To think my Year 10 is being let down?

[boredorboard]

My Yr 10 attends a leafy, sought after, Ofsted Outstanding state school. They have made the decision NOT to have any Yr 10s in school this term. My DD is sitting her GCSEs next year and the school apparently can see no benefit of face to face contact of any sort. Remote learning is just as good apparently. How can this be allowed to happen? Other schools locally are managing it but it seems to me that our Head just can't be bothered to make it work. And no-one - the LA, the DFE or Ofsted - have the power to make her. It's a massive school, currently empty bar about 10 keyworker children.

If she’s doing her GCSEs next year it’s a great time for her to learn independent study. It will benefit her for GCSEs, A-Levels but mostly university.

Learning to think and study for herself will give her an advantage and extra skills. If she’s struggling, help her to learn the skill.

YANBU

While the tutorial time that most schools seem to be doung is no subsitute for a proper timetable of real life lessons, it is still face to (distant) face contact. It is external stimulation after 12 weeks without.

The current y10s are in a harder position than the y11s who at least had finished their couse content or been very, very close to it.
(Although I don't envy y11 and y13s having disrupted starts to their next stage of courses either)

My year 10 dc’s school have done exactly the same. The pupils won’t be back until at least September if then. They are hoping to introduce some online lessons but not sure when that will be! I don’t know how it is fair that some schools are opening (albeit part-time) and others can just so no. My dc is desperate to get back to school, not just for their education but also their mental health.

They can have 25% of a year group in at any one time. With yr 10 saying 2 forms out of 8 won't be much help as the form group will all be doing different options, be in different sets for science, maths, english etc.

This means they are either in school doing online work set for home, or teachers are teaching bits of classes but also having to supply work to students still learning online. So doing double the work and repeating the lesson taught in school multiple times.

Some schools have decided the input required will not make a massive difference to the learning.

One of my local schools are only having students in to sit exams!

If she’s doing her GCSEs next year it’s a great time for her to learn independent study. It will benefit her for GCSEs, A-Levels but mostly university

Nonsense. Year 10 are 14 and 15 year olds - too young for such a sustained period of independent learning.

OP- YANBU. Does the Head have the support of the Governors in this decision?

My dd is in year 10, and will be going into school one day a week from next week. I think it will be good for her mental health to get out and see people, but I don't anticipate any educational benefit whatsoever. She will not be in her normal classes or with her normal teachers, and the teachers who she does have won't be able to move around the class looking at work etc. Tbh, I think she is likely to get much better quality input and feedback via Google classroom on the days when she isn't in school.

Year 10 are 14 and 15 year olds - too young for such a sustained period of independent learning.

Actually, many will be more than capable of working independently at this age. For those who aren't, it would be a valuable skill to learn, but I do appreciate that many will be unable to do so without support from parents.

@boredorboard

My Yr 10 attends a leafy, sought after, Ofsted Outstanding state school. They have made the decision NOT to have any Yr 10s in school this term. My DD is sitting her GCSEs next year and the school apparently can see no benefit of face to face contact of any sort. Remote learning is just as good apparently. How can this be allowed to happen? Other schools locally are managing it but it seems to me that our Head just can't be bothered to make it work. And no-one - the LA, the DFE or Ofsted - have the power to make her. It's a massive school, currently empty bar about 10 keyworker children.

How do you think Mumsnet is going to answer this question for you?

You need to phone the school and talk to them instead of starting yet another boring thread which will descend into teacher bashing for the billionth time.

I agree, my Y10 is having one 3 hr session and the possibility of another one before school closes for the holidays. It’s nowhere near enough. He’s lost all motivation and the will to complete work, despite regular interaction throughout the day from me. All he’s had is work being set online and marked automatically. No feedback on wrong or unanswered questions. It’s shit and I’m angry.

My DD will be able to go in for a whole week and maybe another couple of days.
The school was all set for alternate weeks but then the Government said no more than 25% in at a time so they had to scale back. It is a shame as the site is such that they could have accommodated more had they been allowed.
She won't have her 'proper' teachers probably, but I don't really care as just the going in to school will be helpful for her if she can cope.

Mine is going back tomorrow, 2 hours a week, once a week. He's with non of his mates (might not be a bad thing!) and I can't seem him getting much educational gain from it tbf but he wants to go and I'm happy for him to go

My school is managing to offer all year 10s 4 hours with each subject teacher. But it's taken a lot of juggling and we are having 10 pupils maximum in a class.

My year 10 isn't back either, nor my year 12. The county council have advised against.
The year 12 is faring ok but my youngest is bored to the back teeth of 'revision', note making, worksheets and last week 'tidy your file this week'. No verbal contact at all, yet as a nurse I've rung tens of people on our 'shielding' list between seeing patients as normal. Just to support and make contact.
Not good enough.

