Changing the school year

[Pugdoglife]

I've just seen a petition on social media calling for the school year to be restructured.
I can't imagine the government would consider it, but it seems to have some merits.

In essence pupils would go back in the September in the school year they are currently in, they could then properly cover the work missed over the summer term.
They would then move into a new year (in some cases school) in January.
The school year could then be split from January to December with school holidays split more evenly to make the summer break shorter which might benefit working parents and children.

Year 11 and 13 students could maybe be given time to do work experience, learn life skills, do voluntary work, do more studying in school/college in preparation for exams if they dispute the grades they receive in the summer. (This would only affect them this one year)

I apologize if this has been discussed on here in detail before, I hadn't seen a thread yet.

I'm sure there are many reasons it won't work, but it seemed like a reasonable idea to me.

When it comes to exams, if only 75% of curriculum has been taught, only put 75% of curriculum in exams.
And how do you think that will work when schools teach the Curriculum in a different order!
The 75% is not the same in every school.

I would like this too - although I don't think it will happen. There is a very good chance entrance to reception classes will be more staggered than normal even if they all 'start' in September, I think the nurseries were saying they could do this or keep more or the cohort at nursery- I expect with job losses they are anticipating a lot of people dropping nursery places.

My Dad swears blind that he was the youngest in his class, born Oct 1943, becuae the school year started in November. Mum, born similar date at the other end of the country, says he's talking nonsense. Were school years ever regional, does anyone know?

@ittooshallpass

I really can't get het up about children missing 1 term of school. They've all missed it. Draw a line under it. Move on. When it comes to exams, if only 75% of curriculum has been taught, only put 75% of curriculum in exams. Or mark it accordingly. It is what it is. They will all be fine.

I'm not het up about it either, but I know a lot of year 10 and 12 students and their parents/carers are. I know a lot of year 6 students and their parents/carers are. I know a lot of university students are concerned about spending around £3k on fees for a term and not getting value for money.

When it comes to exams, if only 75% of curriculum has been taught, only put 75% of curriculum in exams.

Which 25% do you remove? Some schools will have already taught it. Schools don't all do the same subject matter at the same time or in the same order. You really can't just remove the last few sections of the syllabus assuming no schools have taught it yet.

I know a lot of university students are concerned about spending around £3k on fees for a term and not getting value for money.

Not to mention paying for accommodation at average £150 just to be stuck in your prison cell room watching online lectures, when you could do that at home and save the accommodation costs.

I understand that worry for the older children studying for GCSEs and A levels, but for anyone younger, I just don't get the angst. A pandemic happened. Everyone has been inconvenienced. Children have missed a term of school. In the grand scheme of things this is going to mean very little because the teachers will adjust their teaching to reflect the loss of a term's education. Over time the children will catch up. There is no reason to change an entire system that has worked well for a very long time for the sake of 15 weeks.

No way. My daughter has been working hard and doing live lessons all day. Our whole next two years is planned for a move for sixth form.
You are asking for universities to change their year schedule too. And what about international students? Are you asking the world to change?
Missing one term of school is not going to affect most students long term. With some rejigging and extra work they will get caught up. Y10 (my child) and Y 12s that have not been getting enough schooling for exams next year could benefit from the exams being delayed a month (june/july instead if May/June). Extra exam markers would need to be trained, but that would give kids a whole extra month.
A whole systemic change for he loss of one term is unreasonable and unsustainable.

The problem with sending new reception children into school in September, is social distancing. No way would you be able to leave your new to school 4 year old to go into a school they are not familiar with carers they aren’t familiar with. It would be quite horrific. The first couple of months are used to set routines and familiarise them with the school day / routines and teachers. I don’t think it would work in bubbles. Parents aren’t allowed in school. When my school started school, we went into the classroom with him several times in June / July to play and meet teachers. The teachers did home visits or nursery visits etc. The first two days we settled him into the classroom. All of this hasnt / won’t be possible with social distancing. Is the bubble social distance schooling really what people want for their 4 year olds?

I don’t know what the answer is but I think this might be a good start. Some children will have missed 6 months of school and it’s those that need priority. The parents will just have to cope like we have coped during lockdown!

@Pipandmum some great points there about universities and international students.

