What happens to years 7,8,9 secondary school

[Flinstones]

Not once have these children been mentioned? I'm assuming they at home until September but why? The lack of information about secondary schools isn't good at all.

DD (Y7) is getting plenty of work from school. Some is better quality, eg new teaching rather than copying out text.

But I know that many of her peers aren't completing the work. I'm sure there are many valid reasons for this (lack of support or resources or motivation etc), but this will mean that the children who have worked hard this term (and end of last term) will be repeating the work in Y8 and, as previous posters have commented, focus will rightly be on key years and my DD's year will be negatively impacted again.

More than that however is my fear about her socially. She is an only. She's naturally shy and struggles with friendships. She was a superstar during transition to secondary, but I fear her efforts will have to restart. I'm encouraging her to use her phone to keep in touch. Against my better judgment, I figured it best for her to join the class WhatsApp group. But the language and subject matter on there is a real eye opener!

We've all got to do our best and support our kids however we can. I just hope I get it mostly right.

Ds is in year 9, they are covering new content, some of it I recognise as stuff his brother did. For English they get what would have been the powerpoint presentation on the board so it lays out the learning objective for the lesson and asks you to think about things, such as the role of women in the 16th Century for Shakespeare . They are doing English lit and lang work.

They complete the work set and upload it in Google Classrooms. History is the same powerpoint that would have been on the board but they have a video with a teacher talking them through setting out their work, ie the technique to answer the question. Basically walking them through exam question answering techniques.

Some stuff is on Seneca and sometimes they have YouTube videos to watch to help to teach them content. No live lessons via any medium.

I genuinely think the school are doing the best that they can in the circumstances but this is an outstanding school in a MAT that has a lot of resources with experienced staff that definitely go the extra mile normally.

DS in year 9 with a 3 year GCSE course so like others has no live teaching just using the school portal to download work, complete it then upload it back. They also use online Educake for science and Hegarty for maths so it breaks it up a bit. I’ve helped here and there but I’m no help with computer science at all! It’s going to be a long haul till the end of the summer term in July. They did adjust the amount of work set after the Easter break to lessen the load as there had been lots of feedback that there was too much to complete depending on family circumstances and access to computers etc between siblings.
I think DSs school are doing the best they can but can’t help but think the live teaching part is really missing.

My dd is getting a small amount of work - but it’s all end of term stuff ‘find a word for every letter of the alphabet’ make a crossword... no new learning. Not one thing has been marked in anyway and it’s all pointless. Half an hour of each subject a fortnight. It’s a grammar school but they seem to be playing the line of not stressing the kids - but boredom is dds main problem. I’m a teacher myself doing full live timetable on teams so it is particularly annoying! I’m teaching new content so this term won’t be as good but it won’t need to be repeated - private school v high level of engagement.

Our school have said that the earliest that 7,8,9 will be back is September and to expect a combination of online learning and part-time school attendance.

I'm assuming that yrs 7/8/9 won't be back this term now as they haven't been mentioned at all. DD3 is in year 9 and quite disappointed by this, though not sorry to miss end of year exams!

She is at private school and pretty much following her normal timetable on zoom (except games). However, she does find it more tiring than being in a classroom because you have to concentrate that much harder. The sessions are 40 minutes instead of the normal hour and some lessons in each subject have been replaced by free periods to give them a break, so they probably aren't covering the ground at the same rate as they would at school. Also there are often technical issues eg with lag/connectivity problems/kids not able to access the zoom meeting for some reason etc which also take up a fair amount of time.

They have homework as normal which they have to upload and it is marked.

On the social front, she and her older sisters seem to be texting their friends as much as ever!

My year 7 and year 9 are doing a full day's work. A mix of zoom, videos and learning offline. The year 9 has also quite a lot of homework on top. It's actually really full on to thr point where he has had a couple of meltdowns. I think mainly as he thought he was relaxing whilst school had different ideas.

1 year 8, 1 year 9 - assume not back until at least September now and then as its half class sizes presuming it'll be half time at most. Mine are both getting work set on show my homework - nothing live but that's fine. Ours get about 3 subjects a day and more optional work. Both mine are doing the school work or alternatives so not falling behind and they are covering the curriculum they would have been having if at school. My year 8 is ASD so I need to do all the work with him, the year 9 just gets on with it.

Year 7&9 here and school has confirmed off til September

We’ve been told that y7 definitely won’t be back before September at the earliest, and that year 9 are unlikely to be back before September.

It looks like all secondary children bar Y10/12 home until September at the moment.

As a teacher, it's pretty clear the government priority is childcare, not education IMO.

I think there are a few reasons to keep secondary children off, though:

-Lots of secondary children use public transport to get to school and the government is trying to minimise numbers on public transport.

-Lots of secondary children use LA transport and it would be difficult to make this safe for all children.

-Secondary children, in general, can work independently and most of them can stay home alone for longer periods.

-Secondary children who make their own way too and from school might be more likely to visit a friend's house, breaking lockdown (we have actually had this issue with one of the key worker children in school).

-Secondary teachers could be used to help care for primary children.

-There are lots more children in even one year at secondary school, and lots more adults, so more people to potentially infect each other.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, just the possible logic behind the government decision.

From an educational PoV only, I'd want Y9 and 10 back first, before any primary aged children, but this wouldn't help people return to work much.

Ours have just said that only a very small number of year 10s at a time will be able to go to school pre September and due to social distancing / staffing problems it will be very few students at a time. They plan to continue home learning. Not sure what plan is from September though think that's tbd.

My children are in years 8 and 9 in a private school. The child in year 9 full boards. Neither are going back until September and for boarders I wouldnt be surprised if it's January...
However, being a private schools they are working to their normal timetable, all live lessons, homework and end of year exams... I have incredibly impressed but we are paying school fees. The fees are only discounted by 12% off day fees and 25% of boarding