Year 7 the lost generation

[Marzipan12]

I've heard this a few times now, the thinking is that year 7 have missed out more than anybody else. This annoys me surely at this point every year group has missed out. My child is year 8, missed over an entire term of year 7, disrupted learning so far in year 8 and home learning for half a term. Every other year group has missed the same. Some year 7 parents think their kids have missed out more, regardless that they had time back in school to finish year 6 and didn't miss an entire term of their first year in high school. I would say this puts year 7 at an advantage over other year groups. They certainly are not the lost generation that some are making them out to be in fact they are one of the more fortunate year groups.

Why does it matter who had it worst?
We all worry about our own; doesn't mean their experience was better or worse than anyone else's.
Stop trying to make it a competition!

I work in a school and a number of colleagues have told me that the current yr 7 are much more immature than previous yr 7's.

I've worked in a secondary school for 5 years and tbh year on year we've noticed each Yr7 intake being less mature and needing more support so not sure this is Covid related, but agree that lack of transition this year can't have helped at all.

I dont think its just the lack of transition to school - its missing out on being able to go to the shops with friends, the cinema, trains, buses etc by themselves. DD was just starting to do this in Year 6 when COVID hit and she has managed one shopping trip since then. All of these things that help independence have been delayed a little bit

OP wants Year 8's to be prioritized as they have missed out as a result of their first year of secondary school being interrupted and that disruption continuing into second year.

Sounds fair enough.

Year 7s have also missed out - sats, transitions, leavers trips and shows. They should probably also be prioritized too.

Year 9's - they should be well into choosing their GCSE subjects, but have missed part of their y8 and now y9 experience - they need some of this priority business too.

Year 10 and 11s - missing important GCSE years - they should be well up there for prioritization.

Of course the Y12 and 13s - missing their A-level time - get in line for some priority treatment.

Plus university students, primary school etc etc. All the kids have missed out. All need support. All want to be prioritized.

Picking one year group over another causes division and resentment.

OP seems to resent last year's y6 who got to "go back to finish off primary school". My Y6 child got 2 weeks of 2 day/week in school for this. 4 days. No trips. No parties. No shows. No leavers assembly. If your (then) y7 had got those 4 days in school instead, would you think that made up for the disruption to the rest of their y7?

Priority needs to be given on an individual basis - for those whose mental health has suffered most, who haven't been able to engage with the remote learning, who have lost family members or friends.

Battling it out over whether 11/12 year olds have lost out more than 12/13 year olds is pointless.

My son is 2, has a speech delay and has missed out on socialising, nursery and face-to-face speech therapy.

Honestly, everyone has suffered this past year, not just school-age pupils.

Let’s be frank here, they’re all equally screwed ultimately. Remote learning will become the norm eventually after the next few waves. They’re entering a world which is under threat with various mutations of a virus that we hope we can contain with vaccines. The economy is going to be a disaster after the next few waves wreak havoc with industries impacted by covid restrictions.

You as parents have to in-still resilience and hope into them, make them adaptable for a world that may be very different to the one you grew up in. There’s no use wanting things to be how they were, accept how they are and nurture them as best as you can.

I personally think it’s much harder on year 10 and above. This is where they find themselves and are socialising loads.

Dd is now year 8 so had 2 terms in year 7 and quite a restricted year 8 so far. However, she’s worked hard and I’ve seen her mature beautifully. She doesn’t seem lost and the suggestion she is is baffling to me.

Remote learning will become the norm eventually after the next few waves.

Thanks for that, it's really cheered me up.

Goodness, is there a prize for who had it worse?! The lack of empathy for anyone else is shocking from the op. Everyone has had a rough year. My y 7 child went back for 2 days in total her y6 summer term, hardly 'finishing off year 6'. It's been very hard for her as a naturally shy girl to make new friends when they're all wearing masks most of the day and she's only had 1 term in secondary. Luckily she's doing ok with home learning but it's more the emotional side that concerns me. I think it's more of an issue child to child than year group to year group. Personal circumstances make a big difference and the luck of the draw with teachers. Unless you also have a child in year 7 op you really can't compare.

I really do have to echo the baby boomers here and question the fragility of those who think social lives are more important than gaining the education and skills to be able to feed and house themselves in future. The current levels of hyper socialisation brought on by the internet and other connection devices is not in any way normal for humanity. Perspective is needed: you can survive 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, and an entire lifetime without socialising

You're being ridiculous. Even the most basic research will show you the devastating impact of isolation on the human brain. Socialising IS usually essential for a human to thrive. Basic surviving, breathing in and out, isn't much use to you without being a functional being.

