If you think your Y3 child has suffered the most post covid, academically in realation to slightly older / younger siblings

[LCTikaheu]

I say slightly older and younger as I don't mean those doing exams.

I have 3 DC. Y1 (in a toddler room when covid struck) Y3(just started reception) Y6 (was in Y3 but could read etc and was a bit more independent with learning because of that and very clever)

My middle Y3 child also had a disruptive Y2 with multiple teachers and little continuity. They just seem to have really suffered because of the lack of base education Y1 and R.

Now have a tutor once a week but wondering what else to do. Dh and I happy to help but find it difficult to teach say the basisc / foundation of eg) maths as we didn't do bonds and just "know"!

Just looking for anecdotal feedback on this and anything others found helpful / engaging.

Parents evenings are v short and focus on positives. Going to ask for an independent talk with teacher as think child is really struggling

Thanks in advance

IMO current Y8 (Y5-6 during covid) have lost most - mainly social development

You aren't unreasonable to think that your child has been affected by the covid lockdowns etc but you are unreasonable to think there is a particular year group that has been affected more than others. That sort of thinking isn't going to help really.

maybe your child wojld have struggled at this point anyway - who knows? You need to focus purely on how to help them and not hypothesise about the "why".

your real question does come through in your post but not in your thread title and you might do better to repost purely asking for suggestions as to how to help your child

I have a y8 and teachers have said this to me too.

All children have lost out, whatever age they are

At our school it was y2 and y4 who suffered the most,Y2 had no preschool education and y4, who are a weaker cohort anyway, missed out on most of KS1.

Keep reading as much as possible and consider something like The Maths Factor (we use this and it’s fab, worth every penny). Short bursts every day more beneficial than one big chunk a week.

Mine is Y2 and I feel like he and his whole year group have been affected so much worse than my older two (y4 and y6). They are all struggling enormously, maybe something to do with starting school right in the middle of the chaos and having to try and settle at school with masks and distancing and much less love and affection from teachers.

I think teens got the most raw deal but for the current primary cohort I'd say Y2/3 are clearly the most affected in my experience. I don't know what to suggest. We are also doing some tutoring and hoping time and love and support helps!

My year 3, 6 and 8 kids actually benefitted from being at home I think. In particular I relished giving my younger ones the experience of much more play based time in yR and 1. I think it was probably helped by having twins as they spent a lot of time playing together.

It doesn’t compare at all to the experience of the kids I teach at Secondary (I know that’s not what you asked) the current cohort of year 10 and 11 in particular appear to have really struggled.

Well they have all.suffered haven't they?
My oldest son was in year 8 when covid hit,so missed half of year 8 and has a very disrupted start to year 9
My youngest was in year 5 ( in a special school ) and same missed half of year five and had a disrupted year six ,everybody is going to think thei.child suffered the most🤷

I have a now year 6 and year 3 and a preschooler.
Without a doubt my year 3 has suffered the most. That might be due to his personality and being a summer born boy, but his is still playing catch up and his whole cohort is weaker than expected.

My Y3 has definitely been affected, mainly socially, as he barely saw his classmates for the first two years. It's only the last few months that he's really settled into a friendship group. His class were really unlucky with multiple periods of home schooling in Y1 and also had a high turnover of teachers last year - they had 5 different teachers in Y2

Though at the other end, I work in a university and think students had an awful time during the pandemic, just in a different way.

I’ve got reception, year 3 and year 7 kids. Year 3 suffered by far the most - just such crucial learning lost and it has really affected them. They did one term and two weeks of reception, then that was it. Our school didn’t have them back that school year even when the government said they should. We basically didn’t do any home learning, as it didn’t start for months and when it eventually started was only packets of phonics which she’d forgotten by that point. Year one lockdown again, for a huge chunk. This time we did some home learning on the computer which was better - an hour a day. Year two was much better, but a huge mix of abilities, some were at the expected level, some were just starting phonics. Made it very hard to teach. Now in year three and a whopping 14, yes 14 of them are being assessed for dyslexia. It’s usually 3-4 in an average year. The school has told us this is due to the effects of lockdown triggering the dyslexia assessments and that they aren’t dyslexic, they just are really behind. My daughter is one of these and she’s at a very early level of writing - her writing would be unintelligible to most people. Maths - again really far behind. Her brothers have no issues, I’d say the main impact on the older is the kids in his year are all communicating via computer games because they got in that habit during lockdown.

Rough for them all. I've a current year 11 (never done any exams and back to pre covid maeking schemes) they lost out on so much just as they were starting independence. I've a current year 8 and same as pp they really struggle, end of term exams have been awful, they didn't do Sat's (good) but they worry more about the exam process. List out on Yr 6 leavers things (as did the previous year) and normal starting secondary prep.
They all lost out.

