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!

My kids are older so we're at university when the world shut down ... they had none of those events/trips you mentioned and came out with A's and a*'s.

I personally have never known a meet and greet with drinks and nibbles, no get to know you residential and certainly no summer school, between them they have attended 6 schools!

Lockdown started half way into second term.

Lockdown started a week before the Easter break in 2020, for the majority of schools iirr, in 23 March.

It was two terms out which is a lot no matter how people spin it.

Comparing the current year 9s to current year 8s does vary from school to school - eg my dc1 is year 8 now and due to being in year 5 when lockdown started he missed the year 5 focussed summer open events at secondary, the September year 6 open events, then all the transition to secondary events in the summer term of year 6, so the first time he set foot in his secondary school was his first day of school. We also had to pick a school based on the websites, we weren’t allowed to visit them. By the summer before he started year 7 there was some mixing allowed - which is when I presume your school did a residential, but my dc1’s school didn’t do that so just arrived for first day.

but I still think kids his age or a bit older had it better - they at least could read and do the home schooling without a parent dedicated to them. Younger kids who needed to have someone read it out to them were pretty much left to fend for themselves in households with both parents working.

I find it interesting that some children regressed to seem like a younger age. Maybe it's because DS was 13, almost 14, but I see lockdown as the end of childhood for him. He changed overnight, became like an old man walking the canal paths alone and reading for hours. His friend group seem like such old souls, they are 17, I think one still 16. They are talking about degree apprenticeships and employers and the cost of university.

I should add they all got affected in different ways, one of my DD's dropped out of university, the other coped far better but missed out on a lot of extra curricular activities that were planned and I missed out on lots of fun things (proud mama things strictly speaking) which are a bit identifiable but I still am peeved I missed them - none is that important of course but we are entitled to be annoyed. The drinks and nibbles comes under that category, not anything more dramatic

It’s not the message I give to my DC - I haven’t talked to them about it. But it was their experience - left school suddenly with a huge bag of books in late March. Physically not in school again until September.

Yes, we would have had Easter and summer holidays anyway, but mine would have been in childcare or on holiday somewhere with both parents, not in the house with both parents trying to work.

Yes, my youngest did get some social contact through local park play dates once they were allowed. But my then Y7 hadn’t built up friendships enough to manage that more than once, despite my help and support.

I don’t dwell on it, and others had it much worse, but I think it’s unhelpful to pretend it was a mostly normal year. It wasn’t, and we need to work from there to help our DC.

That would be very paranoid. It's not surprising the now year 9s missed induction stuff if covud was ongoing.

Everyone missed stuff. There are special things that happen in each year that covid derailed. We missed being able to physically look round secondary schools, that was a nightmare. My ds is year 7 and he's the first year back to normal induction. The current year 8 missed a lot including all the fun leavers stuff in their year 6 and induction in year 7. Those whose exams were disrupted by covid got grades that weren't tested by exams and devalues GCSEs and A level in those years. That's a nightmare. University was awful for some covid totally ruined that golden age of your life you look forward to through childhood and back on as an adult.

In the majority of schools it was a maximum of 2 half terms, plus 1-2 weeks of the previous half term which were locked down. Some schools had some children return, many didn't. It was 2 and (up to) a quarter half terms, from six. Obviously not ideal.

The autumn term was very much school based as to how much time was missed. Some classes had burst bubbled happening a lot which meant some children missed more school than others. And some children had no burst bubbles at all.

In 2021 schools closed for almost 2 half terms - went back for one day, then lockdown and then reopened 3 weeks before Easter iirr.

I teach infants so yes, we do see an impact on new starts and we did see an impact on children who were in school already by 2020.
I think all year groups were affected and has longer reaching affects for SOME children, though not all, right across the ages from those born just before lockdown and those formative social interactions and not being able to form close binds with family members to those at university or just starting with missed exams, horrendous grading mess up and moving away from home only to be locked down away from new friends.

mind you, while all under 21 year olds were negatively affected disproportionately to those above 21 by lockdowns - despite being the group least likely to be negatively affected by catching covid - they have all been affected differently. The way different schools and parents handled it will make a huge difference.

