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

It was well documented at the time that Year 3 were the worst affected. We’ve had to put ours into a Private School, the tutor we got was good but still not able to on the time available fully support.

I should say current Year 3 then reception.

article here when they were in year 1

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-year-1-pupils-have-suffered-biggest-drop-in-their-learning-during-the-pandemic-study-suggests-12215628

Some countries don't start academic school until much later than UK the middle child will catch up with the support you are giving them.

My year 3 child suffered but she’s always needed a bit more support than her siblings to meet her academic targets. I got her a private tutor for Maths for around 9 months which caught her up. She is where she needs to be across the board now.

As a school governor we’ve been told that they see Y3 as the ones that have been worst impact and this is seen on a national scale. There will be massive differences school to school but the less involved parents are in education the worse it will be. Kids that had lots of books at home and read and were read to, who did lots of craft and had lots of toys to play with will have had many fewer problems. Conversely there were kids that didn’t get out of small multi generational flats who had little to play with or read and who didn’t come back to school immediately who will take a long time to recover academically.

My Y3 is struggling so much socially and emotionally. Possibly she is unlucky and every other child in her year is a complete weirdo but it seems more likely that as a group they haven't learned the basics - you can't be invited to every party, it is okay to avoid people you don't like, you don't have to tell them how much you dislike them etc.

Academically she is bored because everyone else is behind. Her spellings this week included NOT - we've got actual Y3 spellings up on the fridge and we do some of them every week. She's also got some maths and English exercise books she works through.

My friend is a SALT and works with schools. She says this Y3 is the 'worst' in terms of developmental issues and suspected ADHD diagnoses compared to all other years currently and compared to all previous y3 cohorts she's worked with.

Our son is Y3 and he’s very lucky to be in an exceptional class, with lots of very able kids who drive each other on. For our local area I think his class is a statistical anomaly, essentially a grammar school class in a primary in an area of deprivation, I also think the vast majority of parents were WFH during the pandemic and pushed their kids on. He’s very fortunate.

Talking to a wider group of friends with children of different ages I realise it was anyone on the cusp of change or had started something new suffered the most. I see similarities between reception children, the ones who had just started secondary school and those who’d started university.

All children are different.

It has affected my year 4 the least. Imo she's exactly as she would have been. Over emotional and lacks confidence but my other 2 were similar at that age.

My year 11 has struggled with school ever since, it has enhanced previous difficulties that she was masking well (neuro diverse) and the approach to exams is currently very difficult. She is a select mute at school, suffers panic attacks and occasionally school refuses.

My year 9 is excellent academically, I think it actually benefitted her not doing her SATs, she also luckily did her year 6 residential in December 2019 so didn't miss out on that (none since). But socially she has struggled, she finds group situations difficult and doesn't know how to "grow" friendships. Some of this is also because her biggest role model, my 16 year old, has not been able to model that for her. But I think this is mainly as her best friend went to a different secondary school but didn't tell her until the day before school started so not necessarily Covid but it was certainly at an important social time building friendships from year 6 into year 7.

I have all girls. As a teacher I see more obvious emotional hangovers in girls and more obvious academic/work ethic hangovers in boys, but that's how they present, not necessarily the main problems.

The tutor once a week should definitely help you child to catch up on any areas they are behind in. Ask their class Teacher for some feedback on which areas they are behind on. As parents at home you can do lots of reading, work on times tables (make up some games or use an online game) and work on learning to spell the ‘Common Exception’ words for their year group. But I wouldn’t worry too much, they will slowly catch up over time, they are still young.

I have a Yr 3 and a Yr 6, so they had disruption YR/1 and Yr3/4.

The current year 6 bears virtually no scars and is set to be greater depth in SATs, I'd say the Pandemic has made no difference - there was catching up at the end of year 4/early year 5 but it's all been made up.

My Yr 3 who is naturally more intelligent is really really struggling with lots of aspects of school, and again his whole year group are the same.

That's interesting, I have a year 8 (just the one child so nothing to compare to) and although she had a terrible year 7 for other reasons, she's thriving at school socially and academically. I went to do a careers talk for some year 12s at her school last week and me and some other parents there were shocked at their lack of social and communication skills and wondered if they had been impacted by Covid.