My DS is now year 3 and way behind where his sis was at that age even though he is just as bright. His writing is particularly poor as I didn't stand over him at home to complete tasks set. His reading lagged behind too, but luckily that suddenly clicked a few months back. My friend is a primary teacher and I was secretly jealous of how she was educating her DS at home during covid. All the skills, all the knowledge, all the resources AND it shows now.

I think this will also be school dependant. Some schools did so much more than others.

I’ve got a yr 2, yr 6 and yr 9.

So my oldest missed finishing primary and then started secondary during covid too. My youngest didn’t get to finish nursery and started primary in covid. By far my middle child had it easiest in a way.

Their schools however where not very good well the primary.

My daughter is year 4 now and I was working very full time (albeit at home) throughout. School did nothing, didn't even get in touch for 6 months. Then did barely anything in subsequent lockdowns.

But I paid for a tutor several times a week throughout the pandemic and she also did outschool classes. (I had to work, and she needed me to be mum and playmate when I wasn't working).

We have stuck with the tutor ever since and I am so glad I found her,. DD is doing really well across the board.

So I think that balanced out the educational impact but emotionally the impact of no school was huge for her. She really missed the social side of school

Look at games on Maths Frame. You can even choose them to hit objectives for different year groups. Y3 maths really isn't confusing or different to what you learned at school - a big part is the 3, 4 and 8 times tables and related divisions, column addition, column subtraction and short multiplication. If they can do those, they can pretty much hit expected level at the end of the year.

I think Years 2-4 have all been badly affected. I teach Year 2 and am finding this year much harder than last year, partly because they missed so much of the basics in Reception/pre-school but they are a generally weaker cohort anyway. Hard to tell to what extent COVID has impacted on that.

I'm not sure it's possible to say which school years 'suffered' the most over covid. It varied hugely for individual children, and pretty much all age groups have struggled in some ways.

The youngest missed their social development through no nursery/early years and little interaction with other children and family members.

Some years had very little key stage one, so missed out in establishing the key learning and consolidating the building blocks for English and maths, and more. Also missed out in the emotional and social development developed in school, making and retaining friends, etc.

Some missed chunks of key stage 2, others key stage 3 and key stage 4 and GCSEs, with that impact affecting them as they moved into further exams two years later.

Then others missed exams and messed up exam grades, losing out on university places due to the despicable issues with grades - u turn 2 days later but many had already lost their first choice places by then. Then going to university in covid, virtual lectures, little interaction. For example, Dd lived in a flat on her own for most of her first year as the other halls flatmates were supposed to travel from further afield and either couldn't or wanted to stay with family.

University students already there missed out on in person lectures, living independently, social interaction - and it went on for much longer than the official lockdowns too. Those with placements were left unable to do them - virtual first and second year teacher placements (even when schools were back) are no substitute for being in a classroom. Very new nursing and medical students thrown in the deep end with limited support due to the pressures of working with covid in those days. Same for other vocational type courses.

Then you have the adults - we all suffered in some way whatever our age, from new babies to the very elderly. It wasn't great looking back. We did what we felt we had to at the time, but it certainly took its toll.

It's probably going to vary by school. Our Year 3s are a really able, focused year group. Our Year 4s are very immature and weak in comparison with lots of behavioural problems. We repeat the problem with a great year 5 and a not so great Year 6.

Reception (current Y3) were brought back into school as soon as it was allowed so missed way less school and socialisation than the current Y4. We also brought Y2 back (current Y5) quite a bit before the end of the Summer 2020 term whereas Y3 (current Y6) didn't come back till Sept.

Maybe it's coincidence that the years who missed less cope better but I doubt it.

I think it’s more based on the individual or maybe how schools dealt with it , what social interactions dc had during lockdown etc etc

Not wanting to sound blaze about it but i honestly haven’t noticed any difference with my dc , got what I would have expected they would in subsequent exams if Covid hadn’t happened and stayed in contact with friends via gaming etc and went out to play once allowed so kept the same friendship groups etc

My daughter's head has consistently said it is his current year 3s who have been most severely impacted and remain the most impacted. Might not be true in every school but I can certainly see it.

Yes year 3 suffered, my little one struggles with handwriting, a skill normally learned in reception and Y1.

I teach Y3 and my colleagues and I all feel that this year's cohort is struggling more socially and emotionally than previous year groups. They are also missing some foundation knowledge and struggle with handwriting and fine motor skills. Anecdotally I have seen other Y3 teachers report this online too.

My school was very forward-thinking during the pandemic and provided the best possible education but YR really couldn't replicate the experience of being at school with their peers.

We are working as hard as we can to close the gap.

I think it was hard for lots of children for lots of different reasons. I was told of a group primary schools, which had really bad issues with current year 7 when they were in years 5&6. The schools clubbed together to get an emotionally intelligent basket ball coach for the students to let off steam and assist their transition to secondary.

My dd was years 7 and 8. She fared ok as she did the work and I was around. I understand older students went rather feral and the school had a lot of issues.