If you think your Y3 child has suffered the most post covid, academically in realation to slightly older / younger siblings

Dd is the year above but doesn't appear to have been affected at all. The work she missed was easy enough to replicate at home and we really made the most of being outdoors, having fun in nature, learning other skills which tbh is great for dc that age - she's had plenty time to catch up. Dd who missed much of her last 2 years at primary, all the fun things that also entails like camp and leavers dos and had a shit transition to high school where they were forced to wear masks and had maths taught to them by Spanish teachers one day and by a home EC teacher the next due to chronic staff absence and missed school time due to enforced isolations - she has suffered far more

I think it is so dependent on the school and parental input.
A friend of mine has a school educated Year 3 child, and they're flying academically and socially. I'm sure there are many other Year 3s doing well academically and socially. I'm sure we'd hear about it in the news otherwise!
It also depends on the child, some do struggle more than others. Your child could be struggling even if there weren't any lockdowns.

My Y2 has suffered a lot more than my Y6 ( not at the time, she actually got on quite well with homeschooling) but she is being assessed for autism so hard to say how much is down to Covid or would've happened anyway. I'd like to think someone might have realised before the wheels fell off completely if she'd been in more.

I’m so glad my current Y1 DS wasn’t in either of the two years above, where their reception year was impacted.

Out of the younger kids, I would agree that current Y3 had a particularly rough time, both socially and academically. There’s been such an improvement in my DS in the reception/Y1 years and there’s no way I could have replicated the social side at home and the academics I can only imagine (based upon a single homework sheet a week) would have been very tricky to push too much at home without everything becoming an argument.

I’m so sad for the kids and the knock on effect this will have in them forever. Even if your own child isn’t struggling massively, they will always be in the generation where children were given an impossible task.

Very interesting thread. I have a YR3 but I’m also a key worker. DD didn’t miss any school and continued going through all the lockdowns. Her teacher remarked at parents evening there is a clear line between her (and other key worker kids) who carried on attending and those who didn’t. Socially more than academically because they weren’t supposed to be “teaching” them

I find the PP who said a cohort being assessed for dyslexia when they are actually just behind because of Covid really worrying and I think reflects that many children are pushed down SEND/ diagnosis when they are a victim of circumstances and their environment.

In my dd's recent parents evening the teacher said that in their school, Y3 has far more children working below age expectations than any other year group. In her opinion Y3 have been the most affected (educationally) by the school closures, in primary that is. But ultimately most children have been affected either educationally or emotionally by the pandemic.

My Y3 dd is doing well at school but we had both parents furloughed at home during the lockdowns so she had plenty of support with her school work. She probably learned a lot more than she would have done in a classroom with 29 other dc tbh. Her teachers were also really good with the home learning. I can well imagine that it's a different story for dc's who had parents trying to juggle work with home learning or a school that were a bit rubbish with it.

I thought independent studies had showed that the current year 3 were the most affected, and it makes sense since they missed so much of the foundations of socialisation, and learning. I have a child that age. We had one phonics worksheet a day from school when they missed reception. My child is behind in the basics of maths (may have happened anyway as I know you csnt make assumptions on just one child)

Yes, for sure.

Year 3 did here and she's missed a critical time in her education. Catching up but WAY behind where she should be.

I'm also a school governor and we have been told that Year 3 are the biggest concern for the school, as they missed out on so much of reception and year 1, when they are normally learning how to learn and how to be in school. The school has described that cohort as "completely feral"!

I can well imagine that the current Year 8s and maybe Year 9s have also been hit hard, having missed so much of the transition stuff at the end of the primary years, but I have less insight into this.

My dd is Year 13, so she was in Year 10 when the pandemic started and missed her GCSEs etc. It was tough at the time, and she hated home learning, but I feel like she has completely bounced back now with no real lasting effects.

I sit in a lot of governor meetings and there are concerns about social development across the board, but year 3 keeps coming up as really impacted.

My yr 5 daughter is much more affected than my yr 2. She's pretty much back on track.

YANBU. I’ve got a year 5, year 3 and twins in reception. The y3 was hugely affected. She was already shy but stopped speaking to any one outside the immediate family during Covid, she’s more confident now but has had so much extra help with maths and writing. Her reading has always been good but the other basics suffered so much and she might not meet her expectations in spelling and maths this year. She’s a summer born year 3 which hasn’t helped.

My year 5 has been fine, she could cope with the home learning mostly independently - and the little ones had a brilliant time at home although I know there have been more behaviour and social issues in reception as nursery and preschool was so disrupted for their cohort.

