Concerned schools will just reteach material from March 2020

[notevenat20]

I have become worried that schools will decide they need to reteach all the material from March 2020 onwards when they go back in September. For the many families like ours who worked their socks off trying to provide decent home schooling in the lockdown, this would be a kick in the teeth.

Do you think this is going to happen?

Surely it is normal to refresh stuff from the year before? I would expect there to be a bit of this, yes. They obviously cannot just pick up where they left off in March and teach the March onwards work at the usual pace - they need to try and catch up. Lets be considerate though to the children who won't have done any work - why would you want the gap to widen between those children and children who received good parental support?

Lets trust teachers to know what they are doing.

What are you thinking of in particular? I'm primary and I know that the curriculum is usually quite spiral in nature in that we come back and covered the same.concepts or areas as they have in previous years just at a different angle and depth.

I'm prepared for large gaps in what they know and to have to.fill those gaps as they arise.

Also, you may have worked your socks off (brilliant for your dc) but in my class less than 25% were doing ANYTHING that I set online so the teachers can't ignore that.

But... we always differentiate for ability and prior understanding. Always. And there is usually a wider than year gap in abilities so it should allow for the term's (+2 wks) gaps that some may have.

If we do, it’ll definitely be with substantial extension material for the students that completed all the work. I can think of some of my lower ability and EAL students who completed all the work and it would really boost their confidence to review the topic again with a good idea of the key ideas from their home learning. It won’t necessarily be a bad thing for students.

We always differentiate for ability and prior understanding.

I want DC to go to your school! In DC's school this differentiation meant that some kids added two numbers and some added 10 (for example). The concepts were always identical. Outside of maths the work set didn't even have this difference.

I have a curriculum to deliver in case we have exams next summer. I do not have time to go over everything again that I delivered through on-line teaching via Teams.

Same here. New stuff to teach to make sure students ready for exams next year. If we have time we will go over the topics we did in lockdown. But if they didn't turn up to my lessons or did not ask for my help they will now need to do it in their own. I did tell them this repeatedly.

Primary is just the same. Most schools will teach the new year's curriculum, while keeping aware of larger gaps. Eg. My year 6s will be taught the concepts for year 6 multiplying, but I know I'll need an additional recap lesson (at least) as they missed a chunk of the year 5 multiplying curriculum. As always, some will either know this already or pick it up extremely fast. So while others are learning the year 5 concepts, they will be applying the year 5 concepts to a variety of problem solving and reasoning questions.

The concepts will be the same for the whole class (barring those with special educational needs). That's how the national curriculum is set up.

We were told the curriculum was suspended so set revision. I will absolutely pick up where I left off in March with my GCSE classes it maybe a bit quicker but I will get through it all.

They have requested I do this as have several parents.

It sounds like you were lucky, DDs school didn't provide any learning material beyond a few handouts set at a lower ability than she needed. No marking or feedback.

I am hoping they do a lot of review and reiteration, if only because they need to break back in gently after 6 mo the away from formal learning.

My understanding from relative who is primary teacher, is that yes they will need to revisit not just from March but actually earlier as it’s likely children (those who haven’t worked their socks off) will have forgotten most of the previous year, after such a long time without learning.
Can’t speak for all schools, but one approach will be to focus on English and maths, and reduce topic work, so that they can catch up as quickly as possible but could take best part of a year at least.
It’s an impossible situation- schools need to
Support those children who’ve not been able to learn for many reasons, but for those who have, even with differentiated work I can’t see how they won’t end up being bored or not challenged enough. Sort of makes me wish they’d just told us all to take six months off, I half killed myself trying to support my children’s learning this year!

Teachers will do what they have always done: identify and then seal the gaps when they find them.

I'll be teaching my year group's curriculum whilst also being prepared to find some larger gaps than I typically do. When I find them, I'll fill them through individualised feedback, focus groups and targeted support. The ones who haven't as many gaps will continue to be stretched through the same means.

It's been a long time since teaching was focused on 'ability groups' and moving on the path that your group has been given. It's far more individualised now.

There will be loads of revisiting previous learning (there always is).

I’m really hoping my dds school revisits fractions. We really tried hard but if I’m honest she really doesn’t “get it”

@WhenSheWasBad

There will be loads of revisiting previous learning (there always is).

I’m really hoping my dds school revisits fractions. We really tried hard but if I’m honest she really doesn’t “get it”

What year is she in? There's a huge amount of time devoted to fractions in Years Four and Five and, to a degree, Year Six.

It's been a long time since teaching was focused on 'ability groups' and moving on the path that your group has been given. It's far more individualised now.

This probably isn't the right place to discuss it but that isn't our experience of primary school at all. There was one lesson for the whole class and it would be repeated over and again in different years. Those children who got it the first time were just bored. Is that not the norm?

