Secondary school aged children are at the aboslute bottom of the pile aren't they?

[Weepinggreenwillow]

I feel so so sorry for the nation's teenagers and secondary school aged children. They have been pushed to the absolute bottom of the pile haven't they. Absolutely no plan for what will happen with secondary schools in Septemeber. A half baked nod to next year's exam years, which in some cases ammounts to a couple of hours meeting with a from tutor before end of summer term.
I mean all children have been treated appallingly, and it is all an absolute disgrace, but at least they occassionally mention plans for primary aged children.
No one is talking about the teenagers - why not??? (well I know why really, because they are not a "childcare issue" and not technically stopping parents returning to work so as far as the government is concerned they can fester alone in their rooms for onths on end while their parents keep the econpmy going.)
The goverment really, really doesn't care about them do they. The harm this is doing to our young people will be felt for many years to come. I cant believe they are getting away with this.

Mitzik, I think you have misunderstood a bit. Yes your approach will work for a few motivated and privileged teenagers with supportive parents. It's not them we are calling for the schools to reopen for. Poverty and ignorance will kill more than coronavirus could ever dream of. Teenagers can't spread covid if they don't have it!

My Y11 teen has been sent an email yesterday... stating that they have now officially left school and not to contact them again. They will be in touch in due course for exam results. End of, after they have been playing hide and seek since lockdown!
It's shameful, and by the looks of it the 2021 year group is going to be F-ed as well.

Agree. I've written to my MP and Education MP.
Secondary kids are never mentioned

It’s a few months of no school ffs calm down! They’ll catch up!

Agree completely playdonut, it’s the disadvantaged kids that are a real concern. The achievement gap is going to be huge and that is something to feel justifiably sad and frustrated about, without even factoring in safeguarding concerns.
I’m sure lots of children will be able to catch up but that doesn’t negate the damage that is being done to them now, their lives are on hold with no end in sight. At what point do the benefits to them outweigh the risks?

@KaptenKrusty it's not a few months. By September it will be 6 months. School is not expected to be normal then....

They have been protected by schools closing. They will go back to school when it is safe. The lockdown has saved thousands of lives.
COVID is still out there. We cannot life lockdown before it is safe (although the government seem keen to do so - many scientists are saying the government is ignoring their advice).
Economy is important but saving lives is more important.
You can recover from financial losses or lack of schooling or socialising but you cannot recover from death.

@KaptenKrusty it’s a few months now but the end doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. It feels like there’s a significant number of people that won’t accept anything less than total elimination of Covid. If it’s here to stay, which it may well be, what happens to children’s education? I think with this in kind, it’s not unreasonable to be concerned.

My year 10 has been offered 3 hours a week schooling. Absolutely disgraceful.

My sister is a teacher (STEM) I am not sure if this is govt advice or LA advice but they are only allowed 25% of pupils in at any one time, so to accommodate the yr 10&12 who use the same school building it means they can only have pupils in for a half day a week. I know she said the yr 10's will get core subjects (English, Maths, science) but it is a random mix of pupils so whilst she'll be teaching it won't be her usual classes.

She did explain about yr 12's, but that is more complicated due to the nature of A levels.

I am worried about my year 9 DD, thankfully found out today that there will be some transition to her new options, but come September it will be 6 months out of school.

@KaptenKrusty when will the current year 10’s catch up? They will have missed around 15 teaching weeks of their gcse syllabus. If full time doesn’t resume in September it’ll be even more than 15 weeks. Where’s all this teaching time going to come from, to catch up by next April?

Agree totally op.

It's the only thing about all this that keeps me awake at night.

@LavenderLilacTree children have not been protected by this measure as so very few of them are at risk. Covid might always be out there, at what point would you be prepared to accept the risk? And the economy is lives, they’re not two completely separate things.
You don’t know that lockdown has saved thousands of lives, the pandemic had peaked before lockdown and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that, at that late stage and running rife through care homes, it probably made very little difference.

I’ve seen enough of your posts to realise that there is no reasoning with you, your fear of Covid/death seems to have rendered you incapable of rational thinking.

My 14yo has had a lovely day at school today, she will get another next week, then just Zoom or whatever. It has made her very sad, reminding her of how empty her life is at the moment.
Careful social distancing at school didnt seem to extend to the groups of teenagers standing in the road outside, and I didnt blame them one bit! This is such a fcking sht show. My poor, poor girls!

