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?

Out of interest OP, where in the country are you based? I'm surprised at the lack of support given to you. Is this comparable with neighbouring schools to yours?

In the south, I better not say where. I have spoken to a lot of other parents both locally and in the rest of the country. The impression I get is that some schools are much better, but not that many. Most are like ours.

Saying algebra is a big step reinforces how little you know.

That’s very funny :).

It really isn't funny. Algebra incorporates many different sub topics within it.

The solving equations strand tends to be covered in late primary. Some schools do some work on sequences and simplifying expressions. However many don't.

Your schools approach to differentiation could be naff and not stretching your child. That doesn't mean re covering topics from lockdown is a bad idea.

Not all families would have been in the position to/able to/wanted to do in depth home schooling for many different reasons.

It’s fantastic that you could do it.

I’d expect schools to cater for all children in return though, including those who might be a bit behind through no fault of their own - it will be challenging for teachers.

Curriculum was suspended so all work for keyworkers and children at home was revisited work. On a separate note all schools should cater for all levels. Most schools will do intervention groups for both working towards and greater depth. There is a lot of pressure on teachers to have greater depth pupils so find it hard to believe yours is being ignored.

In foreign languages, learning tenses is significant etc.

In foreign languages you generally start from the beginning in Year 7 anyway, because you can't rely on kids having even done the same language in primary, or rely on them having had an actual MFL teacher or having done more than learn a bunch of nouns from whatever their normal class teacher remembers from their French GCSE, since there is no actual primary MFL curriculum.

As it happens, I taught algebra to Y6 this year, as it was one of the subjects we covered with the returned cohort.

To teach the necessary algebra for the Y6 curriculum (which is very different from 'teaching all of algebra', which as we know continues right through secondary school, building in new levels each time, and is used as a tool across Maths forever) I wrote a series of expressions using the 'empty box' that they have been familiar with since Year 1. I asked them what should go in the empty box, and how they calculated that.

I then rubbed out the boxes and replaced them with letters, asking them to tell me what each letter stood for, and how they calculated that.

the only convention that i taught them explcitly was that 2b = b multiplied by b, because when using empty boxes the x wold be explicit not implicit.

Every child, of every ability, within that classroom could do algebra - because it genuinely is a very small step from what they have been doing from the earliest years in school IF those previous steps have been taught well.

However, I would emphasise again that 'algebra as required by the y6 curriculum' is a very very small subset of 'algebra as a whole mathematical subject', with formal processes of rearrangement, simplification, factorisation etc etc.

@cantkeepawayforever

Brilliantly explained!

Except the mistyping 2b = b multiplied by 2 not b [facepalm]

@notevenat20

Out of interest OP, where in the country are you based? I'm surprised at the lack of support given to you. Is this comparable with neighbouring schools to yours?

In the south, I better not say where. I have spoken to a lot of other parents both locally and in the rest of the country. The impression I get is that some schools are much better, but not that many. Most are like ours.

Logically, I'm afraid this cannot be true. The expectations of the primary curriculum are more than they have ever been before. If the majority of schools didn't challenge nor progress the children then you wouldn't see them transform from kids who know nothing to preteens capable of in-depth reading analysis, detailed complex writing and solving a variety of mathematical problems.

I can appreciate that it's hard as a parent as you don't know what is happening inside that classroom on a day to day basis. You don't see the lessons, the verbal feedback, the guided groups, the support, the challenge, etc. All you see is a child you comes home with a conversation like this:
"How's school been?"
"Boring,"
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
That is not an indication as to what the school or even the teacher is doing: it's a normal response. I've had children who have had a fantastic day carrying out scientific experiments, designed advertising campaigns, coding video games and simulations and then, when asked, say they did "Nothing."

I am assuming your DC school is in special measures OP? As if it is as bad as you are implying it would be!

On the more general point, what we are re-teaching or re-covering depends on the subject.

Things like Science, History etc - what has 'gone' has gone. We are not attempting to cover the missed content.

In English, we are teaching what we usually teach in terms of texts, but at least initially there will be a stronger focus on marking for and reinforcing basic skills in punctuation etc. We have taken advantage of the fact that the timetable has had to be reformulated for staggered arrivals, breaks etc (and the lack of assembly and limits on some subjects like music) to introduce specific discrete sessions for handwriting and spelling .

In Maths, we have looked back at 'what was not taught'. Due to the way the curriculum is structured, the next time those topics are taught tends to be in the spring / summer term of this year, so the min re-planning element will come in later in the year. For the moment, we are again using a different timetable to make sure that the previous year skills that underpin current teaching are also secure - either by starting each sequence of learning in a slightly different place or through different activities or practice of e.g. number bonds, times tables etc.

I am expecting the range of performance at the start of the year to be wider than usual (though possibly not as wide as the most extreme class i have had recently, where there was a gap of around 9 years from the child working at the level of an average 4 year old to the child working comfortably at a level typical of a 13 year old), and i would also expect that to be much more related to 'experience during lockdown' than 'actual ability' and so to change quite rapidly over the course of the year. That's to be expected, and it's what we have prepared for.

