Secondary school closure not a disaster

[Rowenasemolina]

In among all the doom laden unhappy threads, I just want to put the other side.

Some children prefer home learning , and do better

No teacher time is being wasted on bad behaviour, so the whole lesson is about the lesson.

Given that 25-50% of learning time in schools is wasted For the average child for the average week, there are positives to the current set up

And the school meals sent home are no worse than the school meals served on site. Maybe now the electorate will wake up to the absolute con of s a school meal system which takes millions of pounds and spends almost all of it on wages rather than food. School meals should be got rid of altogether

As a tutor, I would say around a quarter of my students say they prefer being in school, a quarter day they prefer being at home, and half vary in their feelings from day to day.

They certainly have less interruptions to their learning from badly behaved students at home though.

Not surprising, it is the parents of the badly behaved students that are Complaining most in our schools, and pushing hardest to get them back In

Did I say none of them were suffering? No, of course I didn’t. But neither is this a disaster for the majority of secondary students, despite what many on here would have us think.

You may be right. The thing with mental health issues is unfortunately there still is a stigma with them and people don’t always say what’s really going on. People become so good at hiding things around their mental health. So you just never know. My kids are doing well, most kids I know are doing well as far as I can see. But I don’t know for definite.

@Nellodee

Did I say none of them were suffering? No, of course I didn’t. But neither is this a disaster for the majority of secondary students, despite what many on here would have us think.

It’s not just on here. If you listened to radio today there’s a lot on it.

If we're talking about pure learning, the. DS14 is probably getting about 70% of the benefit he'd get at school, as this time school has provided timetable and some live lessons, but obviously misses the proper interaction and discussion in class.

Emotionally and physically though - well it's a no brainer that sitting online in his room all day with no actual connection to anyone, is not ideal. As he is doing PE for Nat 5 he does the odd run or cycle ride which he tracks on strava, so that's as best they can do under the circumstances, but doesn't replicate 3 x weekly rugby training and matches, school PE and football and all weekend playing football with his mates.

But yes I'm sure online teaching is better than being in school for some and for those DCs I'm pleased.

R4 interesting on this today. Not agreeing with the OP, it must be said.

My kids have definitely talked to me more about everything since the first lockdown, probably as a result of just being together more.

I'm talking to my children less as a result of us all being sick of the amount of time we've spent together, so we tend to sit in 4 different rooms. Another example of people's experiences really varying.

I talk to DS 14 less, and most of our interactions are now about me nagging him to do something.

When he was back at school we would chat when I was ferrying him from his sports training and he had some chat about his day and what he'd been up to with his friends. Now we have very little to discuss.

I would have loved it when I was younger but now I'm not sure, it's fine and my son gets on with it but I don't like that he's sat in front of a laptop all day and then unless we go straight out for a walk when he finishes we don't get chance as it starts going dark. We don't get meals sent home so can't comment on that and it's awful that they can't see their friends and family. I'm struggling this week my eldest is in high school and uses teams but my younger 3 are at primary so I'm the 'teacher' we've done well up till today and I just can't face it anymore! Hoping tomorrow is a better day.

@rookiemere we are exactly the same.

Teen ds would usually come in from school all giggly and hyper telling me something hilarious that had happened at school or what he'd been doing, I'd spend many nights ferrying him around to his sports activities and we'd chat in the car.

He was outgoing, sporty and popular though.

Not going to get these years back. He should be doing athletics and playing for the school football team not wasting away in his room on a laptop.

Not going to get these years back. He should be doing athletics and playing for the school football team not wasting away in his room on a laptop

This is how I feel and its very hard not to feel resentful. Dd had just got a sports scholarship to her school. She's going out for runs but no team sports - she's finding it incredibly hard.

It's got to be very hard for children with aspirations towards high level sport / dance. Swimmers and gymnasts in particular, I imagine, are struggling to keep up their form.

On the flip side, are musicians getting more practise? I'm not for a moment suggesting it evens out, but it just made me curious.

Yes, ds’s piano has soared but he’s not engaging as much with online zoom lessons.

He’s also really missing playing with others.

Our personal experience is that my DCs are doing less music practice and progressing more slowly. Zoom lessons for music are much better than nothing, but nowhere near as good.

But the main issue is the lack of music groups. My DCs love participating in bands and orchestras, and that encourages them to practice and want to become better. They get real confidence from their talent, make friends, and get inspired. Same with Gcse Music practical lessons.

It also doesn't help that the music exams are a mess (inconsistent remote provision, cancellations etc).