What do you think the ling term consequences of this period will be?

[FlamingGusset]

Teacher in France, so we've already been off for two weeks. We're all waiting with bated breath for news about the end of year exams, which for the moment are still on. Rumours are of course running wild in the mean time.

We're trying to muddle through the best we can, but I'm already getting increasingly concerned about how this is going to affect students in the long term. Some have very implicated parents and easy access to technology, whilst some have 4 siblings, one computer and I can already see they are struggling even though we have been very careful about the amount of work given. Some don't have any support at home at all.

I fear for how this will widen the gap in the long term, especially because setting is very rarely done in France, we're expected to differentiate in our own classes. I can imagine some will behind and be permanently left behind...

My DD is y10. I think it will result in her dropping a second GCSE if not a third, and that instead of scraping a pass in English she will fail it.

Academic gaps
Vulnerable children more vulnerable
Mental health issues
Trauma responses/PTSD
Grief responses
Children who have forgotten how to play with children

Going to be super!

Reduced content for GCSEs next year, I am hoping. But not holding my breath because of logistics.
Raised AS entry for next year to provide some clearer/ validated data?
A horrible and torrid time for teachers when results day happens. Blame being apportioned for lower results than desired.
Carnage when resit exams happen in schools which just want to get on with teaching
Some private schools folding
A change in mindset over exams, data, SATs and progress tracking, which could go either way to be honest.
A bloody nightmare for admissions teams at the very most elite universities.
Chaos in school timetabling
Recruitment to teaching even more precarious
More teachers leaving profession having discovered new ways of working and the joys of no longer having to deal with poor behaviour except from their own DC
A greater seriousness attached to cleanliness in schools. Ha ha.

Oh, and the first few weeks back at school after any shutdown being some of the most stressful working weeks any teacher will have experienced as everyone runs about like blue arsed flies, whilst trying to get up to speed, readjust, get children back in habits and deal with a number of pastoral issues.

GCSEs in subjects with a lot of practical content like engineering and pe will be scrapped for the current year tens

The teachers are going to have to deal with such a wide variety of work covered during this period. I was chatting (remotely) with some of the other parents of my daughter's class. This is at a prep school so all parents are interested, there are no resourcing issues, etc. But even so there was a huge variety of what has been done since the school closed. Some parents are doing everything and emailing loads back, some have been flat out with work and done nothing yet, and everything in between. The kids with teacher parents have a clear advantage. At schools with a broader intake the contrast is going to be even greater.

The kids with teacher parents have a clear advantage.

I don't think this is entirely true : yes, in the subject taught by that parent, if it is in the same key stage but, otherwise not, especially since the teacher parents will be working flat out from home , just like many other parents. My DS certainly wouldn't benefit form my 'helpful' input in Music!

The idea that teachers' children benefit would suggest they always do in terms of exams, learning and revision , and I don't think this has been shown to be true, any more than any other form of involved or supportive parenting.

But I do agree that the gaps will widen next year and huge pressure will be put on schools to miraculously renarrow. it.

Parent here, not teacher, drifting in as this came up on Active. The different approaches in different schools is interesting. DS's school have been brilliant. There is class specific work on the teacher's blog, school community stuff on the whole school blog, the work set is engaging and do-able at home. One of their Friday activities was to call a friend. People have been sharing their work and what they've been doing at home on the school Twitter feed. The HT's message is very much "we're all in different places but we're still a school community". I was phoned at home by the school to make sure we're doing okay (no doubt on a short list due to DS ADHD).

By contrast, on a family video chat, I asked what my nieces had been getting on with on-line school. Blank looks. Their mum said when they broke up they were sent home with some work books.

It might be that DB and DSIL are busy working during the day. and they're just not picking up on what my niece's school are doing. They said they had mostly muted social media etc as it was stressing DSIL, so maybe they are missing stuff. But I was really struck by the contrast.

Also conscious how much harder it could be - we have decent wifi, a desktop and a PC and one child, who despite ADHD is so far remarkably compliant. He asked if he should put his school uniform on to do on-line school.

Anyway, the effort the school are going to to support the school community is hugely appreciated and worthwhile.