I will never forget trying to be on two zooms simultaneously (DD2 would hide under the table if I didn’t coach her through every moment) while paying work invoices and trying to keep my twins from jumping off chests of drawers. It was an impossible situation but I still feel like I failed DD2 and I hope she can recover academically.

My children are younger but I do have some experience teaching maths (mainly to older children!) Board games can be very helpful. Monopoly (which is a terribly boring game for an adult to play IME) is very good for numbers (make sure you get one with real money, not the card version though!) Power Grid is another one that involves money but might be harder to learn.

A lot of board games are good for spatial thinking, reasoning and probability, including Catan, Carcassonne, Quirkle, Azul, Ticket to Ride and Cluedo - all of which I think a Y3 child could play.

Interesting- I'm not a primary teacher so can't comment, but I can tell you that our 14 year olds are like our 11 year olds in terms, not of academic attainment but of pure socialisation and knowing how to interact with other people. There is however a massive difference with the ones who come to us who didn't do online lessons. Whether that be due to schools not implementing them, or parents choosing not to avail themselves of the possibility is a whole other question, but when we get them we can see immediately. In secondary, (at least speaking anecdotally about my school) the ones who are still "behind" in terms of scolarisation, (and sometimes academically) are the ones who are now 14-15.

Not for me anyway. My same age child is thriving, but, there were super contingencies in place when they got back and he happens to have a particular good class group, which can make a difference. My now 11yo suffered more because his next teacher was awful and not mindful of the effects of 6m social isolation from peers. Time will sort most things, I'm a teacher and personally wouldn't be worrying or pushing things at this youngsm age.

That's interesting, I have a year 8 (just the one child so nothing to compare to) and although she had a terrible year 7 for other reasons, she's thriving at school socially and academically. I went to do a careers talk for some year 12s at her school last week and me and some other parents there were shocked at their lack of social and communication skills and wondered if they had been impacted by Covid.

I have a Yr 3 and a Yr 6, so they had disruption YR/1 and Yr3/4.

The current year 6 bears virtually no scars and is set to be greater depth in SATs, I'd say the Pandemic has made no difference - there was catching up at the end of year 4/early year 5 but it's all been made up.

My Yr 3 who is naturally more intelligent is really really struggling with lots of aspects of school, and again his whole year group are the same.

The tutor once a week should definitely help you child to catch up on any areas they are behind in. Ask their class Teacher for some feedback on which areas they are behind on. As parents at home you can do lots of reading, work on times tables (make up some games or use an online game) and work on learning to spell the ‘Common Exception’ words for their year group. But I wouldn’t worry too much, they will slowly catch up over time, they are still young.

All children are different.

It has affected my year 4 the least. Imo she's exactly as she would have been. Over emotional and lacks confidence but my other 2 were similar at that age.

My year 11 has struggled with school ever since, it has enhanced previous difficulties that she was masking well (neuro diverse) and the approach to exams is currently very difficult. She is a select mute at school, suffers panic attacks and occasionally school refuses.

My year 9 is excellent academically, I think it actually benefitted her not doing her SATs, she also luckily did her year 6 residential in December 2019 so didn't miss out on that (none since). But socially she has struggled, she finds group situations difficult and doesn't know how to "grow" friendships. Some of this is also because her biggest role model, my 16 year old, has not been able to model that for her. But I think this is mainly as her best friend went to a different secondary school but didn't tell her until the day before school started so not necessarily Covid but it was certainly at an important social time building friendships from year 6 into year 7.

I have all girls. As a teacher I see more obvious emotional hangovers in girls and more obvious academic/work ethic hangovers in boys, but that's how they present, not necessarily the main problems.

Talking to a wider group of friends with children of different ages I realise it was anyone on the cusp of change or had started something new suffered the most. I see similarities between reception children, the ones who had just started secondary school and those who’d started university.

Our son is Y3 and he’s very lucky to be in an exceptional class, with lots of very able kids who drive each other on. For our local area I think his class is a statistical anomaly, essentially a grammar school class in a primary in an area of deprivation, I also think the vast majority of parents were WFH during the pandemic and pushed their kids on. He’s very fortunate.

My friend is a SALT and works with schools. She says this Y3 is the 'worst' in terms of developmental issues and suspected ADHD diagnoses compared to all other years currently and compared to all previous y3 cohorts she's worked with.

My Y3 is struggling so much socially and emotionally. Possibly she is unlucky and every other child in her year is a complete weirdo but it seems more likely that as a group they haven't learned the basics - you can't be invited to every party, it is okay to avoid people you don't like, you don't have to tell them how much you dislike them etc.

Academically she is bored because everyone else is behind. Her spellings this week included NOT - we've got actual Y3 spellings up on the fridge and we do some of them every week. She's also got some maths and English exercise books she works through.