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.

It is a huge issue, yes schools have been given additional funding, but schools are unable to create additional time or members of appropriate trained staff.

I started primary school age eight not speaking any English, it was a very good school. But there simply wasn’t the additional time or the additional members of staff available for me to receive intervention.

Additional money is needed in schools, however so is both time and appropriately trained staff who aren’t knackered due to an excessive work load and extremely high targets.

I do think our schooling system does need changing, early years needs an overhaul as does primary. However the biggest issue is that early years is far too expensive and schools are not adequately funded. If as a country we actually valued education, schools would be appropriately funded, staff could access high quality training and buildings would be in a decent state.

People say things like “but in x country they start at 7”, yes, but most children attend preschool where they learn to read, write, add subtract etc. They don’t just play. Where my partner is from compulsory schooling starts at seven, however 80% of children atten pre-school (starts at one) where students learn to read, write, count, add etc. I have seen a few posts on MN (not this thread) where posters are convinced that traditional learning does not start until seven.

My 6 year old was illiterate at the start of lockdown. He learnt to read in April. Previously he was too stressed by a day at school where he couldn’t read the work to do extra at home without a meltdown. In April we ignored set work (except maths) and just read together. By September his new teacher said he’d never have known he had struggled before. Lockdown allowed him to get to the point where he is able to engage with learning

My DS had a very similar experience. Turns out what he needed most was a quiet room and no pressure.
Sadly he's not been able to keep up the progress once he returned to the classroom and I'm very seriously considering home education. He has possible ADHD and/or ASD (Covid has stalled the diagnosis).It seems like he can either behave appropriately in a classroom or learn to read but probably not both at the same time.

There are also a huge number of families (not 'vulnerable' or on the radar of the authorities by any means), who don't value education at all and see nothing wrong with that. My next-door neighbours' three children did nothing academic during lockdown and have no plans to do anything if schools close this time - the parents see all of that entirely as the role of the school. The parents themselves have no official qualifications (work as a builder/cleaner) and expect their children to follow them into that kind of role.

A friend with a Yr 8 daughter has announced to me that if schools close again, she won't bother with school work this time, but will just concentrate on teaching her daughter some 'life skills'. In both of these families, the chances these children have to do something different to their families, to see a different kind of world and take on different kinds of jobs, are being eroded.

The people shouting for schools to close already have their education. The ones with adult children don’t need to worry about their education because they’ve already got it.
Also the ones who find homeschooling a breeze and think everyone else should too. There’s a bit of an “I’m alright Jack” attitude going on.

Learning at home is not the same as going to a school environment and being taught the curriculum by a qualified teacher. People seem to expect parents to morph in to something that people have spent years at university training to be

My children thrive more in the school environment. At home we do reading, spellings, times tables, worksheets and other small pieces of work every day. I simply reinforce their learning at home - I don’t teach the bulk of it. I have 4 children and have so little space to actually implement a lesson properly and effectively.
So yes, I do support their learning. But if I was expected to intensely homeschool for the next however many months like people are expecting, my children would fall behind without a shadow of a doubt. And so would many others.

People will have something new to complain about in years to come, when a large percentage of a future generation can’t get jobs or can’t get higher paying jobs.
“My taxes pay for them.” They will say. Oh well, I guess it will be their just desserts for their attitudes they’ve got today...

*@InDireStraits *

"In a educational career lasting from age 5 to 18, with 2 terms in school missed (but work was set and marked), you think illiteracy is the outcome?
**
Work was not ‘set and marked’ in many schools. Even in home learning since September (due to bubbles bursting) we were actively told not to upload any written work to the online portal for teachers to see. Apparently they were only interested in commenting on photos of kids baking etc. There’s a huge difference in what various schools have done & even with a lot of support one of our dc has gone from top of what was expected for their age (parents evening comments before lockdown said they were going to encourage them to reach the exceeding expectations band) to most recent zoom parents evening where we were told they were now falling in to the below expected band. My dc won’t end up illiterate but I do worry about others not as fortunate"

I completely agree. Many teachers did NOTHING during lockdown except the few volunteers that came in to look after the kids of key workers.....a lot refused claiming they had to look after their kids even though are classed as key workers!