I teach secondary and we didn't set any 'new' work for pupils, apart from A-level groups. It was consolidation and revision. So, in the main, we will pick up where we left off. We have spent ages making it fit, even though it will be very tight.

We always review relevant prior learning anyway and identify any gaps/misconceptions and plan around that.

What year is she in?There's a huge amount of time devoted to fractions in Years Four and Five and, to a degree, Year Six

She’s going into Year 5. I’m pretty sure she’s not the only one who struggled. There’s one maths genius in her class.
He might need some separate work but I’m pretty sure most of the other kids need a recap.

Fractions was a low point in homeschooling (might have had a stiff gin that day )

@notevenat20

It's been a long time since teaching was focused on 'ability groups' and moving on the path that your group has been given. It's far more individualised now.

This probably isn't the right place to discuss it but that isn't our experience of primary school at all. There was one lesson for the whole class and it would be repeated over and again in different years. Those children who got it the first time were just bored. Is that not the norm?

I'm confused by what you mean. Do you mean, for example, that they learnt how to add numbers together in Year 1 and then they did more addition in Year 2 and Year 3? Or that they learnt how to read time to the hour in Y1, they did time to the hour again in Y2 and then exactly the same learning to tell time to the hour in Y3 but extension into covering of half hour, quarter past/to etc?

Maths and English, in particular, are covered and re-covered in spirals throughout the children's time in education, each time extending the children's learning and understanding a little more so that it is reinforced.

That should say but no extension into further times each year.

@notevenat20

It's been a long time since teaching was focused on 'ability groups' and moving on the path that your group has been given. It's far more individualised now.

This probably isn't the right place to discuss it but that isn't our experience of primary school at all. There was one lesson for the whole class and it would be repeated over and again in different years. Those children who got it the first time were just bored. Is that not the norm?

It's certainly not the norm in my school and, as an SLE, I'd question that in other settings if I saw that when working to support other leaders.

@WhenSheWasBad

What year is she in?There's a huge amount of time devoted to fractions in Years Four and Five and, to a degree, Year Six

She’s going into Year 5. I’m pretty sure she’s not the only one who struggled. There’s one maths genius in her class.
He might need some separate work but I’m pretty sure most of the other kids need a recap.

Fractions was a low point in homeschooling (might have had a stiff gin that day )

In which case, they'll go loads of fractions work. It's a huge topic within the Year Five Maths curriculum. I wouldn't worry.

'go through' not 'go'

@PumpkinPie2016 you say it’s going to be tight to fit the content in to the time left. What happens if a year 11 has to isolate (or year 11 have to isolate a few times?). That would be 6 weeks out of the time left before GCSE’s. It scares me. I’m worried next years GCSE’s will be as big a mess as this years but in a different way.

@notevenat20

It's been a long time since teaching was focused on 'ability groups' and moving on the path that your group has been given. It's far more individualised now.

This probably isn't the right place to discuss it but that isn't our experience of primary school at all. There was one lesson for the whole class and it would be repeated over and again in different years. Those children who got it the first time were just bored. Is that not the norm?

Is this what you have seen from remote teaching/online work set? I’m just curious where you’ve got this idea from - unless you’ve worked in the school maybe.

What parents have seen online will be completely different to what happens in school lessons normally - we had to pull together remote teaching at short notice with limited resources. I know some schools did this better than others, but this isn’t how lessons are taught normally.

Teachers use assessment techniques to identify children’s prior understanding of a concept and then plan a range of activities appropriately - deepening and broadening where needed, and scaffolding/going back a step where needed too. We have always done this, and will continue to do so despite the gaps post-Covid likely being a little different.

Remember this is our job and our expertise and the majority of us know what we’re doing - try to trust us, and if you have concerns go and have a chat to the school - but don’t pre-empt what you think will happen unless you’ve a broader understanding and knowledge of how lessons usually run.

@Lemons1571 I worry about this too.

I am a primary school governor my understanding is that they are going to teach the planned curriculum but will do assessments quite early on to identify gaps, and then plan for those. There is always a large gap between the ability of the lower ability and the top ability, they are used to having to differentiate.

@WhenSheWasBad

What year is she in?There's a huge amount of time devoted to fractions in Years Four and Five and, to a degree, Year Six

She’s going into Year 5. I’m pretty sure she’s not the only one who struggled. There’s one maths genius in her class.
He might need some separate work but I’m pretty sure most of the other kids need a recap.

Fractions was a low point in homeschooling (might have had a stiff gin that day )

Same here, my going into year 5 son just did not seem to get fractions or decimals under my teaching whatever I did (and the response from school was just “don’t worry if they struggle, it is tricky” which didn’t really help me...)