To think kids should repeat the school year

[Everythingnotsaved]

I am starting to think that if there is any more lockdown, kids will need to repeat the last academic year or really be disadvantaged down the line?

I am pissed off enough that private schools mostly got full online teaching which already shits on social mobility but any more will really be a disaster.

Aibu?

@heartsonacake many parents had to work full time so couldn’t do ‘their jobs right’ as they were also trying to work

Do you mean that my Year 13 and Year 11 teens would both have to repeat the year again, despite having already been awarded their A levels/GCSEs?! What would they do for the year??

All the universities would go bust as they’d have thousands of places unfilled because all their new first years were back doing year 13 again, despite not needing to! Can you imagine how motivated they would be to turn up and work hard every day?!

I disagree and don't think it would be logistically possible.

If parents have done their jobs right the kids should be perfectly fine having been properly homeschooled

This is very unfair, some parents are bloody ace parents and successful in their own work - but simply not able to do this, especially given no time to prep.

I wish people could see that not everyone person is the same!

Am very anxious about it
Currently throwing money at it via private tutoring

YANBU, I didn't think there was any possibility though but now just wonder if the government might be forced to consider it if in school teaching isn't possible for the majority of the new term.

Home learning through the summer term with a lot of revision after they'd basically covered most new topics with their teachers earlier in the year was a very different prospect to now wondering if I'll need to start them off with the new year's work this Autumn.

Regarding Reception starters waiting another year, I have DCs at either end of their school years age wise plus have previously chosen to delay the start of a summer born. 5 is a better age to start from my experience.

[quote Everythingnotsaved]@heartsonacake many parents had to work full time so couldn’t do ‘their jobs right’ as they were also trying to work[/quote]
If they put the time and effort in—and they should have done, it’s their child’s education—they could homeschool around work.

But of course every other parent will have an excuse as to why they couldn’t possibly have properly homeschooled their child(ren).

It will never ever happen or work.

Mothers not being able to return from maternity leave or rejoining the workforce as no nursery/preschool places.

Colleges and universities going bust due to no intake for a year. I know of no uni that could financially take a complete year of no year 1 students. This would significantly limit the uni market forever more. You would then have a very significant number of students who may have gone to uni, not being able to go.

You would forever more be changing the starting age of school.

@heartsonacake I am sure there are many parents working full time who couldn’t practically do it. Your comments show a total lack of understanding of people’s lives to be honest

or older kids, there is way more impact especially secondary kids.

My DS has just finished Year 11. After 6 months of doing nothing, the last thing he needs is to pointlessly repeat the year.

I’m a primary teacher and whilst I can’t speak for secondary, in primary there is an awful lot of repetition and overlap to ensure knowledge and skills are embedded. So year groups curriculums build and broaden/deepen - there is obviously some new knowledge but generally it’s like a spiral of revisit, extend a bit further, revisit, extend a bit further.

There is no need to repeat a year - they will just “meet” a concept less frequently and have less time to embed it before moving on. They’ll technically miss very little in English and Maths. The main issue will be there those children who were struggling to keep up will struggle even more, but schools provide intervention and chose children will receive as much support as we are able to offer them to catch up. Your average child will be absolutely fine in terms of curriculum and coverage of it. It will be broader curriculum concepts (such as some key historical events) that they will miss completely, which is a shame in terms of a broad and balanced curriculum, but will not have a huge impact on their future prospects.

You'd be hard pushed to find a Dr who said they wouldn't be where they are today without March-July of year 9 biology.

@heartsonacake don't get me started, mine were both in school throughout as keyworker children, and have had very little education during that time. Not because I haven't fulfilled my role as parent, but because I was needed to nurse sick Covid patients.

However that said, I don't agree that they need to repeat the school year and the teachers will be able to help them catch up in September. What mine lost out in education, they gained in emotional wellbeing from socialising with other keyworker children during lockdown.

Sixth forms, colleges and universities will have to adjust their entry requirements to fill their courses, so kids who do worse than expected at GCSE/A level should find they can still move on. Maybe not the college/uni/course they wanted, but they should still have plenty of options.

Further/higher education already "flex" their entry requirements if there are too many/too few applicants for each course.

