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.

I am more concerned about my Yr10 who is trying to do online work for GCSEs, such as music and DT (who keep emailing me regarding keeping to deadlines for e.g. DT work which really needs to be in school) than I am for my Yr6 - I would be glad to just have a plan for what will happen after the summer

Will they be in for more practical subjects and home for others?
Why is there so much discussion on primary but not secondary?

It just feels so up in the air, and also I feel at a loss at how to help with some subjects.

Zero

My yr8 is getting more and more insular and it's not good.

She's not quite old enough to be really gutted to be missing being sociable but I notice her getting more and more stuck.

She's given up on all exercise (and believe me I've tried!).

She is at that age where if she loses the habit of being active now she'll happily lose it forever

(School have provided all day lessons and are basically doing their best but it's the mental health I worry about)

Yup. Mine are 12, 15 and 17. One just starting a new senior school after the summer. One sitting exams next May. the other should have just completed exams, going into the last year at school and thinking about starting to apply for Universities.

They're too old to need someone with them all the time and I get frustrated by the "school as childcare" argument. They need to be back with their peers, and with access to teachers who have specialist knowledge. Most parents can cope with a primary level curriculum, when you have 3 kids at secondary studying subjects you have no idea about, it's a differnet matter.

All the teenage stuff they usually like to do is on hold. A typical saturday, oldest child would volunteer at a charity shop in the morning, dungeons and dragons with friends in the afternoon, then probably Nandos. Middle child would be off into town with friends, mooching round Primark and Starbucks. Youngest would disappear off with a friend on his bike foe hours on end. It's rubbish for them at the moment and they are hugely missing out.

Dalrympy exactly the same with my y7 ds.

My Dd is 12, she is really not academic and has really worked hard to move up from the bottom set.

She is definitely falling behind again. We are doing all the work but she is struggling 😩😩

Sent too soon. I was going to type that I have a year 10 here too as well as other secondary school children and it is hard. Their nornal lives, like outs, are upside down and it isn't healthy to sit in your room every day all day with nothing to look forward to except your next piece of homework or meal or screen. Life is suddenly very limited.

Mine are losing motivation and it's really sad to see.

Agree it is awful for them. Exams need to be changed next year to reflect this. I don't have a year 11 but I feel sad about the way school ended for them after all those years. Same with year 13s who went into their school sixth form. The way we are treating young people is cruel and some if them are going to really struggle to adjust back into schooling in September.

There is a strong push coming from some journalists to drop social distancing in schools and have all children back for the last couple of weeks of school. Cases in the community are low so I think something like this should be seriously considered. The government would have to change the guidance they give to schools.

It’s shit that school just ended line that for them - but it’s not that bad - seriously they will move on go to uni and school will be a distant memory! It’s just one cancelled year - this virus affected the whole world - it’s Such a first class problem to be saying things like ohh my poor son is stuck in his warm safe house all day and can’t see his friends - same as everyone else?

It could be much worse!

My dad is retiring this year - he’s worked there for 40 years - he will never get to go back to office before he leaves or work with his friends again - he’s working at home until he finishes - it’s shit - but what can you do! No point moaning!

I live abroad - everyone is seeing their family again - I can’t travel to see mine any time soon - but nothing I can do just have to wait!

Your kids will see their friends again eventually - they’ll survive being home a bit longer

The less school career left, the less time to catch up. The secondary situation is appalling. I understand why it is logistically much harder to sort out. They are large, kids use transport to get there, the kids all take different combinations of subjects at different levels and the building are often too small. But the government seems to have decided its tricky so have done nothing. Secondary schools have 4-5 weeeks left to prepare for September as then all the staff are on unpsid leave. The government needs to give them a head start on what to expect. Otherwise they will have to plan for so many different scenarios and then the government will throw a curve ball and render those plans pointless 2 weeks before term starts.

@LimitIsUp, my kids are the same. Hardly any work set and what is isn’t checked or followed up on. My dd is doing some work (year 9) but my ds (year 8) has done practically nothing. I’m not ashamed to say I am of no help whatsoever with school work and spend 99% of my time caring for their brother who has severe disabilities. It’s a shambles.

