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.

Big blue bus, I think much of that comes from the idea of dc having a summer break?
Again, to me all reading should be kept up during the summer for primary age dc esp those in reception, years 1, 2,3 and 4.

I would never advocate taking that time off to relax or allow parents to think that's the best thing to do.
I would always push, enjoy summer but keep the reading ticking over and moving forward.
Reading is the key to everything else and whilst it's encouraged I don't think the different strategies to support it are well known.

Cider at 7 I would have expected the school to be teaching your dc for some hours during the day not you.

@MRex

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.

By most children, you mean the majority of four in five. That’s still a shockingly high number that cannot. When they leave primary school, one in five is functionally illiterate and that does change. By 11 every child should be fluent but they are not. Your post is wrong on so many accounts.

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/03/literacy-white-working-class-boys-h-is-for-harry

Lots of sanctimonious holier than thou bullshit on here. Posters giving themselves a great big pat on the back.

Never mind children who have parents who have to work all day to keep the roof over their heads and who’s children are simply not academically able to work independently off work sheets unsupported. Or families who don’t have enough lap tops / tablets to share between the children.

It’s great that you can come home and provide a full days education to your gifted, studying hard kids on all your equipment but that’s not realistic for many of us. You might argue we shouldn’t have had kids but in a similar vein, it’s a shame so many children have the misfortune of being raised by pompous, narrow minded people with such ignorance of the world around them.

In fact I think as a society we should throw so much more at primary education, create more schools, half class sizes and have more support in class.
Too many leave secondary school without learning to read or have any learning skills and it's very hard to turn the tide by then.
It would pay off later down the line.

I'm not convinced. My DS wasn't properly educated for a year, and made no progress academically. It took two terms of being back in school full time to catch up to where he would have been if he'd been taught without disruption.

@PandemicPavolova

In fact I think as a society we should throw so much more at primary education, create more schools, half class sizes and have more support in class. Too many leave secondary school without learning to read or have any learning skills and it's very hard to turn the tide by then. It would pay off later down the line.

Yes, I agree with this.

Even if parents can’t do anything else (and some can’t because of working and other commitments, so this isn’t a dig) but even just 10-15 mins a day of reading from preschool age, or younger, can make a massive difference.

It’s true that education needs resources and attention, but what it needs most of all is academic expectations of teachers with parents who will support them in that. Too many on both sides will fight that to the ends of the earth. (Btw on training, I had to continually resist the urge to offer to proof read training materials and even national policy documents. Sucking up to people is considered the most important capability in training now).

@EagleFlight - you are highlighting pre-covid information, those literacy gaps were not caused by school closures for lockdown. I'll repeat again the bits you missed: "there are years to catch up those left behind during the pandemic" and "Children of 14-18 won't forget how to read if they knew how to before". Please supply your evidence for children forgetting how to read in that short a timeframe. Or anything saying how missing less than 1 out of 13 years of education will be the crucial factor making a negative difference for children when most learn that basic literacy in just their first two years in school? On the contrary, I would expect that the catch-up focus by teachers and DofE might actually help some of the younger kids who otherwise would have still been coming out of primary unable to read and write because they don't get enough support in the normal school system.

@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?

In my home country, kids who have summer birthdays are usually have poorer educational outcomes simply due to the timing of the school calendar. It’s naive to think there is going to be no consequences to cessation or in-person education.

The issue with summer borns is not due to missed education. They start the same time as everyone else. It’s connected to age-related development, and the clumsy necessity to have a cut-off somewhere. Some kids in a year are a year older than others, and it is one of those factors that shows. Personally I think we need to build in more flexibility around capability, be prepared to hold kids back a year, and scratch the pathetic emphasis on ‘keeping kids with their friends’.

My year 2 couldn't read pre-covid (when she was in year 1).

She recognizes letters, but can't blend to read. She has some SN suspected so it's unsuprising and missed a lot of school pre-covid due to appointments.

She's had no support with reading at all this term at school; no reading books sent home, homework on the screen which she can't access.

I support her as much as I can at home but I have no idea how to teach her to read.

