Virus will further highlight the education gap between middle class & others....

[peppersneezes000]

Read an article that said the middle class children will not suffer during the extended school break at all & would continue to thrive at home. Disadvantaged children will suffer more both socially & educationally especially those in receipt of free school meals.
Dh argues many middle class parents will be working from home with deadlines to meet etc so the middle class children are also at a disadvantage.
I'll try to find the link.

Domestic abuse is found across the board. Distressing atmosphere at home will affect any class of children.

On a training at work they told us about a study (sorry no link) about the link between having books in your home and children's early language skills. The study didn't look at whether anyone read the books, just that they were there. It's about the attitude towards education. Even if you are stressed juggling work and your child's education, you are still mindful of it. You will ask your child what they read, did they do their maths etc and try to compensate when you can e.g. reading together in the evening, maths games at the weekend. This won't be the same as tutoring for hours but will be very different from treating it as a holiday with no need to even look at a book too.

I think the age will affect things too. My children are young and it's easy to incorporate learning in other ways e.g. using scales when making dinner. Able older pupils will benefit from researching things themselves and taking ownership of their learning. Pupils who are struggling (and who's parents don't understand or can't help them) will more likely give up as it's too tricky.

There will be a complex picture but sadly those with disengaged parents will probably (bar the most self motivated) be at the bottom in terms of progress over this time.

I think the class label is unhelpful. Children from any background will suffer if they don't receive the right care and attention during this period of lockdown and school closures. Children with parents willing to engage with their children through this will be just fine regardless of class.

Exactly Not. As a working class child I was taken to the library several times a week as I devoured books. We were also bought loads and both parents very encouraging of study at school, especially DF, despite him being of the 'leave school at 15 to get a manual job' background. Same for DP, but his musical talents were encouraged which he achieved to quite a high level

The picture painted of the working class DC left in front of the TV or youtube, or to hang around on street corners while their parents indulge in their addiction of choice is not something familiar to me or my peers.

I'm working class and have a lower middle class job. Dp is a builder so we're only on my wages through this.

I'm WFH and working 10 to 11 hours a day sometimes as my work has stepped up because of covid 19.

My 14 yr old dd is doing her work everyday as she likes school work.

I'm forcing ds to do an hours work each day but actually I'm in skype meetings and have statutory work to complete with time scales so DS 12 is being babysat by his ps4. I would love to be furloughed and homeschool him instead of working. I'm sure he will be at a disadvantage when he goes back but not as disadvantaged as he would be if I lost my quite well paying job.

BarbaraofSeville I think the stereotype you describe in your second paragraph is of the "underclass" not the working class.

I would agree with you anotherone but the thread title, OP and several other comments talk about 'middle class' and others as in the middle class children will be fine with their educated, engaged parents with money to buy resources, whereas if you're not middle class, then you're going to suffer due to your disadvantages and fall behind in comparison.

I see it time and time again on here. The assumption that seeing education as something to be prioritised being exclusively a middle class trait.

BarbaraofSeville poor old upper classes falling through the net then too

Oh god. If you can save 5k a term for education you are wealthy, even if you have to scrimp and save to pay 5K per term

I always cringe inside when people say this.

Before the schools shut, DC's (secondary) school asked all the children how many of them had a device and internet at home, to enable them to access the school's VLE. The plan was therefore to provide work via the VLE for those who could access it, and workpacks for those who didn't.

Since schools actually shut, they've discovered they asked the wrong question. Many children

• only have a PAYG mobile phone which is not practical for full day learning
• have limited internet at home
• have to share devices with other family members
• don't have a quiet place to work or any place to work
• don't have a printer or even a pen and paper at home
• can't self teach themselves just by reading materials with limited teacher support and don't have parents who can help them (either because parents are working themselves, or don't have the ability to do so)
• are caring for younger siblings while parents work

etc.

and by and large those are difficulties faced by those from disadvantaged backgrounds, not middle class ones. In fact middle class parents are actively paying for additional tutoring so their DC don't fall behind.

