Surely, repeating this school year is the only way?

[YardleyX]

In what world would it ever have been thought an option to just finish school for the year in March, and then carry on to the next year as though nothing’s happened?!??

Some schools have worked exceptionally hard to continue educating during the pandemic, but official line from the government is that the “curriculum is suspended”.

Therefore, unless the entire curriculum is being re-written, all the way up to and including A level, how can there possibly be an expectation for every child in the country to just ‘move on’ in September?

Year 11 and Year 13 could move on. Impact would therefore be no schools have a Year 11 this year, and some provision needs to be made in order to accommodate this years Reception intake.

Hardly ideal, but better than an entire generation of children falling so far behind, and in lots of cases probably never catching up.

@Hippywannabe , exactly. All children always are at completely different starting points anyway

Hippy wannabe

When you sent out objectives - that’s exactly what I hoped our primary would do, it makes a lot of sense because schools have got to pick this mess up afterwards.

I was expecting guidance like that, it would have been helpful for everyone. However, our school gave no guidance of that type, so the kids won’t have anything useful embedded when they go back.

So, the ones that have managed to sustain an education throughout this (either good schooling or good parenting) will be alright.

And for the rest, it’s tough.

Just as I thought.

Complete bollocks

It would be incredibly impractical to repeat the year.
Depending on parent support some children may have completed all the work sent home from school so feel they have learned topics even if not been actively taught them. It would lead to disengagement from learning,have you ever stood in front of a class doing a recap lesson of something they did the year before. 'We've done this' ad infinitum.
The best way to move forward would be to slim down the curriculum, you know a school I know teaches year 1 'under the sea' as a topic then in year 2 teaches 'blue planet' hugely amount of cross over there. I am sure that is not the only example.

I'm a school governor....physically impossible in terms of space, teaching capacity and knock on for following education

While I agree that children’s education is suffering just now, repeating a year just isn’t necessary for the majority. It doesn’t make sense for them to repeat a whole year for the sake of two half terms or three for the years that aren’t back. All the way up until exam years, they still have time to cover what they need to know, and plenty of those that have been off have been keeping up.

Nobody needs extra space

I have a year 10 and 12 so this is a massive worry. The disparity of home learning provision by different school students is alarming. Only two of DS2 subject teachers are doing any zoom - style teaching. The rest is worksheets, revision and yesterday 'tidy your file this week' for one subject. And this is an outstanding school. My nephew has had theee hours interactive learning every day since March. State school.
If they don't go back full time in September I don't see how they can ever catch up.
And how do they proceed to A level if missing chunks of learning?
I tend to agree. Drop PE, SMSC, and extend the school day. Can't see teachers being up for that though tbh.

Saying that some children are keeping up at home is a mute point.

The government SUSPENDED THE CURRICULUM

I’m in Scotland, so I can’t speak for the English curriculum, but I wouldn’t have thought it was brand new stuff every year that didn’t link/build on the previous year’s work. So, while the children may have missed out on commas, for example, that won’t be the only time they’re taught it ever. It will take a lot of effort to catch up, but it can be done.

I have a Y10 and I'm a school Governor.

It's a solution OP but it's completely unworkable. Like others have said it would have repercussions all way up to University and the workplace.

No-one is saying tat everyone is going to carry on as if nothing's happened. There will be a rigorous catch up campaign/provision. Also, although no-one knows what the GCSE's will look like in 2021 there is consensus across the board that the exam paper won't be business as usual.

The Y6's transition up to Y7 are already accepted and ready to come to us. I think it's more mentally damaging for them to just stay in statis for another year. Plus, like I said it's just impossible.

Schools don't have double the staff, double the space, double the money.

Has anybody here seen how tight the timetable is for Year 10 kids????

We’re not talking about who can work out change in a shop, or who missed last years lesson on commas!!

I do agree that exams will need to be amended if they’re still going ahead, though.

Fucks sake, thread 56545580 on this.

No it won't work.

Yes teachers will try and catch kids up as best we can.

Yes we'd a love a plan for September from the DfE by July.

Some schools are shit at online learning and some are good.

I'm not denying the impact of lockdown on children's education, but surely they've not missed enough of the curriculum to warrant repeating the year? If you take out Easter and May half term then kids will have missed about 1/4 of the academic year. But for many year groups that won't equate to 1/4 of the curriculum will it? When my kids were in year 6, all teaching seemed to stop after Sats. Year 11 and year 13 leave in May before exams start. And the last few weeks of the summer term generally seem to be full of school trips, sports days etc.

So while I'm not decrying the impact of lockdown, it does seem unnecessary to repeat the entire year.

In normal times I've always felt the gap from when normal teaching seems to stop in schools (ie well before the end of summer term) and the start of September is far too long for children's learning to be on hold.

