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.

If a cohort leaves having missed the module on King John or Volcanoes or Festivals the works will not fall down. A great deal of the maths and science that is taught has no practical use in the real world, its for passing exams. If syllabi are amended somewhat to reflect the disruption, this is not an insurmountable problem

That's all very well but what if it's knowledge that is needed/assumed for a university or college course that the year 13s are moving on to?

Also, if the current Year 10s have missed it then how will they cope with GCSEs because schools don't study the same modules at the same time do they? My year 10 has studied stuff that his cousins in the secondary school over the county border haven't yet done.

I think with unis the funding model isn’t working anyway and that whole sector is ripe for a radical rethink

To some extent I agree. Although, blanket refunds on fees would mean the sector wouldn't exist for the new academic year. Nor are they justified in many cases as teaching etc is still taking place for many students.

People will have to take responsibility and do catch up work at home after school if needed.

But if they didn’t do the work in the first place what’s the chance they will be doing catch up work after school? This gulf is going to make teaching even harder.

UK system does not require pupils to pass a year except GCSE.
So they stick to year group. Teachers adapt. Maybe classes divide differently. No need to make year six do year six again. Send them to year 7 secondary.

If many people defer for Sept 2020 intake they will find it much harder to get places in sept 2021 as they will be competing with current year 12s and will not get priority of spaces, likewise if too many students including international student defer then it's likely many universities will close down, resulting in even less places for the defered year and current year 12s.

Absolutely correct. Several universities were already on the brink of bankruptcy. I think it's very likely some will close or - more likely - merge before the start of the 2021-22 academic year. If large numbers of students defer this will happen quickly and on a much larger scale.

Away from education, I'm not sure whether people are aware of how many charities are likely to close as a result of having been unable to raise any funds for several months, including hospices, children's homes, etc.

But if they didn’t do the work in the first place what’s the chance they will be doing catch up work after school? This gulf is going to make teaching even harder.

then campaign for smaller classes, and extra groups to be created to help those who are behind.

I can't see this happening anytime soon, the economy and funding for education will be in a bad shape.

I still disagree that the solution is to dumb it down and penalise everybody. Some children are more academic than others and will have better results. They are working extremely hard right now, why should they suffer?

I'm not sure whether people are aware of how many charities are likely to close as a result of having been unable to raise any funds for several months, including hospices, children's homes, etc.

People who were looking down at PTA will also be in with a nasty shock in the next few years when they will realise how much funding has been lost and how much impact it will have on the schools..

I moved from Australia to England due to the difference in school years I missed a year of school to keep up with the school system in the uk, not sure why anyone would need to repeat the year really. Children have a natural aptitude to learn. Obviously this is just my personal experience but I skipped a year and have dyslexia and received good enough gcse results. (Would have done better if my home life wasn’t a mess/being bullied and undiagnosed dyslexia

Embracelife
A lot of schools I know, including my own, are adjusting the curriculum for next year to reflect the missed time.

GCSE is more difficult but we'll just have to manage and do what we can.

@formerbabe

*Two conflicting messages surely...

Take a weeks holiday in term time..unacceptable
Miss over a third of the academic year..no probs, they'll catch up*

You're being deliberately obtuse. Little Johnny goes to Tenerife for 2 weeks in termtime. The rest of the class learn how to do quadratic equations. Little Johnny doesn't. Little Johnny is now at a long-term disadvantage unless some kind teacher makes time to catch Little Johnny up again. Whole class is off school - nobody learns quadratic equations. Whole class learns how to do them when they go back. Are you honestly saying you don't understand the difference?

I still disagree that the solution is to dumb it down and penalize everybody
I agree with this. Some (most?) children are working daily at home, what will they do if you force them to repeat the year? Sit and listen to things they already know? Possibly disturb the class in the process.

It is not a holiday, and hopefully most parents realize that.

Whole class learns how to do them when they go back. Are you honestly saying you don't understand the difference?

Maybe that type of thinking was taught when the PP was in Tenerife.

That's all very well but what if it's knowledge that is needed/assumed for a university or college course that the year 13s are moving on to?

As someone who teaches first-year undergraduates, I have to say I don't assume any subject knowledge at all. This is why I'm slowly moving my course's entry requirements away from specifying A-levels in particular subjects (and I'm a long way behind my counterparts in some other universities on this). I've even given up on assuming an ability to use a textbook. Many students deliberately forget stuff as soon as exams are out of the way and, to be honest, GCSEs and A-levels as they exist at present actively encourage this approach. In any case, a lot of A-level content is questionable and much of it is frankly wrong.

Not a chance! What about the year 6s who have had enough of primary school now and (in a normal year) are just treading water until they leave? What about the 4 year olds who have had enough of nursery by now and are ready for the next step? Some of these children are nearly 5! What about the current year 12s who will all be adults and still stuck in school?

By holding children back, you’d create more disruption than you’d solve.

nobody learns quadratic equations. Whole class learns how to do them when they go back.

