Y10 - the forgotten Covid year?

[kittybloom]

Any Y10 parents out there? I really feel this year group is forgotten about in terms of the impact of schools shutting and COVID. A friend mentioned to me once that Y6 and Y7 are very important transitional years and we can't underestimate the importance that our children missed out on that. Compared to my younger child who is now in Y7 - it is stark. Older child holds back and hasn't thrown themself into much. Younger child is trying lots of different things and exploring life more. From general chatter amongst my friend group (so I appreciate non-scientific) this seems to be the pattern; the Y10 haven't engaged in secondary school / life experience as much. I feel quite sad about it, I suppose. I've tried prompting to go out more etc but ultimately they are of an age now where a lot of those choices are for them to make rather than us be helicopter parents.

My y10 really struggled with the transition and took until y9 to settle in to secondary school. It changed him from an academically enthusiastic, confident hard worker & 'teacher's pet' into someone who didn't care and didn't want to work, got into trouble at school etc. He's getting back now to how he used to be but it definitely affected him much more than my y7 who has settled in quickly and got to do all the transition stuff, trips etc. Academically the y7 perhaps missed more due to covid lockdown but socially he didn't and I think for the transition to secondary school that is the most important.

Interesting re the theme of Y7 and poor behaviour / social skills. I hadn’t seen that with my child’s class but then I’m not a teacher or present at school so I wouldn’t get that insight (whereas parents will notice their child’s lack of enthusiasm and independence).

Yes yes to the posts re missed trips and experiences and then the consequence of lack of independence. I appreciate that goes wider than Y10.

I’m so sorry to hear that RAAC has been an issue like this. It is very unfair and I understand your anger.

@kittybloom my dc are Y10 and Y7 and I couldn't agree more. We have a first/middle/high school system. Middle school is Y6-Y8. DS is quite introverted anyway, but was in his first year of middle school and was just beginning to socialise for himself when the first lockdown came. Now he's 15 he is expected to socialise but hasn't had that organic, gradual growing up experience of going so, and doesn't know what to do. His "thing" is music, and orchestras, bands etc were restricted for ages.

DD on the other hand was only 8 when lockdown came and had sailed into her tweens gaining indecency and social skills as usual. She's a footballer, and was back playing within about 3 months, and although the next season was interrupted, she got that structure back fairly quickly.

Mine dc are in Y10 and Y11 so Y6/7 and Y7/8 during school closures.

While it was tough for them in some ways, I think there were cohorts who were far worse off. My heart goes out to those in Y13 in 2020 who were screwed so badly. But also those in Y10, 11 and 12 also really suffered.

I think the kids in reception and year 1 will have been impacted for a long time. And all dc too young to go to school, and young adults whether at university or working. So honestly, my dc did miss out a bit, but from my pov it could have been worse.

I think different year groups were affected in different ways. I really worried for my then Y10 who missed a lot of GCSE teaching & didn't take GCSE exams. He has been fine & is now at uni.

Ds2 was in Y7 during the first lockdown. He seems to have been much more affected. He hadn't had much time to settle in & missed a lot of the first 2 years of secondary. I'm noticing. now he's in Y11, much more about how he was affected academically.

Our y7 and 8 aren't necessarily academically weaker then other years but my oh my, their lack of social skills is staggering. My y7 group is the weakest in the year and they are like 8 year old, and a fair few are like younger primary. It's quite something.

I feel for all the year groups but this year's y11 are having no adjustments whatsoever. And neither will y10 in their turn. That feels tough on them.

Y11 are getting the formulae in their exams I believe.

I have a Y7 and a Y11. I think my Y7 has been largely unaffected, although I accept what I’ve heard about general behaviour in this age group - certainly she has some very disruptive kids in her class. But my Y11 had such a restricted life at such a crucial point, it’s been really bittersweet seeing my Y7 start off.

I think my Y3 is totally unaffected though.

I completely agree with the comment above of the impact of missing out of organic, gradual growing up.

