Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Home schooling: Parents reminded they are not expected to become full-time teachers

Carrie Lindsay: "We don’t expect parents to be teaching their children for six hours a day."

While pupils’ participation in school lessons is being monitored parents have been reminded they don’t need to be teaching all day.

Fife Council’s education chief said the local authority recognised that families may be going through a stressful time.

While most pupils are learning from home until at least the end of January, schools across Tayside and Fife are monitoring levels of engagement with online classes and assignments to determine where extra support is needed.

Fife executive director of education and children’s services, Carrie Lindsay, spoke of remote learning expectations in a letter to parents on Monday.

Carrie Lindsay, Fife Council executive director for education and children’s services. Photo by Andrew Beveridge, Fife Council.

She also insisted the education authority was striving to ensure youngsters were not disadvantaged by being out of school again, after several weeks of home learning last year due to the pandemic.

Mrs Lindsay said: “We are working closely with schools to make sure that they are all able to provide effective remote learning and teaching, but schools are in the best position to know and understand what’s going to work best for individual pupils, classes and communities.

“We don’t expect parents to be teaching their children for six hours a day, either.

“We know that this is a very difficult time for a lot of people.

“Families might be dealing with a number of different stresses right now and no-one wants to add to that.

We don’t expect parents to be teaching their children for six hours a day… We know that this is a very difficult time for a lot of people.”

Carrie Lindsay, Fife Council

“We also know that most parents do want to help and support their children and there are lots of different resources out there to help with that.”

Schools, she said, each had their own way of delivering learning remotely, with teaching planned to suit classes’ and children’s individual needs.

She said: “This is obviously not the way we were hoping to begin this year, but our schools have been preparing for remote learning since last year and you can be reassured that we are doing all we can to make sure that our children are not being disadvantaged by this further lockdown.”

Government update

Parents were directed to more information on home learning in a presentation by Fife pedagogy team.

Only children of key workers and the most vulnerable children are permitted to attend school during January, with tighter coronavirus restrictions in place.

An update on remote learning is expected from the Scottish Government on Tuesday.

However, education secretary John Swinney has already admitted it will be a “tall order” to reopen schools at the start of February.

School closures: What measures are needed to get pupils back in the classroom?