For anyone panicking about kids falling behind

[Notcool1984]

Just thought of something if it helps at all!

I had ME as a teenager and missed an entire YEAR of school between the ages of 13 and 14. I had some work sent home yes but I was very unwell and did very little.

When I returned I was behind, especially in STEM subjects, but I got As in my Highers in fifth year (age 17) and As and Bs in Advanced Highers in sixth year. I caught up! And that was with very little / to no work at home.

Makes me feel a bit better when my ten year old is refusing to work anyway :) hope it helps some people panicking!

I think for most kids they will catch up. I don't worry about my y8 ds for that reason. My y10 dd however is missing a large part of her gcse content. So i will continue to worry about her!

Ah thanks for this OP. My son is also 10 so should be transitioning in Sept. I'm not massively worried about him falling behind as I know a lot of year 7 is just trying to get them all up to speed. The whole situation makes me more sad than worried he's missing out on friendships and rites of passage. But kids are resilient and he's already amazed me how well he's coping

What about all the young people (esp. age 16-25) who plan to become police officers, nurses, doctors, social workers, midwives, health MBAs, paramedics, physiotherapists... if they can't get onto or back to their courses or training -- how much of a shortage of newly qualified keyworker young professionals will we have in next 1-7 years, and will some Universities actually go bankrupt reducing the number of spaces available so make it even harder for these new professionals to be created?

It's Not Like UK Can Just Replace Them by recruiting From Rest of World.

I can stomach my

Nice post OP thank you. I have a year 10 and my feeling is there’s too much pressure on teens and exams at the best of times let alone now. I wish they would just re run everyone’s year rather than potentially making it worse, and much more stressful, by Rushing to “catch up” and pushing the idea his year has missed out and has a problem. Also would be interested in a Debate about a change in the academic year, say running it from Jan to December, 4 terms blah.

Anyway, I reckon there are retakes and gap years if needed. Exams at 16-18 are not the be all and end all and online learning is transforming before our eyes. If we could tackle the digitally disadvantaged over the next few months that would make massive difference too.

If they don't get back until September there would be an argument for rerunning the year, but you can't because what do you do with the rising 5s who need to get into school and for whom there is no capacity in nurseries/childminders or schools?

As for gap years, sounds good but if there's no travel and no jobs what are they meant to do for a year?

I think we will be down on many professions anyway through people dying.
But the bigger concern is i think many people might decide against a job that put people at risk without the proper equipment (dr/nurse etc).
Whilst office workers can work safe at home.

Proper training for dr/nurses should continue or at least be prioritised over say history for proper uni lessons.
My business studies course could have been online except for IT practicals.

Im a little concerned over the gcse and alevel results. They cannot possibly be accurate and i think surely many people will retake the exams. (As long as results can only go up). But those gcse ones missing exams are probably a bit disadvantaged going into alevels as they wont have the exam practise.

I think the years doing gcse/alevel next year should be prioritised. But that is still a lot of kids and even for them online is probably better due to mixing between lessons.
I actually think this generation of kids will have an advantage as

• self motivation and work ethic
• get to work at their own pace with online materials.
• those skills are useful when coming to alevel and gcse and also degree level.

Parental support/kids wanting to do homework etc makes a huge difference even in normal times.

Once resources are made available theu will be there for subsequent year groups (until curriculum content changes) and that will be handy for people in op situation or SEN kids who struggle with school

I would look at increasing school day to say 4pm but extending holidays. Probaly in line with private schools (longer summer holidays in kime with most other countries).
Because my kids are exhausted by end of term. Then holidays are too short. Everyone on holiday for just 5 w over summer which is a nightmare for employers and employees who cant get 2w off.
Uk holidays would be helped as longer busy time. And so many of us hate crowds. (Cut down pollution too). And cut down on term time holidays.
Of course this year may not be a good idea (otoh though going back slightly behind makes sense to cram more hours in the day especially with threat of closure for more waves).
There is just limited point to school after jun. Taking kids to mid jul is pretty cruel.
Yes may have to pay for more summer holiday clubs for kids but possibly be charged less for after school care. Plus uk weather turns to rain by august.

In Scotland looks like schools won’t reopen until August :(

^I actually think this generation of kids will have an advantage as

• self motivation and work ethic^

Sadly not true here!

My laziest kid (lazy about self-study) is no lazier due to having his GCSEs cancelled. He really needs structure to do his best. We'll make do, and luckily a lot of kids are like him so I am hopeful he won't really be left-behind.

My conscientious self-motivating kids tend to be less self-motivated -- adult DD (off to Uni soon in theory) pointedly says how demotivated she is by the situation. Younger DC moans he simply misses school and how the online 'work' he's given is never anything new or that stretches him.

I too would like a debate to start around how our school year, assessments and exams are structured.

Could we have everyone back in September in their current year and do Sept to Dec 'catching up' and then school year transitions to Jan to Dec from Jan 2021? Those starting reception would need 'just' 4 months more nursery/ at home?

And less focus on teaching to SATs etc?

If they don't get back until September there would be an argument for rerunning the year

*Only missed 13 weeks. It won't need a whole year to catch up.

Thanks Op similar happened with my cousin when she had leukaemia.

Also later days would not work as children's concentration suffers from about lunch time.*

The problem isn't children falling behind, it's the tick-boxing exercise that the modern teaching system has become that won't cope. ( Not teachers fault ).