Families in Perth and Kinross are preparing for a return to home learning - with one mother admitting to the PA she is “dreading” it.
The start of school has been delayed until January 11 for all pupils - with pupils being taught online until at least January 18 to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some children of key workers and vulnerable youngsters will be able to attend activity centres from January 7.
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But the bulk of the learning population will be looking to their parents and Microsoft Teams for their daily dose of academic stimulation for quite some time.
The whole country went into level four COVID-19 restrictions on Boxing Day so children and their families are stuck with few distractions after the Christmas crackers were pulled and the paper party hats went in the bin.
Abernethy businesswoman and mum-of-three Michelle Maddox saw both the public and private school response to home learning when the schools closed last time around.
Michelle is the woman behind Clootie McToot Dumplings, a fast growing business producing the sought-after traditional puddings for a world market.
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With a husband who is a firefighter, Michelle has the dilemma of either forgetting about her work and being a full-time home teacher, or carry on working and see her kids stumble in their learning.
Her eldest son Kyle (17) is at a private school and manages his home learning himself.
But Michelle has two younger children who are very much in need of her close interaction for their school work.
Jacob (15) is in the support unit of St John’s Academy. He has autism, dyspraxia and ADHD.
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Eve (10) has not been labelled but her mum describes her as “quirky”. Some of her behaviours leads to relationship difficulties with her peers at fee-paying Kilgraston school.
Michelle is not looking forward to January, as it undoubtedly means juggling her business interests with youngsters of different ages doing different lesson plans.
“I know what’s ahead and I’ll admit I’m dreading it,” said Michelle of home schooling this month.
“Last time around I got to see how both sectors came at it. The private school was on the ball with detailed lesson plans, the council-run school was not so great, lagging badly when it came to helping parents get it right at home.
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“My 15-year-old son excelled through the home environment while my daughter went back the way socially as a result of the protracted DIY learning experience.
“Jacob doesn’t really use computers except for playing games so I had to learn quick myself and try and teach him to work through Teams. Mastering that technology side was a big ask for parents.
“Thankfully Jacob did extremely well with home schooling, I adapted what his lessons to suit him were and my additional support and understanding of his autism meant he benefitted from being out of the school environment.
“We did activities, like for algebra we went to the park and Jacob enjoyed working out the maths using the zip wires.
“It was rewarding and if I didn’t have the business, I would like to home school him. There’s the guilt, because I do have to work.”
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But much of Michelle’s good work was undone in August.
“The disappointing bit for my son was he had to repeat a lot of what we’d done as other classmates hadn’t managed to keep up and the school repeated the sections set in lockdown.
“On the other hand, Eve who is 10, had plenty of structure from her school, they honestly had every hour worked out 9am to 4pm. But she went through hell when she returned to school in August because she’d got used to having so much of my attention.
“There were two weeks of tears when she went back to school because we’d made a routine, I had been sorting what she wanted for lunch and she had socially forgotten about getting on with other children.
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“Home schooling is a big worry for me as I can’t leave either of these kids to just get on and I have to run between the two, they irritate each other if they sit together.
“I suffer enormous guilt as I also need to work.”
Michelle concluded: “What I promise myself is this time I will just do the best I can with home schooling.
“I’m not going to put myself through the stress of last time.”
In Perth, single mum of three Vicki Leaver feels uncertainty over how she can give her time to home schooling.
She has Jasmine (3), Lily (6) and her eldest Dylan, who is 18 and working from home for his job with SSE.
Vicki is currently working at the Kinnoull School safe start club.
“I’m waiting to hear if we’ll need to open for key workers from January 7,” Vicki explained.
“Lockdown/home schooling part two - well this time around, I’m not dreading it. I’m just feeling a bit deflated with it all.
“The teaching side of things doesn’t phase me at all, I really enjoy it.
“However, I don’t enjoy seeing my wee girl missing out on yet another aspect of her life.
“We now can’t get to swimming, gymnastics, Rainbows, the library or playdates of any kind. The only constant that she had left was school and now that is being restricted too.
“Prior to this, I’ve tried to remain positive and have told my girls that ‘now is not always’, but it gets exhausting as this honestly seems never-ending.
“I’ve not long started working at the breakfast club at the school so that is being put on hold as well.
“Fingers crossed it won’t be as long lasting as the original lockdown though.”
