There will be so many illiterate kids after Covid.

[Elephant4]

If we lockdown again - and even if we don't.

So many kids are getting little to no education. It's been almost a year now and looks like it could last another one.

I'm not talking about my kids. I look after them and educate them after school and during lockdowns etc as best I can.

But there's so many kids round here who have little to no parental support. We live in a deprived area with high Covid rates. Barely any of the kids had any education during lockdown. In the last term bubbles, year groups, classes have been sent home constantly. Schools have been shut due to teacher shortages. When the kids are at school they're not being taught due to supply teachers - behaviour being awful - much worse than before.

The kids at Secondary level here were already underachieving. This pandemic's school closures etc will leave thousands all over the country illiterate - or otherwise very close to it - I reckon.

@DirtyHydrogen Why was your school closed? That wasn't the norm and not the instruction of the Gov. In my Local Authority, if a school had to close for any reason, then vulnerable children and key-worker's children were offered a placate a hub school.

@Tootletum Yep. My year 1 can barely read and refuses to read with me. the issue is not that your 5 or 6 year can barely read, it’s that you think it’s an issue.
Your child is 5 or 6 years old, they do not need to be reading yet. Read to them let them enjoy books and give them time.

I'm talking about kids who live in poverty/both parents out working full time/no internet etc

Children living in poverty were always supported by schools, and have been continually failed by this government who cut funding for schools and and social care and removed safeguards for the most vulnerable.

Teachers teach whether every child can be in the building at once or not and this goes far beyond their subjects, but focusses on teaching the children, not just providing the curriculum.

This shouldn't be in place of parenting, and it's awful that this can't be separated from educational provision in the eyes of the government and patronising mumsnetters who have no idea what others go through, and didn't care until they thought pretending to worry about the needy might help their selfish arguments.

I'm talking about kids who live in poverty/both parents out working full time/no internet etc

Children living in poverty were always supported by schools, and have been continually failed by this government who cut funding for schools and and social care and removed safeguards for the most vulnerable.

Teachers teach whether every child can be in the building at once or not and this goes far beyond their subjects, but focusses on teaching the children, not just providing the curriculum.

This shouldn't be in place of parenting, and it's awful that this can't be separated from educational provision in the eyes of the government and patronising mumsnetters who have no idea what others go through, and didn't care until they thought pretending to worry about the needy might help their selfish arguments.

@Tootletum

Yep. My year 1 can barely read and refuses to read with me.

But school will be aware they're behind and that there wasn't the teaching input they needed last year and will be catching them up this year. How many weeks have you lost due to school bubble closing? And if your child still can't read at the end of this school year, school aren't just going to ignore it, and of they are you need a new school. No one is going to say well Little Tootle couldn't read by his 6th birthday so we shall leave him be

Yeah, no, kids are going to be absolutely fine. They're so resilient and absolutely will catch up. A few months of disruption won't cause illiteracy and to think it will if definitely an overreaction.
I'm a primary teacher and honestly the kids in my class didn't regress during lockdown (took the same class on again from last academic year to this).

I was working as a supply teacher in a Year 2 class. Exactly half the class could not read or write. Another class had no idea what fairytales are. It’s heart breaking.

If your child is in EYFS or KS1 then please read with them every day. Even if it’s just 10 minutes. This is a great bonding activity and makes reading fun, rather than a chore. I loved reading to my parents when I was EYFS aged. These are some of my favourite memories.

The LAs need to prioritise more support for disadvantaged children.

*Given the state of SPAG on sites like this, I’m not sure that wasn’t inevitable. School can’t buck the tide of the home environment, and if parents genuinely think any of the below are correct they’re already swimming uphill through treacle (all seen on here today). And that’s before you get to a C grade GCSE apparently “not being a guarantee of literacy or numeracy”.

Thier
Could of
Should of
My kid’s love toy’s
Activitys
Chester draws
Wallah (voila)*

^^This

@PandemicPavolova I agree that some schools will be forced to improve but funding and the motivation to be inclusive remains an issue. That means that those children whose parents shout loudest or who can step in and provide support will be ok. Those without resources cannot rely on schools to step in. There's still so much denial about how poor some schools' offer was in lockdown that I'm not sure things will improve that much.

I just really hate the "don't worry SEND children will be provided for" nonsense. They are often bottom of the list in usual times Covid-19 has in no way changed that.

There’s lots of kids illiterate already, not all schools are miracle workers, I went to school in london and I know some of the schools nearby were absolutely crap. I went to school, got fair enough grades but most of the stuff I’ve learnt hasn’t been at school. You learn the basics, life skills are learnt by living...

[quote FreekStar]@DirtyHydrogen Why was your school closed? That wasn't the norm and not the instruction of the Gov. In my Local Authority, if a school had to close for any reason, then vulnerable children and key-worker's children were offered a placate a hub school.[/quote]
All bar one of the schools in our primary MAT closed. My DC with an EHCP was offered a place at the hub school with a mix of children and staff from across the MAT with 1:1 "where possible" from a pool of TAs (as my child's full time 1:1 TA was redeployed). Completely unsuitable for a infant school pupil with asd who struggles with anxiety and school refusal. It wasn't a real offer and as expected we turned it down as did many others with EHCPs that we know of.

