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!

There were individual isolations but these are separate from the population level lockdowns. Usually when people say lockdown one they mean from 23 March 2020.

COVID affected every year group in different ways. In the beginning I was upset by what my own child missed but that's in the past, why worry about it now? My child certainly isn't worried about it now, he just gets on with school and does his best. He is year 10 now but for him COVID seems like a lifetime ago. I think it's parents that out more emphasis on lost events, not so much the children.

@IWillNoLie “Lockdowns were much more variable than suggested; if you went to Italy on a skiing trip in February your lock down started sooner”

I don’t remember it being like that at all.
It’s so easy to get confused 3 years on, so you had me curious and googling! Found a news story about one school who had had kids on a ski trip and were asked to stay home if even the slightest symptoms.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51633987.amp

But that wasn’t a full lockdown right through to the 23rd March national lockdown starting, and wouldn’t have effected that many people.

People at the time were moaning that Y6 (now Y9) were 'prioritised' as going back to school in June 2020 while other year groups stayed at home, so they weren't one of the year groups who were off school from March to September (that was really hard as I had one in school and one at home and the one at home really struggled with their sibling going off to school and seeing friends while they couldn't).

So the Y8s that you think are being prioritised now, weren't prioritised then. Everyone feels hard done by, I think.

The major issue is that the government have done fuck all for the children to make up for it. They hired a children's covid catch-up advisor who advised a £15 billion package of recovery for kids, which included academic catch-up, but also social catch-up. More extra-curricular activities and social events. This money could have been used for residentials too.

The government said no, and the covid catch-up advisor resigned in disgust. The only money the government gave to children's covid recovery was to pay for tutoring (so academic only) and they spectacularly fucked that up (I mean, really spectacularly fucked it up, utter scandal) so kids never really got any benefit from it.

The government have failed the kids. At the same time, the education system has basically collapsed due to underfunding of all children's services and so the teachers that are left are having to try to prop up what remains not leaving much time for nice-to-have extras.

But that wasn’t a full lockdown right through to the 23rd March national lockdown starting, and wouldn’t have effected that many people.
And people able to afford ski trips were also in a much more privileged position and usually better able to compensate for the negative effects of lockdown. Many (not all) would be able to work from home for a start. Poorer families would be more likely to have jobs outside the home and many preteen and young teens were left home alone. Poorer families would be less able to afford technology to facilitate remote schooling or to provide entertainment, less able to buy new sports equipment for the garden and so on.

Not sure if this has been posted already but here you go

For anyone who wants to put story from perspective of dc it’ll help

https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/every-story-matters/

@SunnyEgg Thanks!

But for school it wasn’t individual - it was whole bubbles (often year groups) and often repeatedly. Many missed huge chunks of the autumn term. It wasn’t until 2021 that the lockdowns were individual. We are talking about children in schools here, not the population level.

But for school it wasn’t individual - it was whole bubbles (often year groups) and often repeatedly. Many missed huge chunks of the autumn term.

In secondary it wasn't whole bubbles or year groups, that was stopped within a few weeks. Who was isolated was based on seating plans and who they sat next to in lessons. 1 kid getting covid meant actually maybe 10-20 kids off.

There were definitely kids who missed a lot of the autumn term, particularly as covid went around year groups as the isolation policy was completely ineffective, but it wasn't year groups off at a time.

In some primary schools it was. It depended how the school operated the bubbles.

Bubbles didn’t stop until July 2021; https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/uk-school-bubbles-freedom-day-july-19-b944329.html

Yes, and that's why I said secondary. And the Y9 cohort mentioned in the OP were in secondary.

Bubbles didn’t stop until July 2021

But bubbles weren't how isolations worked in secondary.

There was an earlier comment talking about how kids are mostly effected and adults weren't. I can't find it to quote but I actually hugely disagree. I think many adults were hugely effected. A lot more than many kids.
I think a huge amount of mental health problems many kids are suffering with are being caused by their home life. I am not saying it's something parents can snap out of it easily.
A lot of adults were traumatised by the way their loved ones died, missed cancer diagnosis, lost businesses and jobs etc. There is little to no support for those with long COVID, let alone trauma associated with that time period.

This war of who had it worse. I heard it was this year, I heard that year. We are underestimating how much damage blaming everything on COVID is doing to our kids. Just like we underestimated how much damage lockdowns would cause.

Yep, I've noticed this too. I've met parents of toddlers, 20 year olds, and almost every age in between who believe their child's cohort was affected the most.

@stickygotstuck

I've come Back. I was thinking:

OP, what are you actually suggesting could happen. What do you want? More importantly, in your OP, you said: " after yet another disappointment". What are you referring to? What exactly happened. And why do you think it means this cohort year is being written off.

I only ask because I don't think they are being written of at all. In fact they may be one of the lucky years, compared to some others! What about those years that were doing GCSE's, A'level's, or first year of Uni, in covid.

