Covid & key workers children

[starshollowtownselectman]

Been wondering about this today and thought I’d see if anyone has any insight on if during covid that key workers children who still attended school had an academic advantage over children who did lessons from home over zoom.
Is there any evidence or anyone experienced that those children have progressed more and are now more advanced than children who couldn’t attend school in person?

I would doubt it. ‘Schooling’ in Covid was just childcare. The curriculum wasn’t followed.
There may be some advantages around socialising but not academic advantages I wouldn’t have thought.

My child didn’t do much at all and he was in school everyday.

The school even emailed me and asked me to keep up with his online learning!! My reply ‘as he’s in school from 9-6 every day, I assumed he was doing it there’ 🤷‍♀️

Doubt it. Our school the key worker kids were in class which was then broadcast to the children at home, so they got the same lesson. The in school kids did do more fun activities though!
This was a private school though, and the day was run as normal, classes starting at 8.50 and running through the day. Cameras on if possible. They did take the key worker kids from the surrounding state schools and I think those kids did have an advantage in that some of the state school provision was poor to non existent. However it was a relatively short time, and the missed classes were made up partially by extending the school year a bit in to the summer, and a rejigging of lessons.
I also think some schools did not run normal lessons for the key worker children and it was treated as more of a holiday camp

It wasn't a nice experience for my ds

he sat apart from others in the hall joining the lesson with his classmates while being monitored by a teacher. There was no teaching or support other than online

after a few weeks he mainly stayed at home (which was constant worry for me) and we caught up with school work when I got back home

No. My son spent the last half of year 6 in a class with 6 other kids of different ages doing colouring and the same worksheets that the kids at home were given. The first half of year 7 was also a write off. Teaching was not the same as it was when all kids were in. He's doing GCSEs now and there is no sign he has any advantage over his peers 😆

Key worker children often had less input as they were at school colouring and doing lego so weren't getting the home learning stuff done during the day.

It was quite frightening for my son. I was working in the hospital in a COVID unit, my husband in a different hospital.

He was aware what was happening. He was in a hall being looked after so my husband and I could do our jobs. He told me he was frightened that he would get COVID or we would and not come home.

He was not given any education it was literally keeping them safe so we could keep doing what we did. It increased his anxiety hugely and has had a lasting effect.

The school did all online and it was childcare workers who were looking after them. I told the school that I was working so much that no way was I putting on a laptop and could they send out worksheets. They didn't. So I ditched their learning and did it myself. I did ok. His education is where it needs to be but his anxiety has never left.

I doubt it. My children went to school throughout covid. They were given the same online lessons as their peers who were at home. If they didn't understand the work their teachers weren't allowed to help them as it was deemed "unfair" on the children not in school. I was at work so obviously couldn't help them. Their peers had their parents on hand who were able to help them. If anything my children had a lower standard of education due to me being a keyworker.

Mine were in and did less than I would have done with him at home. One is academically able and has done absolutely fine and is now in y7. The other was in eyfs and it has had a more marked effect. Of course we can never know if being at home would have been preferable, but there wasn’t a choice. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I was a teacher then and had to work. My own (upper primary aged) children had to home school. Alone. They were not allowed to go in to school, I wasn not allowed to stay home (neither was dh - another key worker). My children suffered greatly from the isolation.

My children went into school during the second lockdown as keyworker children. I think it benefited them more from a mental health point of view than an educational.

I very much doubt it. Being in a really weird school environment with parents doing necessary jobs to keep all others safe at home wasn't an advantage.

Presumed OP was talking about the later school closures when curriculum wasn't suspended, rather than the first one when it was.

I have wondered about this, and also about the distinction between those of us whose DC were at home with the legal minimum input (a couple of minutes video a day) and those who were at home getting online lessons. In our school, they taught the curriculum and there were 13 my DCs class rather than the usual 30.

But there was a lot of variation.

Both my kids went to school all the way through both lockdowns. The first lockdown around 10-15 kids were in school (out of nearly 700) and they had the time of their lives. They took in their bikes, made a really elaborate sand pit city, looked after the chickens, guinea pigs and ducks and just basically massively enjoyed themselves.

They are both academically ahead, neither have any MH problems, school reluctance, behaviour issues, emotional problems or anything else. Sometimes I do wonder if being in school helped but I guess we can’t know for sure.

My DC were 6 and 8 and were moved into the massive (but largely empty) secondary school “hub” and left with a different teacher every day to supervise their colouring. My 8 year old looked out of the window most days and did nothing. The head informed me I should be doing their home schooling with them when I got home at 630pm every day knackered from being on my feet all day with ppl with covid, sweating in PPE. I was really upset at the time and felt I was letting my kids down a lot. I’d have loved to have been furloughed and attempting a bit of schooling or WFH and at least in the same building as my kids, although I know fine well it was just hell for everyone and no good solution was out there. No benefit or advantage was gained by my kids, of that I’m certain!

edited to add: they didn’t struggle to go back to proper school when everything opened up though. I think some kids did at that point.

I know that at the school i worked in, the children in school did do better. The were only allowed to do the same home learning that was provided to home, but the TAs and teachers had a much greater understanding of how to deliver and what sort of standard to look for. This was an infant school and the effect was particularly noticeable in writing. Parents seemed very good at delivering maths.

Obviously lots of variables but individual, but this was our tracked stats across a cohort of 90 in each year group.

I have no idea now though. We wanted to carry on tracking them but I don't think we did.

My niece was in Year 2 in Covid and attended school as DSis and BIL are medics. She doesn't have very fond memories of it. There were only a few kids in so they didn't really do learning in the traditional sense and it wasn't particularly fun or enjoyable, they were just sort of plonked in a corner with workbooks.

It's outrageous that schools expected you to do the homeschooling after they had been at school all day!

That's how it was done at GCs school. The children at home and in school did the same on line lessons together. The teachers were supervising but not teaching unless they were running the online lesson.

I know one teenager who was refusing to go to school before covid with anxiety. When schools reopened to all children she happily went back. It was like the pressure being taken off gave her time to heal.

Mine was in reception. She is average academically, so I don’t think it made any difference. I don’t think they did much in school, but as she was 4, she didn’t really tell me about her day other than what she ate for lunch!

I don’t think many schools were able to offer their usual level of classes.

In the second lockdown my child went 3 days to school and 2 days home schooling (I work part-time). What he did was the same whether at home or school. The work sheets given were the same just supervised by a ta in the class room not me, and there were the same online lessons over zoom with a teacher from their home address who was never in the classroom. Where it was massively beneficial was for ds's mental health but I can't imagine how it would have made any difference academically.

I'm a teacher. My own children's school refused to have them in as dh isn't a key worker. Dh runs a huge company which is was trying to keep afloat whilst having about 80% of his staff furloughed. Neither of us could stop during the day so the kids entertained themselves and we helped them do their home learning it once our work days ended. Dd's teacher commented that she was one of the few children to actually make progress during the lockdowns.