Is your child due to start school, move school, move phase or key stage in September? The lead up will have been very different this year. What are you most concerned about as a parent?

[ChildEd]

Thank you for reading on, I'm working to support the education system.

What do you feel would help your child? What is your school doing to help, given changes of normal transition due to COVID.

@fartyface

The whole thing is a shambles. All my child would like to know is whether he will be going to big school in September.

Until I can answer that question it is pretty immaterial where he eats lunch.

His preschool nursery place at the school has just been removed yesterday having been delayed.

I agree tbh.

Child moving between primary and secondary special. No guidance at all. They have decided they are not having Y6 back. It appears they have washed their hands of the transition. Nothing at all from the secondary despite chasing them- I know nothing about what she needs, her day will look like etc.
More needs to be done. I’m disgusted with both schools and feel like her transition is being sacrificed in order that schools can meet the needs of ‘very vulnerable’ children- who are in school now. Clear guidance would have meant that this did not happen.

My Year 6 isn't in school, nor likely to be this year and I'm furious. Bless him he's completely unbothered by the lack of transition up to the feeder secondary.

Eldest was year 11.

Do going into year 10 and has scrapped year 9 work they have started them on their options and gcse work remotely.

Dd2 going from ks1 to ks2. I think she will struggle to be honest. She could do with retaking the whole year again.

DS1 is going to reception in September. The school have been good at communicating and I'm not worried.

When he got his school place we got a newsletter from his new reception teacher describing things like her favourite colour and favourite cake (things a 4 year old would find interesting).
Yesterday we got an email from the school asking for his photo for his peg, and we were told we'd receive a welcome back in a few weeks. I feel like they are trying their best.

(Plus my dad works there one day a week, and we can hear the key worker kids happily playing in the playground most days - we live next door)

@PinkFondantFancy

Honestly? Give me and my children confidence that school will be open fully, as normal, in September. If government regulations don't allow for this, lobby the government, hard, to remove their ridiculous social distancing measures for children which are totally misguided and make no difference since children don't spread the virus. HTH.

This

Child starting Reception in September. I'm not too worried about transition (she's my second so she knows the school), I'm mostly worried about Reception itself being very part-time and abnormal (many play resources taken away, not allowed to bring reading books home). Unless she gets a decent stab at Reception she is going to be so far behind where my son was going into year 1.

Ta00 great that your school is making such a good offer to parents, but with respect this thread shows that many are not. This is about adaptations to usually very good transition due to COVID and some exacerbated issues and needs for children.

Again, I have no influence on reopening. Only the government can do that. Within the system schools make a daily attendance return to the DfE and we get to challenge schools against their offer, using the comprehensive risk assessments to check that the school has no spare capacity. None of our schools can take in more children safely than they are (space, staffing, bubbles, transport).

The R number is rising, in some areas more than 1. The '5 point test' by the government isn't met. I'm dealing with numerous cases of COVID in schools in an area where the R number is close to 1. I can't answer on a full opening, nobody knows yet but schools will reopen if it is safe.

I'm working here to gather information to support new starters ( whether that be September or not)

They need to be back part time now along with year 10, then full time in September. They need live online lessons now.

mine are year 10 and 12, I can assure you they are NOT back.
If you are worried about year 9, please spare a thought for years 10 and 12, who will get about 4 hours face to face before the summer.

It is these two year groups who are going to suffer the most and I cannot see why, when the rest of secondary is closed, they cannotaccommodate these 2 year groups full time in school.

From sept I have one moving to year 7 (None of her friends are going to the same school), one in their A level year and one doing GCSEs.
To be frank I’m extremely worried about all of them for different reasons. The older two have been great in terms of getting on with it, but virtual classes is no replacement for the real thing (no criticism of the school, it’s just the reality). Studying 4 A levels at home is really really hard. I really hope someone is thinking about the knock on impact on these years, but I doubt it from what I’ve seen so far.

There has been some communication around transition to year 7 but agree with others that have said some level of proper familiarity will be critical to helping things go smoothly. It shouldn’t be impossible to arrange transition days, even in smaller groups, so they can get to see their tutor/meet a few people that will be in their class. Otherwise many year 7s will be walking completely into the unknown. At 11 that’s brutal.

Completely agree @steppenmum

Our 60 Year 6s are moving on to 17 different schools - many with no Primary peers.

As their teacher, I would like for them:
Virtual tour on website, with specific details for first day - which entrance should they come to, what should they bring.

Information on uniform - particularly if the schools usually have a fitting/buying session on one of their transition days.

Information about their tutor group - maybe a zoom call, certainly a personalised letter.

A video/letter from an older child on the subject of ‘a typical Year 7 day’ or ‘what I wish I’d known in year 7’.

Some opportunity for the very anxious ones to visit the building over the summer - the ones who might normally have benefitted from a week of transition summer school.

OP not sure what you think about this. DSs school have just had each year group set up their own wiki page about the school ( internally obviously). Key worker children at school provided photos of library, sports hall and so on that all year groups could use.

It was a collaborative project done as part of distance learning So now each year has a page ( of varying quality!) with information about teachers, lessons , classrooms, activities etc.

Is that something worth thinking about? Could current year 7s do a similar project which could then be used as part of transition?

mine are year 10 and 12, I can assure you they are NOT back.
Friend's child in year 10 is back part time from next week, same at my child's school. I think that year 9 need to be back at the same time as year 10. I think that both years should have really started back on June 1. I agree it is not fair on year 10 and 12 that they are only getting very part time schooling and so late in the school year.

Schools can adapt to make things easier on year 7 in September. My child's school, pre-covid, kept them in tutor groups for almost all subjects at first, the whole group moving between classrooms, they just had smaller science classes. DS didn't know anyone when he started year 7, after moving primary schools at Easter when he didn't know anyone either. He was fine, it wasn't all that much of a jump really.

The focus needs to be on year 9, 10 and 12 in my opinion.