Restart the school year

[SnowballedMum]

If all schools were instructed to restart the school year. Would you be pleased? I have mixed feelings about this course of action.

No. I would support a shift to a January to December school year so effectively giving an extra term to this school year.

No! I am paying got every term

For*

No way. My child is not behind (Y11). It would completely muck up the older years and very young years - those in the middle can make up alot next year.

Nope. I think it was a shit show waiting to happen with all the knock of effects it would have.

No. My child is advanced, and the work we are receiving is not challenging enough. To do it all again would be a complete waste of time.

No

Whete will a years worth if extra teachers and classrooms come from? Or will children who would be starting in Reception be delayed by a year? How would it work?

This has been done before and no definitely not. It won't happen and would be a very bad move.

I know I'm biased because my DC's school has been fab from day 1 of lockdown 1 and I don't believe mine are behind but I do know many other kids who are and even their parents don't believe this the right thing to do.

We need to stop thinking about how to get back to how we were before this and look forward to what would work best from where we are now.

How is that going to work for year 11 and year 13?

Hell no

Why not make it optional? If the govt paid retired teachers and recruited more to do extra sessions over summer, Christmas and to run additional classes for the bulge years?

Why accept that things always have to follow the same pattern they have done before? I mean now they are moving to post a level application to uni - which is a good thing. Some kids will do better and can stay in current year, others may prefer to repeat a year with or without optional extra lessons in holidays.

It's logistically impossible, there would be a whole extra year group of children in school. The idea of retired teachers coming back is nice, but lets be honest most of the won't be wanting to come back. They're retired for a reason. It would mean SO many extra staff that would be nigh on impossible to get by September.

My grandma was a Jewish refugee in WW2 and missed tons of school, as did many of her contemporaries. Once she was back in school she had to learn a whole new language and do some serious catching up - she was fine and finished school well. Most children will catch up because their teachers will adapt and refine curriculums next year, the government may fund some 1-1 catch up and mostly because children are extremely adaptable and will be okay. Repeating the school year is an upheaval that will not work.

Nope definitely not and not because mine are advanced in anyway. It would be awful!

No because if you think it through properly it can't work.

Most children will catch up because their teachers will adapt and refine curriculums next year, the government may fund some 1-1 catch up and mostly because children are extremely adaptable and will be okay

The evidence for interrupted schooling is nothing like your anecdote, there was pretty much only one example of extended interrupted schooling that didn't impact the health and wealth of the students, and that was in Virginia schools in the 60's, where the main reason noticed for why it didn't matter if you went to school or not, was because the black students were so prejudiced against they were all screwed.

Otherwise interrupted education has always shown up bad at a population level.

That said, restarting a school year is an awful solution.

Nope. My DC effectively went back half a year moving from England to Scotland and is doing work from the year she would be in (2nd year in school) rather than the year she is in (1st year in school). She's also flying through the work set...

Theoretically it doesn't seem like a bad idea but it does mean there's an entire year of children than need to be accounted for somehow - do we start all children a year later from now on? Are nursery spaces going to be funded etc etc.

I think the better thing to do would be to roll the curriculum back to where is was a few years ago. I may not be making much sense here, but there's been a few big shifts in what children are expected to learn (for instance year 2s a few years ago were quickly expected by be where year 4s were a few years before that) and reversing some of those would most likely allow them to stay in their own school years and hopefully time to level those who haven't been able to learn at home as efficiently up while still doing something with those who have learned well and are advanced.

No. My child doesn’t need a repeat. I’m in favour of rejiggi game years so that those who have missed out on so much can repeat, but I do not support a compulsory retake (and would frankly remove dd from school and do something else for a year, rather than have her time wasted that way.

No. Most of our children are engaging well with online learning, there is no need for them to spend an extra year repeating learning that they already have for the sake of a few who aren’t doing the work.

No way. My children aren't behind, and the eldest is in a crucial year.