To feel saddened and guilty that my (keyworker) child does not do the set class learning whilst attending school?

[WishIWasARunner]

DS (4) attends school as I am full time keyworker. i have some time off this week and have been following the class set online learning. It became apparent we couldn't do various things as needed to do the preceeding work over past few weeks. I presumed he would be following his class learning while attending school. I checked in and was told they have Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 in together so not following the online learning. Not only do I feel guilty for putting him in school, but to add to it I now know he's not following his class learning which puts him at disadvantage

Weregoingonanadventure

In England the cut-off line is the last day of August. There are children in the class who turned (let's say) 5 on the 2nd September 2019, whilst the youngest will turn 5 on the 29 August 2020.

I went to school when I was almost 5 and did pretty well as a lawyer ultimately. I didn't even go to morning nursery or play group before that age. I don't think you need to worry too much about a 4 year old.

A lot of countries don’t start formal learning until 7, and they all catch up. Let him be a young child and engage him in learning in other ways e.g. reading stories, counting games etc. Most homeschool advice for a child under 6 suggests they shouldn’t be doing more than an hour or so formal learning a day anyway, so it would be better for you to dedicate 1 hour where he gets a your full attention than to put him on a online learning platform for several hours when he can’t keep up and doesn’t have the individual support.

It was made very, very clear schools staying open was purely for childcare. There was explanation given that they would not be following the curriculum.

Can you imagine the uproar on mumsnet if key worker children were following the curriculum?! And their children weren't in schools having the same opportunity? There would be a strongly worded petition. And countless aibu votes.

Op, what you absolutely need to do, and what is thy e most beneficial thing you can do to help your child longterm, is encouraging reading time every day. And build up resilience in reading too. Build up how long you spend reading with him.

OP, read to your child when you can, maybe watch some songs together on youtube, like the jolly phonics ones.

There's nothing else a 4 year old needs!
Learning life within a class, sharing, playing with whatever resources the school has, practice toilets and hand washing independently, and everything they do at school even now, that's more than enough.

Do you really work more than 5 days a week? Most parents who have to "homeschool" stick to a weekly schedule, you have plenty of time to do 1 hour or 2 at the weekend with older kids. 4 years old don't need any of that! Poor kids.

It will be harder for a lot of reception-age children to go back to school when they have been enjoying themselves at home. The ones who just had a long "holiday" (if you can call this mess a holiday...) ,they will catch up within less than a few weeks with the ones stuck home with pushy parents.

Do not beat yourself up.

But he's four years old for goodness sake.

Chill out.

They learn through play at that age; all primarily through the EYFS...

And I say that as a former Nursery Manager

OP, if you can pinterest a few activities to develop their motor skills, that's helpful too. But that's games to do together - even making a necklace stringing pastas! - don't see it as "teaching".

At 4 it really doesn’t matter!

Get a grip. Legally he doesn’t have to start school till he 5.
Your in for a long old ride if this is your expectation now!!!

As others have said, it’s fine! The majority of schools don’t have the staff to teach so they are providing childcare. The most important thing you can do at home is to make sure you read together. Anything else can wait.

I know the feeling OP. I did know that the school wouldn't be teaching my DC anything, and I am extremely grateful to the school that they get to go there while I work, run about outside and socialise with other DC, but I do wonder when we will get through the work school has set. I have DC1 in year 4 and DC2 in reception. I worry less about DC2 because she will catch up what she missed but it is harder to replicate the 'learning through play' of Reception at home when I am home. DC1 has loads of work set online, some of it is cumulative so we have to get round to doing it or she won't be able to complete work week after week.
For Reception I am aiming to listen to her read (sign up to Oxford Owl online for free access to school reading scheme books) and try and provide opportunities for counting, adding, writing. I would like to let her play most of the time, but it distracts DC1 who is working, as we only have one smallish room for 'homeschool' and have to be reasonably quiet while DH is doing online meetings in the next room.

My DD was 4 for the whole of Foundation and had glue was so struggled with phonics. She is now top end of expected, nearly exceeding in all areas (apart from her terrible spelling). At 4 he has got loads of time to catch up.

Even if teachers looking after key workers' children were doing the work with them whilst at school, parents with their children at home would probably be unhappy as it would be perceived as teaching and unfair. That's why it's purely childcare.

I've previously taught Reception and as so much of the early years curriculum, OP, is learning through play, I really wouldn't worry.