I have always felt unbelievably sorry for those who were in Y13 in 2020. My nephew was one of them and it was rubbish what followed from the farce of a-level results and disappointing uni experience. I always felt those in reception / Y1 would suffer from lack of early learning years etc. I just didn’t perhaps think about the impact on other years. Perhaps this thread shows the different type of impact for each year. For my own personal observation, Y10 has been hit harder than I had realised.

I do agree with PP that yes, years 7 across the board have fallen off the bottom of the scale in terms of behaviour and maturity, and that appears to be country wide, and yes, that might not in fact be directly related to covid - not so much what they lost, but more that they have been hugely over compensated. They are infantilised beyond belief.

I could sum it up with one boy, who on the first day of year 7 took his blazer off and handed it to me to hang up. I thought it was weird, but it was his first day of secondary school, so I imagined he had just forgotten himself, and did it for him. Then on subsequent days it became apparent that he genuinely thought this was the teacher's job. It didn't seem to occur to him that there are 30 children in the class, he literally can only see his own individual requirements, and expects and demands that they are met, and is entirely uncomprehending when they are not.

Now imagine in each class of 30, I have 15-20 students like that..... ( I have 5 year 7 classes) and I am in a MAT of 10 schools, and teachers from all of them say the same...

It isn't poor behaviour as such, it is a total blindness of what normal behaviour is. Others screamed and yelled, and stood up and danced, throughout the first months, not to be rude or disruptive, but because they genuinely didn't see why not, and had no understanding that this isn't how you behave in a classroom. Others have to be told repeatedly not to do something, like "Michael , don't pour water over your desk" so he stops as you are looking at him, but as soon as you turn your face from him to continue to speak to the class, he is doing it again, so you tell him again. And again, And again. Literally the same instruction 5 times in 5 minutes, and then you send him out and he doesn't have a clue why - not a clue. Hes like my cat.

I don't know how much of this is covid related, but I have never known anything like it. You do get year 7s become arrogant quite quickly, particularly in bad schools, where they copy the older children. But I have never known a cohort of year 7s arrive behaving like animals in a zoo, no impulse control at all, zero, no concept of what behaviour should be, none what so ever. They have improved as the months have gone by, but literally it was like taking on classes of nursery children and teaching them how to behave like normal 11 year olds.

I work at the opposite end, with 3 and 4 year olds, so born at the end of 2019 through to summer 2020 and due to start school this year. There's a definite difference with many of this years cohort- in maturity, independence, social skills, behaviour, understanding, resilience, self care.... It'll be interesting to see if that difference is still noticeable when they get to secondary school age!

At my school we had lots of issues with year 10 struggling to adapt to formal learning behaviours because they had missed such crucial years. Things like kids just getting up and walking out of the room- as being in school, if they were, was much more relaxed during covid.

I have 6 kids and at the start of covid they ranged from Y13 to nursery. They’ve all missed out so much, in different ways.

I do think social skills and independence in children of all ages has been massively impacted and is showing in many different ways.

And yet, our kids did not actually miss out as a cohort, in the general scheme of things. I have links with schools in other countries, where lock down was barely noticed, as it was not significantly different to normal life in a very dangerous area with massive security precautions, for example a boarding school in a dangerous part of India, an orphanage in a basically lawless area of Nigeria, and a school in a very remote area of Slovakia. All places I have visited, and taught in and still have links with, all places where children are raised throughout their entire childhood in what we would consider "lockdown type" conditions, and all places where children grow and mature normally, and don't feel deprived as their social expectations are different and they see this is normal, anyway.

These children are not suffering from the same gaps in their development from either the globalised lockdown, or the local lock downs they grow up in anyway.

However, ours in the UK are suffering massive developmental delays. Which does make me think it wasn't lock down per se that has created this situation. It might well be more related to screen time, as other PPs have suggested, as the children in the 3 examples I have given don't have screens or phones or internet in their life. And of course, lockdown in the UK meant massively increased unsupervised internet time for many childfen.