I think this is less of an issue in primary school, but will cause a gulf that can't be bridged at secondary school in the time available.

Private schools seem to be often providing online tuition with classes taught via (e.g.) zoom, so this will also mean a gulf opening between private school children and state school children.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a class issue, I’m sure most working class families have WiFi and probably a printer so are putting effort in. The issue lies in the majorly disadvantaged children who sadly do exist, it’s those children who will suffer most. They probably don’t even own books so the only books they usually have access to are at school. May not have WiFi or printer access either and the work my DC’s school has set is ALL online and most requires a printer. We have used so much paper over the past couple of weeks it’s untrue and it’s not cheap!

A couple of weeks without school work doesn’t do much damage but months without definitely will.

Also worth noting that some families have WiFi but no computer, tablet, laptop etc. Pretty hard to work from a smartphone. There will be children who are currently just being left to play on the street most of the day, no academic input whatsoever. Their parents may not have finished school themselves and don’t think education is important. Not being snooty at all but parents like this do exist.

Sadly it is not as simple as working class / middle class although generally middle class parents are more likely to have a larger house with room for everyone to be able to work, a garden for outside exercise and access to internet and multiple devices which will make it easier for a child to be able to work. Parental attitude and education level (if the children are older with more complex work) will also play a large part in whether or not a child comes back to school at the same or a higher level or it they have regressed. There is a huge swathe of children who without the help of dedicated teachers / teaching assistants and the constant routine of school will suffer and may never quite catch up or meet their potential. I am close to a teacher who has commented that they know exactly which children will come back full of new knowledge, which will be as they were at lockdown or just slightly lower and which will have forgotten everything as they won't have done anything at all for months - this is primary level and will impact their next year at school significantly.

Agree its not about class so much as income and available money. Food is now much more expensive and we had to buy a laptop and 2 sets of decent headphones to work from home. We had very fortunately just upgraded our internet 2 weeks before we had to self isolate, so that is an increased bill but we have already seen the benefit of it as we would not have been able to work from home with old internet service. I've also got a printer, ink, paper, laminator, tonnes of art supplies, little white boards, pads of paper (ex-teacher who loves all that kind of stuff). Bills for people who don't hoard 'useful/educational' things would be higher, especially if their children's school doesn't set much work. One of my children has maybe one hour a day of work at most, the other about 2 hours.

The gap between those with the most advantage/ disadvantage will become more polarised.

Background factors affecting educational outcomes have long been recognised. Maternal education, access to books, ethnicity (cultures valuing education and the typical education level of immigrant communities), cultural capital and experiences, physical resources (particularly access to computers, printers, internet) but also pens, art supplies, space, parental time. It's not as simple as a middle/ working class split, but those factors do have class features to them.

Knowing DS1's class, I reckon I could pick 3 out of the 5 children most likely to slip further behind, and those who will keep ahead. DS1 himself has multiple high functioning SNs, "fortunately" he already has his own computer for school work due to his literacy difficulties leaving the other avaliable for DS2. While he is not a self motivated learner in a traditional sense, he is curious and banks up an encyclopeadic general knowledge. He has the benefit at present of a 1:2 ratio, plus I'm a SAHM with a decade of teaching experience. My primary concern is getting him settled back into a varied social world on the other side of this. While we might not be rapidly ploughing through the school tasks set, I can revise some of those troublesome basics while DS2 is works through them (and push DS2 with some of DS1's work), and there's plenty of enrichment such as Lego, the sandpit, walking in nearby countryside on our daily exercise and documentaries to keep their brains stimulated.

Sadly I can predict who in the class will be spending much of their time playing (several years underage) with unrestricted time on Fortnite, that co-incides with the habitually late and the parents that won't consent to trips to places like the Gurdwara and never sighted at any school events.