At the moment I'm equally concerned for my dc's education and their 'social lives'. All the A grades in the world will be bugger all use to an 18 year old who's brain has started to atrophy due to being unable to form essential social connections in the most important formative years. Zoom calls and What'sApp aren't enough.

I'm not just talking about the really bad cases - the kids with depression, suicidal thoughts, other MH issues diagnosed. I think that largely, the potential long term effects on the brain development of 'normal' kids by locking them away for months on end has been drastically minimised.

Everyone has lost out and suffered of every age. No matter what year some children will be more affected due to the outside factors that affect being able to access what was available as much as others in their school/area.

Some parents of those DC will be here -
DC living in a family with abuse/neglect
DC or parents with Special Needs or disabilities.
DC who are ill/have become ill eg MH issues
DC dealing with bereavement
DC with family on low incomes

Some parents are unlikely to be here - those who have no internet access even on phones or sharing access with many others

• those whose parents could not support learning because they speak/read/write little or no English
• the ones who actually neglect their children, where school is an important part of child protection and who did not take up vulnerable children places even when offered

I hope the schools keep a particular look out for the children whose parents or guardians don’t or can’t support their children’s education.

Year 7 is a year group, not a fecking generation.

Y7 this year may have gone back to school briefly in Y6, but they missed out on everything fun about Y6. No school play, school journey or end of school party. They had no chance to get to know their new school over the summer or to make a few friends before starting at the new school.

All the time (three months out of six) they have been at secondary school has been "Covid school". No clubs, no enrichment activities, much harder to settle in and make friends. No chance to see what school is really like, all work and no play.

At least current Y8s had a normal Y6 and six months to settle into non-Covid secondary school before the first lockdown.

I think the only thing Y7s have over Y8s is that they've got longer to remediate this before they have to take exams.

Remote learning will become the norm eventually after the next few waves

Remote learning will not be, ever, the default option because fundamentally it does not work.

@Thewiseoneincognito

Let’s be frank here, they’re all equally screwed ultimately. Remote learning will become the norm eventually after the next few waves. They’re entering a world which is under threat with various mutations of a virus that we hope we can contain with vaccines. The economy is going to be a disaster after the next few waves wreak havoc with industries impacted by covid restrictions.

You as parents have to in-still resilience and hope into them, make them adaptable for a world that may be very different to the one you grew up in. There’s no use wanting things to be how they were, accept how they are and nurture them as best as you can.

Aren’t you cheerful?!

Remote learning will not become the new normal.

Remote learning will never be the default but the good thing is that it should hopefully make school accessible for those who can’t go in for whatever reason. Systems have been put in place to make sharing of work and things possible which is great.

@Plumbear2

Remote learning will not become the new normal.

It won’t be the primary method of educating but it will be used a lot more. The effect of schools reopening on case numbers will be clear as day over the coming weeks.

I think calling anyone in the UK "the lost generation" is a bit ott when as a pp said the phrase refers to a specific group of rootless, traumatised WWI survivors who engaged in emotionally unhealthy and self-destructive behaviours due to being unable to process the horrors they had lived through. Which has no parallels with school children in the UK not going to school.

That said, there's an edge of misery top trumps to your op which is in itself unreasonable.

@Marzipan12

Year 8 are working like year 6 at tbe moment, no moving, no labs etc. That's not unique to tear 7.

Jeez, OP, you're bleating on about how unfair it is that people are (apparently) seeing Y7 as the "lost generation" then claiming that in fact Y8 is the year that has really lost out. Which happens to be the year your child is in. Maybe just recognise that this is not a competition and that all sorts of people have had a very tough year for different reasons.

TBH, it’s not a competition about who has lost out the most. Every single person has been affected by the pandemic in some way. Children are resilient. This year long blip seems huge now, but in a couple of years will be forgotten by most school children when life is back to normal.

There is no lost generation, only people who have lost out.

Everyone has missed out, all kids, adults from all walks of life have missed out on something. It does feel though that people are insistent that make it into a competition to who has had it worse. It's madness. This pandemic really has highlighted just how selfish and nasty people can really be.

Going up to secondary school is an enormous transition, it must have been really hard under the current circumstances. Not everyone goes to the same school as their primary school, making friends and getting used to routines must have been very difficult. I feel sorry for them despite not having a year 7 child!

All kids have had it tough. They have been kept home and separated from their friends and it has been pretty rubbish for all of them. I feel most for the kids who were sent off to uni and charged a fortune for accommodation that many will not be using, and those that were supposed to be sitting exams tbh.