Biscuitsneeded - except there are huge variations between and within schools. Some are teaching via video lessons or even just sending powerpoints with new concepts, links to online video explanations etc.

Some kids, who have the support, resources, etc etc, WILL be learning stuff, and others aren't. And even where there's no new concepts being taught, those with the support and resources are going to have their existing learning reinforced and be much more capable in the concepts that were taught before the schools closed.

I’d just like to point out in all my comments and questions I am not criticising or expecting uni’s to have all the answers, it’s the government who should be addressing our issues. My son‘s uni have been fantastic in his first year, I couldn’t stress that enough but the government need to look at all sectors that are affected by Coronavirus not just pick and choose. How international students will attend this year is going to be difficult and they do bring in quite a lot of money to uni’s.

It is not a holiday, and hopefully most parents realize that

Oh we do...but many of us are working full time as well as trying facilitate home learning. Laziness isn't the only reason why home learning might not be getting done.

Ultimately, it might be a wake-up call that parents have a HUGE role in the education of their children, and trying to deny any responsibility and involvement by claiming "schools can do it" is wrong.

It never was up to the school to do everything. We might stop seeing so many threads asking schools to become in charge of basic life skills that should be taught at school.

Parents are having to step up right now. That's too bad. Take responsibility and do your job as a parent. You might not be able to teach your kid the level required in A level subject, but you are the one who can encourage them to study and find the right resources.

The younger they are, the easier it is.

Don't penalise the whole country because you are in favour of a lazy solution, it's not going to work your way.

but many of us are working full time as well as trying facilitate home learning. Laziness isn't the only reason why home learning might not be getting done.

true, but it's very rare for working parents to BOTH work 14 hours a day 7 days a week. You might have to step away from a regular school day to make it work.

It won’t work. It would either cause a double intake of reception starters in 2022; or forever onwards we change the year of reception to term after 5.

Either way; nurseries can’t magically find double the amount of space for preschoolers. My mum is a nursery teacher and always says how hard the 4 year olds are in summer term; they are boisterous and have outgrown the nursery facilities by then.

@papiermaches some are ready, my daughter turns 4 in August and cannot wait to start school, she loves learning, she would be bored doing another year at nursery. That is for parents to decide based on their child

What lots of posters need to grasp is there isn't really some set-in-stone mega-curriculum that dictates that every kid must study the Egyptians in May of Year 3, or do waves in physics in March of Year 10. Exam boards decide on a set of topics and skills for students to be taught, and when they sit the exam they are assessed on how well they have retained that knowledge and acquired those skills. It could be argued that in many subjects the factual knowledge that is taught is the content to give the course its shape, but what that content is might be quite arbitrary - especially in subjects like history or English. The skills, however, are the crucial bit - learning how to read for understanding, how to analyse, how to present an argument etc. Some children are able to acquire those skills much earlier than others - it's not the case that if you miss summer term Year 9 you 'miss out' on learning that skill; you probably just acquire it a bit later instead. The exam boards will bear in mind that these kids have had a disrupted time . Nobody knows yet how they will deal with it but suggestions include adding extra questions to allow children to skip those they don't feel equipped to answer, lowering of grade boundaries and so on. It might well be that next year's exam candidates take the exam with fractionally less knowledge overall that their predecessors. Whatever they choose to do next, I am sure any gaps will be identified and caught up. They will be judged fairly against the rest of the cohort and I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't at least an element of teacher assessment too next year too. I am a secondary teacher and have kids in year 10 and Year 8 myself, and I feel there is an awful lot of silly hysteria on here. Repeating the year would be psychologically demoralising for the kids, not to say logistically impractical for schools. They'll be back in some fashion in September, albeit possibly in normal classrooms with the usual teachers and class sizes. There will have to be some sacrifices made but it's not worth losing sleep over. In the long run our kids will move on with their lives and any gaps in their knowledge will be plugged over time as their life experience and education continues.

true, but it's very rare for working parents to BOTH work 14 hours a day 7 days a week. You might have to step away from a regular school day to make it work.
Many parents are already stepping away from school day.

What this situation is showing is how people with typically white collar jobs, lots of flexibility seem to take the view "I manage X Y Z with the kids at home so anyone who doesn't mustn't take education or parenting seriously".

Everyone's home situation differs and has its own challenges. Most people do their best.

School's a waste of time anyway. I left school with 2 Cs, a D and I had no problem getting on whatever degree I wanted. None of the opportunities I have been chuffed to be accepted for depended one iota on those grades, though. The only places that cared about GCSE grades at all were crap factory jobs.

true, but it's very rare for working parents to BOTH work 14 hours a day 7 days a week. You might have to step away from a regular school day to make it work.

I'm assuming you didn't mean to sounds quite so patronising?

Of course parents need to be flexible but again, it's not always that easy. Me and DH are generally working 7 days at the moment....it's busy time of year anyway and the current situation has increased our workload.
We are managing to do some school work by approaching our days as flexibly as we can but we also want to prioritise family time and down time where possible as we've decided happy and healthy is key.