Aibu to think that a lot of kids are extremely anxious after lockdown?

[MrsHookey]

I've got one child who seems extremely anxious since lockdown. Anecdotally it seems like a few kids I know are like this. Is this a wider thing? Are mumsnetters finding their children have become anxious since March 2020?

@JunoMcDuff

ExceptionalAssurance in your area, maybe.

Not in mine. Online schooling was better than in person schooling.

To be clear, are you saying the schools in your area were providing those in school with only childcare and no education in the January to March 2021 closures, but education to those at home?

May I ask, are you talking about the 2020 closures, 2021 or both here? As there was also variation between lockdowns. The curriculum was suspended in the first but not the second. In ours the provision on offer looked very different both times. It was similar to what you describe in 2020, but in 2021 many more children were in and as the curriculum was not suspended they were actually taught.

Hub system here for both lockdowns - though second one they did give kids on-line access to work in day - but it was often still mainly childcare.

No idea why that was decided upon but it's how they operated - secondary was for first two years only- so even DD1 friends with access to internet issues weren't getting places.

I got told at the time this wasn't a usual set up - often by teachers with difffernt set ups and though hub system bloody odd- but it was how it was in this LEA.

My kids were at home - I wanted school open as much as possible as well as many posters here as I had a GCSE child and frankly not always that great on-line provision.

@JunoMcDuff

ExceptionalAssurance in your area, maybe.

Not in mine. Online schooling was better than in person schooling.

In what way?

@inferiorCatSlave

May I ask, are you talking about the 2020 closures, 2021 or both here? As there was also variation between lockdowns. The curriculum was suspended in the first but not the second. In ours the provision on offer looked very different both times. It was similar to what you describe in 2020, but in 2021 many more children were in and as the curriculum was not suspended they were actually taught.

Hub system here for both lockdowns - though second one they did give kids on-line access to work in day - but it was often still mainly childcare.

No idea why that was decided upon but it's how they operated - secondary was for first two years only- so even DD1 friends with access to internet issues weren't getting places.

I got told at the time this wasn't a usual set up - often by teachers with difffernt set ups and though hub system bloody odd- but it was how it was in this LEA.

My kids were at home - I wanted school open as much as possible as well as many posters here as I had a GCSE child and frankly not always that great on-line provision.

Thanks for clarifying. I should probably have been clearer my experience is with primary not secondary. I agree the hub system was less common second time round.

@ExceptionalAssurance

Worth more and having been assessed by someone else as more worthy of a school place are emphatically not the same thing. If you think they are, perhaps that's the reason for your astonishment.

I went to respond And then

I really don’t care.

I understand you do, and I can absolutely see that if my child had despised home learning then perhaps I too would have twisted the decision to prioritise certain jobs as an indictment on how worthy my child was of an education, so I’ll bow out of a discussion on the worthiness issue.

Btw I can see that for a number of children home learning was better for them in the same way home schooling is for some.

It still doesn’t negate the vast detrimental impact of school closures. I know this always gets minimised on here but this has felt like a good thread for talking about it.

And also making sure (who knows how) it doesn’t happen again,

I genuinely can’t remember
Was it ever illegal to have two children and two adults on a walk?

Just trying to establish if I was a criminal at any point!! Because I did, throughout.

@MarshaBradyo

Because if we don't learn from our mistakes - we're doomed to repeat them. I'm currently doing my dissertation for uni researching the impact on kids and every time I think I've reached peak shock at what we put them through - my jaw drops just a little bit more.

I think it's important that parents and kids get the chance to be heard and tell their story of these events - not just the media, politicians and those who shout the loudest.

I bet and agree. Too much suppression of negative impact by various groups.

Juno if it’s that positive homeschool is an option. Closed schools do not present same option.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean? I'm not saying school closure was the same as home education, it isnt. I said lockdown had a positive impact on my family.

@MarshaBradyo

Btw I can see that for a number of children home learning was better for them in the same way home schooling is for some.

It still doesn’t negate the vast detrimental impact of school closures. I know this always gets minimised on here but this has felt like a good thread for talking about it.

And also making sure (who knows how) it doesn’t happen again,

You’re right It’s been an interesting discussion

Juno I mean if the set up during lockdown was positive for you you have the choice to make changes to get closer to it. Home school / stay home etc

The reverse isn’t true if you were closed out of school you have no recourse or choice.

Thanks for clarifying. I should probably have been clearer my experience is with primary not secondary. I agree the hub system was less common second time round.

DD2 was Y6 at start of all this - now Y8 - I can't say it's not been massively disruptive to all three of ours children and I was really worried at times about lack of on-line provision - bascially they did next to nothing with DD2 in her last months of primary. Secondary povision was a worry though got much better by second lockdown.

