Ivy School

This morning we will start to find our new normal. Ivy School will open.

Ivy is the name chosen by my children, Evie and Isaac because when I get their names muddled together I get a new child called “Ivy”. They came up with the name in a first step to own their new, altered existence.

Please don’t think that because I have spent the last 15 years as a high school science teacher I am any more equipped for this than the next person. I am not! I can cope with a class of 30 tough kids from the inner city in a science lab. But cope with my own two at the kitchen table? Now this is going to be a challenge.

We have talked to the children over the weekend about the fact that they can’t have their screens all day; it’s not a holiday or even a weekend, we can’t go out like we have always been used to doing and it’s going to be for a long time. We will be trying to follow two different sets of work set by the children’s school and they are going to have to share my attention. We will figure it out as we go along.

So I have come up with a timetable that they can contribute to and change as we get used to the whole thing. They are pretty horrified that we are starting each day with PE with Joe Wicks, but I think that this will give them a shared experience with others that they can talk about when this is over. So many people, includnig schools seem to be taking part in this that I think that it is a good thing to do.

I have ordered exercise books from eBay which should come by the end of the week. We have loads of paper and pens in the house to use in the meantime.

We have the lessons that the school have set which we will do in a morning. I am trying to get the old laptop to do all the updates so they have a computer each to work from, because I don’t want them working from their tablets. I think they see their tablets as their leisure activities of watching videos and playing games and I think they should keep this type of thing separate from their school work. Luckily, we do have the laptops so we can keep this separate.

In an afternoon, they can choose a less academic activity to do and we will spend an hour outside; maybe as the weather improves we will do the lessons outside and definitely the PE. I keep looking out for different online lessons such as the Live History Lesson from secret WW2 Bunker in Liverpool which we will do on Wednesday. I have found some drawing tutorials for Evie from Harptoons that she already has had a go at. I am sure we will find many more and I would love to hear your suggestions for more activities.

I am hoping that this structure will help them to settle and the routine will mimick their school day a little bit.

I addition to this, I will be setting work and uploading it online for my classes from my work school and checking for any questions that my students have. I have said that I will take my turn on the “Key Worker Rota” at school, but owing to the super organised management at work, it is looking like I will be working once in a fortnight or less. I figure that the more of us that take a turn, the fewer times we will have to go in. The school has been so on the ball when it comes to the emergency opening for the children of keyworkers; they have recognised that we have children of our own to care for and other dependents and vulnerable people at home and they have accounted for this in the timetable.

As I write this at 6am I am feeling hopeful and looking forward to getting back some structure and routine. It remains to be seen whether I am so optimistic at 3 o’clock though! We will take things easy as it is a big change for all of us; at least we will have novelty value today to keep us going!