And how do you think that will work when schools teach the Curriculum in a different order!
The 75% is not the same in every school.*

Just reduce the points needed for each grade by 25%?*

If you increased the amount of question choice on exam papers you could allow for schools having covered different parts of the syllabus.

I'm not het up about it either, but I know a lot of year 10 and 12 students and their parents/carers are.
I know a lot of year 6 students and their parents/carers are.

My DD is in Y6 and has missed her SATs, residential and all transition sessions with new school. I'm sad for her but I do think all the comments about redoing the school year and how our children are on the scrap heap which are all over MN are OTT. They will be fine. They have lost 1 term so far... but it's a term that actually for most years has a lot of down time anyway.

Some children will have missed 6 months of school and it’s those that need priority. The parents will just have to cope like we have coped during lockdown

Some of us with children starting in September do already have children at school you know. You expect us to continue 'coping' for a further 5 months with a school aged child at home whilst the rest of you get back to it. My employer does require me to go back to work at some point this year!!

Penny lane, does your child not have a place in a nursery or with a childminder?

They havent/won't have missed 6 months as 9 weeks of that would have been school holidays. They missed a term and a bit.

Some children won't ever catch up and that is evidenced in lots of previous work on disadvantaged children. The gap will just be too big. They will have spent this time doing no work, and possibly in abusive or neglectful homes. They will has regressed (this happens to a cohort of children every year in the summer holidays).

The older they are the less time there will be to catch up. Evidence shows that ground work done in the early years makes te difference. So it could be reception children who will have the biggest difficulty catching up ( not all, but those who are already disadvantaged)

But there is likely to be part time schooling “blended learning” in September (unless they drop the safeguarding currently in place). I very much doubt any of us will be “getting on with it” by September. September is not some magic date when the virus just disappears!

Nurseries/childminders have new children on their books for September onwards because the old cohort of kids have moved on to school. Thats the way it works. Plus, the children would no longer be eligible for 3/4 year old funding. The suggestion that reception children should be delayed starting until January (or staggered starts throughout the year I've heard suggested elsewhere) isn't workable or fair given the amount of time out of work parents have already had to endure.

It’s a daft idea - and too late anyway. My school has had nearly all children fully engaged and taught a full live timetable. Planning for next year has happened already - staff, timetables, sets, choices...
it is awful that the gap will have widened for those kids that not engaging with work - but exams are easier to change eg: do 10 out of 15 questions or something. Or kids who haven’t engaged drop a subject and have catch up classes or, you know the kids in exam classes could do the work they’re set this term? Do you want to tell all the kids that have worked hard that they’re staying down a year? A-levels / GCSEs in, what, November?

ittoo but schools teach the curriculum in a different order from each other. And how do DC move to A levels having missed large chunks of subject material?
I have a year 10 and 12. Any other year I wouldn't get het up, but for these two years I do. DS1 has already had A level predicted grades for uni assessed off only his first six months of work.

itoo levels are awarded on a bell curve. So lowering grade boundaries isn't the answer.

I think there is no way of suiting everyone, but re-jigging years will enrage and upset more people than simply accepting that this year has been horrendously difficult.

I have a 15yo DS who would go apeshit at the idea of being kept in school any longer than he absolutely has to. The idea of turning 18 and having to keep going to school until the end of that year - December - when he was expecting to basically leave in May would go down badly. Many kids hate education. What will happen is they will drop out without the qualifications.

What @ittooshallpass said on the bottom of P1

Year 11 and 13 students could maybe be given time to do work experience, learn life skills, do voluntary work

I think you'll find that the tiny fraction of those positions that will still exist, will have been filled by graduates and by folks who have been made redundant. It's never been more difficult to "get a job for a few weeks or months" or get work experience or voluntary work.

I'm not sure. I've got a child due to start school in September. We haven't formally given nursery our notice so I imagine he would be allowed to keep his place.? However, he's nearly 5 so he'd be quite cross about staying at nursery. And I'd be cross if I kept on having to pay fees!

Would it be better to allow children to take their gcses and a levels in the autumn? Assuming everything is back to normal and the virus has gone away (!), years 8 to 10 could go to school 4 days a week for the autumn term only, and make room for the gcse and a level students to stay on, if they wanted to? I'm assuming that those children would be old enough to get on with some home work alone for one day a week, so this wouldn't cause such a big childcare problem.