But if any other time, one stage had been massively affected by something - if GCSEs or Alevels couldn’t happen, if year 6 to year 7 transition was banned for one year, if all preschools were closed or if something happened in post natal care that meant new mums didn’t get to see health visitors etc- then everyone would sympathise with that group because how awful for them, but this was awful for all children. There was no ideal age in childhood that wasn’t damaged by this.

The only people who got out of covid lockdowns relatively unscathed with no life milestones missed (completely missed, not just postponed) were adults.

OP - contact the lockdown enquiry. All parents should.

The only people who got out of covid lockdowns relatively unscathed with no life milestones missed (completely missed, not just postponed) were adults.

I think some young children were relatively unscathed. My nephew was an essential worker child so in childcare throughout and while it wasn't normal, I don't think they had physical distancing and masking like school aged children. He seems to be in a good position to start school in September.

OP - contact the lockdown enquiry.

I agree with this. There’s an easy way to feedback impact on dc which might help people assess what happened

There were also families who knew the difference between guidance and law, 'should' and 'must', and some who disregarded both in the interests of protecting the wellbeing of their own children. Obviously couldn't send children into schools that were closed to them but did what they could. I agree that it was rare for children not to be affected though.

Does anyone have a link to the enquiry?

My ds's were quite unscathed. Yes they missed out on bits, a bit shit, but nothing major. Ds2 is the year 9 that op refers to. No SAT's, no year 6 party, or weekend away. But he was completely unbothered. His HoY, who had ds1 as HoY in year 8, said there was a big difference, they were much more immature generally, but as a school they are working on that. They were both fine, played x box with their friends, did weekly quizzes as a family with all their football team families. Ds1 did a covid toilet roll video of ds2's football team. They were fine. Ds2 yesterday on inset, at Thorpe park, they go out and play football, sleep overs, very occasional big parties within their year. It's all fine. I'm not bothered. None of the mums I know in his year are either.
As I said before ds1 wasn't that damaged either. He's off at camp America currently.
Of course I appreciate that some families were. But generalisations of this such, year 9 was more than others? Bullshit.

Interesting thread and I agree with the sentiment that everyone missed out. Of my two, Y6 and Y8 now, the Y8 missed out more - all the end of Y6 stuff and having to chose secondary schools blind, but I see the impact on Y6 cohort more in terms of learning ability and concentration span.

They just seem to have missed out on some basic learning that wasn't cemented, and would imagine this is even more acute in current Y3-Y5.

In an ideal world, the government would be throwing money at schools to try and increase support for all children. Instead schools are on their knees having seen funding slashed over the last decade.

It's life though isn't it?

My ds is in yr 10. We had to relocate for financial reasons in his year 6. He started at a secondary which was Ofsted-rated fucked, His immune system had already destroyed his pancreas and thyroid by 11, and he has ASD. He joined a boxing club so he knew how to throw a punch and survive a tough school.

Not having a summer school, meet the teacher events or long parents evenings is nothing.

Also, try appreciating teachers who work really fucking hard and get still get slated.

While I'm on the topic, here's a special MN grip for you.

It's life though isn't it?
No, there were still all the usual problems of life, this was unprecedented and on top of that. This is about the effects of lockdowns, school closures, measures to distance people and reduce community mixing, and the cancellation of normal milestone events.

My DS was in year 11 in 2020;he missed his GCSEs;he then went onto college which was supposed to a hands on practical course but it was all online:what he was studying online cannot be applied practically in the trade he wanted to work in as it needs to be mostly physical experience.

He ended up quitting college and getting a full time job;he's now in the armed forces and will be completing the course he was meant to do in college there instead.

Covid has (and will continue to) affect so many year groups for different reasons for years to come...we will feel 'the ripple' I think until the babies born during the pandemic are adults. Probably, I suspect, well beyond!