@TabbyMumz the first minister has categorically stated that exams will go ahead in May. In Scotland we are on a different timetable with a country-wide board. I'm aware that if they came out now and said 'no exams' then most DCs would do no work - teenagers gonna teenage - so that might change. But we can only go with the words that come out of the First Minister's mouth.

My year 11 & 13 have had zero set work since March 23 as the attitude seems to be that their GCSEs and A levels are done and being determined by teacher assessment - so that's that then. so basically they have struggled to be purposeful and productive or find much meaning in day to day life. There's been a lot of sleeping very late

Like the other parents of my teenagers peers, I am now letting them bend the rules and see their friends and don't feel a shred of guilt about this. For the first 9 weeks we were highly observant of the guidelines - dh and I still are, but my teens need the slack now

What would you like them to do ?
Send them all back as normal despite unions and a good majority of teachers being against this and a fair few parents too
It's crap but I don't see what else they can do I'm in the camp where I would be happy to send mine back as normal but if even 10% of teachers can't or don't want to then it becomes impossible
I really hope numbers are low enough to send kids back in as normal sept , other countries has their schools shut for weeks As well ,

@cologne how can they ensure all children get remote learning not all children have the internet , not all children have devices , not all children have parents to help , not all children will bother
Also schools had to suddenly work out how they could do this remotely we never had a year warning and time to prepare
I don't think the government have just forgotten them but trying to send them back safely is hard look at the uproar when they announced schools should try and get some years back

Economy is important but saving lives is more important.
You can recover from financial losses or lack of schooling or socialising but you cannot recover from death.

You do realise all of those can cause deaths too, don't you?

Well, you probably do, but are somehow determined to block that out of your thoughts. In April there was an 83% increase in dementia related deaths. These are a result of lockdown, and if it continues much longer that will be the mere tip of the iceberg.

I was keeping mine indoors until 2 weeks ago. It just became unmanageable when all her friends were meeting up. So yeah... they're hanging out together, may as well be at school

What would you like them to do ?

Can we please see the bigger picture here? It’s not the missing a f vs ew months of school it’s the lack of information about next years exams. Private schools still teaching via zoom, some schools have online learning, so good some just revision, the GAP is huge especially for non motivated children who don’t even know if they’ll sit exams next year. Each school time table is different there’s no set structure for their exams

Then the courses that need practical sections wood work science textiles where there isn’t enough equipment to go round to one each, so they can’t share resources.

Cooking would be a nightmare cleaning between each class!

Some kids go to different sites for lessons or share specialist teachers - who’s going to allow that?

Absolutely agree with this.

It’s an unfathomable disgrace.

I think by 2025, we’ll be looking back on this as one HUGE mistake.

They’re not even at risk from the virus, and we’re taking away their futures.

@birthdaybelle, no judgement here. At this stage, I am more than happy to put my children’s well-being before all else.

It’s not just the severe damage to their education and exams but their mental health and future. So many secondary aged kids I know are really struggling with mental health and the support just isn’t there. They’ve lost sitting exams,teaching, socialising, being away from parents which teens need, a purpose, Sat jobs,certainty, uni as we know it..... For many teens they are going into a very uncertain and difficult economic time ahead disadvantaged. Some with less than they would have got, some with exams they didn’t finish or exams they won’t have covered the whole course.Those going on to A levels will find them much harder and won’t catch up ever. They are going to be entering a tough job market with lesser exams.

It isn’t just economically disadvantaged kids that are suffering. The school divide between what is offered and how parents can physically help when not there is massive Those with poor mental health, those that are carers, those who have 2 working parents and are left alone with no supervision....all are struggling.

It’s not just a bit of schooling and it is a national disgrace. I have 3 and I too am struggling to sleep at the moment.

What do I want - I would like the Swedish model on how to handle the pandemic.
The Dutch never expected kids < 12 to social distance. This is good, too.

I know what I want is not what majority UK public want.

My major concern is yr 10 and 12- in less than a years time they will have been expected to sit most, if not all, their exams. To the poster saying " it doesn't matter they can go to uni in 2 years", actually it does matter if they don't achieve their expected grades. It matters a huge amount as it dictates their future uni choices/courses/ career. I wonder how many of those posting telling us to calm down actually have a yr 10 / yr 12 kid. Yes my yr 8 and yr 4 child have had a shit time as have most of us unable to see mates and family but they will be fine. It's my yr 12 who has missed half of this years teaching.