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.

So do you mean the children who should be starting Reception in September will stay at home for a year, and all other children stay where they are in school & childcare?

What happens next year when the children who have been at home for a year, and the children who have been in nursery for a year, all need to start Reception at the same time? Or would another year of children need a year out between nursery and school?

@Hippywannabe teachers are not planning on going back to normal in September.
@CarrieBlue new reception will be deferred for a year.
@avroroad schools are shut to millions of dc. The majority seem to have 5-10 key worker dc in.

We are not sending DS1 and DD back to school (Reception) and nursery until September at the earliest.

However, other European countries where children have returned to schools are not reporting any further spikes starting. It is early days, I know, but they aren't as yet. I plan to keep an eye on that and may send them back if that continues to be the case.

The more I hear about this virus the more baffled I am about how we are in such a mess. We have an enormous death rate compared to most other countries. We also have a much higher death rate amongst cases we classify, for data purposes, as 'serious/critical'- other countries lose far fewer of those cases.

We were told that when the virus reached Africa and other areas of the world less developed, it would wreak havoc- it hasn't. Look at Worldometer or John Hopkins live data if you haven't already. Our data, however you cut it (and remember we are told there are potentially 10-20x the number of infections we know about) is dire.

Much of the data produced by the government is irritatingly unclear because different bodies (eg ONS and PHE) produce data differently.Today I read the R rates have been released and the North-East has the highest in the country at 0.8.

I suspect at the end of all of this we will all realise that the risk to the vast majority of people is very low and what we are doing is to protect the most vulnerable and prevent the NHS being overwhelmed- and even then only 2% of them would die with the virus. (according to the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England in the Downing Street Briefing 2 days ago). Any death is awful and I am not minimising that. I just think there has been an enormous fear factor thrown at us in all of this to keep us all at home when actually some targeting of specific groups and intense support for them would have worked more effectively. Alongside that some commonsense things that we didn't do and patently should have much earlier (masks on tubes and in shops and cities), enforced quarantine of anyone who came into the country starting before lock down, specific Covid hospitals, a huge focus on track and test. Now we lack certainty and clarity about it all, have awful death rates and the economy is shot to shit.

I wish people would stop saying 'teachers will' 'teachers won't'. Guess what, we're not all the same. I'll be in like a shot. Bloody hate distance teaching, especially with my own kids underfoot wanting my input constantly. Many of my colleagues feel the same. Others are more nervous either due to general anxiety or because of specific vulnerabilities. All I do know is that the union voice isn't representative of many teachers I know, ironically. My school is private, no more than 20 in the biggest classes. Year groups of 75 tops. We could manage much more easily than schools with 3 times the pupils. I don't think there will be a uniform response from all schools and that will create the same issue we've seen on here regarding uneven provision of distance learning but keeping everyone back a year is not the answer. As a pp pointed out, they've actually only missed 30 odd days, out of 13 years of schooling.

@CaryStoppins this would change schools starting age, similar to systems in other countries.

@LuluJakey1 great post 👍

schools are shut to millions of dc.

Indeed. But my question was about teachers. You are saying teachers don't want to go back. Teachers are still working.

The majority seem to have 5-10 key worker dc in.

Not the case here, we have a lot more kids in school. That's not really the point though. My point was regarding you saying teachers don't want to go back, as if they are sat at home right now.

As they keep saying, these are unprecedented times. So there should be changes made to the curriculum to make allowances. There should also be changes made to exams.
There is no need to make kids resit school years or defer entries having massive effects on everyone.

There are lots of reasons why allowances need to be made as the children return to education.

1. Each child will have done a different amount of home schooling
2. Each child will have been mentally effected by the lockdown in different ways.
3. The return to school won't be a normal school day, thus still having different effects on different children.
4. Teachers and children may not be the same people they were before lockdown. You don't know how many bereavements each person has suffered.

All of these things need to be taken into consideration. It's not the kids faults this has happened so why on earth should they have to retake a year. My son absolutely hates his teacher (year 4 age 9). We were counting down the weeks until the end of the school year. If I had to tell him he was going to spend another year with the same teacher he would refuse to go back.

new reception will be deferred for a year.
this would change schools starting age

You can make comments like this all you like, but it's not going to happen. Where are all the children going to go for the extra year?

@CaryStoppins this would change schools starting age, similar to systems in other countries.

Yes, OP, but you keep dodging the answer on what your plan is for nurseries.

Fine to adjust a system with plenty of notice for new classrooms to be built, premises to be found, and for a mostly private market to respond.

How do you propose to do it with no notice? Which children and parents (and let’s be honest, it’s mostly women) are you proposing to throw under a bus for a full year?

