Years 10 and 12 have been totally let down

[twosoups1972]

A few weeks ago the government said they would prioritise Years 10 and 12 going to back to school.

Then it was they would get 'some contact time with teachers' before the summer break.

Now - nothing.

These year groups are at the ones who desparately need teaching, they are missing huge chunks of GCSE/A Level syllabus. Plus it's much easier for older children to socially distance.

Why??

My DS2 is in y10 and is getting all his lessons online

For some subjects it does not work that well (drama, RE) for some it works better as no class disruption and good online resources (Maths Science), so, so far no drama here, but I know not all schools are providing lessons as they should.

My DH is secondary teacher and is teaching all his lessons through video link

Not sure why other schools can’t do more?

Am very disappointed to government is only seeing schools as childcare, and are not worried about a whole cohort of kids’ education

Also, where is Ofsted? Schools need to get their act together with online lessons!

My sons school have just set out how they are giving yr 10s face to face contact next half term. They will be split into groups each having one morning a week for three weeks.
It seems like a lot of effort for very little gain as the students will want to spend time catching up rather than working.

I have DC in both years. DS1 has been set a fair amount of work and has regular contact with college, DS2 has been patchy to say the least. Only one teacher doing online teaching in eight weeks, two from this week, getting by with lots of revision sheets and quizzes and little new content. And this is an 'outstanding' school. DS is bright and now saying he's bored. Poor effort from some IMO.
And contact from school which is few and far between, coincidentally only falls when there's a bank holiday or half term and seems to centre around the head reminding us that the teachers aren't available and not to contact them.

I wonder if the issue with year 10 and year 12 is transport. We are a rural establishment with a huge catchment area. 80% of our students come to us by bus (full buses!) This could be a big hindrance in them returning safely.

I guess most Yr R and Yr 1 would come to school on foot or private transport?

The government have low confidence in their understanding of transmission rates in 14 plus age children as opposed to higher confidence in less transmission rates with younger children. I teach yr 10, I'm petrified about going back.

Chelsea I feel very similar to you, but if it helps to reassure you there could be some merit in focusing on revision now rather than new content.
Instead of teaching all the content and then having months of revision at the end near exams, what can be a better option is to have new material and then continually review that material over time so that information gradually goes into the long term memory.
It's no substitute for normal teaching, but there could be some benefit in securing the course so far so that when they return the teachers can focus all their attention on what's left of the course, rather than having to reteach material from lockdown, plus the rest of the course and still fit in revision.

We've had this debate before on MN in March/ April 2020.
They will obviously need to adapt the GCSEs and ALevels. It's quite obvious.

Also the grades are (and have always been) distributed on a bell curve (Standard deviation). Recently when the 9 to 1 system came in, in some subjects, the pass (Grade 4) rate was at 27% and the Grade 7 rate at 48%

You need to stop panicking.

My son is a teacher and was talking to me over the weekend about the number of emails both he and his school has been getting. For some students there's too much work being set, for others not enough, some don't want it sent out in advance, some do. Some want it set online, others want live lessons. And so on.

There doesn't seem to be any universally acceptable solution. Schools are trying to accommodate everyone and it really is not simple to do.

Schools haven't chosen to be in this situation and are trying to do the best that they can given the restrictions of available facilities plus circumstances of their staff and students.

We’ve had contact from our school to offer my year 10 daughter 1 day a week from 8th June.

She has had school work through Show My Homework. Mostly worksheets. Some teachers have been brilliant, some not so much.

No online virtual teaching.

We’ve done our best to muddle through, but she has some SEN and we have needed some teacher clarification and input. Some have been brilliant, some haven’t even replied to DD’s emails asking for help.

DD’s mentor has been absolutely brilliant and available whenever we’ve needed him - DD’s mental health was shocking before all this started and has only got worse. She was in the middle of some school-based counselling for anxiety which obviously stopped when school closed and he’s been great with virtual/online support

There is so much more to education than "learning subjects"

An A grade student is not always the brightest student, they are the intrinsically motivated student,the resilient student, the student who works regardless, the student who is prepared to try even when it is hard, the students who can manage time, who can manage workloads. The students who when they find things hard take pleasure in working it out students who listen and learn to put across a counter argument without becoming angry or defensive.

Parents can help so much with the above skills and not in an academic setting - maybe even using exercise if that is what floats your DC boat, maybe even with the dreaded computer games, maybe via online resources. Maybe through encouraging them to read and finish a book - have a at home book club even if it is on a Marvel comic. If books are out of the question have a film night all choose a film , all watch the film and discuss even if the film is not to their liking. Just talk discuss about anything and everything.

If years 10 and year 12 could be encourage to use this time to build on these skills then we will whizz through the syllabus when we can get back into school.

