Stop the doom narrative and campaign to plug the gap.

[SmileEachDay]

The constant narrative from groups like U4T, the wider media AND (if MN is representative) individuals that children now are “a lost generation” and that they will “never catch up” is tremendously damaging.

They may well not be at exactly the (completely arbitrary) age related expectation. Perhaps they aren’t quite at the (complete arbitrary) progress point at secondary. Yes, the GCSE and Alevel students are having a difficult time, and their results will be reached in a different way.

But...

We won’t motivate children or families if we tell them it’s a lost cause.

The EEF are estimating that on average children are two months behind where they “should” (based on an arbitrary measure) be. It’s worse for children from a disadvantaged background - as it has always been.
Rather than claiming they’ll never catch up, would it not be more helpful to:

Tell kids that yes, it’s been tough but that they’ll still reach their potential AND then plough our time and resources into really closing the disadvantage gap. That’s going to mean government funding for educational support services, SEMH services, support for families, literacy support where appropriate, Surestart, youth mentoring - and that’s just off the top of my head.

I can only speak for our school but the impression is more of a fortress where they keep adding more and more barriers and excuses for keeping the kids out - at the same time as barriers and excuses as to why they children can't have an interaction with a teacher.
This is something that you should take up with the school. I told all of my students to take this week off, as I would be doing, but some have emailed about various things and I have replied. I could choose not to, but it suits me to deal with it in an hour or so a day rather than walk into it on Monday.

Your experience is valid and I would guess happens a lot in many schools Boredsobored and I can’t help but wonder if your experience is a casualty of all those cuts to funding that was highlighted in the BBC programme I linked earlier or changes in funding structure, so that there aren’t those additional supportive roles in school anymore, such as what MrsHamlet describes (which should be common in every school in my opinion) to be able to give the extra that you and your children need and deserve.

Schools need pastoral staff and support in addition to academic teaching staff, rather than assume that the academic teaching staff can and should do everything because it saves money.

Problem with that is it’s impossible to do well and something has got to give. Which is usually the pastoral side, which can negatively affect our children.

Yes families need schools to champion this but equally, select groups need to not demonise the mechanism by which schools champion this; through the unions and staff themselves when they speak out rather than shut them down because it’s uncomfortable to hear.

plough our time and resources into really closing the disadvantage gap

I think the biggest eye-opener for me on MN about how little a shit is generally given about disadvantaged kids is the free school meal threads. Ones about making sure kids are fed in the holidays, or about the poor offerings from the catering companies have been full of the most revolting comments.

The most concern I've seen for disadvantaged or vulnerable kids has been when that concern has been followed up by 'so we need to get schools back open as soon as possible (which would just so happen to benefit my kids too)'.

When concerns have been raised about live lessons because some pupils don't have the equipment to access them at the correct time and so would be disadvantaged, and recorded content is more accessible to all, the response is often how it shouldn't be a race to the bottom. 'Why should my child miss out?'

'Let's us catch-up funding to plug the disadvantage gap' won't get traction as a campaign unless it can be framed as of benefit to everyone.

I’m also watching with interest who contributes to this thread, to see if some put their money where their mouth is.
So far, not many. Not many at all.

However, I will off the back of this thread, write to my MP again but about funding for the pastoral wellbeing of children long term in schools. I will also write to my union. Have to do something!

Now, if we could only have a celebrity to also champion the message in the media....

I’m going to draft a letter to my MP also Chloe - perhaps we could post examples on here?

Its interesting that this thread hasn’t attracted the same interest as some others - it seems some elements of MN have a lot of time to berate teachers, but less to engage in how we actually make education- and society - better for disadvantaged children.

Bored that sounds hard. What would help? If you could ask one thing of your school, what would it be?

When you email your MP use www.writetothem.com/ because they follow-up and check if you get a reply, then report which MPs are replying/not replying to their mail.

Someone on here said that if you ask for your email to be passed to the DfE, you should get a reply from them too. I was dubious about this, but have indeed received a reply to a very long email about inadequate safety measures in schools from Nick Gibb's office.

Michael Tidd posted a good thing on Twitter earlier:

The gaps model treats learning like it's bricks: we just need a few extra hours on site to fill the holes. But the unsettled year is much more likely to have weakened the mortar, or used weak bricks. Simply finding the problems is hard, and every wall needs different solutions

Not generally acknowledged that not only will kids have gaps because of lockdown, but they will also have gaps because the education provided in schools between Sept and Dec was so patchy.