Employers will do the same, although I think there'll be very few apprentice jobs available for the next year or two, and competition may be very fierce for the few available, so entry requirements may well be higher for the few jobs available.

@Everythingnotsaved I’d like my year 11 to be able to repeat the school year, but he doesn’t get that opportunity.

@Carlislemumof4 I don't disagree that age 5 is a much better age to start school. Or later, really. Many other countries start their kids later and to no apparent ill effects. But how would that be fair on women wanting to put their kids in childcare after maternity leave? It wouldn't.

@heartsonacake this is an unfair comment. There will be some people who didn't care but there will be many who genuinely, really and truly struggled during lockdown and did their best.

It wouldn't work I'm afraid.

Would all year groups be held back?

If so, where do the new reception starters go? Or do you envisage them stating home an extra year - thereby moving the school starting age up a year permanently. If so, who will fund the additional nursery and childminding fees needed to enable their parents to work?
And where will the children now needing to start nursery and childminders (either born this year or due to start having been at home beforehand) now go?

If they are also to start school to avoid a permanent change to the school starting age - where will they go? Schools don't generally have a who year group's worth of spare classrooms and teachers.

And at the other end of schooling - what about the missed year groups for colleges and universities? Who will fund them to enable them to remain viable with no income from students for a whole year?

There is no perfect solution to this unfortunately. I imagine the younger children will not be overly disadvantaged int he long run. The worst affected will be the children due to sit GCSEs and A levels (or equivalents) next summer, as well as those in year 11 and 13 this year who haven't been able to work towards their grade and are reliant on work done in class and mocks (which many are notorious for doing less well in, esp when they are sat the first week back after Christmas

This would be so.expensibe for.parents of pre schoolers. From now on they would have to pay for childcare for an extra year.
That's if they could even find spaces. With nurseries closing and an whole cohort of 5 year olds to care for, where would there be room for the younger children?

And what about year 11 and 13? Would they have to re do.thier years? If not, the schools would lose massive amounts of funding if those years were empty

Sorry for the odd typo - 3 year old distracting me! But no I absolutely don’t think we should be repeating years. Teachers have carefully planned recovery curriculums to ensure key concepts are at the core of the curriculum when we return. We will be able to adapt our teaching to ensure children catch up quickly. People just need to try and trust us to do the jobs we are highly trained to do.

[quote Everythingnotsaved]@heartsonacake I am sure there are many parents working full time who couldn’t practically do it. Your comments show a total lack of understanding of people’s lives to be honest[/quote]
It could also be said that your suggestion shows a lack of understanding of how the education system is structured.

If parents have done their jobs right the kids should be perfectly fine having been properly homeschooled.

Not this again. How bloody dare you.

Dh works 12 hour days and even longer throughout lockdown, I have been working throughout. You k ow, to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.

I haven't had enough time to attempt meaningful homeschooling. Besides anything, I'm not a qualified teacher, certainly not for my secondary aged dc. I didn't even get a decent education myself let alone teach.

I don’t think most year groups would need to repeat, but I do think something extra should be in place for next years year 11& 13 ( the kids who will be doing A level & gcse exams next summer)
I wonder if it would be possible to extend school days for these 2 age groups?
Before anyone jumps on me I understand this would mean bringing in extra teachers, asking current teachers to work longer School days (for which they should be paid) & would be bloody hard work for the school to organise.
If we could move finish time for year 11 & 13 to something like 5.30 they could get an extra 10 hours of learning a week - surely that would make a huge difference?

It's not the first time in history that childrens education has been disrupted and it wont be the last. They'll survive and if some need to resist GCSEs/A levels when it comes to it, well that's doable.

Kids have missed less than a term and a half.
If they do reception all the way to y13, that's 14 years of school. 42 terms. So about 3.5% of total schooling missed.
For the primary kids, if the teachers cannot catch them up that time, they shouldn't be teaching.
There are obviously more issues the closer to GCSE or Alevels, but hopefully the exam boards can deal with that.
We absolutely should not be repeating years. It will cause chaos at both ends of the school - nursery/childcare and universities/post school jobs.

@Redlocks28 no, I am just debating something i thought about. I work in a university so know plenty about education thanks 🙄 I just wasn’t throwing insults at parents who might have struggled during lockdown to homeschool for a whole heap of reasons