When you get your class, they are working at a huge range of levels For all sorts of reasons and good teachers get accelerated progress from pupils every year. ( I normally hate all this educational speak but seemed the easiest way to put it)
For example I have taught children that started school in year 2 for the first time as they have moved from a country that doesn’t start formal education until then. They have usually caught up within a year or two. Teachers just adapt to the children they have and build on their learning.

So we can just ‘suspend the curriculum’ to no impact, then?

Of course there will be an impact, and sadly more so to some than others. But, and I almost cringe to use the hated phrase, "It is what it is". And everyone, teachers, children and parents, just have to get on with it and do the best they can.

Why do you think it makes "a mockery of the entire education system and of the teaching profession."? The teachers will continue to teach and will try to catch the children up as best they can. It's rubbish, but no-one could have predicted the mess this pandemic would have caused, so as with all unpredictable things, you just have to get on with it and do your best.

The only thing I can think of is that some lessons such as sports / drama / music etc may have to be reduced in order to squeeze in academic necessities such as maths and English. But that also isn't fair on those kids who want to study those in later life. Maybe the schools could open for an extra half an hour a day, but that's not fair on the teachers, or the kids trying to study more as everyone needs downtime.

Whichever way it goes, someone is going to be impacted. Sad but true.

I have children in primary and secondary. Primary, I think ok he will catch up, but we're lucky as he was ahead of target anyway and learns easily. I think they could cope by making classes more fluid for a couple of years, and being more open to some repeating. Secondary...unfortunately I have a year 10 and he is fucked. Severely dyslexic, but by no means stupid he needs structure badly. I can't give that to the same extent at home because I have a full time full on job. He needs me to be on him all the time and I can't be. There are also classes I can't help him it-and I am well educated. God knows how other parents who have not benefitted from such a good education are coping. God knows what children with caring responsibilities, no fsm, no access to the I internet are doing. The extent of help from the school has been emails with 'read this chapter and do the questions'. Not really much marking, no calls, no real contact and 2 Zoom meetings to set coursework. And I'm sure that's not the worst example. Whatever you do you have a school year where the inequality and wealth/social gaps are going to be so much more marked. Just how can those in schools with this level of provision compare exam wise to private schools who have been running classes via zoom/whatever since March?
Possibly devise a one year GCSE course, with the really key bits in? Or just permit every year 10 through to sixth form next year regardless of grades or to retake year 11 with no penalties if they need (this would need in some cases benefits extending till 19).

Cutting the holidays down might work, but that would be horrible for teachers.

There isn't a good scenario, just a least worse one so there's no point getting angry that it's a no win situation. Nobody put people in this position, it's a virus. It isn't anyone's fault.

Again, I’m in Scotland, so I don’t know the Y10 curriculum in depth, but I have an idea how tight the timescales are. Our exam courses are only one year, so any part time school really throws us off. We’ve had to start brand new courses for all year groups online. I don’t know half of the kids I’m teaching. But I am confident I can catch them up, if the exams are amended to take into account that I will have less contact time with them.

I suggested this some weeks ago and understand why it wouldn't work. I wonder if there was some kind of guarantee that things were going back to normal in September, if they could all spend that first half term in their existing year's and transition to the next year at October half term. But sadly I don't think we are even close to knowing whether kids will be back full time in September so even that's not viable.

Seeing as we don’t know when schools will accept children full time again I think it’s concerning. I think there should be an option to retake the year. Understand that it might not be practical. But these kids will have a huge gap in their education.
If it’s ok to miss 6 months of school why do we get grilled on attendance. Last year my child had 96% attendance due to an odd missed day due to illness. I got a warning letter saying attendance was important and “every school day matters”.

I haven't read the whole thread but the idea is completely irrelevant, in the UK at least. Teachers will teach based on the children's attainment, whether that is a year behind or not, as they have always done. There will always be a mixture of abilities although after this, the gaps will be wider.

Other than maths, I don't think there is any subject where the knowledge builds year on year from Reception to Year 11. And (for example) not all children will learn about the same periods in history during their school career anyway - what's important is they learn the analytical and writing skills to look at sources, draw conclusions and explain their reasoning. Other than for Year 10 and Year 12, who should have some provision made for the possible break in their education, it should be possible to "catch up".

Repeating the year is not the answer - many older children will become disaffected if forced to repeat. Teachers are trained to understand what level a child is working at and help them to improve as much as possible during any given year. They will do this regardless.

If you repeat the year there is issues at the Reception end (shortage of pre-school/nursery provision) and at the Year 11 end? Year 11 have nothing to repeat. And a double size Year 12 will just cause problems when they are all chasing the same jobs/university places the year after.

It was thought about very seriously at a very high level right at the beginning. But it was decided quickly that as it would mean raising reception age to 5/6 permanently rather than the current 4/5 it isn’t feasible.

Remember that public exams have moveable grade boundaries. Yes, education has been affected but the majority of children will have been affected at roughly the same level so grade boundaries will just come down. Yes, I know there’s the arguement about private school kids not been as affected, less affluent kids being the most affected.