@Lemons1571 I agree that is a worry we will obviously do everything we can by supporting home learning during periods of isolation and offering additional support sessions after school etc. It will be hard but that's what we will do.

I do feel for the kids though, I genuinely do those sitting exams next year will have it tough imo

They're going to have to go over stuff op because they can't assume you taught it properly. I guess on the first day they could give all the kids a huge test to see where everyone's at but realistically it's gonna be a bit adapting as they go.
If they start straight from the Sept curriculum a lot of kids are going to be left behind. Surely none of the state schools actually covered everything they would have covered on class? So you really think this doesn't matter?

cantkeepawayforever That's a very nice description of how to introduce algebra. By big step I didn't mean that you don't need to try to introduce things gently. I meant it is a significant conceptual step. Algebra is certainly a significant conceptual step up from just manipulating numbers,

I’m a secondary teacher (languages) and in my subject there’s a big need to go back and look at previously learnt material anyway to ensure new grammatical concepts get embedded all the time. As the head of department, my plan is to start teaching the normal curriculum that they would see in September, but ensure that key grammatical concepts from last term are seen in new ways (with new topics and vocabulary) as early as possible in the academic year. Our groups are settee by ability anyway and we of course differentiate further within these classes but I think this year is going to require more differentiation than usual, based on the evidence that the teachers have about the pupils’ work in lockdown. That’s why for the start of the year, we are keeping the groups the same with the same teacher.

On the more general point, what we are re-teaching or re-covering depends on the subject.

What about the many families who made a Herculean effort to teach what should have been taught from March? I guess that the good schools which can differentiate will find a way to keep things interesting for those children and those in not so good schools (most schools?) will just get bored and learn nothing new for a term.

I am assuming your DC school is in special measures OP? Not at all. I think it's probably an average school. From talking to other parents I think that only exceptional schools do all the great things discussed on MN by teachers.

What about the many families who made a Herculean effort to teach what should have been taught from March?
It wouldn't have covered the entire curriculum
You're aiming that all those kids have been taught adequately
What is your realistic alternative?

Logically, I'm afraid this cannot be true. The expectations of the primary curriculum are more than they have ever been before. If the majority of schools didn't challenge nor progress the children then you wouldn't see them transform from kids who know nothing to preteens capable of in-depth reading analysis, detailed complex writing and solving a variety of mathematical problems.

At our school the parents take up the missing parts of the education. This makes me even more sad as it further accentuates the social divide. Those children with parents who either don't care about education or who have difficult lives themselves get nothing from the school to make up their disadvantage. This is all done under guise of anti-elitism of course... :(

The primary curriculum tends to spiral around anyway - same areas of things like Maths get revisited and built upon.

DD2 is going into year 3 in a junior school and I know her teachers-to-be have had training on phonics to finish off the year 2 phonics work that didn't get covered. DD2 was in school in vulnerable provision (her mental health wasn't coping) and the school had tried to continue with phonics for the y2 kids in the bubble - but most won't have finished that work so the schools have worked together to transition plan.

Things like shape space and measures which was about where they were up to in Maths I think will be picked up later on in the year and the missing part caught up on then.

If you're wanting some kind of plaudits for keeping going with it all while others haven't - not everyone had schools who set work from the curriculum, many just set tasks that could be done without much parental knowledge - lots of "busy work" and making a model. I've got enough of a teaching background to have a fair idea of where the kids were up to in things - so I could pick up a bit more than the average parent - but with what we had provided from school I wouldn't be expecting parents with no knowledge to be able to do that. The schools did what they could do in a crisis I guess - can't say I'm particularly pleased with how one of ours handled it versus the other but that's the way it panned out - I'm more concerned with how we undo the damage that's been done now than scoring parental brownie points.

Mine were in school and DD1 in particular has been taking advantage of the teachers not being allowed to touch kids' books and turning in pages and pages of unpunctuated drivel anyway - she got away with LESS when I was overseeing things! Probably part of the reason she was so eager to get back into school for an easy life!

In foreign languages you generally start from the beginning in Year 7 anyway

That's a bit sad. There is a national curriculum for languages in key stage 2 but I fear it is largely ignored. E.g. "write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express
ideas clearly". There was no attempt at our primary to cover this.

I guess there just aren't the resources to cover it properly.

My dd (15) did a LOT of home learning (a LOT) but she was getting very stressed and her mental health was suffering. Her teachers were great though and told her not to worry as they'd also made plans for children that had done none so I'm sure it will all be dealt with. The only year group this will be really hard for is the ones going into year 11. They only have a year to catch up. Everyone else has longer. If some children haven't done any it's not really their fault it's the parents fault so why should they lose out. Your children will be at a good advantage.

There is a national curriculum for languages in key stage 2 but I fear it is largely ignored.

There is, but it's pretty vague and, as you say, mostly ignored. I'm an originally secondary MFL teacher but now teach MFL in 5 primary schools. I strongly get the impression the schools don't really much care what I cover in my lessons as long as I'm ticking the KS2 MFL requirement box, keeping the kids under control and providing the teachers' PPA time.