My year 10 is struggling to cope with home learning at best due to additional needs. She is finding it impossible as her routine has obviously been completely thrown off and school have changed her timetable completely, I assume to try and make things easier for the staff that are in but it means the work she expects to do on certain days has now not been set, which throws her completely off. We have no idea when they are expected back in, in any capacity. DH and I are doing our best but we aren’t teachers and are both juggling our own work on top of all this.

I know school are doing their best and I am not bashing the teachers, but I am very, very concerned for her and her classmates’ futures. I can’t see an end to this.

It's a nightmare and I've lost a lot of sleep over it. DD is doing her very best but for some subjects they are just going over old ground (maths) and even when they are learning new topics (science) it's just a powerpoint and youtube videos. Art is doing nothing except telling them to keep creating pieces (all well and good but their portfolio is a project and needs guidance). I've ended up paying for maths and science tutors and the teacher from the art class she goes to outside of school has very kindly spent time on zoom helping her organise what needs to be done with her portfolio.

The next 2 weeks are revision for the end of year exams. They will have 3 hours a week in school from next Monday doing maths, english, science and RE for 45 mins each. Nothing for their options subjects.

YADNBU. I know they may not gain that much educationally from these sessions, but I think it will be just what my year 10 needs after 12 weeks to remotivate him. He's getting a day a week starting 23rd in groups of 8 and he's really looking forward to the change of scene and chance to see his peers.

many will be more than capable of working independently at this age

Yes, for SOME of their work. Not all of it, and particularly not at GCSE when you are doing a wide spread of subjects still.

They can have 25% of a year group in at any one time why is this the case when they don't have any other year groups in? If they have no other year groups they should be able to have all the Y10s in (in an 11-16 school) and have space to spare.

To answer some of the questions raised...

Every education related post is not teacher bashing. If I was teacher bashing I would be saying this home learning is such a lark why do I bother sending my DC into school.

What I am saying is that my DC teachers are excellent and I value their skills and experience to teach GCSEs. Ergo I would like some more of that in a face to face format please.

I know one governor who also disagrees with the Head. She has been told to butt out as it is an operational decision not a strategic decision.

I have emailed the head directly with my views. She replied to acknowledge my views and will bear them in mind.

The school is a grammar school so the range of ability is narrower than a comprehensive. There are no ability sets. All pupils take 2 x English, maths, and 3 x Science, 1 x language as compulsory plus 4 x options. Therefore even if there could be face to face learning in the compulsory subjects this would be something.

I think the ability of learning to self study is one of the positives out of this whole situation. However I doubt it is such a positive that all future cohorts will be doing this for a fifth of their course from now on!

I do think Yr 10 and 12 have to be the absolute priority in education right now. Other years are also suffering but they do have the time to catch up. The countdown is really on for the 2021 exams....

I have no news yet. Our school are prioritising those dc who haven't done any home learning.

YANBU OP. The wilful neglect of children's education is shameful.

@cologne4711 They can have 25% of a year group in at any one time why is this the case when they don't have any other year groups in? If they have no other year groups they should be able to have all the Y10s in (in an 11-16 school) and have space to spare.

The government said 25% max. No idea why. It might have been to keep the more vocal teachers' union quiet perhaps?

I think this should be up to each school to decide based on layout of the school etc.

Presumably they are not opening for year 10 because they looked at what curriculum they'd be able to offer based on working within the government's safety precautions and realised that it wasn't actually going to amount to anything useful.

My dc's school are offering a bit of maths, English and science (not in their normal sets, probably not with their normal teachers). All other subjects will still be done entirely through distance learning. Most parents (including me) will not be sending their year 10 dc in, because there's not really much point.

And those dc who do go in will probably soon be changing their minds once they realise what it's like sitting at individual desks 2m apart with a teacher they don't know, in a group which isn't at the same stage they were at.

This isn't the school's fault.

I’m a DHT in an Ofsted RI, hugely deprived, not sought after school.

We are having Y10s (and 12s) in next week for orientation, a MH workshop and general face-to-face “how are you” type meetings with pastoral/senior staff.

After that, the Y10s will all get approx 7 hrs face-to-face teaching (in total) in Eng, Ma and Sci. Given the DfE guidance this is absolutely all we can manage. They also get approx 12 hours of ‘live’ teaching via teams a week, although not all have access to the tech they need for this.

I cannot describe how many hours and hours and hours of planning and risk assessments and meetings it has taken to reach this point. I took 2 days off over half term, but apart from that I have worked every single day since 20th March.

And we have five weeks left of term and the government have given us absolutely NO IDEA what school will look like in September.

I think it isn't the actual learning which is critical at this point.
It is the benefits of the:

• human contact,
• not having a 6 months gap in being in school,
• mental health boost,
• motivation boost

As of tomorrow we have interviews with our year 10s and parents, I'm doing 4 and luckily know all 4 students. Then as of next week they are in bubbles of 10 for two hours of English, maths, science and an option subject over the next 4 weeks before summer. It's the best we can do now.