DC are going to have to repeat a school year

[bigbananafeet12]

They finished school in March, there’s more chance teachers (and frightened parents) might be willing to get back into schools by next March. I know some dc are getting full school days on zoom, but for most their home learning is no substitute. Universities are planning on doing online learning for the first term too so loads will defer potentially causing problems for the current year 12.
You might say you’re dc are fine now but if things carry on like this in September, October, November and so on enthusiasm for home learning is going to decrease massively. It’s just unfair on dc. They need a chance to learn properly in the normal way. I honestly see no other satisfactory solution.

What on Earth is the point of a petition asking for answers to questions that simply don’t exist yet. Having read it, I’m baffled. Does the original petition starter honestly believe that no thought is going to be given to students who were due to take exams next year and that they're just going to be abandoned without consideration?

Has it not occurred to people that the answers will be given, but they aren’t top priority considering that there are students who should have been taking A levels and GCSEs right now who still need to be graded this Summer? It can’t be an easy process for the DofE and teachers to work out how to fairly grade those students in a whole new system, how about we let them deal with this years exam cohorts before they do next years?

My daughter is due to start reception in September. She is ready to go, the school is planning for her and I’d be mightily pissed off having to pay for an extra year of nursery if it was suddenly decided she couldn’t go.

There is no way my yr6 would want to repeat a year. He's one of the oldest and is so ready for senior school - and educationally, he's spent the past year pretty much revising for the SATs with very little new content. There are pinch points along the education system that will make repeating a year more impossible than social distancing/part-time schooling measures. It might well work developmentally for younger children but not for the older ones.

@GrimmsFairytales. As a teacher when do you realistically think our dc will be back in school being taught by teachers full time?

Schools will be back well before March 2021, that's a ridiculous suggestion. We will have to abandon the 2m distance thing soon because society simply cannot function on that basis. The move will be led by those who are least concerned about catching the virus, with the more risk averse gradually following.

They should do one last term and make the year above 6 weeks shorter. Then everyone can get back for six weeks and get prepped to move up a year and say goodbye to old times.

As a teacher when do you realistically think our dc will be back in school being taught by teachers full time?

It's possible to say. It depends on so many factors. As I say what works for one school won't necessarily work for another.

As a teacher when do you realistically think our dc will be back in school being taught by teachers full time?

As soon as we are told by the Government to do so.

The second (quite apart from being forced on the child rather than a choice by its parents) puts your child in exactly the same position as their classmates. None of them will have studied new learning and left classmates behind.

Except Saraclara that pupils are not in the same position now. There are huge variations in access to learning materials, devices, parent availability/ability/inclination, home environment, remote teaching methods etc.

impossible

Not possible, obviously.

My daughter's school had been gradually increasing numbers based on need and inviting more and more families in. I get the impression they were hoping to continue doing that or it would be more SEN/PP/wider group of vulnerable kids that would go back first.

@spanieleyes that’s not the case though is it.

As a teacher when do you realistically think our dc will be back in school being taught by teachers full time?
Definitely on the wind up now.

As a teacher it is not my decicion when full time, normal provision will resume and speculating would be irresponsible.

Yes of course it is. Some teachers will decide that the risks are not worth taking and will resign, some will be shielding, some will decide to retire early and some will decide to follow union advice and possibly strike ( although getting teachers to strike is hard work!)
But the majority will make the most of a bad job, do the best they can ( probably with some muttering and grumbling because they are human after all) and turn up to do the job they love.

@LolaSmiles why are you so adamant I’m trying to wind you up. I want my dc to have the least disruption possible. I’m sick of all these arguments with teachers about who’s working hard, online classes blah blah. It’s boring and pointless. I just think restarting school in March and repeating a year will stop all that crap and cause the least problems for dc. We could all stop this and relax about it.

I just think restarting school in March and repeating a year will stop all that crap and cause the least problems for dc. We could all stop this and relax about it.

No, YOU could relax about it. That is far from the solution for the rest of us. I completely disagree with you.

So everyone from here on in is a year behind? You are being ridiculous OP.