She missed 4 days in September due to her own isolation, her Key Stage 1 bubble has closed twice due to cases (1 case in year 2 and 1 in year 1 but they have the same lunchtimes and playtimes plus share equipment across the two year groups so all were affected by the cases). School have said there will be no reading support in school. They don't have enough books (large primary for our area 2.5 form entry) to quartentine them when they come in from home, so classes are supposedly being read to with the TA once a week but they don't have any fulltime TAs anymore except in Reception so only Reception have progressed with their reading.

I am not the only parent whose got similar problems. I have friends in both my DDs class and in the other year 2 class plus further up and lower down the school. All apart from Reception parents are unhappy with the education their children are receiving right now.

During the lockdown the school were brilliant, but it wasn't always the class teacher setting work, often it would be one of the 4 teachers in your keystage/bubble and then it'd be marked at some point by the class teacher. So we had stuff to do but it wasn't always appropriate for your child. My DD struggled a lot and need lots of input which meant me not working (I'm a single parent).

When they leave primary school, one in five is functionally illiterate

This figure is being thrown around uncritically. I've had a look to see where it has come from.

1. it is from over a decade ago. Since then the introduction of compulsory phonics in schools is supposed to have improved standards in reading

2. it appears to relate to not meeting the 'expected standard' in KS2 SATs. Is it fair to label someone who didn't get a level 4 in their SATs as 'functionally illiterate'? When people see the words 'functionally illiterate' what do they have in mind? Someone who can't read at all, or someone who didn't pass their SATs?
   Do we call kids who didn't meet the expected standard in their Maths SATs 'functionally innumerate'?

Schools can only do so much we’re missing the point that parents are ultimately responsible for their children including making sure they are educated. Maybe we should be asking ourselves the question why so many parents think that everyone else is responsible for their children. I’m not talking about parents of kids with special needs they were completely forgotten about in the spring and summer.

In the last lockdown we got so carried away with every child having mental health problems we forgot what children actually need to develop which is routine, rules and consequences.

I know professional parents who claim they couldn’t make their capable older children do any work but they were happy for them to sit on fortnight all day.

I know parents have to work and for smaller children it’s incredibly difficult but for older kids we have to take some responsibility ourselves.

I agree with a pp about reading being the key. At primary level, kids should be reading every day.
In lockdown, where’s the access to books? Schools, libraries and charity shops are shut. Ideally, younger kids should be reading (or being read to) 3-4 simple books a week? Older kids, maybe one book a week/fortnight?
That’s a lot of books for parents to purchase and not many have the means.

Problem is you can't move up to secondary a year late. Agree it's an issue but the logistics of solving are huge and not something that's "worth" doing.

Some kids will be functionally illiterate. I teach a few. Farm kids, with no interest in anything but working on the family farm. Got a job for life. Make zero effort in secondary school. Do no homework (working on the farm). Had a great lockdown but did no work (and I did live lessons for all my groups at least once a week so no excuses!). We are leading the proverbial horse to water but cannot make it drink.

Agree spelling and grammar of some teachers is poor and that it needs tackling. Not all of us are the same,mind you.

However, agree with previous poster. Please don't tell teachers they're the only ones that can teach little Johnny and then in the same breath that teachers are lazy etc. I'm supremely grateful for my steady employment and I love my job but lazy I definitely am not.

@MotherExtraordinaire

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.

It's got nothing to do with not caring for their children. It's about having a WFH job where you can't be watching over a child or not being WFH at all so having to leave the child with someone who isn't their parent. It's about not all children having the focus at 5 to sit for 6 hours whilst the parent works and teach themselves. Or being a SAHP to a 5 year old but also having 3 month old twins to contend with alone. Or not having enough devices or child because in normal life you don't need one screen per child. Or SEN. Or poor MH. Or school not providing leaning resources. Or a million other reasons that not everyone can do it all

I had the same problem with SN and maths, my child couldn’t add 2 and 1 together at the end of year 2, so I feel your pain. And yes, we got nothing relevant from the school.

I like Montessori multi-sensory approaches for reading. If your dd recognises letters that’s a good start. Is this of any help? www.home-school.com/Articles/phonics-the-montessori-way-part-2-blending.php

Single parenting is hard, I find normal parenting bad enough . Just 10-15 mins sessions at a time seem to work well with SN.