I wrote to my MP when they opened pubs before schools. I never got a response. I sensed at the time that not many people were particularly angry about this and it made me very sad that many parents, schools and the government didn’t value education. I am a teacher so I wasn’t expecting anyone to do something that I wasn’t willing to do.

My DD is in Y10 and is also at a school impacted by RAAC. She missed the whole of the autumn term and 70% of the school is still out of bounds. The pupils are in portacabins with no access to any resources for them to complete coursework properly.

It's dreadful. They're all aware that they're way behind in their learning and that they're not going to be able to compete with pupils from schools where there's been no disrupted learning.

Their mental health is shot to pieces. Teachers are leaving in droves and the school won't be open properly until September at the earliest.

The government claims they can't do anything to help make the exams an even playing field for pupils who've missed out on so much learning. It's an absolute disgrace. We feel like we're in Lockdown on our own.

There is a change petition that's been set up to help. Please sign it if you can.

chng.it/HLCLb5DpSF

DS was in year 7 2020 so was just finding his feet, I feel that he has struggled the whole way through school, he’s year 11 now can’t see him doing too well in his GCSEs unfortunately, I feel so worried for him, DD was in year 13 so missed out on A levels did get a place at uni but it was mostly online and she ended up dropping out in year 2 fortunately she got an apprenticeship at a law firm and is now a paralegal so it all worked out for her in the end.

I think every year at school at the moment has to its own set of challenges because of the time lost to Covid. I work in a primary school and in different ways it is visible throughout.

Mine seems ok. Bit quiet maybe. Likes sports and computer games, hates academics. Not sure what they would be like if covid hadn't happened.

Actually their best covid memory is when they tested positive and had to isolate for week or so and got brought food and played computer games all day. Loved it!! Wasn't ill with it at all like most kids.

Yes yes to the posts re missed trips and experiences

It's really hit home for us recently. Ds2 (Y9) is just home from skiing. Loved it, has had the time of his life, took to it like a duck to water and went from beginner to black slopes inside a week.

I feel so sorry for ds1 (Y11) who was signed up for the equivalent Y9 trip, which was then cancelled because of covid. I know it's not our fault but I feel guilty... it's just a massive miss for him that we can't make up. It's been difficult for him this week, listening to dc2 talking about the experience. But he's been so kind about it and happy for his brother I could just cry for him.

@JustGotToKeepOnGoingOn wonder if we're the same school. Crap isn't it.

I think we could say this about every class in different ways.

I’ve got children in y5 and Y13 - both affected massively by Covid in terms of their education. One missed most of year 10 and one year 1.

Eldest really struggled when she went back to school and therefore it impacted her GCSE’s. Thankfully she has picked up again in college and it hasn’t impacted long term I hope.
My youngest - it massively impacted him with spelling, writing etc, but mostly in his social skills, he still struggles in busy environments like shops, doesn’t like crowds etc.

I think it will be a few more years yet before we stop seeing the impact of Covid on education.

I think all years have suffered
My year 9 (now) missed out on so much
No year 5 and no year 6 leavers prom or assembly
Then going into year 7 we couldn't look round the school it was all on line and teams
Then this year we have had all the strikes and unfortunately in bad wind part of a roof fell off now I know that's no one's fault but it was another two weeks off school
My son has no joy at school and it makes me so sad for him

DD was Y7 in 2020. She's definitely been impacted in her social skills, confidence, independence.

She missed out on trips, which are so valuable to help them develop these skills.

Another thing that annoys me is that she's always enjoyed music. Studied it outside school. Missed out on music lessons during Y7 and they weren't allowed to touch any instruments (covid) through Y8 and Y9. So she didn't take it as a GCSE subject. And she only ever had 1 practical food tech lesson. DT was restricted because they couldn't share tools, glue etc.

She missed out on properly exploring all of those subjects. Her creativity was negatively impacted and it's caused her not to pursue that side of her interests (although she does at home).