@Mummypig2020 - my daughter too. She’s already way behind and only on target to pass one gcse anyway. She’s year 9 and I have little hope she’ll pass any now.

*My yr8 is getting more and more insular and it's not good.

She's not quite old enough to be really gutted to be missing being sociable but I notice her getting more and more stuck.

She's given up on all exercise (and believe me I've tried!).

She is at that age where if she loses the habit of being active now she'll happily lose it forever

(School have provided all day lessons and are basically doing their best but it's the mental health I worry about)*

Exactly this. DD is putting on weight through not exercising, running around at Guides, ballet classes, walking to school etc. She doesn't spontaneously giggle with her mates, she's lost confidence to arrange SD meet ups with friends. She's studiously dong all of the (fantastic) online lessons, but will lose that structure when term finishes. All of her time is spent with me and DH who are both WFH. As much as we encourage her, and as much as we organise zoom calls and such, she's becoming so insular. She's an only child, which makes it even harder.

I agree with many of you.

Regarding the year 10s, we were planning to have our year 10s back for a day a week for each group (we have over 200 year 10s), on the 8th June, and then we were told that we could only have 25% from the 15th of June - so that meant we had to re do our bubbles, and meant that they can only come in for three hours teaching a week - this is the only way we can meet the guidelines. So that affected the provision we could offer.

I'm very concerned about the KS3 classes that I teach (I'm an English HLTA and run groups for students who need catch up or struggle). Some of my year 7s were just beginning to catch up, and were really improving. The reluctant readers were doing so well, and then it all stopped. So, if they are back in September, they will need catch up again, and I know they will have fallen further behind. Also, there will be the new year 7s to assess and have in catch up too. I also work with groups in year 9, 10, and 11 - but even if I run 25 one hour sessions a week, I won't be able to see all the students I need to. My concerns are shared with the HLTAs who work in Maths and Science.

I really hope that there is provision for these students to do catch up in July/August in school with me. So that I can at least try and help them before the term. But we've been told nothing regarding Boris and his "Summer catch up" scheme, so who knows? They have been set home learning by me, but the students I work with really need me, in a group, to engage fully. It's all about engagement, reassurance, building confidence and pacing the work - that's how they achieve with me. The rapport in the class with me is so important.

It is a real worry for all secondary students.

My worst afternoon I had a 3-hour meeting with a government department on a long report I'd led on. Whilst in sole charge of a 7 year old. I just had to cope

One 7 year old. Try teaching a class with a 5, 2 and a baby on your knee. Then do it for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I feel like disabled children are bottom of the pile at the moment.

"Ylvamoon

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".

I dont understand your anger. They have left school. Theyve known this for a long time since the decision to not have exams was made. What do you want schools to provide for them going forward? Theyve left surely?

@KaptenKrusty did you miss the part when people were voicing their concerns about youngsters trapped in abusive households. Is that a first world problem too?
As a parent, I don’t appreciate your minimising the impact of this on my child’s emotional and psychologically wellbeing, maybe not an issue for you but clearly it is for lots of concerned parents on this thread.
And as for your dads retirement (are you implying that his situation is somehow worse?) just as you couldn’t give a shit about our children, I really really couldn’t care any less (but I know you’ll be ok with that, first world problems and all).

yep 2 ks3 kids here feel dumped

I have one Y12 at a specialist arts college who have been fantastic and moved the curiculum around so that the theory has all been taught the last two terms and a 19 year old - on a gap year, glad that he took it but wondering what happens in September. He's not had the gap year he was expecting, he's ended up working nights on premium pay for a supermarket, if anything that has influenced the fact that he needs to continue in education to better himself. But no travelling like planned or anything.

I just wanted to say that I don't beleive our education system is fit for purpose these days - it was designed to rurn out good little factory workers and clerks well over a century ago, so if an overhaul of how we do this comes about - it will not be before time.

