Teachers and parents do you feel like your DCs education is starting to recover

[mymymisszoe]

My DS is in year 12 and I’ve just had his parents evening and speaking to the teachers they all mentioned how far year 12s are behind academically compared to normal years. This honestly got me thinking are your dc starting to come out the other side from an education point of view and if so how old are they and what was home learning like for them. If they are still behind and struggling when if ever do you think things will get back to pre covid levels. I would honestly be really interested to know teachers opinions on this as well and what things are like in schools at the moment now they are in theory supposed to be back to normal?

My child is on year 9 and has completely caught up. He is strong academically so that helps.

My son struggles with one subject and exceeds in the others. The one subject he really struggles with he did really well with before the pandemic and managed to catch up with his peers. Unfortunately he has fallen behind massively in it again the last 2 years and am thinking of hiring a tutor again.

My 11 year old (and his class) are doing well and not behind. My younger DC in year 2 (so missed the highest % of schooling due to lockdowns) is doing fine for his year but as a year group they are so far behind. The fundamentals of the first two years are
Missing in maths and English. I’m just glad that they will have time to catch up but I wonder for some children if they will never catch up.

In my extended family (9 kids) you can really see the difference between those who were academically able vs those who struggled more pre Covid.The gap has widened.

It's been amplified where some kids had parents who were able to do a lot at home - a sibling of mine who worked 3 days a week is also very good at teaching their kids and used the time to the max, resulting in their kids progress really accelerating.

Youngest is not behind in anything other than handwriting (year 3), his school provision over Covid was pathetically bad but it was easy enough to supplement it. Eldest is Year 6, they are just doing SATs prep for the entire year like they would have done anyway so it's pretty much a wasted year regardless. He is fine in all areas other than English, which he is behind in because of SEN - dyslexia and dyspraxia. He may have caught up more if covid hadn't happened, but then he benefited massively emotionally being away from school - learning differences were diagnosed during lockdown, before that he was just told he was lazy on a regular basis. He has been told his handwriting is disgusting once since, but came home and told me and knows that isn't true. So he has come on massively in confidence.

Ds has just started year 7 and he is doing ok and doesn’t seem to have fallen behind but his lockdown provision was fantastic

Mine was already academically behind due to SEN I think because we were able to plough a lot of energy into homeschooling during lockdown we’ve managed to stop the gap widening and in some areas I think it’s narrowed.

From a professional point of view it’s what I’m seeing in EYFS and yr1,2 and 3 that are quite a concern. There is real back log of children who would have been identified as needing assessment or additional support who have slipped through the net.

Yr2 child ahead of age in reading and maths, a bit behind in writing.
Year 5 child achieving as expected.

Neither did very much home learning.

Yes, they're caught up, but they're lucky to be bright and the home learning timing worked well with their ages -- the eldest was doing GCSEs and motivated and old enough to work hard on their own, and the youngest was young enough to still be biddable and strong armed into doing lots of worksheets. Now in years 12 and 4. State educated, both.

Ours have all caught up. School year groups are 11, 6, 5 & 2.
The high school have been running extra lessons 4 days a week for GCSE level, not sure if that is just due to covid or was already the norm. Primary started 1 extra session a week last term, they were doing fine without it though. They were all hard work with homeschooling.

My eldest is in year two and is quite academically able. Pre lockdown and post lockdown one he was exceeding all areas. Now he's just meeting. He was pretty difficult to engage at home but I did my best. I'm not worried. But it is frustrating that so many children are 'behind' and I just hope they aren't pushed to catch up with these imaginary numbers.

I am a secondary teacher and in my view the damage is more cultural and emotional than purely academic. The current Year 7 and Year 8 are more like upper KS2 in the playground. Year 11 haven't had the example of the previous two cohorts going through exams and I think some still half-expect the rug to be pulled. Year 13 are facing their A levels having last taken public exams in Year 6.