The arguments were widespread about lack of IT, lack of training in use of what are basic MS Office type packages ie MS Teams and then claims of safeguarding concerns about using any form of video connection. Of course what I still can't get over is a friend of mine whose kids are privately schooled had a virtually full timetable fairly quickly after the start of lockdown one and the "safeguarding" concerns didn't seem to be a problem at private schools!!! None of their kids had pictures taken of them online, abused or anything like.

What I do accept is that not all kids can access suitable IT (at least at the same time as well). The government promise of laptops for poor kids was also shambolic and only started delivering in the autumn after changing the criteria.

What is also apparent (found out more recently) is those schools with more dynamic heads that took on the "union" and managed to overcome a lot of these issues earlier and delivered at least some better learning than many.

As ever it is the poor and vulnerable kids though that suffer

There are also a huge number of families (not 'vulnerable' or on the radar of the authorities by any means), who don't value education at all and see nothing wrong with that. My next-door neighbours' three children did nothing academic during lockdown and have no plans to do anything if schools close this time - the parents see all of that entirely as the role of the school. The parents themselves have no official qualifications (work as a builder/cleaner) and expect their children to follow them into that kind of role.

Schools are often fighting a losing battle if children have parents with this attitude. So far children have missed less than four months of school- that four months won't be the difference between an academic career/or a builder when the children have faced a lifetime of their parents attitude to education. In cases like this then I think as long as the children are cared for it doesn't matter- and who is to say that their career choices and ambition for their children is less valid than those who strive for academic achievement anyway?

I’ve spoken about my next door neighbour before on MN. She is an anti vaxxer ( scared of her dc “catching autism” ) is thick as shit and uses drugs.

Her dc is in year one and almost 6. If you heard her talking from our garden to theirs you would assume she had a toddler. The child can hardly talk, let alone be understood.

NDN openly and quite proudly states that she didn’t bother doing any work during the lockdown. “That’s the teacher’s job” said without a hint of irony. This is the type you’re up against.

My own dc were very well supported by their school and sixth form college. Dd (9) was already a huge reader but discovered a love of Harry Potter and read them all. She also went back to school and was flying academically.

We will continue our work at home if school is closed but i know the ones in her class who won’t.

@Funkypolar

There won’t be any jobs left for them. Mass automation and offshoring is looming. Who needs an education?

Straying OT, but imo education will be more important when there are no jobs, so that people don't go bonkers with boredom or rot their brains with shite tv.

We'll need meaningful activities, interests and hobbies, which is difficult if you have a really poor education.

Eh? Most hobbies don't require a good education!

@FreekStar

Eh? Most hobbies don't require a good education!

Most hobbies require a decent level of reading comprehension.

I’m learning to crochet, without reading comprehension and maths skills I wouldn’t be able to do it.

The government needs to make reading and literacy THE priority, with an overloaded primary curriculum thrown out in favour of this. It was needed before Covid, it’s most certainly needed now.

Yes, @Freekstar, I know what you mean - and a world needs builders, cleaners, etc. of course. But I see kids who had a glimpse into a different world - one where education is valued - having that taken away from them, and that limits their chances of choosing it later on. It's only 4 months/6 months/whatever off school, of course, but it's the underlying message coming from society that really counts - the message that school simply doesn't matter.

I'm not talking about people at the bottom of society here - and not people like @Zoboraflore's neighbour. Just people whose kids relied on schools being open to show them a possible different path in life. Outside of the private sector and high-achieving parts of the state sector, schools are full of children and parents like these - they're not unusual cases. My family is divided - physically speaking - by a matter of a few metres from our neighbours. My children continue to learn when schools are closed - theirs don't. The only thing that made the playing field even vaguely level for the children of both of our families was the existence of open schools.

I'm sure crocheting is an ancient skill and people did it without being able to read!

Basic reading and comprehension skills are not lost because children miss a few months of school! Reading comprehension is acquired over a lifetime of reading

There ought to be a rule that unless you actively work to support disadvantaged and vulnerable children in normal times, you're not allowed to use them in your arguments about keeping schools open.

Yes, I think in some cases the attainment gap will widen, but with properly target catch up funding, it could be shrunk again.