Not only did lots miss school because of isolations, but also had supply teachers because of teachers off, a not great educational experience due to teachers not being allowed to move from the front of the class, getting there five minutes late and still having to set-up due to having come from a class the other side of the school AND things like practicals not happening due to restrictions on the use of equipment and specialist teaching rooms.

When you email your MP use www.writetothem.com/ because they follow-up and check if you get a reply, then report which MPs are replying/not replying to their mail.

Thanks for the tip noble, I've got to be honest I've almost given up because most recently my Tory MP (in a safe seat) spends 75% of the time not even replying and the other 25% evading my questions and telling me to go away. But maybe using this website will help.

Guest post on MN from outgoing Children's Commissioner asking for support for 'Build Back Better'.

Guest Post: "Post-COVID, we will need a new government commitment to children" www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/4168527-Guest-Post-Post-COVID-we-will-need-a-new-government-commitment-to-children

The other issue that needs to be addressed is this:

Why have disadvantaged children fallen so much further behind that their less disadvantaged peers?

Some of that is a result of the digital divide, but that’s not the whole story.

My suspicion is that the pandemic has acted to magnify the existing reasons for disadvantage. Mostly, they are things that additional hours in school won’t solve - poverty combined with a whole range of deeply embedded reasons for parent/carer disengagement from education.

Schools can’t solve that. That takes real investment from central government and from society.

Where are all the “get schools open” posters? Why aren’t they on this thread?

Thanks for linking to that thecat

Oh thecat I am sitting on my hands to stop being rude to the outgoing children's commissioner. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to.

Well. I was as diplomatic as possible.

noble I think that was more than reasonable!

1. Screw over a generation of children
2. Tell them that, actually, they haven't been screwed over
3. ???
4. Success

1. Screw over a generation of children
2. Tell them that they've been so badly screwed over that they will never recover, and are indeed a 'lost generation'.
3. ???
4. Success

What's interesting is also the suggestion that we are doing the screwing over, and not a pandemic that is fucking things up for pretty much everyone.

1. Pandemic
2. Acknowledge that things are pretty shit and that they've missed out BUT that support is available to get them back on their feet
3. Invest massively in support
4. Improvement

Half
My OP focuses on 3 - you just have question marks.

Constantly telling children they have been screwed over does nothing to address the issues. It tells them there is no hope.

There has been an unexpected and catastrophic event, beyond anyone’s control. We are where we are.

Now is the time to invest and put support in place.

www.tes.com/news/covid-catch-cash-very-modest-and-poorly-targeted

"The government's Covid catch-up plans are "very modest" and "poorly targeted", new research warns.

Despite pledging the second most generous funding package of the four UK nations, England's plans to recover lost learning in the wake of the pandemic "seem modest compared with the scale of the challenge", according to a report published today by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) think tank.

The funding is also "poorly targeted", the report's author said, with just 30 per cent of England's catch-up cash earmarked for the poorest pupils."

Interesting article- I wonder who made the decisions about what the funding is spent on.

If teachers could just magically get loads of kids to make double the progress than usual, with a disproportionately high effect on the lowest attaining, we’d already have been doing that.

(From twitter, but basically this is where I stand).

We need a load of investment in pastoral, mental health, wellbeing, family support, holiday clubs, youth clubs and so on. Then school can just be school.

This is exactly right Rule

Disadvantaged children were already behind. Where were U4T before the pandemic?

Where are all the “get schools open” posters? Why aren’t they on this thread?
They're probably frothing away on other threads ready to claim that some teachers on Mumsnet not having a fully planned and costed plan to open schools fully equals teachers wanting to stay at home and not do their job.

Mockery aside, it is really telling how few people seem interested in discussion about educational disadvantage, social inequality, and measures to open schools when they can't display faux concern for poor children to justify pushing for things that they want for their children.

What percentage increase in tax are you willing to tolerate to fund this recovery OP?

Funnily enough I found the same thing when I started a thread in June about how some kids were having zoom lessons and individual feedback and some were getting a worksheet a week and tied this to educational inequality in schools before the pandemic to do with lack of resources and systematic underfunding of the education system.

That thread also got hardly any responses, the majority from teachers despite the fact that some kids getting zoom lessons and some kids getting a worksheet a week was an incredibly hot topic at the time.