Have the cohort starting 2020 been writen off by schools?

[stickygotstuck]

After yet another disappointment with DD's (supossedly well-regarded) secondary school, I can't help but wonder whether there are any/some/many schools out there which seem to have written off the cohort of kids that started Year 7 in 2020, mid pandemic? In a 'these are never going to catch up anyway, why waste time/resources on them' kind of way.

For the kids now in Year 9 there was no induction in y7 and no start of year, getting-to-know-you residential. Also no meeting the teachers in person. Ever. They have continued with the franky insufficient 4-minute online parent evenings for 3 years now, with not enough slots to speak to all teachers, and with no plans to go back to physical sessions.

Compare this with those currently in Year 8 - two weeks of 'summer school' in their new school before start of year 7, physical 'meet the teacher' event in school with drinks and nibbles during year 8, one extra residential in year 8.

Am I imagining things or does anyone have similar experiences?
The 'meet the teacher' even did piss me off, I must admit!

You are wrong (and I have a y9 child)
And I wish parents like you could spend just 1 morning in a secondary school dealing with the staffing crisis, no money in the budget, buildings literally falling apart, no outside agency help anymore unless the pupil has actively attempted suicide, and even then not fast enough, pupils who even 3 years ago would have been removed from abusive homes having to stay in an unsafe environment, taking food parcels to families, finding uniform and shoes for kids...I could go on and on.
MH issues have exploded since covid, and it's not just the kids'..parents seem to have lost the plot, too.
Totally unacceptable behaviour and abuse. We've had to ban some parents from the site.
Take today...
Should have 12 LSAs. We had 4. 4 agency staff didn't turn up. 2 on long-term sick.
3 SLT leaving in 2 weeks. There are no replacements yet. (Or at least no one we can safely hire)
Teachers are cleaning, doing cover, governors are exam invigilating...
Every child is a priority.
But you're complaining about a broken door when the house is on fire.

@mirages08 I agree with you. DDs friend took an overdose on the way to school in May. She's actively self harming and she's still not been seen by CAMHS. The school has to watch her like a hawk, but how? Who's going to do that?

Yes, I read that, am I not allowed to share my experience too? I do think it's more unusual for a child not to have settled within first term, in my experience of course, but every child is different.

I have a child in Year 9 and one in Year 11. From reading threads on here and talking to friends everyone thinks their child’s year had it worse. Everyone calls their child’s year group ‘the Covid cohort’.

They all missed out on education and other formative experiences. But in my opinion the young people graduating from university this year have had the worst impact. A-levels pulled from under them, leaving home and half of their uni life under lockdown and now some of them not having their final exams marked.

Btw OP there is a very nice Yr 9 thread, currently running. I joined a particularity lovely thread for year 9 for my ds1 and it's still running and they are all 1st years at Uni.

9 - 2022/2023 Support Thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4617872-year-9-20222023-support-thread Yr9

The people I know who teach secondary are working so incredibly hard, especially as there are fewer and fewer teachers left in their departments. They simply don't have enough money and are trying to do more with less

I agree. Primary, too.

I have a child in Year 9 and one in Year 11. From reading threads on here and talking to friends everyone thinks their child’s year had it worse. Everyone calls their child’s year group ‘the Covid cohort’.

They all missed out on education and other formative experiences. But in my opinion the young people graduating from university this year have had the worst impact. A-levels pulled from under them, leaving home and half of their uni life under lockdown and now some of them not having their final exams marked.
I agree with this and another poster up thread who said some parents seem to say "they're a COVID baby/COVID child" for anything and everything.

Coming out of the pandemic schools have got different priorities and will be doing what they can with the budgets they have. It's not in their interests to write off a whole cohort.
No school I've worked at has done a Year 7 getting to know you residential, so I'd hardly say not having a trip is a sign that a cohort aren't cared about.

@mirage08 you know what? The issue is precisely that I've been as understanding as you can possibly for 3 years. Way, way too understanding. And in the meantime, DD is suffering the consequences.
And today came the last straw, I had enough and came to ask if anybody had a similar experience.

Unfortunately, it's not only students or parents who seem to have lost the plot (since covid?), it has been happening outside schools too. Which is not helping my general appraisal of the situation either.

I'm seeing a lot of defensiveness in many of these posts. I asked a question, explained the background and gave examples.

Some PPs don't seem to understand what I am trying to say -
Schools are shit for everybody, they are shitter now than before covid, and will probably be even worse soon. What I am saying is, that this school seems to objectively have devoted more of their (yes, scarce) time/resources/events to every year before and after the 2020 cohort. Glad to see other people's schools seem to have been more consistent. This one hasn't.

My dd was in that year.