I teach Year 2, so was teaching (both in school and remotely on Teams) and now back 'normally' pre, during and post Covid. This year's cohort are the cohort that we are calling the 'Covid Starters' as they started in Reception in September 2020, so missed all (or most) of their pre-school year and much of their reception year. Their first 'full year' of education was Year 1. They spent most of their formative early years in lockdown, so had very little of the social experiences they would normally have had at that age, such as toddler groups, or early/foundation stage education - much of it was online and most of them (ours in particular) didn't engage at all.

We are in an area of high social deprivation ones many, many hours on safeguarding, paperwork and driving round doing house calls just to try to see the children, which in 90% of cases we were met with the door opened a crack and a head peeping round, verbal aggression and the door slammed shut 🤷‍♀️ It was a difficult time for everyone but we were mandated to check on the children's safety if they were not submitting work, attending school (we were obviously still open) registering with our online sessions or answering calls to home.

The results this year for this cohort of Year 2s are really low... and as teachers we are being asked to 'justify' why! We were told at the start of the year NOT to use covid as an excuse to say that results at the end of the year would be low ( so they'd already pre-emoted the fact that they were going to be! The children came into Year 2 with exceptionally low levels of reading, writing and maths skills, their resilience and attention levels were poor and their social skills were very low. Year 1 teachers warned us that they had had to basically deliver the Reception curriculum and work on emotional skills as these were so lacking. SLT knew this...but 'data' is king of course and they are not prepared to allow the facts to get in the way of their reputation! Our poor children have been through enough...we need to work to put this right NOT put scores on the management teams system!

THIS IS WHY TEACHERS ARE STRIKING!!! We are broken! The system is broken. Schools are broken...for ALL year groups...covid has affected so much more than health. It has left a legacy that will take a seismic shift in education in order to fix it.

SO many typos in that...shouldn't type on my phone on a busy train standing up 😂😂

Mine is in year 8 and didn't have any kind of transition because of covid. I think it's affecting more than one year group.

@SpringIntoChaos The widening divide between those with well off or engaged parents and those from deprived backgrounds is so sad. My nephew is from a single parent lower income family (young teacher) but was lucky to be in childcare throughout and to have a parent who read to him regularly. He will have a huge advantage starting school able to read and with good social skills. There can be such a difference developmentally between children on day one of reception and lockdowns have made it even worse.

I have a Y9 child who is an only with multiple SEN. We live rurally with no family nearby and no other children around.

Both DH and I worked throughout the pandemic - my business partner and I qualified for no help at all and worked crazy hours to keep staff paid and the business viable.

There was very little in the way of transition, but DD's school did move the Y7 residential to Y8 instead so that they didn't totally miss out.

However a big part of the reason we chose the school we did was the extra-curricular and music provision and none of that happened at all in Y7 or in Y8. This year has been the first 'normal' year.

I've basically taken over managing all the SEN stuff myself (school are drowning in SEN issues and so easier just to crack on and keep them informed rather than expecting interventions) and compensated for the extra curricular by signing DD up for stacks of online courses.

To be honest I think it was bad for everyone, but if I had to pick, I would much prefer for DD to have had a less than ideal Y6/7/8 than have been older. She didn't have a social life to miss; I had a bored child at home rather than a bored teen; I had a child who was old enough to engage with tech and make the most of what it offered and it was still a novelty.

I am truly thankful that lockdown is not about to descend in Y10 as I would much, much rather that she was in a normal world for the next 3 years.

Yes her cohort are a little on the immature side perhaps, but there is time for them to grow up before they have to be adults... and it's a global thing, not just one school or one county. They're not going to messing up GCSEs or A Levels, or trying to have a university experience from their bedroom on zoom.

It's sad if school haven't tried to make it up for them with the trips.

With regard to the Meet the Teachers, we had an online version and I can't imagine it would have been much better face to face as there are so many kids and teachers. I've never seen the ones I spoke to on zoom ever again!

Lockdowns were much more variable than suggested; if you went to Italy on a skiing trip in February your lock down started sooner. When they went back back after the summer in 2020 school was anything but normal and many kids were repeatedly put on individual lockdowns when someone in their bubble tested positive. Then another lockdown in February followed by more ‘bubble lockdowns’ in the summer term.