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.

@JassyRadlett but your dc will be part time in September if at all so you’ll be financially ruined anyway.

@RoseDog Exams don't have to be May, they could push them back as far as they can, obviously not as many weeks as they are now missing school but if they are doing work now and the exams get pushed a month or six weeks into June/July surely they can catch up?

Unfortunately there is a massive probably with universities and the coming academic year. The suggestion is online learning until at least January, the student is still expected to pay full fees but basically working like an open university student; which costs much less. Plus accommodation will still be expected to be paid if it isn’t uni owned. That’s a massive amount of debt your child is taking on and they are definitely not getting the same quality of learning that they would going to lectures etc. Plus they will be missing out on the experience which is important to the student. How are international students going to attend, they bring in a massive amount of money to Uni’s. Uni’s are another issue about to erupt.

This would be horrendous for Year 11s and 13s repeating when they finished school weeks before their exams started. Are you seriously expecting them to go backwards? Many would attain far less. Then there’s the yr6s. Great way to demotivate kids.

@1forsorrow that’s already been suggested but shot down by the teachers. Can’t remember why.

but your dc will be part time in September if at all so you’ll be financially ruined anyway.

Aren’t you sweet.

I have one school aged and one at nursery. We’re getting by (just) with both out. If school and nursery are part time or absent in September we will continue to get by, and employers will continue to do what they’re doing now.

That is an entirely different proposition to deferring a full school year and the logistical impacts mentioned above. What’s your plan for nurseries? Do they keep the current cohort of 4yos and close their doors to new starters? In that case many will fold. And many women will be even more screwed than currently.

@NailsNeedDoing There might be a lot of teachers that aren’t happy about going back, but there are also plenty that are very keen to go back. The only difference is that the former group shout loudly about what they want and the latter just keep quiet and get on with it. I think you are missing the main group, the ones who are keen to go back but want the appropriate measures in place to keep them and their students safe.

Stop being ridiculous. The kids will go back to school. The virus won’t go until there’s a vaccine. We have to live with the virus, yes there’s a risk but fact is until there’s a vaccine most of us will get it anyway. If kids don’t go back until next March my family will be homeless and starving. My kids will be going school.

@1forsorrow exactly which is why we need to repeat the year. That group might be satisfied by March.

Why would you go to university online when you can have a gap year

And do what with your gap year? There is no hospitality industry, so there are no jobs in the sector that students would normally work in. There is no foreign travel, so no chance of anyone on a gap year doing that.

Are you seriously suggesting they spend a gap year sitting at home doing nothing?

(I have a Y13 child, so have a vested interest in this. I also think that Year 13s are royally stuffed whichever way you look at it. Yet another reason I hate the lockdown).

I keep thinking I really should stop looking at Mumsnet, because I really hope it isn't representative of most people's thinking

This, too.

God, I really hope there's no suggestion of repeating the year. My year 6 DD would be utterly gutted to have to wait another year to go to the high school that she worked her butt off to get a place at. She can't wait to go, despite really missing being with her friends at the moment. Her motivation would fall through the floor.

You still haven't said who will fund it OP, from all angles?

@Widowodiw there’s nothing I’d like more than my dc back at school cracking on. Have you no been watching the news or read anything on here? Teachers are not prepared to go back into school anytime soon (or not soon). It’s no me who wants it this way. I’m just trying to think of the best way to ensure a generation of dc are not majorly disadvantaged.

When we go back, it will have been 10 weeks. Of that, 2 weeks were Easter holidays and 1 week will be Whitsun week. 2 days were bank holidays. So that is 33 days that they will have not been in.
We have sent home a lot of work and answer all parents' emails. If your school has not done that, you need to take it up with them individually.
They will not be repeating a year.
Yes, it has been hard, yes, they have had a different year to anyone else ever. They are all in the same boat though and therefore will pick back up atvthe same place.
Private schools have probably done more. That is a completely different ball game.
My DIL is planning 3 schemes of work, coveringbkeyworker childrennin a rota, writing reports, answering emails, planning work for the 170 pupils she teaches and as a DT teacher, that has to reflect they are doing it at home without the resources she has in school, commenting on all work emailed to her, chasing students who aren't engaging, dealing with safeguarding vulnerable children and doing all that with a 16 month old at home more or less on her own because my son has been seconded to a Covid team.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat completely agree. Nhs staff just buckled down and got on with it. Teachers that are shouting are not even offering an alternative- ie how to improve home schooling with the teachers support. It’s not homeschooling at the moment and how we can call it this is ridiculous. No monitoring of quantity of work being done or quality, my kids work doesn’t even get looked at.

Teachers are not prepared to go back into school anytime soon (or not soon).

For the millionth time. Teachers are still in school.

@bigbananafeet12 - so reception will be removed forever? Otherwise there’ll be two years starting in September 2021, still without sufficient teachers (just like there aren’t enough now without adding to the problem)

GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

It won’t happen. It’s been explained dozens of times. What happens to all the new starters?“

This is the dilemma isn’t it.
You might equally ask, what happens to the current year 10s and 12s who are missing out on huge chunks of their GCSE/A level courses?
At A level in particular, it’s not simply the teaching, it’s the group discussion that is so important to many of the broader subjects.
Most will be ok with online learning, though I still imagine next year’s standards will be down. There are many though who because of family circumstances or lack of access are potentially having their life chances severely impacted.

I hope special consideration is given to these groups next year, as well as those whose exams have been cancelled this year.

Teachers are not prepared to go back into school anytime soon (or not soon).

This is confusing. Teachers are already in schools, working with children who's parents are in the highest risk categories for catching this. They are working with vulnerable children who's parents are mixing still with others because they don't know any better. They are already working, already taking huge risks to their own health to do their jobs. Where are all these 'not prepared to go back' teachers? Ours have never stopped 🤷🏻‍♀️

Maybe signing this petition to get some answers would help with this debate for school age children? I am especially interested in year 10 at present - next years exams sitting students.
Petition for clarity

The damage done by a year of isolation would destroy the future of most of your children irrespective of what they've managed to learn at home. Isolation causes way more harm than simply lost academic learning, increasing the academic learning time does nothing to address the actual problems caused by lockdown.

The privileged kids will have had a different experience and come out even more advantaged relative to their peers which doesn't serve them by making them repeat a year, and doesn't serve their peers by making the comparisons even more obvious.

Even if the practicalities made it viable, it does nothing for the students.

I think all we can do is wait and see. I have a year R, year 11 and two inbetween.

Worse case scenario is that my year 11 retakes a year of A levels at college. My year R we are doing very little home ed but once she starts back I can up my game.

I do really feel for certain year groups like 6 and 10. It was and still is horrible seeing my year 11 education binned.

Could they not have then all progress but repeat the entire years curriculum? So effectively there would be two reception years and year 6 would be in year 7 but redoing the final year of primary. Adds an additional hear on of school

Nah they arent going to have all the kids repeat a year!

I actually think my DD is learning something, just not necessarily what is in the curriculum.

I just want to mention, too, that when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s there was no national curriculum. I learned whatever the teachers fancied teaching me.

This means, one year I had an AmDram fanatic for a teacher