I really think that outdoor education should be looked at - forest school on acid for all children - there's such a lot of ways that the current curriculum could be taught/researched outdoors - the risk outdoors is small - we should be looking at ways of teaching that do not involve being sat all together in a classroom for hours on end, and milling round a school like cattle onto the next lesson.

Finally I had my schooling disrupted a lot as a child - I went to school aged 5 for two terms then went abroad with the 'rentals and didn't go to scool for a couple of years (no places) then went to a further three primary schools before going to a further three secondaries - still managed to get gcse's and a'levels. My parent's weren't interested or bothered either - they were of the opinion that it was my job to get on with my schoolwork. Kids are resiliant and they are capable - we eally need to stop stressing at them and start believing in their inate capacity to adapt and cope. (Although I also believe that they should be out socialising with their mates - at this age (teens) it's a really important developmental stage.

My stepson is in year 12. He will have missed about a quarter of the total teaching time for his A level courses, assuming he goes back full time in September, which is not guaranteed. All he is getting is one two hour meeting next week. He will not have enough time to "catch up" because he only has one more year left in school. How is this fair when 11 year olds can now get full time education because of their "transition" needs and reception children are also in full time? Reception kids have many years to catch up. Year 12 students do not.

@Playdonut

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!

It appeared from this thread that the overriding concern is for children missing ballet classes and the like.

Poverty is shit - but saying their life is effectively over if they don't go back to normal right now is unrealistic. We have teenagers whose parents have died as a result of this virus, not just grandparents. To go back to normal for the benefit of a few people's children who aren't happy or are putting on a bit of weight is irresponsible when there are still kids who could quite easily go back home carrying the infection that will cause the death of their carers. Going into Local Authority Care aged 15, quite possibly halfway across the country, being split up from siblings, because you were mixing with other teenagers at very close range and coughed near your BAME or disabled mother/father/Aunt/Grandmother is far more damaging than having that person alive and you going to university a year later, just as somebody taking a year out for a working holiday, to resit an exam or take a foundation course would do in previous years.

The kids who have transmitted the infection to staff (me included) and put some of them in hospital won't be psychologically healthy if they come back en masse and staff members die - obviously, a staff death isn't a dirty little secret. They won't be psychologically healthy if one of them becomes unwell after giving their friend a hug and the friend has sickle cell or has recently finished chemo. We've had children in hospital precisely because they caught it from their friends, too.

You can make worthy comments about Poor People from our position of relative affluence if you like, but being in care, losing a parent, carer or close relative - or friend - is far more likely to damage a teenager's future prospects than having to go back in smaller groups for a few sessions and then go to university towards the higher range of the usual undergraduate intake.

Oh for goodness sake it’s not a few people’s children. Millions of children and their parents have had enough. They are being damaged mentally, physically and educationally.

Primary school children are in as are staff full time with plenty of BAME children. Safety in these cases needs to be considered on a case by case basis. You can’t deny all children an education indefinitely.

What exactly is your plan ahead?Another year of an outrageous excuse for an education for the nation’s entire cohort of secondary children?

And as for belittling education and putting it on the same level as ballet classes you do disadvantaged children a massive disservice .

Agreed. Our large shopping centre opened on monday. Lots of large groups of teens. Definitely larger than 6. Dont blame them.

MitzK Well, if you are going to use the possibility of a 15 Yr old being orphaned as you describe (the chances of which happening as you describe are statistically really, really tiny) as an argument for keeping schools shut then maybe they should never have been allowed to exist in the first place. Because children and teenagers can spread flu you know, or other illnesses which can also kill elderly or vulnerable relatives....
Or in fact did you know a child is more likely to die from being struck by lightening than from Coronavirus? So maybe schools should close every time their is a storm forecast?
The fact is that life is FULL of risks. We don't normally respond to them by locking our children and teenagers up and denying them an education indefinitely.
And your comments demonstrates the ignorance there is about the dreadful negative effects this is having on young people. This has been widely written about by the country's leading child and adolescent psychologists,so I would suggest they possibly have a better understanding of this than you do.