New reception won’t start and all the others will stay where they were. Makes complete sense to me
What are you proposing all of those new reception children do for a year? and then the year below them would be delayed for a year and so on and so on. This make no sense at all.

It won’t happen. however, the difference between private school and state school kids is going to get about a year bigger.

What are you proposing all of those new reception children do for a year? and then the year below them would be delayed for a year and so on and so on. This make no sense at all.

Perhaps OP is asking all women currently pregnant to cross their legs for 12 months so that the system can smooth itself out.

It won't happen

Since private nurseries were closing all over the place and parents struggle to afford fees anyway, I don’t think the sector will be able to keep an extra year group this year or any other. Unless we expect parents not to work for longer, with (heaven forbid) the knock-on effect on the economy

Universities are planning on doing online learning for the first term too so loads will defer

I think hardly anyone will defer. They'll want to start their degrees rather than waste a year. The online tutoring will only be for a couple of months hopefully- that's if they aren't allowed to start uni at the usual time.

Loads of year 13s will defer. Why would you go to university online when you can have a gap year and go when things are back to normal?

@bigbananafeet12 Most young people don't have 'gap years'. Online tutoring will actually be easier as they won't have to physically attend lectures.

Oh, and DS has just done a year towards his Highers. Results to be set by SQA. What would be the point in him sitting that year again? Why an absolute waste of his time and my money.

@avroroad Some people will do it if their results turn out a lot worse than they think they might've been under usual conditions. I heard that some schools are doing exams in October or something for those not happy with their results.

Your DS might do OK with this manner of assessment, but others find their marks are higher for exams than coursework, so they won't get the grade they would've got in the usual run of things. If their grade is less than they hoped to a considerable extent, or course it's worth them resitting. But as with the circumstances above it might depend on family finances etc.

So what would you do with the current y6 who covered pretty much all of the y6 curriculum to give them time to revise it before Sats and who are ready to move up to secondary?

Surely you can see that the disadvantage to them, combined with the disadvantage to reception starters and their families, and the disadvantage to Y11 and 13, would outweigh any benefit to the few children in other year groups that are struggling?

I don’t understand how you think screwing the entire education system is worth it for the sake of 30 odd days missed in school. Especially when those missed days have been home learning and not holidays.

@avoroad I should have said teachers are not prepared to go back to school in any capacity apart from to look after dc of key workers.

It's unrealistic. Yes, the curriculum may need to reviewed in the next few years to allow some kids to catch up. I strongly believe that the attainment gap between the top pupils and bottom pupils in one class will be even greater now- but it can be massive anyway. School might be part time for a bit .. but they will probably learn a bit quicker in classes of 15 than 30.

The starting age in other countries is irrelevant... People always seem to ignore that children in Scandinavia etc are in Preschool before school, which is remarkably similar to Reception class.. then go straight to desk learning when they start school at 6.

@NailsNeedDoing if things were going back to normal in September I wouldn’t be suggesting this. Teachers are saying pupils will be part time then at best and still not all year groups.

I should have said teachers are not prepared to go back to school in any capacity apart from to look after dc of key workers.
What are you basing this on? Are you the spokesperson for the NEU? I have a few friends and family members who are teachers and none of them have said they are not prepared to go back. I get the impression most people want to get back to normal as soon as possible.

I don’t think that they will defer a whole year as it’s not logistically possible. There will be allowances made for the work they have missed and will also change the GCSE results as grades will reflect the missed time. For primary children I don’t think it will be noticeable by the time they sit finals.

What they could do is move the summer holidays, bring them forward by a month, and leave it that way forever. That would allow more time to adjust to our new way of life and get the R number down.
So ongoing the summer holiday would start middle/end June when the weather is invariably better and autumn term to start in August.

The could also delay university for a year to give a break for the influx of graduates which will allow businesses time to settle and not add to the unemployed. During that year, from year 12, they would be encouraged to work, volunteer, etc which would give them a chance to experience life and save some money ready for uni which would hopefully mean that they settle into uni better. This could be an ongoing situation..

This isn’t going to happen.

I am in general supportive of a later school starting age but if a change were to be implemented it would need careful planning and we would need a preschool system in place similar to that in Sweden with well trained teachers working there. We don’t have that set up.

I suspect the government will move gradually to a point where anyone who wants to continue isolating at home will need a doctor's note to do so, or will have to choose unpaid leave.

The future is going to be interesting. most private schools have around 15-20 kids per class, and many more rooms than absolutely necessary. ours can go back to all kids in every day easily while having 10-15 kids per room, with a teacher AND a TA.
state schools will have to part time school, which is not great