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.

Statistically what is the chance of a young child losing a parent to covid? The average age of covid death is 82. This is a straw man argument.

There is a huge attainment gap already- and it exists from age 3 right through.

A thread the other day about nursery other than for childcare astounded me. So many posters didn’t recognise the crucial role of early years education. Learning through play needs to start from 2 at the latest or children are condemned to a lifetime of disadvantage.

Schools being closed will have exasperated this problem. What could be done is extra summer/Easter schools once the covid risk has reduced. Their could also be more after school teaching (by additional teachers) to children identified as potentially benefitting from it.

Given some of the books I read which apparently have been edited by people with English degrees there's already a big problem with teaching of SPAG in schools. That said, I was quite impressed with my son's grammar knowledge so maybe the SPAG tests at the end of Y6 achieved their intent.

I am not sure kids will leave school illiterate, but a gap of this magnitude is quite hard to catch up - and while some parents post on here about their "home-schooling" or their amazingly disciplined kids teaching themselves - in the real world we train and pay teachers for a reason - they are the professionals, parents are not (unless they are teachers themselves, but even then they can't teach all subjects). Some kids will definitely suffer from this.

I think it's a legit concern - yes, they can learn later but it's harder and will hold them back. I was so glad not to have a child in Reception or Y1 during this , as then I'd basically be having to teach them to read, write, ir be numerate. And God forbid if they have additional needs - DS (9) was diagnosed with ADHD this year and it had taken him a while to pick all that up - if this had happened when he was just starting school it would have been a serious issue.

They do lots of learning but nothing formal , yes they could all read and write and speak some English , but mostly because of the family and games

@FreekStar

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'.

I don’t know anyone who can crochet. Without the ability to read it isn’t a skill I would be able to learn.

@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

They finish a year later and the system is set up for that. Also they go to kindergarten which is very like our YR. There is very little difference, really.

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

Absolutely this.

If there are, the blame lies firmly at the parents door.

I don't think that policy of keeping schools open Risking lives should be based on parents who care f all for their children's education. Those children will always be disadvantaged and probably already receive additional funding as a result. A line has to be drawn somewhere and it shouldn't be at the LCD point.

My child excelled in the last lockdown, whilst I continued to wfh and with no school input. Not suggesting we're amazing or unusual, but I put in the effort, made it work. Others can do the same. Others CHOOSE not to.

Yanbu. Home school /online is pitiful.
It's not my job to teach Gcse to my child. I can offer support but cannot deliver the entire curriculum. I have my own paid job and my boss tends to prefer it when I do it.

@Redlocks28

What a shame the Tories shut all the children’s centres-they would have been a marvellous resource to support anyone struggling with parenting.

Wasn’t this because the “wrong” parents were using them? The sessions were full of motivated middle-class parents whereas the parents who they were aimed at were difficult to engage. So they were closed...

@staydazzling what games was he playing?

I volunteered in a primary school for over 10 years listening to children reading on a 1:1 basis. Sometimes I would take the same year group either side of the 6 week Summer break. The decline in the reading abilities of most children was very noticeable as very few had picked up a book during the holidays. The more able children quickly regained their skills once they were back in a normal routine but for others the progress back to where they were was very slow leading to them bring even further behind their peers. I dread to think what impact lockdown and isolations have had on their learning.

With school closures, it’s not just the lack of formal education that is a concern but the children who are otherwise well cared for but where the parents have been unable to engage with them, for whatever reasons.
They’re not vulnerable and don’t need foodbanks but their parents aren’t able to be involved with them much.
Those children have spent hours and hours gaming on screens. They have iPads but no laptops. They don’t have books at home. They don’t even watch much television, just hours of gaming.
It’s more widespread than you’d think.

@Isthatitnow

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?

I don’t think illiteracy will be the outcome. Work was not marked though for my DS primary school. The hub he went to made it clear on direct.gov that the kids were there for childcare reasons solely.

Like some other posters have said we as parents will have to do extra reading and so on with our children.

If there are, the blame lies firmly at the parents door.

But it’s not that simple is it, not all parents have time to teach their children that’s why they go to school not home Ed.

Not all parents have the ability to do so, often due to failings in their own education.

I hope this changes the education system long term to focus more on the important key skills and ensuring that young people all have their needs met.

@FreekStar

If schools close, then they won't really be shut!

In my Primary school there provisions made for vulnerable children, and by vulnerable it meant children who teachers identified as having little support at home. Those with no access to online learning, those who are adopted/looked after, those on very low incomes, those with feckless parents, those on the at risk register for various reasons, those with SEN/disabilities, and also all children with a key-worker parent. All these children were encouraged to attend school, and if they didn't they were regularly monitored by the SLT.

Bully for your school.

In Wales, they made provision for up to 20% of children in those categories to attend school. Between 1-3% attended.

Because many shit parents don't know they're shit parents, and even those that do know they're struggling tend to be more scared of the virus than they are of their children falling further behind.

My son was in the final year of infants in the first lockdown. He received no support from school. No zoom, no marked work. We recieved a few worksheets that we completed at home we also found a tutor to give some online teaching. Its so frustrating as he was always behind and was just beginning to catch up. I kept hearing that teachers were "working hard" but I didn't see any of that in my sons case. This is why I absolutely want schools open unless there is no alternative, but there must not be a pub, nailbar or click and collect flipery left open in preference to a school.