Pics

Boarding schools are offering free places so that key workers kids don't lose out on education.
Starting in their new term July and August. There you go, a great opportunity, worry no more.

but it is harder to replicate the 'learning through play' of Reception at home when I am home.

but what do you think she is doing at school anyway? Even if they don't follow the curriculum, they don't keep the children locked in an empty room all day. Everything is learning at that age and they catch up so quickly.

It's pretty obvious when kids start reception, some have pushy parents and are really advanced, others can't even write their own name. Give it a few months, and at best the others have caught up, or are far ahead.

Teach your child the time, teach your child to do their shoe laces, to bake... just have a normal life and chill.

I agree with PP. He’s 4. It really won’t matter. I’m willing to bet that most of his class won’t have done it either and it won’t do any of them any harm.

When me and my siblings were aged 4 to 7, we all had German measles, measles and whooping cough one after the other. ( in the 60s). Just as the last one recovered from one thing, someone else came down with the next. We were never particularly ill but the quarantine rules meant that we couldn’t go to school. In all we were off for about a term and a half. At the end of it my poor parents were so stressed and worn out that instead of sending us back to school for the last couple of weeks of the summer term, they packed us off to my grandparents in Ireland for two months so we didn’t have any formal education for about 6 months. I was the oldest, I was 8 when I went back in September and discovered the teacher was talking about mysterious things called tens and units and ‘carrying’ numbers so my mum had to explain that to me but apart from that it didn’t seem to impact on any of us. We all did well in school and later life.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8238469/Schools-summer.html

you can't compare with private schools. .. they have to justify their fees!

For those of you confused about his age, my son is a late August baby and was 4 all through reception. He also slept though most of it, and is now totally well balanced (well as much as a tech obsessed 9yr can be). I wouldn't worry about it, the good thing is that he is able to get some sort of social interaction and playing happily.

Well, the brightest side of this situation got you is that your child is only 4yrs old.

Sadly, we as a country are going to have to acknowledge that there is disadvantage happening in education right now, as the children who don’t get any strong educational support from home are now missing out completely.

And by ‘support’ I mean that very widely, from mental stimulation, modelling positive behaviours, such as learning behaviours, right up to the actual teaching parents may be doing right now.

There will be a huge range in what parents are able to do, but I very concerned about the children who are really reliant on school and the gaps that are opening up there.

I hope that it can be sorted out afterwards, but it will take years in many cases to equalise, if ever.

I really hope the government acknowledges the reality of the situation and supports the education system in getting over this.

However, I do believe that for the great majority of us, we’re all in a big clump of similar efforts - trying as hard as we can, but really not being able to do much great new fresh teaching in reality.

But what we can do is keep up the reading (night time stories at least, if poss with shifts?!), and numbers just in everyday life eg for little children it’s as easy as counting stairs, number of jumps, lining up toys etc...

So, OP, I absolutely agree with you, it’s not great, but you’re little one is fortuneately young enough for this hiatus to not have much of an effect on them.

Oneandtwenty

I don't think there's a comparison between private and state, but here are two schools offering free places to key workers.
As several key workers have stated objections to their children not being taught, here is a good option.

I wouldn’t worry my 4 year old has done fireman Sam stickers and some sand art and watched some telly. He’s in nursery so I’m not expecting him to be doing much. My 8 year old has made a volcano and has done none of the work set for her.

Didn't go to school until just before my 5th birthday (am a June baby), as was routine then. I don't - and I'm a very experienced educational professional - understand why in this country we force children into formal learning so early.

Reception is mostly about learning through play. I’m not sure how much hard work you expect a four year old to do tbh, they don’t do very much at school.

YABU in that he's 4, he will be fine. YANBU in that if there are enough adults and not loads of pupils, they could be doing a bit of the set work during the day.

I'm a single parent and a keyworker. I'm extremely grateful that the DCs school are taking care of them so I can continue to go to work. Having said that, the average attendance during lockdown has been 3-5 kids, in the entire school. During the Easter, mine were the only kids there! (Yes I am officially the meanest mum in the world according to DC).

When they have 1 teacher and 1 or 2 TAs between so few kids, I do think they could pop onto the school web pages for the relevant classes and do a bit of the work during the day, instead of 6 hours of running around outside, colouring and singing along to songs on YouTube. I appreciate it's not possible for schools with loads of keyworker DC, but 2/3 education professionals should be able to get a bit of set work done with 2 v compliant (at school, not at home!) DC. So you are somewhat but not entirely BU.