Virus will further highlight the education gap between middle class, private schools & others....

[321mamma]

Just putting my thoughts down z hmmhere.. Very concerned as like the rest of the UK my dc have been off since march & the work sent from school was acceptable not very much but it was corrected & teachers always replied to queries. Local private school had full day zoom classes for all children.
Roll onto September & there is a no homework policy in place in the school to help children resettle after the lockdown & a softly softly approach with revision of what was missed in the previous term. However friends in the private sector have said their kids recieved homework on day 1 & are straight on ahead with new concepts & topics...
Surely in the years ahead the private school kids are going to be hugely advantaged especially if govt need to do these "circuit breaks"?
I've been setting my own kids a little bit every day after school in Maths & English... Also listening to all 3 reading aloud daily but dds friend y4 in private 3 doors up from us is getting 2 hours homework daily I'm concerned

Parents who are genuinely struggling will contact the schools who will do what they can to help. Some parents just don't pay fees, and they need to be chased.

321mamma said “Virus will further highlight the education gap between middle class, private schools & others”

So what?! What’s your point. You can’t rely on schools; so we parents have to step up to the plate and help our DC. YouTube is a revelation for being taught something, then top it off with practising questions. Don’t worry that private schools offer better provision - the exorbitant fees are meant to confer advantage. I only wish I could afford it. But, I can’t. So, I trawl YouTube and the web for videos to help but cannot ever replace teaching Instruction.

I don't agree, but it's only my opinion. A child missing a few months, particularly at primary level makes little difference, especially for the relatively able kids.

Based on my own experience, I rarely studied throughout year for GCSEs, A levels and degree (missed classes, lectures, etc) and crammed for a 2/3 months towards end. Report and essays were always done last minute, etc. I always managed to get good grades.

Obviously this has informed my perception, but 6 months not doing anything won't make any difference to where they end up 20 years from now.

It's more subtle than private vs state or middle class vs whatever.

My DD is at a private school which provided amazing lockdown education, which meant that the kids got on with their school day needing very little support from parents. Lucky kids (and parents! )

If the school hadn't done that (and not all private schools did) it would have been pretty unequal within the class. A lot of DD's school friends had both parents working long hours during lockdown: many doctors on the covid front line (sometimes both parents), or in key roles in national broadband infrastructure, or just dealing with the crazy which covid brought. They weren't available to homeschool their kids.

Other kids (at both state and private schools) have a SAH parent, or had a parent on furlough. One-to-one teaching for 6 months is arguably also a pretty good educational advantage. Lucky kids.

Some kids had neither school provision nor a parent able to help over lockdown (even if they really wanted to). And of course there were children without the equipment they needed, or in overcrowded accommodation, or stressed/struggling families.

So whilst there are some links between parental occupation/income and children's experiences, it certainly isn't as simple as state/private. It's a whole host of factors which aligned to give kids very different experiences of lockdown.

It’s true, in the summer DD met with 3 friends who are all at different Secondary schools, Y10 at that time
1 had 1 hours tasks sent by email per day
1 could log on and do some work if she wanted
1 had 2 or 3 lessons sent daily
1 had a full timetable on Teams that they HAD to attend.
Last one was Private (DD), she isn’t behind where she would have been without Covid at all. The school has also rolled out new laptops to Y7-11 in case they have to isolate.
Chances are the gap between Private and even good State schools will widen

Following the normal time table was the key as pp said and teaching properly. That meant very little input from dp was needed!

Grammars around us have soared forward and the comps have been woeful.. I feel quite bitter about it.

I suspect that yes, the gap between wealthier and poorer students will increase, but I think you've got the reasoning wrong. As has always been the case, children with wealthier, educated parents will fare better at home, pretty much regardless of the school provision.

I teach in a deprived area. We have Microsoft Teams in place and I would be pretty happy to give live lessons a go. However, in preparation for the potential need for remote learning this term, we conducted a survey among parents about access to online learning. 1/3 of the families in my class responded that they would not be able to access learning online at all and requested a pack of paper work in the event of the bubble closing. Only 1/4 of parents said they would be able to provide access to live online lessons.

The government claims that it will be providing 100,000 laptops. Our school has yet to see any of them. You can't just contact the DfE and say "my school has x number of pupils who don't have a device at home", devices are allocated to you on the basis of a national formula. Primary students are below secondary students on the list of priorities.

Of course covid will exacerbate inequality.
Across the board people who are disadvantaged will likely become more disadvantage because Covid, or the measures taken during Covid.

If I’m honest I’m less worried about children’s education and more worried about the welfare of children who don’t have a safe home and/or are from a very disadvantage back ground. Also about what affect future economic measures might have on the poorest families.

My son goes to the local state primary. I’m happy the school have eased children back slowly and I personally am not happy with homework at primary age anyway, let alone hours of homework for children trying to get back to some normality after having their lives interrupted by a pandemic.

Done Maya 👍🏻✅