I'm very worried about September. There are going to be so many issues getting children who have been essentially unschooled back into the routine of behaving and learning...

Reception intake is going to be interesting - they won’t have had any transition into full time education. Ditto Year 1; they’ll be used to play based learning and a lot of village schools (mine included) are in old Victorian buildings with no space for CP beyond Reception.

Selfishly, am VERY glad I now teach KS2.

Yes to reception and ditto transition for Y6; usually handled so carefully, this year they are likely to be thrust in at the deep end.

I didn’t even think about transition! Nightmare.
I think it is fair to say that primary children are advantaged by having teacher parents. I can’t see that being much of an advantage for secondary pupils though, since the content becomes so subject specific.
TBH I think it mainly comes down to whether your parents have time to support their kids. If you have 9 hours of work to do yourself, there’s limited time to support school work of multiple children and you are most likely using the family PC/laptop.

I've had several year 11 parents and year 13 students contact me to ask me to predict higher grades than I intend. It's properly stressing me out as now it will be "my fault" come results day

We have a 16mo, but I’d say any benefit my colleagues’ children might have because of having teacher parents it’s nil at the moment, as we all try frantically to ‘teach’ remotely!

I would have said that perhaps people would forge better relationships with schools, form a better understanding of their children's work ethics and the intensity of teaching, and a greater appreciation of teachers in general.

However, the teacher bashing posts are legion already on MN, so...

Massive education gap.

Kinder attitude from parents.

Some of our pupils - particularly those with not very effective parenting at home - struggle massively to settle back into the school day and expectations of conforming to the rules after just a weekend or a halfterm off, so the thought of the struggle they will have after missing weeks and weeks (and potentially 6 months) of school is frightening.

There are going to be big gaps in what students have learned. There are some massive barriers for some of the kids I teach, some come from families where they don’t have work space / don’t have access to a computer in the day or at all / where they are now having to care for younger siblings whilst parents work.

I’m also thinking transition will be more stressful, I suspect the Yr 6 > Yr 7 in particular.

Yeah, I think big gaps are certains... Do you think we'll be able to bridge those gaps long term ? I'm not confident in the ability of my school to put everyone back on an even keel.

It can sometimes be a little bit of a "survival of the fittest" type mentality, especially for the older students who are expected to just cope with whatever is thrown at them.

know I'm jumping the gun a little, but what sort of interventions would you except/want to see in place following this period ?

I particularly feel for my Y6 cohort - some will do all of the work, some will do nothing. We hear about cultural capital and this is it in action.

My youngest dd is Y11; her school is great. She has daily emails from teachers setting tasks/marking/googleclassroom atc as well as suggested reading and tasks for y12 for her A level choices. Good old grammar schools! I do, however, see that the gap is widening.

I can already tell that there will be a big gap in my Year 10s and Year 12s when they get back. Some have already in the course of a week been asking for extra work and some have done nothing. They all have access to the wonderful online learning I am providing with audio over powerpoints and worksheets, detailed assessment and chat support for those that need it.

I work in a school but not as a teacher and tbh I worry about recruitment / staff retention /motivation. We were already expecting at least 2 teacher vacancies for additional classes from September as well as TAs and probably an additional Admin person to support the expansion. Even if things go back to normal quite soon after Easter, we won't be able to do all the recruitment processes before the end of summer term. That might mean relying on agency staff for longer with increased pressure on school budgets. If school staff are choosing the security of their existing jobs rather than looking for new ones we also won't have enough good candidates and our staff will become disengaged because they haven't felt 'able' to leave. All this will have an effect on the quality of support we can offer children (SLD school) when we already struggled to fill vacancies pre-Covid19

I’m already worried about parents who think they can now teach. I think for everyone who suddenly realises their child does not have the sun shining out of their posterior there will be three who now think little Johnnie can learn most effectively; given 1:1 support and various other accommodations we can’t provide in a class of 30.
The gap between disadvantaged and privileged children will have widened, and I can see the unions having a battle on their hands to keep us from spending our summer holiday trying, unsuccessfully, to close it, because we’ve been off for months already, obviously!