4 weeks of extra school in the summer

[noblegiraffe]

Justine Greening (former Ed sec you’ve probably forgotten) has asked that every child get a guaranteed 4 extra weeks of schooling over the summer.

Practicalities of this aside (imagine it is a fully funded army of well-trained, eager and willing tutors, fresh and full of energy rocking up to your kids’ school), do you want this for your children? When you saw the thread title were you ‘yes!’ or ‘god no!’?

Personally I want my kids spending the summer taking advantage of lower restrictions to visit people they haven’t seen since last summer and doing outdoor, fun activities. Education isn’t the only thing they have been missing out on.

However, I know that others are very worried about the missing education and may consider the summer better spent catching up.

YABU: I want 4 weeks of extra school in the summer holidays

YANBU: I want my kids to have the summer off to do other things

Definitely not. A chilled, relaxed summer is what's needed. Seeing family and friends is far more important.

Teachers were told to do it, as were support staff. What do you think their career future in their school would be if they had refused?

They could not be instructed to do this. I have no idea what their career would be. What I know is I have never set foot over the threshold of a school without recompense. Now I think of it, it's never stood on my way.

@tttigress but many children haven't fallen behind, so why do you think that?

My DD loves being at home, has got on with the schoolwork provided by the school (majority not online) and hasn't fallen behind. I'm sure it's the same for plenty of others.

Yes it's tough, no it's not ideal, but it's ok. Our children will be fine.

@tttigress

Are they? There are many countries around the world with kids doing remote school. I have friends in 10 different countries with kids and only the ones in Northern Europe have had any kind of face to face schooling in the last year.

Give over with this idea that we are the only country with kids not in face to face schooling.

[quote JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn]@tttigress but many children haven't fallen behind, so why do you think that?

My DD loves being at home, has got on with the schoolwork provided by the school (majority not online) and hasn't fallen behind. I'm sure it's the same for plenty of others.

Yes it's tough, no it's not ideal, but it's ok. Our children will be fine.[/quote]
My child is now around a year behind off the back of 73 days of education this school year. M

He was already being investigated for SEN, Teams lessons don’t work well for him as it gives him the opportunity to zone out. I’m being completely transparent with the school about what he can and can’t do in the hope they’ll access extra help for him when he gets back.

I’d implore you all to do the same. Don’t do your child’s work for them or give an overly rosy picture of what’s going on. If your child is struggling, keep the teacher informed. This will help the school/government put in the measures needed to catch the children back up.

Definitely not and I say that as a teacher and a parent.

If flights go ahead we will be enjoying 3 weeks in Spain that we had to miss last year. I’m sure that will be more beneficial to my DC.

I think there are likely to be different needs across year groups.

Eg year 9 and 10s may well need some educational catch up. Younger year groups probably need socialisation and some intensive reading input.

I was saying the other day that I think year 1 has been particularly shafted by the timing missing such a lot of reception and year 1. I don’t think full on education would necessarily be right for younger primary years but I don’t see why you couldn’t have summer camps with a bit of phonics. I think children they need fun and play as much as anything.

@tttigress

British kids are going to be so far behind their peers in other countries.

I find it bizarre that parents seem to be keen to enable this outcome.

Why are they? Mine have worked remotely so aren’t behind at all. Many parents will have ensured the remote work is done.

Lot of countries have had education at home, disruption etc not just us.

Parents can catch their children up if need be as they are the ones responsible for them.

I don't understand where or how they think they will get teachers from to do this. The vast majority have still worked. My DD’s teacher is emailing links to lessons sometimes as late as 11at night. They deserve to have some downtime as much as the kids do. Time to rejuvenate from over a year of crap! Not only that they don't get paid for the holidays. Are we suddenly going to demand they work, bung them some money and ignore the fact that they haven't seen their own families for visits and holidays like the rest of us? It's just another expectation places on people who have worked so hard, trying to placate the public at their expense.

@echt

Teachers were told to do it, as were support staff. What do you think their career future in their school would be if they had refused?

They could not be instructed to do this. I have no idea what their career would be. What I know is I have never set foot over the threshold of a school without recompense. Now I think of it, it's never stood on my way.

Were you not placed on a rot for the Easter holidays last year ?

I'm in an international school. Many of our kids are the dc of local CEOs, government ministers, etc.

It's customary for wealthy families to have a house here in the capital, & a villa on the coast to get a nice sea breeze, in the scorching summer months.

We've recently had a message from SLT that we are not to take up any of the offers of a month or two lucrative live in summer tutoring at the seaside....

I think, in the U.K., voluntary summer camps with some teaching in the morning & fun stuff in the afternoons would really help some families - eg. where parents have maxed out annual leave, or where particular dc need it or would enjoy it.

However. A) I can't see where they'd get enough qualified teaching staff from, plus admin, catering staff etc

b) huge impact on building maintenance & deep cleaning, unless you rotated around different sites eg different schools in each town do a week each, with any local kids who want to attend - possible but then you'd need transport too. Mixing students from different schools might also be seriously unwise given covid isn't going to just take July & August off

c) it would absolutely need to be paid & voluntary for teachers/tutors^^ - I can totally imagine some schools muttering to teachers about 'nice threshold you're eligible for next year - shame if anything happened to it...team players, commitment, very important don't you think...?'

& d) I'm not at all sure it's efficiently target the right kids. You could end up widening, not narrowing attainment if it became a case of pushy parents hogging it for their already over stretched dc.