She wouldn’t go back after lockdown. We eventually got her back and she has become a self harming EBSA in y12. Hasn’t been to school since Easter and cites lockdown as the starting point.

Meanwhile the battle for an EHCP ongoing and exhausting…

It affected ALL children at any school.

Which year groups is this school "prioritising" in your view?
Y11s due to gcses?
Y10s due to mocks?
Y6s coming up from Primary?
Is there a particular year group who has a lot of send/pp/da/lac/eal pupils?
Perhaps your views would be better shared with the SLT and Chair of Governors?

Thanks for the link @Oblomov23

Will placemark now and take a look later 🙂. Hearing something positive to do with school would be lovely at the moment!

Funnily enough, Y8

My views have been shared. Have been waiting for a reply for 3 months. With reminders. Did I mention that communication is crap?

Just anecdotal, obviously, but this year our "summer school" probably won't run as not enough families have signed their y6 and y7s up 🤷‍♀️

Of course you can. It just seemed like you were quoting me to disagree with me experience. You're welcome, as other parents in this year group have done, to post a separate reply.
I think for girls it tends to be trickier as they don't really have the online gaming that boys do, especially if the secondary school they've moved don't have a main feeder so they're not all that close. My DD did settle well, even though she has and EHCP. She even went on the ski trip as the only Y7. Lockdown just seemed to regress a lot of them back to childhood. It was lovely at the time as she went back to playing with LPS and going on her bike all day, but her and her friends definitely didn't seem like Y8s upon their return. I see the same now. They seem like Y9s, it Y10s if that makes sense. I still don't think they're the worst effected hear though. For us, anecdotally, the first lockdown was a blessing.

I'm sorry Op :( I can see why you're frustrated to be honest. It sounds like the school isn't doing a great job. Have you spoken to them?

It sounds like the school is trying to make up for missed experiences with the current year 8s but see year 9 as too late to do these things. Assuming summer school had barriers to normal participation like distancing and masks and was in place of a year 7 residential? So residential and meeting teacher event were delayed by a year. But year 9 were now in their third year at school so perhaps it seemed pointless to do these things. You wouldn't have summer school before starting year 8 because they have been in school together for a year minus the second lockdown. I understand that it seems you have missed out but it doesn't sound intentional.

Thank you Foxesandsquirrels , I think today the proverbial coke bottle has exploded!

I have spoken to the school about specific issues to do with DD. It's a huge effort to get them to respond, let alone act. Today for some reason I realised the accummulation of things. The overwhelming feeling is huge disappointment. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Ideally, we'd change schools. But I'm not sure that would be in DD's best interests since it's taken so long for her to settle. Plus she doesn't want to.

Of course you can. It just seemed like you were quoting me to disagree with me experience. You're welcome, as other parents in this year group have done, to post a separate reply.
I was mainly quoting to reply to the other parts of your post that it was halfway through the year and dark, as that wasn't true.

EmeraldFox - It sounds like the school is trying to make up for missed experiences with the current year 8s but see year 9 as too late to do these things

Yes, that's exactly it. Like they've given up on them.

Are they doing things like foreign language exchange/trips this year or next? They would also be organising residentials for year 7 and 8 in one year already? It's disappointing to be the year that misses out but I can also guess their reasoning around the residential.

I've been told the current yr1, yr3 and yr9 have been worst affected with the kids who were doing their a levels and gsces during COVID also badly screwed.

I hear you. I guess on those days you get so desperate you feel like, surely there must be someone else feeling like this. It's so difficult when your child is struggling, especially when everyone else seems to love the school. If it makes it any easier, my DD is in Y10 and we're moving her in Sept. She's retaking the year as this year was so bad. The school couldn't have done any more. They were wonderful and she went on a residential this year. They arranged work experience, counselling, CAMHS referrals, the whole lot. But it didn't work. With the best school in the world, some kids will have struggles. I guess it could be COVID for DD, but easily it might not have been. I guess my point is, don't blame the school too much because by extension you're then blaming yourself. Why did I send them to this school. It's my fault. If I had sent them elsewhere it would've been better. The reality is, it might not have been.
Hang in there OP. If you have an inkling that a change of school might help, I suggest you at least put them on a waiting list and make the decision once a place is available.

Y8?
Interesting.
Anecdotal again, but out y8 is a very tricky cohort.
Many behaviour issues, post covid anxiety and much higher send %
I'd be contacting the head of year and asking how long a reply will be...?
However, schools are haemorrhaging support staff, so it could be lack of admin/office manager/PA slowing things down.

My year 9 missed the end of primary and only had the Leavers hoodie.
His sister chose a prom dress in February and there was no prom. She was the cohort that had the TAGs and then people said it was unfair/inflated/ the opposite of inflated. She did A levels last year, not having done public exams before.

It was shit all round.