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 yr 12 loved covid as he could sit on his computer with his friends. His school already had iPads for learning so it was school as usual throughout. He was yr8 for the main chunk so he was established in secondary and had friends. He didn't join in any groups at school - he didn't want to stick out.

My yr9 has struggled a lot more. She lasted yr7 in the local secondary and then we moved her to a small private school. But I think that , rather than covid, it is just her in the environment she was/is in.

I feel like secondary school is a just a horrible experience for some kids!! I can't wait for mine to be out of it.

I don't think it most countries, although I might be wrong about that.
Those I am familiar with have robust kindergarten systems where the basics are taught.
And anecdotally, I do know some kids who've had issues in these countries as the step from "play" to formal learning can be quite a leap.

Yep, year 3 and year 4 didn't learn to sit still and didn't learn basic phonics and reading at the right time.

This has had a knock on effect as their levels of literacy are lower than needed to learn at higher year groups because they couldn't read the text for the activity and theres so many who are disruptive because they were unable to learn to sit still. The screens only made this worse.

I am in an area you'd expect pushy parents. They were on the WhatsApp group actively telling each other to do as little work with their kids as possible and 'screw the school' as they put it. It surprised me. Their attitude is the one that's also noticeable in regards to working with the teachers to resolve the issues their children have. They are not nice to the teachers at all.

I'm currently helping in reception. The main thing they do is pretty much teach the kids to respect the teacher and each other and to sit down and behave when needed. The phonics and maths is secondary but it's very easy to see the connection between the ones who can't sit and those who can't do the academic building blocks. It is 100% about behaviour more than knowledge.