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?

I have a reception ( not yet 5yo) and y2.

Both affected emotionally and socially. 4yo very quiet and shy and taken a long time to settle. Couldn't access nursery for 6mo and I was working in NHS so limited time for school/ play at home. She and her classmates seem more like nursery age in some ways.

Y2 also younger/ struggling emotionally, but academically doing well. She probably missed the least school of all years as they prioritised reception returning in 2020.

I work with young adults and they have really taken a hit too. I can see a lot of immature/teenage type behaviour I wouldn't have expected. Socially they seem a bit lost.

Teach Y2. This is my class’s first uninterrupted year and most of them have missed at least a week due to covid. Academically, we’re getting there! Slower to get their phonics but can’t really say the three who didn’t get it would have got it without a pandemic. Would say, behaviourally they just didn’t get the experience of how to work and cope with 30 children so issues are coming up you’d expect to see in reception/Y1. Took a long time to get routines sorted.
Further up the school, writing was really impacted as parents found this hardest to support at home. Also having to reteach some maths methods as they did it in some very strange methods.

Y11s are a mess, tbh. We are switching more to Foundation than we would in a normal year, but hard to know what the right paper is because fuck knows what the grade boundaries are going to be. It's really obvious who the ones are who did nothing during lockdown.

Y7 have some pockets of really appalling behaviour. Y8 are more like Y7 in maturity.

Y13 are difficult to gauge. They've needed far more supervision of work that they are supposed to be doing at home, revision etc, because despite having been expected to do independent learning during closures, they are worse at it than previous year groups. They missed out having to revise for GCSEs and the exam experience and so don't really know what's coming up.

Its really interesting (but not in a good way) that so many are reporting that older teens/young adults have got worse at independent learning. I would have thought that all older children would have got better at it, having had to do so much of it. Or maybe they didnt and that's the problem?

Should also note, my classes are doing relatively ok because they’ve got me as a teacher and I’m experienced, rarely have time off etc. Some other classes have not had a consistent teacher all year due to staff absence (including covid), inability to hire permanent staff, staff leaving. Some A-level classes that I know of have had to teach themselves large chunks of the course due to no teacher (worse than lockdown when there was a teacher setting regular work, marking etc). Student absence has also been a massive issue.

And we started the year with timetabled intervention slots for catch-up tuition and they’ve all disappeared due to staff redeployment to cover absences. I asked about the National Tutoring Programme and SLT laughed and said there were no tutors.

The kids will need catching up from their school experience this year, even though they’ve been in school.

My 4 kids used to self challenge unprompted.
Covid turned them & me into lazy screen addicts.
Hopefully with more experiences we will regain some ground and some ambition. When your world becomes more narrow it is hard to stay as driven.

Academically my dc haven't suffered. However year 4 and below have never been swimming with school. There has been no school choir for 2 years, no school photos for 2 years. We are still waiting to hear if current year 6's will get their leavers service. We were going to have the first in person parents evening since 2019 next week but cases are rising again so it's going to be on the phone again.

My kids are year 13 and year 8. Oldest obviously didn’t get to do his GCSEs but had done loads of revision when covid struck so was more than ready for them and we’ll prepared for A levels. Our youngest was well ahead in year 6 when it all kicked off. Their school and college were both fantastic with online schooling when they started year 7 and 12 so they didn’t really miss anything academically other than science practicals but that’s all caught up on now. I think primary school children missed most as they didn’t do many online lessons. My kids secondary school and college stuck to the same timetable as they would have done in school, just online. As they had internet access, it was easy for them.

UKS2: vocabulary is lacking, as is stamina and ability to maintain focus. Children don’t understand texts that I would have used at the same point 3 years ago, we are spending hours back-filling language.
Thinking skills are weak, anything which requires more than a straightforward answer. It’s going to be a long-term project to prepare them for KS3.
I’m heading for another peak of covid in my class; it rumbled around all autumn and us building up again. Many children have it for a second time.

I think it is variable between school, there have been some excellent teachers who have really done their best online and in real life when things got back to sort of normal. However, some teachers have been appalling and used the pandemic phase as an excuse, and used online learning to do as little as possible - back to in real life they continue to use this as an excuse - the worst in my view have been some of the sixth form teachers who have really been appalling.

@noblegiraffe

Y11s are a mess, tbh. We are switching more to Foundation than we would in a normal year, but hard to know what the right paper is because fuck knows what the grade boundaries are going to be. It's really obvious who the ones are who did nothing during lockdown.

Y7 have some pockets of really appalling behaviour. Y8 are more like Y7 in maturity.

Y13 are difficult to gauge. They've needed far more supervision of work that they are supposed to be doing at home, revision etc, because despite having been expected to do independent learning during closures, they are worse at it than previous year groups. They missed out having to revise for GCSEs and the exam experience and so don't really know what's coming up.

I think the for the IGCSE maths paper that was actually sat in January, the grade boundary was something like 15% for a 4?!! But surely that can't be the same again in the summer? I'm having real FvH dilemmas as well.

