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?

No, my kids were already ahead in their years, repeating it will just be more tedium for children who are ahead. Teachers will just stretch topics back a bit - so when they do year 5 fractions, they can spend a bit of time recapping year 4 etc. My youngest has already had a year of learning nothing, and is still a year ahead in maths. I will have to look at private (against all my principles) if we have any more nonsense.

What would Universities do with a spare year? Yes, there may be some overspill (applications are up this year) but not enough surely to populate an entire extra intake?

[quote Everythingnotsaved]@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[/quote]
How did you think the universities could function without an entire cohort?

I work in a university so know plenty about education thanks

This surprises me. Considering it would have a massive impact on universities. Also are you envisaging uni students repeating a 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?

Anyone whose child is not in a private school could have accessed online teaching if they wanted to.

Maybe they need to move the school year from a September start to January.

[quote Everythingnotsaved]@BluebellsGreenbells yes but kids who could have been doctors but come from chaotic homes will be massively disadvantaged & social mobility will go down the toilet[/quote]
The kids from chaotic homes are highly unlikely to have become doctors regardless of lockdown due to:

• Not being able to fund themselves for 7 years at university
• Unlikely to have had the correct careers advice so won't have don't the right subjects in the first place
• Not have gone to a school that pushes university education so won't know that doing it is possible for them
• Won't have anywhere at home to study for the exams/do their homework
• Likely to have missed large amounts of school so won't be able to catch up and get good grades

The government are not even funding the extra cleaning supplies/ hand sanitiser needed to adhere to their guidelines for Sept. So very unlikely they would fund the extra teachers needed for a whole year group, or extra teaching time for some year groups that a PP has suggested.

@jessstan2
do you mean:
If parents were willing to pay for it?

I was of the opinion that all children go back to where they were at lockdown until the October school holidays and then move up. This would delay primary 1 for 7 weeks (we are in Scotland).

And do fuck off and then fuck off some more with that comment heartsonacake.

Dd1 is in year 7 of a state school that did normal timetabled lessons with feedback from teachers, and a number of video call lessons. She’s worked bloody hard so no I don’t think she should repeat. I think her teachers are amazing and the effort they put in was evident.
Dd 2&3 had teachers who did the bare minimum. Dh and I ensured we planned lessons each night but I’ve no idea if they’re behind or not. They have however matured and developed confidence and other skills - like baking independently. I don’t think they should repeat the year though. Holding them back from secondary would be horrendous. Have you met dc at the end of year 6? They’re emotionally ready to move on!

@Ickabog there are plenty of students who, because of the months of strikes and the pandemic, who would very much like to repeat a year actually. Obviously it would need government funding which is unlikely. Plenty of students repeat years - it’s mainly fee funding that’s the issue

The govt has said they will pay excessively large amounts to unqualified teachers for "catch up" remember? It's the privitisation of teaching in state schools so that they can bung another billion or two at their mates.

It costs me thousands in uniform, transport and me having to work part-time to send my children to school for a yr

From what I know private schools had actual engagement with teachers, feedback, work marked.

My secondary state school dc simply had links to BBC bite size or answer a worksheet.

Not saying there's anything wrong in that as some of it was really good.. But without any marking or feedback we struggled. I didn't feel capable with a lot of it.

Lots of talk about Universities. Personally I think Uni students have been completely shit on. They received very few online lectures if any, didn't get to sit their exams and have had to pay for accommodation they haven't lived in for months - an absolute national disgrace in my eyes but noone seems to have raised this issue (or perhaps I have missed this?).

@Everythingnotsaved so in the absence of govt funding for universities - what would they do?

@Kpo58 it’s 5 years of uni to be a doctor as it goes and plenty of uni’s have extensive social mobility support pre uni to help with all the things you talk about. My uni has a huge team working on pre- uni widening participation from year 7 onwards. Med school also attracts some bursary funding

This has been suggested so many times by so many clueless people who can't conceive that there are any families in any other situation than their own. It seems odd that they don't appreciate there are new Reception starters and babies starting nursery because they will (almost) all have had one of those before.

@Cakestandkitchen I'd be willing to be that the ones who are cockiest about how well they have home schooled are the ones that the teachers worry about the most.

Agree with pp about emotionally ready to move on. Educationally ready too here. Suppressing is the issue and this is more suppression against moving forward.

That’s before the practical issues.

@drspouse are you calling me clueless? I started a debate as I thought it was an interesting question. That’s what this forum is for.

It blows my mind how many rude insulting people there are on here sometimes.

Every child in the country has missed months of school so none of them are really at a disadvantage compared to eachother because they've all been in similar situations. Obviously some schools have been better when it comes to online teaching but not every school is at the same standards when it comes to teaching normally either. Younger, primary aged children do have time to catch up. It's tough on older years, having missed exams and important lessons for their exams but when they move on to sixth form or university I'm sure they will have to take that into consideration because every child will be in the same situation

Test them all in September - lowest quartile and upper quartile (gifted and talented cohort): inform parents of raw scores for bottom five and give the opportunity to resit the year, allow the top five to move up a year)

@Cakestandkitchen I'd be willing to be that the ones who are cockiest about how well they have home schooled are the ones that the teachers worry about the most.

This.

If online learning worked so well then why do we bother training up teachers, many of whom specialise in a subject? Why do they bother training for years and getting paid to do a profession.

Why don't we just let the parents get on with it and save millions, every child could just sit at home with a laptop and their parents can teach them, as well as very often working full time.

It's so easy.

What are schools? Just a big childcare hub?