The only thing “pointless and boring” here is your insistence that schools won’t reopen until March, despite zero evidence. This is total speculation and scaremongering, none of us will know what is happening until the government makes a decision!

Some teachers will decide that the risks are not worth taking and will resign, some will be shielding, some will decide to retire early and some will decide to follow union advice and possibly strike ( although getting teachers to strike is hard work!)
But the majority will make the most of a bad job, do the best they can ( probably with some muttering and grumbling because they are human after all) and turn up to do the job they love.
You're right.

I know I'm not alone in contemplating whether I want to return after maternity leave in the current climate.
There's a number of excellent nurseries in my area who aren't sure if they will have a viable business after the government has shafted them regarding funding. Part of me thinks a short career break wouldn't be the end of the world.
I love teaching and miss the students greatly, but not enough to unsettle my own DC whilst I end up being lambasted for not doing exactly what Joe Public wants for their children.

I don't see how this can work.

I work in a nursery, this year we have around 40 children due to start school in September. When they leave, children from other rooms move 'up' to the next room in turn. If these reception age children have to stay in nursery for another year that means all those younger than them will stay in their current rooms. The knock on effect would mean that mothers returning to work after maternity leave have no childcare for their baby. Will the government extend paid maternity leave by a year to allow for this?!

bigbananafeet12 I also want my DC to have the least disruption and the fairest opportunity in gaining results for the GCSE that they will need to disclose to employers for years to come - ' What was your GCSE maths and English results?' assuming they aren't doing them for A levels, this is the last chance to gain a good result (unless they resist exams)
That is why I signed this petition when it came across my facebook the other day. I feel it needs to be tabled on the agenda for proper and full discussion so that the current year 10's and 12's are not forgotten and so that they know what their GCSE will look like and when it will be. Its the only way to get an answer.

I suggest signing and sharing to get the signatures up to the needed 100,000 to have the subject tabled for government

A levels GCSEs & B-tecs for year 2021 need to be rethought to become fair in this environment

Hopefully, it make a difference and voices on this subject will be heard at the highest level.

I just think restarting school in March and repeating a year will stop all that crap and cause the least problems for dc. We could all stop this and relax about it.

It would cause the least problems for your dc, but it would create problems for others. Not every child in y10 would be happy about having to repeat a year, and that’s before you even think about the problems it would cause to other year groups.

This is a system that has to work for all children age 4-18 somehow. In a situation like the one we have now, no solution is going to be perfect for 14 different year groups, but the answer isn’t to hold back everyone for the sake of the minority of exam year students who think they’d rather retake a year.

I don't see how this can work.

It can't. Several posters have explained this to the OP, given detailed reasons and well thought arguments for why it can't work.

OP however has chosen to ignore these posts.

Instead it might be better if those who want their children to repeat the year keep them down a year

I don’t think we are able to choose that option. I would have done that for ds2 in reception if so. Schools don’t allow you to decide that. They have full classes of 30 coming up so no space for people to stay behind.

Your first scenario puts your child at a disadvantage, because his/her classmates will have covered work that s/he will miss.

The second (quite apart from being forced on the child rather than a choice by its parents) puts your child in exactly the same position as their classmates. None of them will have studied new learning and left classmates behind.

That doesn’t seem to be the case at dc school. They are being set a full days work in exactly the same way they would have learned if at school. New topics. New maths concepts. New phonics and English etc.

I think it’s not going to be the case that they are all behind to the same extent. There will be huge divides between those who had 1-1 tuition at home who were already quite able and those who were behind to start with and have not had any home schooling.

Some will have had parents working and lots of siblings to share little or no resources with and others will be only children with a Sahp.

I feel so sorry for teachers who already have to spread themselves over 30 children with varying abilities. This is going to make it like teaching 2 or 3 different year groups in the same class for some I expect. I imagine teachers are desperate to get back to it as it’s only going to be harder the longer they leave it and the further the kids separate.

Ds1 will now probably go to yr 3 unable to read and ds2 will go into yr 2 unable to read and count. :(

@LolaSmiles so you are thinking of the least settling way forward for your dc exactly like me. Why am I such a terrible person for that?