DD2 found it easier at secondary as there was teams provided and they all had phones by then so keeping in touch with peers was much easier. I did worry about her lack of contact with friends in first lockdown but she was lucky to have a large family at home - so of her friends were very isolated with parents wfh flat out.

But the parents I was talking to who were disppointed with hub provisons in second lockdown were often primary school parents I knew - who needed to work had to often really fight for places as couldn't leave kids and had few other options and then found school work piling up for home as well. I think maybe that was a flaw in the hub system - in their own school/teachers perphaps that wouldn't have happened so much.

MarshaBradyo

I'm answering your questions in the wrong order, I'm sorry.

In answer to in what way was inline schooling better than in person, I can only answer for the primary school my children were at and the local provision for friends children.

In our school, children at home during both lockdowns received 5 hours of online education - a mix of live streamed sessions and pre-recorded material. Work packs sent home either paper or email depending on preference. Children in school accessed the live session via link up on the projector, but the worksheets, accompanying activities and pre-recorded sessions had to be completed at home. School was staffed by TAs, the head and wrap around care staff - the teachers were at home organising the online support and worksheets etc. In both lockdowns, it was made clear that the school building was a place of childcare and NOT for education - the school would provide the educational resources to complete at home. I assume to prevent what happened in some schools with very high numbers attending.

I will day our school has what imagine is an unusually high number of NHS workers as parents, due in part to being located practically next to a huge hospital.

@MarshaBradyo

Juno I mean if the set up during lockdown was positive for you you have the choice to make changes to get closer to it. Home school / stay home etc

The reverse isn’t true if you were closed out of school you have no recourse or choice.

It wasn't lack of school per se, but lockdown as a whole - significantly reduced social expectation and increased finances being the big two. But I'm aware we were lucky in that respect as we were both key workers, so household income wasn't affected like it was for many.

I'm also aware we live in a very middle class bubble and found many friends had very similar experiences to us. I can very much understand that for people who had impacted finances and who were unable to provide educational support at home for whatever reason it would have been different.

As to why my mental health (and that of my husband and kids) was improved when others weren't I can't really say.

@Oftenithinkaboutit

I genuinely can’t remember Was it ever illegal to have two children and two adults on a walk?

Just trying to establish if I was a criminal at any point!! Because I did, throughout.

Yes - in both lockdowns.

If we’re looking at ways to ensure school closures don’t happen again (e.g. if we heaven forbid get a vaccine-evading variant) then a priority should obviously be measures to minimise the spread of covid in schools.

Illegal
Or against guidelines

Illegal meaning an act has been passed

I honestly don’t know
But important to differentiate between guidance

And what is actually the law

Either way I broke it
And would exactly exactly the same again!

@Oftenithinkaboutit

I genuinely can’t remember Was it ever illegal to have two children and two adults on a walk?

Just trying to establish if I was a criminal at any point!! Because I did, throughout.

If you shared a household this was allowed. If not - it wasn't allowed at various points in the past.

If on Mumsnet - you should never have left the house as you might have tripped and fallen over and taken up an unnecessary ambulance and single handedly caused the collapse of the NHS.

But when you say “allowed” do you actually mean the alternative was illegal?

It's a shame you're bowing out often, not because you were providing any insight, but because it was positive that you provided me with the opportunity to explain so many times exactly why I'm right to talk about children being seen as worthy and unworthy of school places. You did stellar service to disingenuousness. I wish you well in your future supercilous efforts though.

@noblegiraffe

If we’re looking at ways to ensure school closures don’t happen again (e.g. if we heaven forbid get a vaccine-evading variant) then a priority should obviously be measures to minimise the spread of covid in schools.

Yes, but I'm not sure we achieve that without significantly impacting the school experience. I know a local primary school near here did the whole individual desks, individual playing squares in the playground, not moving around the classroom etc. That cannot have a good impact on the kids. I'd not agree to that at all.

but I'm not sure we achieve that without significantly impacting the school experience

Schools had to close from Jan to March because of rampant covid spread in schools which I think we all agree was a worse school experience all-round.

Goodness looks like it was illegal when I used to meet every other day with a friend and her son for a walk.

Plus I used to go for a 5am run. Every day.

How exciting! I just thought I was breaking guidance!

@noblegiraffe

but I'm not sure we achieve that without significantly impacting the school experience

Schools had to close from Jan to March because of rampant covid spread in schools which I think we all agree was a worse school experience all-round.

If I have a choice of my (admittedly infant primary school age child) not going to school and therefore not receiving any formal education or going to school but unable to interact with their peers, unable to move around, unable to run around, I'd choose not going to school. But if those were the two choices, I'd not want to have to deregister my child to achieve it - if school cannot carry on as normal, I don't think the alternative should be deregistration.