on their own, they’d have no problem reclaiming their places once schools fully open again.

They're Years 8 and 9, so 13 or 14 years old. Many children of that age can be trusted to be on their own at home.