The problem will be the range of variation. Some will know more than content demands. A lot will know historical outdated methodology. And most will know very little.
I suppose it will end up:
Grade 8/9 excellent in depth analysis of current curriculum. Parents working in that field / education with specialism in that subject.
Grade 6/7 less relevant, less articulate/ thorough version of above.
I forsee a big gap to
Grade 4/5 peak of population. Around 20%/30% mark.
Grade 1/2/3 As usual.

You need to stop panicking

I'm not panicking. I just want some clear explanation as to the turn around for these year groups.

There is so much more to education than "learning subjects"

Yes of course there is, that is not up for debate. But if a student has university in mind, then they need the grades.

What about children from disadvantaged homes who don't have their own devices or don't have parents with the skills to help them? They are the real casualties.

Not sure why other schools can’t do more

@TheHumansAreDefinitelyDead our school has said they can't do remote lessons as a significant minority of pupils do not have their own device, making it 'impossible' to do it fairly apparently.

Mine hasn’t been let down. Lots of email contact, two surveys for parents and pupils to ask about workload and how they are coping, phone calls from individual teachers even if no problems with completing or submitting work....can’t fault the school for Yr 12, personally and haven’t heard any negative things from parents of children in other years.
State school.

My year 12 dd would absolutely agree with you. She’s been working really well and her school are doing online lessons for A levels, she’s very dedicated and hardworking. I can’t fault the school in their provision and teachers being available and responding to questions.
She was really upset when Boris talked about primary schools returning before her. That announcement and when the WiFi is slow are the only things that upset her. I have reassured her that obviously all Y12 are missing out the same and she’s benefiting from her good self study skills.

I hear you @twosoups1972.
My Y10 is getting some work set for him via google classroom. That's it. No remote/virtual teaching. Which is quite hard when you are trying to learn a language!!

He is very independent and is getting on with his work but I have questions about how good the learning will have been when they have done all the learning by themselves.... It's not the same than learning in a classroom environment.

As for modifying the GCSE and A level.... right. Of course they will so they will have one year where the exam won't be worth as much as any other year. The pupils will arrive at Uni or A levels with missing knowledge. That's clear its the right way to do it....
What I had heard is pushing the exam back to July instead of May-June for next year. More logcal but will also be really hard for the students. (and cause problems with Uni I imagine too)

@jinxpixie, I agre with you. All this is required.

Its not going to give them more time to learn what they havent been able to learn this year. Unless what you are saying is that its going to be OK because those kids will just put the extra hours, won;t have a life for a year but yes will still have their A etc...

Government haven't yet published the guidance document for Secondary schools (or they hadn't the last time I checked). It's making it very difficult for schools to decipher the odd paragraph that has appeared in the previous guidance documents for Education.

I think there should have been clear guidance on what level of work schools should have been providing, there is such a huge disparity. I am sure if Ofsted had been inspecting it some schools would have upped their game.

Ofsted frameworks don't cover remote learning and a reasonable amount of Ofsted things are tick box exercises and making sure people have used the correct shade of red pen.

There should have been clear guidance though.

I think it's hard for clear guidance to be given in a way though. How can you account for the variation in access to IT equipment for teachers for a start? Without decent broadband, a computer at home, possibly a scanner or a webcam and microphone to do on line lessons even the most dedicated teacher will struggle to provide some lesson content. No.organisation is operating at the same level it was pre lockdown so I'm surprised that anyone thinks schools should be.

I'm worried about how much extra work our children will have to put in next year, in a year that is always stressful for students in normal times.
Also if future employers see this year group as less educated.

This government are denying our children their education and everyone their liberty and for what ffs - for a virus that most people would
Only have a mild illness from
That’s all very well if you are most people! My year ten is shielding.

One of our local schools is having Y10 back straight after half term (they dont have a Y12).

What about children from disadvantaged homes who don't have their own devices or don't have parents with the skills to help them? They are the real casualties. This is always the case in online or face to face learning. All our of students have been contacted and have chromebooks or laptops issued to them . - we are a state school. Work is also posted out to those in remote areas with dodgy internet.

Its not going to give them more time to learn what they havent been able to learn this year. Unless what you are saying is that its going to be OK because those kids will just put the extra hours, won;t have a life for a year but yes will still have their A etc... It will give them more time to learn and they will learn it quicker and teachers can teach the curriculum and not basic learning skills _ trust me even at year 12 we spend a lot of time on this.

Noone said this is perfect but we do need to look at the positives and work with what we have. Let our students see how proud we are off them, encourage them, let them know it will be ok in the end. Give them one negative or reason why this will affect them and ruin their whole life (and it won't) and we will have a harder time when they do return to face to face education.