Not for me anyway. My same age child is thriving, but, there were super contingencies in place when they got back and he happens to have a particular good class group, which can make a difference. My now 11yo suffered more because his next teacher was awful and not mindful of the effects of 6m social isolation from peers. Time will sort most things, I'm a teacher and personally wouldn't be worrying or pushing things at this youngsm age.

Interesting- I'm not a primary teacher so can't comment, but I can tell you that our 14 year olds are like our 11 year olds in terms, not of academic attainment but of pure socialisation and knowing how to interact with other people. There is however a massive difference with the ones who come to us who didn't do online lessons. Whether that be due to schools not implementing them, or parents choosing not to avail themselves of the possibility is a whole other question, but when we get them we can see immediately. In secondary, (at least speaking anecdotally about my school) the ones who are still "behind" in terms of scolarisation, (and sometimes academically) are the ones who are now 14-15.

My children are younger but I do have some experience teaching maths (mainly to older children!) Board games can be very helpful. Monopoly (which is a terribly boring game for an adult to play IME) is very good for numbers (make sure you get one with real money, not the card version though!) Power Grid is another one that involves money but might be harder to learn.

A lot of board games are good for spatial thinking, reasoning and probability, including Catan, Carcassonne, Quirkle, Azul, Ticket to Ride and Cluedo - all of which I think a Y3 child could play.

YANBU. I’ve got a year 5, year 3 and twins in reception. The y3 was hugely affected. She was already shy but stopped speaking to any one outside the immediate family during Covid, she’s more confident now but has had so much extra help with maths and writing. Her reading has always been good but the other basics suffered so much and she might not meet her expectations in spelling and maths this year. She’s a summer born year 3 which hasn’t helped.

My year 5 has been fine, she could cope with the home learning mostly independently - and the little ones had a brilliant time at home although I know there have been more behaviour and social issues in reception as nursery and preschool was so disrupted for their cohort.

I will never forget trying to be on two zooms simultaneously (DD2 would hide under the table if I didn’t coach her through every moment) while paying work invoices and trying to keep my twins from jumping off chests of drawers. It was an impossible situation but I still feel like I failed DD2 and I hope she can recover academically.

My yr 5 daughter is much more affected than my yr 2. She's pretty much back on track.

I sit in a lot of governor meetings and there are concerns about social development across the board, but year 3 keeps coming up as really impacted.

I'm also a school governor and we have been told that Year 3 are the biggest concern for the school, as they missed out on so much of reception and year 1, when they are normally learning how to learn and how to be in school. The school has described that cohort as "completely feral"!

I can well imagine that the current Year 8s and maybe Year 9s have also been hit hard, having missed so much of the transition stuff at the end of the primary years, but I have less insight into this.

My dd is Year 13, so she was in Year 10 when the pandemic started and missed her GCSEs etc. It was tough at the time, and she hated home learning, but I feel like she has completely bounced back now with no real lasting effects.

Yes, for sure.

Year 3 did here and she's missed a critical time in her education. Catching up but WAY behind where she should be.

I thought independent studies had showed that the current year 3 were the most affected, and it makes sense since they missed so much of the foundations of socialisation, and learning. I have a child that age. We had one phonics worksheet a day from school when they missed reception. My child is behind in the basics of maths (may have happened anyway as I know you csnt make assumptions on just one child)

In my dd's recent parents evening the teacher said that in their school, Y3 has far more children working below age expectations than any other year group. In her opinion Y3 have been the most affected (educationally) by the school closures, in primary that is. But ultimately most children have been affected either educationally or emotionally by the pandemic.

My Y3 dd is doing well at school but we had both parents furloughed at home during the lockdowns so she had plenty of support with her school work. She probably learned a lot more than she would have done in a classroom with 29 other dc tbh. Her teachers were also really good with the home learning. I can well imagine that it's a different story for dc's who had parents trying to juggle work with home learning or a school that were a bit rubbish with it.

Thanks to those who replied and i agree with those who suggested maybe I should have had a different title. Eg) my Y3 vs their Y1 and y6 sibling academically

Thanks for the helpful suggestions

Again I wasn't saying those doing exams / uni or transitioning to secondary were not as impacted I really meant academically in the "younger" part of primary school

Have a good Sunday!

I find the PP who said a cohort being assessed for dyslexia when they are actually just behind because of Covid really worrying and I think reflects that many children are pushed down SEND/ diagnosis when they are a victim of circumstances and their environment.