@Ltdannygreen

There’s lots of kids illiterate already, not all schools are miracle workers, I went to school in london and I know some of the schools nearby were absolutely crap. I went to school, got fair enough grades but most of the stuff I’ve learnt hasn’t been at school. You learn the basics, life skills are learnt by living...

School of hard knocks? University of life?

I don’t work for Us for Them @noblegiraffe

Do they even exist anymore?

And I do care about these kids. My own kids go to school with a large number of kids who are suffering educationally and socially at the moment.

None of what the government promised has been provided to help them catch up. I have an SEN child myself and her support has gone from pretty poor to zero in the last year.

I don’t work for Us for Them

Well your patronising comments sound like their narrative. And your use of children needing extra support to suit your argument (excluding your own well looked after children) echoes their agenda.

Nobody bothered talking about children who were being failed before all this, but it was happening as a result of the government's choices. This might have become clearer to a wider majority recently, but it's not the case that they aren't being educated.

I do think we should now be looking at more radical solutions to the problem.
I’ve no doubt it would be a mammoth challenge but delaying every child and first year university students education by one year could be a solution. Additional funding support for year 1 university students would be required. And an additional reception year class would be required, together with additional space and teaching staff. I’m sure there are other issues I haven’t considered but surely they can’t be worse than what schools are facing at the moment.
The rest of this year could then focus more on additional beneficial education and also targeting the most vulnerable children educational needs, rather than compulsory curriculum and exam syllabuses.

@TheCrowsHaveEyes - just because there was a place for a vulnerable DC doesn't mean they attended. I was told there was a place for my DD but she was still better off at home. My DS has still not recieved his laptop. No school canteens were open round here. We did get vouchers but of course there is no guarantee that was used for the DC of course. So really you can't really say you understand what is happening to vulnerable DC across the country just because you may have some knowledge in one particular area.

@SilverBirchWithout

I do think we should now be looking at more radical solutions to the problem. I’ve no doubt it would be a mammoth challenge but delaying every child and first year university students education by one year could be a solution. Additional funding support for year 1 university students would be required. And an additional reception year class would be required, together with additional space and teaching staff. I’m sure there are other issues I haven’t considered but surely they can’t be worse than what schools are facing at the moment. The rest of this year could then focus more on additional beneficial education and also targeting the most vulnerable children educational needs, rather than compulsory curriculum and exam syllabuses.

That will never happen. Universities would go out of business for a start. Schools are massively overcrowded now. There simply isn't room to magic up an extra reception class.

Thank you @SilverBirchWithout

That all makes good sense, to me.

It's pie in the sky bollocks.
There is not the political will to invest billions in one school / university cohort. It just will not happen.

[quote UndertheCedartree]@TheCrowsHaveEyes - just because there was a place for a vulnerable DC doesn't mean they attended. I was told there was a place for my DD but she was still better off at home. My DS has still not recieved his laptop. No school canteens were open round here. We did get vouchers but of course there is no guarantee that was used for the DC of course. So really you can't really say you understand what is happening to vulnerable DC across the country just because you may have some knowledge in one particular area.[/quote]
I don't have some knowledge about one particular area. I have knowledge from across the UK - because our relatives work in the field across the UK - but I didn't claim to have knowledge in every area. It's interesting you're not questioning the OP's broadbrush claims even though they have no experience at all and admitted as such.
I said there were processes in place for vulnerable DCs that included offering hub places but it wasn't limited to that. I'm unclear if you're saying your DC dropped out of the system? Or that as an engaged parent you made a decision to keep DC home rather than put them into hubs? But your school will know which you were and will have engaged with you accordingly.

@SilverBirchWithout - lots of schools round here struggle to fit in the DC they have let alone an additional reception year. The schools are 5 form entry so each school having to build 5 extra classrooms and recruit 5 extra teachers plus TAs - I'm really not sure how it would work.

It's also important for posters with schools that they feel failed to offer adequate support to see that other schools were doing much better. It gives you a baseline to work from because the nitty gritty of what was put in place wasn't given much publicity and certain lobby groups deliberately provided a skewed view of what was in place because it suited their agenda.

Younger children can learn a lot more at home.if the parents got their act together. You can teach the youngie ones how to write.and spell at home. and simple arithmetic. Also you can teach them how to do basic little jobs at home,instead of spending hours on gadgets etc. Anything can help a child,if they can be productive in some ways. Those who have old fashioned grandparents can benefit from some oldie knowledge from them.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

It's pie in the sky bollocks. There is not the political will to invest billions in one school / university cohort. It just will not happen.

I do agree that this Government has clearly demonstrated time and time again they don’t have any skill or talent at doing anything to resolve any of the challenges caused by Covid-19. Particularly anything to support the most vulnerable who are suffering the most from its consequences.

@TheCrowsHaveEyes - it was your suggestion that all vulnerable DC were fine as there was all this support for them as if it was universal. It most certainly is not. I'm also not sure having relatives working in schools counts as experience tbh. I can't say my DC's school engaged with me accordingly. There wasn't all that much engagement. My DC were under Child in need. As I said my teen DC is still waiting for his laptop. The school said it was best for my DD to stay at home due to Covid - nothing to do with having 'engaged parents'.