(That was for TheBellOnTheTree)

[quote MRex]@EagleFlight - you are highlighting pre-covid information, those literacy gaps were not caused by school closures for lockdown. I'll repeat again the bits you missed: "there are years to catch up those left behind during the pandemic" and "Children of 14-18 won't forget how to read if they knew how to before". Please supply your evidence for children forgetting how to read in that short a timeframe. Or anything saying how missing less than 1 out of 13 years of education will be the crucial factor making a negative difference for children when most learn that basic literacy in just their first two years in school? On the contrary, I would expect that the catch-up focus by teachers and DofE might actually help some of the younger kids who otherwise would have still been coming out of primary unable to read and write because they don't get enough support in the normal school system.[/quote]
Yes, I’m highlighting them to show the terrible state this country was in before covid! Since covid, with many parents try to wfh and homeschool, not bothering, or else not able to do so, it’s far worse. As PP said early on, some children went back to school in nappies after the first lockdown or unable to hold a knife and fork correctly.

You need to look at things from outside of your blinkered viewpoint. It’s lovely that you are so privileged that it all looks rosey and wonderful but the reality for many children is the opposite.

@TheBellOntheTree - one of the best ways to support a child learning to read is simply to read stories to them, follow along the words with your finger. Discuss the pictures and point out key words, and it's just a nice way to spend a little time snuggled up together rather than a task. Dr Seuss books are great because they use very few words extremely repetitively. Otherwise simple books about whatever she is interested in; animals / cars / fairies etc, keep going through the same books again and again while she's interested so that she catches how it works. If you aren't skilled in teaching phonics then that's probably a step too far and might risk confusion, but you'll have given her a taste for why she wants to read and she'll learn that the written words have a connection to spoken words. Here's a nice list of early reading books for other ideas: www.readbrightly.com/30-best-level-1-reading-books-for-children/.

@EagleFlight - you are being unnecessarily rude now and (intentionally?) missing the basic logical point that the presence of an issue before and after lockdown does not mean it was caused by lockdown.

[quote MRex]@TheBellOntheTree - one of the best ways to support a child learning to read is simply to read stories to them, follow along the words with your finger. Discuss the pictures and point out key words, and it's just a nice way to spend a little time snuggled up together rather than a task. Dr Seuss books are great because they use very few words extremely repetitively. Otherwise simple books about whatever she is interested in; animals / cars / fairies etc, keep going through the same books again and again while she's interested so that she catches how it works. If you aren't skilled in teaching phonics then that's probably a step too far and might risk confusion, but you'll have given her a taste for why she wants to read and she'll learn that the written words have a connection to spoken words. Here's a nice list of early reading books for other ideas: www.readbrightly.com/30-best-level-1-reading-books-for-children/.[/quote]
Unfortunately I read with her everyday, follow the words with my finger, point out the pictures etc. as school adviced me to do that and she absolutely hates reading with me, she will not sit and listen to me, she gets up, dances around, acts silly. If I don't stop when she tells me to she snatches the book away or folds it away on my fingers.

She was the same at school when they were reading stories in class as a group, she just would not listen.

@TheBellOntheTree

Mine also has suspected sen and couldn't read...

Thanks to mn and my own research I cobbled together my own stragety.

1st if she's struggling with phonics remember it's not one size fits all no matter how much the brain washed gurus push it..
I went back to basics with Peter and Jane books, building up 12 then 3 words a page, based on repetition.

Eg Jane, Peter, Peter and Jane.

Also buy the first 100 high frequency word flashcards. Do a few a day.

Print out the first hfw writing sheet and get her to write a few a day.

Build and work on the hfw.
Get cheap mini whiteboard and pens... Use that to help her learn to spell and recognise words.

Re no school reading books, we subscribed to the reading chest and throughout lock down we were able to follow and move up the reading schemes, in conjunction with Flash cards, Writing hfw.

I used a variety of tactics to encourage dd to work with me which was not easy, usually buying comp time.

I got her up 4 reading levels op, from a very stop start low level to one that's bottom range of current year expectations. But not the very bottom.

To begin with it was hard work getting the cogs turning ... But once they did turn she got it... Buying reading chest was the best money related thing we did and its real books sent through the post.. If you don't want to replicate your reading scheme you could choose the same level from the others and even choose the topic.

We did something every day, even one line... It's become absolutely rigid in our routine now.
She still won't pick up a book for pleasure but... She can read so much more and is able to support her own learning in class.

Good luck