Pupils re-sit a school year - start year later as per mainland Europe?

[Fizzydrinks123]

I understand arguments against not re-sitting a whole academic year and was on board with this during March 2020 etc

However, my concern is the emotional impact this is having on the young - they know they've missed out on lots of social as well as academic development.

Is it right to just move them on to the next level of their education knowing they've missed out on so much and expect them to step up to more demanding work?

In mainland Europe it is usual for children to start school a year later than here in UK.

I understand university may be adversely affected due to funding - but the kids currently at university aren't happy paying out £9,000 and asking for refunds.

Am I being unreasonable to suggest re-sitting an academic year is seriously considered?

The new variant is so much more contagious that there will be more uncertainly ahead until the summer.

Are the current Year 6's really ready to go off to senior school? It would seem better they go back to junior school they know and re-sit that year and prepare to move on to secondary school the following year?

Eg- Italians learn to read and write at 4-5 same as Brits. Just that Brits do it in reception/year 1 and Italians do it in the last years of nursery.

This isn't true. My children all went to Italian pre-school and they weren't taught to read or write until they started "proper" school. They start the year they turn 6. DS was 5 3/4 when he started (autumn birthday) and had already taught himself. DD was 6 1/2 (spring birthday) and she couldn't read or write before she started school.

But how would a sixth form college take in, say, 25% extra students and ditto how would a Y7-Y11 secondary school add 20% extra to their GCSE classes?
Of course, you can always repeat a year for both of those (though usually the GCSE repeats would be in sixth form) but the 6th form colleges will have to be very picky about who they take if they have such an increase in numbers.
For many the delay will be requested for social reasons (they won't want to move on from their friendship group) so the colleges will be taking huge cohorts not one or two who fail like they do currently.

I'm certain that if you asked the kids themselves what they'd like to do, none of them would want to repeat the year. I know my year 11 child wouldn't.

Bagamoyo - I’m certain if you ask the kids that have fallen behind, be it due to poor remote learning provision or the lack of structure or the interaction & support from an actual teacher - that they would be in favour of having the option to add a year & might not feel quite so abandoned or anxious about their future prospects.

@Hollybutnoivy

Eg- Italians learn to read and write at 4-5 same as Brits. Just that Brits do it in reception/year 1 and Italians do it in the last years of nursery.

This isn't true. My children all went to Italian pre-school and they weren't taught to read or write until they started "proper" school. They start the year they turn 6. DS was 5 3/4 when he started (autumn birthday) and had already taught himself. DD was 6 1/2 (spring birthday) and she couldn't read or write before she started school.

Mine definitely did. Goes to show that it's different in different areas I suppose. Dd's maestra here in A$$End was horrified that one child had arrived in the class who hadn't been taught to read and write at nursery and he had to go to a kind of recupero in the afternoon to bring him up to the level of the rest of the class. I also did some teacher training with elementary school teachers who were astonished at UK kids starting school at 4 and were under the impression the UK had all these advanced 4 year olds who could read and write. Then we went into the whole thing and they understood that that wasn't the case at all.

@Solinvictus That's interesting. I didn't even bother trying to teach DD as she wasn't interested and I remembered that DS had actually found it quite boring to be taught reading when he already knew it!

My 4 year old at preschool in France won't be taught to read for a couple of years ('cos you try explaining to a 4 year old that Z is said Z but -ez is silent in verbs) but she is still learning to write her name, some letters and numbers, and the all-important social skills.