As a teacher who was worked in very deprived schools, I think there are posters on here who don't realise the disparity between home lives of children in different demographic groups.
At a very basic level, for some (many) children school is a respite from chaos and borderline neglect at home. If your children live in a reasonably clean home, have 3 meals per day, someone to chat to, toys and tech to occupy themselves, a warm comfy bed, regular baths and showers, bed at a not ridiculous time and an absence of aggressive shouting/rowing, they already have a huge head start on the children that the OP is referring to. These are families that for myriad reasons are not capable/willing to parent in a functional way. Hence the drive for early nursery provision and wide ranging extra curricular opportunities to try and close these gaps early. Their behaviour/development regresses just over the holidays.
The difference between these two groups, in terms of how they are able to engage and learn in Septmeber, their self esteem, resilience, motivation and focus will be poles apart.

Scatter

I agree with everything you say about the disadvantages of a chaotic home life, lack of money etc, but there are many many families who are not middle class and also not in the situation that you describe so it's very far from 'children of parents with professional office based jobs' vs all others. There are millions of families who fall into neither demographic and many of these DC will be doing just fine.

There's also probably a regional element. Lack of space, both indoor and outdoor is mentioned, but the space available (garden, accessible non crowded green spaces in walking distance, woods etc plus a more spacious home) to the children of a manual worker/SAHP couple in a more affordable area outside the south-east of England is likely to be far more than that available to a family where both parents are teachers, nurses or other similarly paid professionals in London and the surrounding areas.

Barbarous, you are absolutely right, I am talking about families who live in socioeconomic deprivation, not functional families who happen to not be middle class. However, I think many people don't realise the scale of how many families actually live in the situations I describe. A situation which has been worsened by endless cuts to services.

And absolutely to the space issue. I have a reasonably well paid job, but as a LP of 3 DC, with no financial support from my ex, I am eternally grateful that house prices where I live in the NW mean that I can still afford a 3 bed house with a bit of a garden.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is really interesting on this. Says similar over the summer break, but obviously it’s the same. And clearly it’s not so class-based either, but it kind of works as a generalisation.

This is where it is going to be come clear what schools and teachers actually do for students and society as a whole.

The week running up to the school closure we ransacked our cupboards to send every child we could (especially our PP kids) home with exercise books, study books, paper, pens and reading material. By the end of The Friday we broke up our library looked like a swarm of locusts had descended.

Our PP co-ordinator stayed in for an extra week printing all the homework booklets off for our most vulnerable PP kids and posting them home so they didn’t get behind in their work.

When they are in front of us there is almost nothing we wouldn’t do to help them achieve and feel secure. I know a few of my students won’t be accessing the learning. We’re already trying to think of ways to mitigate that when they get back to school.

@Fizzypoo if your DH isn’t working why isn’t he sat with your DS and not the PS4?

I don't think it's massively helpful to focus too much on class ie there are some working class parents who will move heaven and earth to keep their kids' education ticking over and there are some middle class parents who won't.

However a huge issue in education is 'narrowing the gap' - making sure that those who are disadvantaged in some way achieve as well as those who aren't. This situation more than anything will put disadvantaged children on an even further back foot than ever before. Some children (of any class) will spend the next few months in a nice bubble of joe wicks pe lessons, reading stories, baking and other nice activities. Other children are currently stuck in a house for the foreseeable future with someone who makes them feel unsafe. It's hard to give a shit about phonics when you're terrified.

Agreed, class is something of a red herring.
It's about parent having the capacity(socially/emotionally), motivation (valuing education) and means (time, money, space, parental education levels) to support children through this period.
Some children will be lucky enough to have parents with all of these, most will have parents with some limitations (eg time restrictions due to wfh) and sadly some (many) children will have families without any of these. These are the children that we are talking about really.

Teacher here.

Saying it is a class issue or a money issue is a huge disservice to poor and working class parents.

Correlation is not causation.

Children that do well have involved parents with a positive attitude to education. That is something we generally associate with middle class parents but it is not actually defining characteristic of the middle class.

I predict significant differences in student attainment when schools return. And I would put money on being able to accurately predict my own students’ outcomes based on their home life.