Suspect it'll be online & half arsed if it happens at all, as PP have said.

No. I teach In Australia. And when I taught in the UK, I did not go on-site to be in charge of students without being recompensed.

And no UK teacher had to accept being on a rota. Teachers cannot be obliged to work the holiday period. If they chose to do so, they pissed on their own chips. I said this at the time on MN education threads.

Such loyalty and commitment is why they are being treated like shit now, as per the catch-up programme being proposed.

nice threshold you're eligible for next year - shame if anything happened to it

That's definitely a thing.

My school paid teachers to go in over Easter and it was voluntary. We had a cross-MAT hub so this was easy. I imagine that it was very difficult in a small primary school with few teachers.

I’m at the top of my pay scale and ready to leave teaching, so I couldn’t give a shit anymore. I enjoyed teaching before Covid, not the paperwork...but the actual teaching was fab and I adored the kids. If I’m asked to work during the holidays, the resounding answer will be no and I don’t care how bad I look. If they offer me pay, it’ll still be no. After this year, I done with it. I wish they’d offer me redundancy actually.

@echt

Teachers were told to do it, as were support staff. What do you think their career future in their school would be if they had refused?

They could not be instructed to do this. I have no idea what their career would be. What I know is I have never set foot over the threshold of a school without recompense. Now I think of it, it's never stood on my way.

I agree with you Echt. I worked in a school where a new head came in and expected staff to stay late at school, come in in the evenings and weekends because she had no life outside school so didn't see why anyone else should

The staff said No, we have lives outside school and refused to do any of it. What could she do? Nothing.

I do my online classroom, don't volunteer for the hub due to age and health and won't be putting my name down for anything extra.

Who’s paying the overtime!!

I'm torn. I feel like my 11yo Y6 would benefit from it. But I also feel like it would be alot of pressure and give her less time to process the transition from primary to secondary.

'Fallen behind'.. is a false premise. . if we change the dates/years then they won't be behind.
People decided GCSEs should be taken at 15/16. They could be at 16/17 and uni at 19... and so on. If we were a little more laid back this would reduce the stress for this age group. It will all be ok in the end. Look at children who come here from war torn countries many don't speak English either, yet most of them achieve and go on to get jobs and a life.
Socially, of course they are missing out, if youth clubs still existed they could have gone there to see friends when allowed.
Primary children in other countries don't start formal education until 7, doesn't hold them back. Children are adaptable and made to learn. A lot of people are worrying unnecessarily and projecting their worries on to their children. There is more to life and more than one way to learn!!
Personally as I hated school and was very self contained, I would have loved to have not gone!!

Forgot to say.... my DD is a secondary teacher & says the new yr 7s are not like yr 7s, but still like year 6s.... Same with the yr 10s/11s & 12s have sat no exams.
Another reason to keep them all 'back', which wouldn't be 'back' if we had a more flexible system.

My DCs are 5 and 8 and I’m not particularly worried about them falling behind, but I am lucky that they were both doing very well beforehand so I’ve been able to keep them on track(ish). If one of them were struggling, or if they were at exam age etc then I’d be more likely to consider it. I think it very much depends on the individuals.

People decided GCSEs should be taken at 15/16. They could be at 16/17 and uni at 19...

Where do you put the extra bulge year in a school or college? How does that work in terms kids who have to leave education for economic reasons as soon as they are legally able? Will child benefit be extended for a year? How do you deal with universities who dont have an intake for a year? How do you deal with the financial impact to them (remember it includes fees from overseas students) if you seriously restriction university intake for a year? What is the impact on hospitals if there is a year where there is not a full intake for medicine?

Wouldn't it be in every child's best Interest to repeat the academic year and start a fresh? Don't get me wrong I'm certainly not saying that children should remain off school until September if it's safe to return but allowing children to return when it's safe to do so and repeat the year would take the pressure off the teachers (who are doing a great job) and protect their mental wellbeing of both children and staff and allow the children who have missed out on vital education and interactions in school? It seems to me that most children will have missed nearly 2 important years of schooling and those that went into Lockdown in year 5 will start secondary school with very little growth or transition and those that were in year nine in secondary will be heading towards little preparation for the final year. Those lucky enough to be able to send their children to private school's haven't missed out on valuable lesson and loss of education like most of Us have and please don't get me wrong I'm not judging or picking on anyone here but I think this needs to be taken seriously on how the government makes this right.. And also saying to make up lesson during the holidays is completely unfair I and my Children try really hard with Homeschooling, I'm not a teacher, I didn't train for this and we didn't decide to home school this isn't our choice(but I wouldn't be sending my children to school anyway during this Dangerous and scary time absolutely not😱) So holidays are really important to Us and we really need that time just to have fun and not worry about school. It's hard being a kid and the pressure of school so holidays need to be just that a break. And Us that our homeschooling need that break too.. This is Just my opinion. Take care all and stay safe and well✌🏽

Wouldn't it be in every child's best Interest to repeat the academic year and start a fresh?

No.

Wouldn't it be in every child's best Interest to repeat the academic year and start a fresh?

There are a % of kids who are not just keeping up but the extra one to one time means they are excelling. What happens to them? Do they just have to sit getting bored for a year whilst repeating what they have already learnt? Or are you asking the teachers to teach an extended range of abilities for an extra year which doesn't exactly resolve the gap that has grown?

It certainly would not be in my son's best interests to repeat the year.