Going against the grain here but all that extra 1:1 time my children had with me during covid has actually accelerated their learning and they are much more confident and capable now. One of my sons couldn't read before covid and went back a free reader for example as we had load of time to work on this together during lockdown and when we were WFH.

My year 3 and year 2 are well ahead. They adore learning and we could stretch them at home in a way that school couldn't. My reception DC is struggling though. She has the mentality of a child about 2 years younger, and I think the biggest problems we'll see in the next few years will when the current 1,2,3 and 4 year olds start school.

Yr 5 mum here, I am presuming ours have caught up as for some reason known only to school they have deemed it reasonable for every friday morning in its entirety to be given up to teach the children tag rugby skills.Please excuse the sarcasm but how is this even neccessary given the last 2 years?

@Porcupineintherough

Its really interesting (but not in a good way) that so many are reporting that older teens/young adults have got worse at independent learning. I would have thought that all older children would have got better at it, having had to do so much of it. Or maybe they didnt and that's the problem?

I think it all depends on the subject. So, Y8 and Y9 here: DD is good with humanities and English, she likes it and these are subjects you can teach yourself if you put effort in it.

Maths and Science - a nightmare. It took 7 months of tutoring to get her back on track despite 3 months of proper online schooling. These are not subjects you can do yourself unless you really have a gift for them.

With lack of actual online teaching during the first lockdown it was difficult to get feedback of the work provided and with no rules about attendance lots of teens also took to sleeping late/no supervision from parents.

Independent learning has to be learned, it doesn't just come naturally.

Meant to add this is for 4 weeks.

Yr 8 - basically caught up except maths where really struggling with confidence. Hasn't had a consistent science teacher all year.

Yr 5 - behind in English and socially (has SEN anywhere, but lockdowns have had a severe impact on their ability to cope)

Yr 3 - caught up, but, actually is very able and probably could be working around more. Socially a bit all over the place.

They did do work over lockdowns but parents both work full time so it was nowhere near ideal.

Year 3 has been the hardest his in our school. So many basic fundamental gaps in their learning. Still expected to be reaching the year 3 standard which for some is so hard due to their reading. It's making kids switch off and think all learning is hard. That's just the academic side. Behaviourally and emotionally this year group are also finding things hard.

Both parents WFH then one parent developed Long Covid so DC had little-to-very-little support with lockdown learning.

My Yr 5 child has almost lost their love of learning / school and now ‘hates’ the more difficult subjects. Really sad for a child who was flourishing at school before Covid.

I accept that as life has changed a lot at home too - this has taken a toll on their attitude to life in general.

@Lunalicious

Going against the grain here but all that extra 1:1 time my children had with me during covid has actually accelerated their learning and they are much more confident and capable now. One of my sons couldn't read before covid and went back a free reader for example as we had load of time to work on this together during lockdown and when we were WFH.

Yes I think a lot of it depends on how much 1-1 time they were able to get at home and their attitude to learning.

My dd is struggling now as she hated home learning and it was hard to get her engaged and doing the tasks even though they had a full day with work set and online videos.

Y12 and 13 teacher - academically they're basically fine (though this might be skewed as I teach a vocational subject that traditionally draws from the middle of the achievement spectrum so we might just be getting slightly different students).

Y13 lack all urgency and have started getting a bit clingy - hanging around the department, lingering chatting to teachers...I don't think they're emotionally ready to leave college tbh!

Y12 are really enjoying college and liking the challenge of the work but crap at homework and self-study. Lots of anxiety and not wanting to do things.

Interesting thread. I agree with a lot of points from PPs that emotionally and socially things have had the biggest impact. I have one secondary and one primary child, and it’s hard to tell their real academic progress/lack thereof. It seems fine if not great in some areas and OK if not maybe a bit weak in others. I’m not worried about that as a parent. As a parent I am worried about their social/emotional lives, and I absolutely can see an impact there on both DC.

Friends & family who have Y13s it really resonates what PPs say about lack of independent study, not trusting exams will happen, not understanding the impact. And that all makes total sense to me. Lockdown was a shit way to learn independent study skills- remember how we all felt just trying to keep going with our already established lives and work skills? Independent study doesn’t come from just being left alone to get on with it with no feedback or support - and that’s what a lot of these teens had, in effect.

@Iputthetrampintrampoline

Yr 5 mum here, I am presuming ours have caught up as for some reason known only to school they have deemed it reasonable for every friday morning in its entirety to be given up to teach the children tag rugby skills.Please excuse the sarcasm but how is this even neccessary given the last 2 years?

That sounds fantastic to me. You've got your exercise plus lots of social skills and team work that they've really missed out on. There's still plenty of the week for academics.

It's the soft skills I'm concerned about rather than academic knowledge. Last year of primary school, predicted to do well in SATs so that's fine. But the social skills, the resilience, the ability to work through problems and be self sufficient all suffered. Plus I think without the lockdowns I probably would have applied and got an EHCP. Now secondary beckons without one and I'm just not sure how it's going to go.

@FavouriteGame ...I didn;t look at it from that angle, Thank you ! I see how that could be helpful now with interactions x