My DS2 has had a very nice yr 8 and an even better yr 9 and is about to start year 10 for GCSEs, year one and then year 11 which will be GCSEs year 2, happy and I am optimistic.

GCSE's you compete for grades largely against your peers, so if they are all behind, all immature, it doesn't really matter, does it?

things are much more stable now so I actually think he's in a really really good position position.

Indeed, it was me who actually said that the previous HoY had said how immature this year was compared to previous years, but they're working on that in my school. is your school ?

But realistically what do you honestly think it's going to happen here? the state of the uk right now : with teachers striking, passport striking, trains striking, consultants striking, nurses, striking, ambulance striking, everyone striking. there is literally no extra money for the NHS no extra money for anyone, none is going to be given to schools. so what do you honestly expect schools to do or to change given that they are not going to get any extra money to repair the damage has been done to any child, because of Covid, or actually, they're not going to be given any extra money to do anything extra for any reason at all.

Plus the survey that someone linked to earlier, which is great but realistically do you honestly believe our government is going to do anything with those survey results? Put into place what? With what funding? Probably not!

Based on that survey, government is going to do what exactly to benefit our children ? I think if we need want to do anything that's going to help them we need to do it ourselves, don't you agree?

When you started this thread what exactly is it that you're hoping will change or what exactly is it that you're hoping that your school will do differently? Have you approached them and asked?

did you think they're going to be written off? as I certainly don't feel that way about my DS2.

Whilst I think the government (acting through schools mainly) should act to mitigate Covid impacts - especially for vulnerable children whose parents can’t or won’t do it - personal responsibility is also needed.

All these comments about maturity!

My children’s maturity comes mostly from the home. It’s parental expectations, guidance, the opportunities given - these things that increase maturity. Alongside brain development. Want your kids to be more mature? Give them trust and responsibility. Expect them to behave maturely and gently support them through experiencing the consequences if they don’t. What exactly do parents actually want to do, to mature their children for them?

want school* to do

Well, this has been an interesting thread. Thanks everybody for your contributions.

My original question was whether schools are putting some effort into making up for the effects of the pandemic, and whether they are are putting the same (or more) effort into the cohort of 2020 than the following one specifically. Because our school hasn't, and it seems unfair.

I know that all children have been affected but IMO the 2021 cohort started high school in slightly better circumstances than the 2020. Hence the specific years in my question. My acquaintances with children in both years agree, BTW.

I guess I wanted to know if it's worth continuing my efforts to bring my concerns to the school's attention, or just let myself be drowned in the general shitness of the whole county's situation. In hindsight, this probably was not the right time for me to ask, so I shall bow out now. Thanks again.

Ours definitely has. I don't believe the 2020 cohort had it the worst, I've 3 children and they've all been affected in different ways.
However I'm noticing it most with my y9 child at the moment.

Just to add, our Y9s have never had a proper parents evening. This year we were due our first, which was great as its options year (delayed a year due to covid). They cancelled it to strike and we were only allowed to see English, Maths and Science! Of which, two teachers didn't turn up.
It feels like a constant shit show.

Mt daughter started yr 7 in 2021, no transition days and 1 summer school day in the summer.

Son starting in September, 1 transition day, no summer school.

“I guess I wanted to know if it's worth continuing my efforts to bring my concerns to the school's attention, or just let myself be drowned in the general shitness of the whole county's situation”

Those are not the only 2 options.

For my Y9 DC it does feel as though they've been rather written off by the school leadership and yes, it's something I have contacted the school about.

Whilst I understand it wasn't possible for the usual induction days, visits and what have you to take place prior to them joining Y7, what has happened since continues to be disappointing. I don't have any issues with the online parents evenings but do wish the Y9s had access to similar opportunities as the cohorts above and below them. Examples include things such as a day trip to France that the school usually offers in Y7; it wasn't possible when DC was in Y7 because of covid. To make it up to the current Y8s for missing out when they were in Y7, they get to go along with Y7. The traditional end-of-Y9 trip to Europe hasn't been offered to Y9 this year but the current Y10s (who didn't get the trip last year) had the chance to go on two different European trips this year instead.

The school acknowledges that the Y9s seem a lot less independent than other cohorts and that they've missed out on lots of extracurricular opportunities... before then cancelling the Y9 places on a theatre trip!

I will continue to challenge the school on the inequality of opportunity offered to Y9 vs the other years (as advertised in the newsletters) because I think it's important to raise it. My DC has never been to France and had been looking forward to the Y7 trip for five years (older sibling). They understood it couldn't take place because of covid and when a catch-up trip was offered, had thought Y9 would have a chance to go. There are other things too but for my DC, missing out on the trips that are being caught up for all the other year groups does feel rubbish.

'Bubble' - very close contact ie household - didn't have to lockdown and isolate until one week prior to the official 23 March lockdown.
Dd had to lockdown earlier as she a nasty cough. She did that for 2 days and then the household,lockdown was announced, which is when dh and I had to leave work and go home. This was the same date as for 'vulnerable' groups. It was one week prior.