So.....lots of s**t parents out there. Agree.

Why is it the problem of schools to sort this out?

Lots of poor parenting has gone on since time immemorial. Personal responsibility needs to be had here.

I took the x box controller and tablets away and now they can only have they once they've done something creative and read with me.

Online provision should be much better this time (last time the government gave schools 3 days notice so...) therefore Oak Academy lessons etc are available for ALL years up to GCSE and all subjects. No excuses. I will be in school teaching. My two kids will be at home learning here. Not sending them in apart from the youngest as keyworker kid I will expect the work doing and I will darn well check it daily too.

I wish people would stop outsourcing everythinh, including parenting their own child.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

I'll echo what Freekstar said. During lockdown we were open to our vulnerable children and those with EHCPs and children who were not attending were visited three times a week. We collected food for our church food bank and then delivered it to many of our families. Our head and safeguarding team did home visits to any of our children who were not in regular contact with school. SEN support packs were made bespoke to each child and hand delivered. What we didn't do was live lessons or anything on zoom because a) we were told not to by our authority and b) our parents said they didn't want it. I suppose that doesn't count as making a 'brilliant effort' though?

The generic special schools closed to all pupils around here the week before the official closedown and they didn't reopen for any children. My friend whose child has quadraplegic CP and associated LDs received nothing in terms of support or any work from the school apart from the weekly phone call ( made by redeployed peripatetic teachers) made to all parents of children with EHCPs in our LA which is what our LA considered to be meeting the needs of children with EHCPs. Already she has received an email warning they may not reopen in January (the school caters for children 2 to 19) as has another parent of a support group I'm a member of whose child is in a different SEN school. Dd is at an independent specialist school and they were open to all students throughout lockdown so dd didn't actually miss school.

So - according to MN teachers are all bloody useless and workshy, overpaid and with far too many holidays - or they are absolutely essential and are the only ones who can teach children to read and write, parents have no control over this and their children utterly refuse to pick up a pen or a book for them.

GCSEs are absolutely essential, as are SATS - or they are utterly useless and meaningless because we have a whole generation of school leavers with these qualifications who are unable to complete a job application correctly.

Teachers are either miracle workers with amazing skills to to be the only ones able to to teach literacy, or they are not. If teachers are indeed this vital can I suggest that some posters on here cease their constant teacher bashing and pay they credit the work they do.

For what it's worth. I think that parents who claim they can do nothing with their own children, and have no input into developing their own children's learning must take some responsibility for that. Books are not expensive. I know plenty of children from very, very deprived homes who have excellent reading and writing skills.

Agree. I personally would like to see everything but maths English and science dumped from.per GCSE curriculum for a short time

Wtf?? Don't be ridiculous!

@GuyFawkesDay

This is an interesting area. The base level of skill needed to survive in our economy is actually really low. And that's putting the bar specifically at survive.

Someone will spot you need help and give you welfare. If you know the places to ask there are people to support you in that. There are a lot of basic jobs requiring very little education. At the very basic level you need to acquire enough money to feed yourself daily, and that only needs to be a few quid. Again, this is purely about survival.

So lots of people exist able to survive on very little, and perpetuate that to their children. Thing is, that's what most of the animal population of the planet do - they subsist enough and struggle along, have good times and bad times and pass the same on to the next generation.

From the endeavours of a select few, our species has much higher expectations for itself. Healthcare, education, possessions, etc The select few advance us, an unscrupulous few take advantage, and a comfortable layer in between benefit from the system enough to enjoy the advances.

Society purports to benefit the weakest and most vulnerable, but actually just forces them to participate in a structure that doesn't actually benefit them.

So I partially agree with you, in that I'd rather opt out of society and education altogether and live as a hunter-gatherer than live at the bottom of an unfair society.

Our primary school wouldn't give me any information when lock down happened. I had to research it all myself, the curriculum etc.
We didn't even get work sheets. Maybe the school didn't see themselves in that crucially important light?

If it was me I would have been arming my parents with as much information as possible on what had been taught, what needed to be taught.
They have not gone over anything either just ploughed on with the new terms curriculum.
This has high lighted how much parents need to support learning, with some dc, more then I ever imagined actually and this also needs to be public information.

@GuyFawkesDay
I'm not a teacher and I struggle to work and teach my 7yo. I object to people like you accusing me of out sourcing. In one breath you tell us that teaching is the hardest job on earth and the next you tell us we are poor parents for not teaching a full curriculum!

Most children can read and write by 7, if not there is already an issue. By 11, every child should be fluent, and there are years to catch up those left behind during the pandemic. Children of 14-18 won't forget how to read if they knew how to before, because they have years of reading competence. Many children may have missed aspects of education from missing a few terms, but the outcome is not literal illiteracy and it's a ridiculous exaggeration to say so.

I struggled with home-schooling. My youngest child has ASD and was 3 during the first lockdown. He takes up a lot of time and attention which was obviously made 10x harder being stuck in our small house, not even allowed to go to a play park. It also meant I just didn’t have as much time for my 7-year-old child and homeschooling. Often it’s circumstances and not ‘shit parenting’. Parents who weren’t working, no children with additional needs and so on were in an easier position to homeschool.