Kids still feeling the effects of lockdowns…

[sloanedanger]

I just got caught reading a really interesting thread on Twitter started by a teacher:

“Is anyone else thinking we are starting to see the impact of 2 years of disruption and time at home, due to COVID 19, in schools? Extreme behaviours? Some pupils very emotional and struggling to regulate? Low attendance compared to normal? Winter bugs hitting hard?”

A lot of the comments say Y3 is the worst, others saying Years 7 and 8.

My DS is in Year 2 and often struggles with emotions and self regulation at school. It’s made me think, perhaps there’s a reason why linked to the pandemic. Lockdown was hard, DP and I were home with very young DC, trying to work, poor mental health, emotions high. Very little patience.

My colleague died of covid. Aged 42 with children. Caught it in school (didn't go anywhere else). I'm sure it will be great comfort to her kids that schools didn't lead to many deaths. One is too much if it could have been avoided (by vaccinating staff early on).
The attitude towards school staff during lockdowns (when we weren't working from home but in infection central) was appalling. As has been shown.
I never ever will understand how people can hate teachers so much. But then leave their kids in their care. Makes no sense.

Entirely irrelevant to how children are coping, or not coping, with the after effects of lockdowns.

It might be. But it has a bearing on how teachers are coping.

But again, this thread is not about the teachers.

It is about the children.

And who looks after the children ? Robots ? Unfortunately teachers are humans who are exhausted by the last few years and the vitriol thrown at them. Many have left so we are short staffed so have less time for the students. Which affects the kids as they need more of our time to help them deal with the effects of lockdown. It's all a bit of a mess.

It's definitely not about the teachers or in any way blaming them.

Yes the first lockdown esp was necessary but where is the government stepping in with extra cash to support the kids who need extra help catching up with school work and extra help with MH issues.

Very early on someone on here linked to a study by Oxford uni, the worse affected group were 7 year olds.

It would be good if we could not make this about teachers, I agree.

Not sure I did. But it was brought up so I answered.
The students are definitely struggling in many cases. Mostly with being independent learners. They are very passive and expect everything done for them. The desire to learn has disappeared for many of them.

And my CO2 monitor goes off every morning by 9am to tell me the air is unsafe. Nothing happens, but at least the kids know they are breathing in each other's germs. Loads of colds going around again, which could also be avoided with some ventilation. My windows open 2cm.

I think DS (2 next month) was young enough when the lockdowns happened not to really be affected.

I have a new sympathy for those who went through lockdown with toddlers, I just don’t know how they did it without having a nervous breakdown especially if they were working too!

Well, it’s wilfully ignoring the fact that where there are children there have to be adults that does that - and pretending that the only thing you have to worry about when it comes to illness is death. Lots of people getting ill at the same time and inconveniently taking a long time to recover and then being prone to secondary infections and other illnesses as a result of the assault to the immune system are an extremely inconvenient fact. This applies to some children as well as adults - we have a significant number of children at the school where I work who, since having had a bad case of covid, have had illness after illness ever since, so continue to miss a significant amount of school on a regular basis. These children were not “vulnerable” before they got covid.

Government successfully played groups of people who actually wanted to achieve the same ends (schools staying open) off against each other, and thus managed to avoid taking any responsibility to improve the situation as a result. No need to spend money on making schools safer and better able to remain open if you can, instead, just encourage parents to blame teachers and Unions for DfE incompetent decision making and Treasury refusal to spend money on anything that will really help improve the situation for people too young to have a vote.

Oh but yet again they can make it all about them and ignore the kids.

Pretty much most of the pandemic wasn't that? We weren't even allowed to DISCUSS the harm we saw in our own children because it was deemed to be "teacher bashing" and they would shut down every thread that dared mention that this was all AN INCREDIBLY FUCKING SPECTACULARLY BAD IDEA!
💐

😂😂😂😂 how to prove a point. I'm off. Teachers are all crap lazy humans who drank gin and ate muffins during covid. I win the bingo !

I don’t think that the post was started about teachers and it does rather prove the point made by @CoffeeWithCheese when we can’t talk about the effect the lockdowns had on children without it being taken over. It’s far from the first time it’s happened.

I can’t see anyone calling teachers crap or lazy. My DD’s teachers have all been brilliant, including during the closures. But people want to be able to talk about the negative effects of the closures on their children without the thread being derailed.

Agree with pp was about impact on children.

Re children and transmission

18% of people were responsible for 80% of transmission (true to Pareto’s Law)

The probability of becoming a super spreader increased with BMI and age (overweight people over 40) These people are more likely to mouth breath

Do you have a source for that, @hamstersarse ?

Oh, I have found the source. The study in healthy people did indeed find that the amount of particles exhaled was increased for BMI and older participants.

Do you know what the study also found increased the number of particles exhaled?

Having covid.

Coughs and sneezes, it turns out, do indeed spread diseases.

The study says "While those with low BMI-years, including children, appear to be at smallest risk of airway lining mucus breakup and respiratory droplet generation, our NHP results suggest that all individuals, including those with low BMI-years, can be at risk for generating large numbers of respiratory droplets, particularly following lung infection, and therefore argue for the vigilant hygienic protection of the young as well as the old when it comes to the gathering of people within indoor environments where respiratory droplets can linger and accumulate."

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2021830118

So, over to @hamstersarse then?

This.
Our pupil welfare unit is jam packed and internal truancy is sky high.
In classes, we have an exceptionally high number of pupils who can't sit tidily in class, so much so that we now have a class policy for table etiquette. Our current year is 11's seem stuck in the rough and tumble phase as well - like they haven't got the early teens boisterous behaviour out of their system.

And then we have children, through little fault of their own, who are more likely to cough and sneeze without covering their mouths. Right?

This thread was definitely not in any way shape or form about teachers, other than the tweet that sparked it was written by a teacher, about the observation they had made.

However teachers were among those sending their DC to hubs in the second lockdown, including those who were working from home. Including my brother, a PE teacher. As mentioned, it causes some family bitterness especially when he and his wife rubbed it in regularly about how much their DC were enjoying the time in the hubs!

BBC are reporting up to a quarter of 17-19 year olds have mental disorders.

Seriously that cannot be right or in any way normal. Not only does Government need to pull the rabbit out the hat and fund help for those young people.

They need to address the issue why?
While I believe lockdown is a part of the issue it cannot be the whole story. The education system must be playing a part.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the excess ie over previous years was pandemic response and lockdown related. No one was listening when people said it would be harmful.

I don’t even think it can be fixed easily, once harmed it’s hard to reverse.