In normal times, one thing that can really mess up a child's life chances is the death of a parent. Keeping schools open as normal exposes more children to that risk.

If the government were willing to be creative and use some kind of rota system, we could give children some level of education, and help keep society safe from Covid. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

I guess one thing to remember is that across Europe children get educated just as well a bristish children despite typically having fewer years in education. My German DN/N started school aged 7 not 4

I’m a year 2 teacher in a very deprived area - when we came back after lockdown there were certainly gaps in knowledge and skills, but we put a plan into place and managed to bridge those gaps fairly efficiently and quickly. Children will not be illiterate because of this year. A lot of the curriculum (primary at least, I can’t talk secondary) is based on a spiral model so they revisit revisit revisit and build. They might end up missing for example, key history knowledge, but the basics on reading, writing and maths are fairly easy to catch up on - they just don’t have as much time to fully embed and practice and go through the content a little quicker.

My bigger worry about time away from school is children’s mental health due to lack of social interaction with peers and concern for children who might suffer for whatever reason at home.

@FreekStar

Eh? Most hobbies don't require a good education!

I can assure you that even something as simple as running, if you want to run with a group once a week, now requires advanced IT skills. Setting up and responding on the app required to "book in" and reserve a place in the group requires such a level of forward planning too that anyone not educated well and confident in It use diesnt stand a chance. Never mind being confident enough to mix with strangers.

In a educational career lasting from age 5 to 18, with 2 terms in school missed (but work was set and marked), you think illiteracy is the outcome

we didn’t have any work marked, or any worksheets, or any communication. Stop assuming that every school provided this!!

@TitsOot4Xmas

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)

I know someone that didn't do well at school (GCSE D and E grades), who took it on herself to home educate her kids because she didn't like the school environment (she might have a point about that).

However much she tries to teach her children, I seriously question if she has the correct academic underpinnings to perform the task. I wonder what her kids will turn out like, especially if they don't follow the traditional exam path, they may be without any chance of a career all due to their mum.

The problem is, if her children do turn out to be a disaster, this woman will simply blame "the system".

@FreekStar

I'm sure crocheting is an ancient skill and people did it without being able to read!

Basic reading and comprehension skills are not lost because children miss a few months of school! Reading comprehension is acquired over a lifetime of reading

So if I couldn’t read or do basic maths how would I learn to crochet?

@midgeghost

I guess one thing to remember is that across Europe children get educated just as well a bristish children despite typically having fewer years in education. My German DN/N started school aged 7 not 4

Yes, however children are learning to read, write etc at preschool/kindy. There is a weird myth in the UK that suggests children in EU countries don’t start academic learning until they begin compulsory schooling.

How do you figure that? Most kids have learnt to read by year 1/2 fairly well. Some will struggle due to send but they'll get there.

So if it's because our reception children missed so much of year R. I wouldn't panic. We are the only European country who insists on doing it at 4. Everywhere else starts school at 6/7 which is on par with yr 2.

Our children will still learn to read. Just maybe later than we are used to. And perhaps having to actually do some research themselves and not have everything spoon fed will be beneficial to many.
It's a skill to be able to source various sources of information and discuss them. A skill used in university lots. So maybe this will equip many more pupils to go onto further education?

My Mum is a different generation, but she sent us to school knowing how to write our names (in basic font not cursive!) and she taught us to read a little bit later. Her belief that it was her responsibility to teach her children to read and write is something that stayed with me when I became a parent.

I know parents are stressed out, but education really begins at home.

I read news reports that children went back into nappies during lockdown so lets not pretend that all children aged 5 will know their ABCs.

Nappies and the other things - using cutlery is a parents responsibility. It has nothing to do with teachers ability to teach children to read and catch up.

You do realise reading age has a ceiling? Some kids reach it at 6 and some at 12.

My ds has a reading age of 10yr 7 months. He's 16.

His spelling age is 7!

He still managed to get 9's in some GCSEs.

Life doesn't revolve around your basic literacy skills.

Crocheting and knitting are traditional skills that have been passed from generation to generation - you really think only those who could read could crochet? Crocheting has been around longer than children have been going to school! The most you will need are basic counting skills which most can do without a 'decent education'.