My year 12 has just caught fecking covid, this term loads of his teachers have been off with it - I think the disruption is still in full swing. I don't know what a Y12 is meant to be like but I suspect that they are a long way behind normal.

I have a Y10 as well and it hasn't been as bad for them. But all in all, for this age of young person, its the mental health battering that worries me more than the academic stuff. All my friends have different things their teenagers are coping with, self harm, anorexia, anxiety, depression, its non stop.

Ds1 Y11 yes, the school have been brilliant with their year. Ds2 Y9, same school no, still languishing in several subjects. There are staff shortages and Y8 and 9 are low priority. Bit gutted for him honestly.

Tbf @ThanksItHasPockets most countries dont do public exams til the last year of schooling so Im not sure that's a huge disadvantage. The disruption of the last two years bloody is though. Unavoidable and otherwise.

Yr6... caught up and more. Was extremely pleased to find out that shes achieving the 'expected level' for SATs in Maths already and on the cusp in English. She has SEN so the English especially was not something that was predicted for her.

Yr4. Academically, yes. Emotionally, no. Still has trouble with plans going ahead etc.

Homeschooling was pretty non existent really. White rose maths and Oak academy... there was work but it wasn't really assessed or monitored. DD2 did not engage at all.

Teacher. My year 12s are mostly fine, the only issue is that some of them have come to me with "7"s from GCSE that they probs wouldn't have got in a normal year. So it's not exactly that they're behind, it's more that they shouldn't really be doing my subject.

Similarly, there are small gaps for the year 10s, but they'll be fine next year.

Year 11s will suffer this year (although some subjects have had some very helpful exam guidance, or even lost whole chunks of the syllabus). Year 13 are in a real pickle. Most of them will get 2 grades lower than they might have done. Not just because of content missed, but because even now they just don't seem to understand how to knuckle down and just do some bloody work.

I think primary children with no SEN will probably catch up quite quickly - especially in KS1 where we force a lot of formal learning too early.

My year 8 dd was never behind, ahead if anything. Had coped well with home school and happy to do her own extra work.

My year 3 ds is another matter. Definitely not caught up. Missed out on a really valuable bit of foundation I think.

My three have maintained their levels. Ds (y4) was always a bit behind in writing but he hasn’t fallen any further back. Dd2 (y4) has maintained her levels, accelerated in reading actually. Dd1 (y10) was assessed as being between levels 7-5 at the end of the autumn term so I’m very happy with that.

My ds9 has but I don't feel my dd7 has. It very much feels they are on catch up and the teacher said the whole cohort have gaps. I feel like her age group have particularly been influenced by it as they have missed out on all the foundations of learning. Ds has quickly caught up.

@SometimesMaybe

My 11 year old (and his class) are doing well and not behind. My younger DC in year 2 (so missed the highest % of schooling due to lockdowns) is doing fine for his year but as a year group they are so far behind. The fundamentals of the first two years are Missing in maths and English. I’m just glad that they will have time to catch up but I wonder for some children if they will never catch up.

How did year 2 children miss the highest %? My dd is year 2 and I feel like this too. It's so sad.

My Yr11 really could have done with another year, he has SEN EHCP etc. He might scrape a couple of passes. He developed horrendous anxiety and depression just before lockdown and couldn't cope with going in. He's really lifted but he's just not going to be able yo make up the lost ground.

My Yr10 is academically able and doing well.

My Yr4 is in a special school and my Yr2 is EHE.

I work in a covid catch up role within primary. I’ve found that Yrs 2&3 are behind emotionally and behaviourally and the older years more academically. I’m my experience, year 3 is the hardest hit where lots of them haven’t learnt how to behave in a classroom, work with others, lots of missed phonics knowledge and basic number knowledge but expected to be working at a year 3 level.

DD is in Y10 and has caught up ok but only thanks to a tutor she had for 7 months.

I am more worried about her mental health, the school is proud of getting high grades and pushing them to a point where I start to say, f*ck off. DD is capable and has high predictions but the stress is taking a toll.