Children in lockdown

saltnshake

Having taught in a deprived area for many years I was very much against the closing of schools. For some children the safest place is in school. I thought some children would suffer violence or abuse and many would suffer neglect. Some people told me I was an idiot. I think I have been proven correct in my thinking.
My grandchildren did not suffer despite having two working parents. My daughter in law got up very early to do her work. My son looked after and taught the children until lunchtime. After lunch together my son worked until the early evening while my daughter in law looked after the boys; they played, built models, went to the park or walked. Both children did all the work set by the school and went back to school as fluent readers. They also spent time on screen talking to friends and family.
Many of their class mates had regressed in all areas including speaking. Some did none of the work set, perhaps because a computer was required for much of the work. Not every child had access to a computer. Some children have parents who barely talk to them, read to them or play with them.
I know most of you won't agree with me but I feel that priority workers, nurses, doctors, ambulance crew, police, delivery people should have been first to have jabs, then children and lastly the elderly. We are the ones that should have isolated instead.

Schools didn't close.

I'm not talking about your family (why would I?)
My posts are generalisations.

Lockdown didn't cause abuse, don't give abusers excuses, that's on them. Do remember that vulnerable children could go to school.
I am not giving abusers excuses, how dare you
But it was an excuse for abusers to continue without intervention as are some who "home school". Were abused children likely to be sent to the hubs? What do you think?
It may be you have little experience of such cases.

theworriedwell

Allira

saltnshake
Good post.

For some children the safest place is in school
Yes, and those children were badly let down during lockdowns.

Places were available for vulnerable children, two of my children are teachers so I know this and I know that children who weren't engaging at their schools were given places alongside keyworkers' children.

Again I think the thing that would be really useful to investigate why the standards varied so much and is that why the results vary. Going forward that would be useful information.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case right across the country. We were lucky because our GS was given a place at nursery, but I worked with a number of families whose children were classed as vulnerable but couldn't get a place anywhere. Provision seems to have varied considerably depending on where you lived.

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Allira

^Schools didn't close^
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

I think there were mainly full closures, and maybe some partial closures.
Someone asked earlier how many school days were lost to covid. I believe in the UK it was around 70, that's more than one third of their academic year. This was double the number compared with France, but France actually suffered fewer covid deaths than we did. France presented a strong desire to preserve educational opportunities against health outcomes, and from what I gathered at the time, the nation was behind this.
I agree mostly with saltandshake's post.

It was the worst thing to do to our children schools should never have been closed. Teenage mental health is the worst it’s ever been . At the height of lockdown 21,000 teenagers were referred to CAMHS a DAY! Both my grandaughters missed most of their Yr 7 and although on line provision was excellent socially and emotionally they suffered badly .

I was the counsellor at their school and we are only now seeing a reduction slowly of poor mental health . It was handled very badly and expecting children to wear masks all day was appalling . No other adults had to do that except front line NHS . People who say children are resilient and it was no problem are living in cuckoo land

Mine are both fine, youngest was born 5 days before lockdown and has started school this school year. She is confident, settled well, learning well, has made friends and is very happy. Oldest grandchild is now 11 and starts secondary school in September. No problems since lockdown whatsoever. She is above expected levels, reads as well as I do, does many after school activities, very good socially and is very happy. I think the lockdowns are blamed for so much that are nothing to do with them and are used as an excuse for problems that would probably have arisen anyway.

Schools varied hugely. Our village school closed at every opportunity and little on-line learning went on. My grandchildren who were pupils there already had problems and were totally disengaged from doing any school work at home.
My London grandchildren did school work every day but it was one of them who developed anorexia.

I didn’t have to work so the younger ones who are now adults played outside, went on their bikes, baked and sewed and stayed up late doing silly stuff
BUT
Nostalgia makes you forget the bad stuff

At the time of the first lockdown, we had three dgc, age 20 months, 8 years and 10 years.

The one who was most affected was the youngest. As an only child who had just begun to settle at nursery after many months of being upset in that setting, missing out on such a huge chunk of socialisation set her back a lot.

In fact, she quickly picked up on people's fears - it was quite worrying to see her drag her parents well away from any other walkers she might see approaching while out for walks long after lockdown ended.. She was still very wary of people when she started in Reception year, but fortunately had overcome this by the start of year 1 and is doing very well now in year 2.

The older two, her cousins, seemed to cope ok (it was harder for their parents, I think!) but some of their friends / classmates less so. One friend of the eldest has refused to go to school on a regular basis ever since.

srn63

Mine are both fine, youngest was born 5 days before lockdown and has started school this school year. She is confident, settled well, learning well, has made friends and is very happy. Oldest grandchild is now 11 and starts secondary school in September. No problems since lockdown whatsoever. She is above expected levels, reads as well as I do, does many after school activities, very good socially and is very happy. I think the lockdowns are blamed for so much that are nothing to do with them and are used as an excuse for problems that would probably have arisen anyway.

I think the lockdowns are blamed for so much that are nothing to do with them and are used as an excuse for problems that would probably have arisen anyway

I disagree as do others.

Theworriedwell
Just by chance were you living on another planet in the lockdown. 🤦🏼‍♀️

ViceVersa

Allira

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

All our schools were closed.

Allira

I'm not talking about your family (why would I?)
My posts are generalisations.

Lockdown didn't cause abuse, don't give abusers excuses, that's on them. Do remember that vulnerable children could go to school.
I am not giving abusers excuses, how dare you
But it was an excuse for abusers to continue without intervention as are some who "home school". Were abused children likely to be sent to the hubs? What do you think?
It may be you have little experience of such cases.

Gosh yes in my years working in a large police force I never came across any abuse, well except for the murder cases.

Marydoll

ViceVersa

Allira

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

All our schools were closed.

I'm in England and no schools where I live were closed, nor were the schools where my children taught. Not all children were allowed to attend but they were open for key workers children and vulnerable children.

petra

Theworriedwell
Just by chance were you living on another planet in the lockdown. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Why? Because my grandchildren were OK or because I know schools weren't closed. Where do you think key workers children were?

ViceVersa

Allira

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

Yes they opened for key workers children and teachers worked doing on line lessons for children.

theworriedwell

ViceVersa

Allira

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

Yes they opened for key workers children and teachers worked doing on line lessons for children.

But the point I and several others have made is that things were different in various parts of the country. In my area, most of the schools were completely closed (for children and staff) and only certain ones were open to cater for the children of key workers and other vulnerable groups. Simply saying that schools weren't closed is not correct. In many places, they were.

My daughter works in a school, as a key worker, she took her turn covering lessons for the children in school, when she did that, her children went in with her, 7 and 12 years old in March 2020.
I think the lockdown actually suited the 12 year old, subsequently formally diagnosed as autistic, the youngest missed his friends a lot, I’m not aware of any lasting repercussions.

My GD was born in May 2020, my daughter had a terrible time in hospital giving birth alone. She had no support from Health Workers or GPs, and us as grandparents were unable to given them much help.
Despite this my GD thrived, she had excellent verbal and reading skills from an early age I think due to parents spending a lot of time with her. She has now started school, she has lots of friends and very social, she is in the top set in every subject.
But I do appreciate that not all babies born during Covid had the same experience a number of children in my Gds year are behind in a number of skills.

Things were different where I worked in an independent school in London then. We actually helped out a couple of state schools by taking their keyworkers' children when their own schools closed. Schools did close fully in many places.

ViceVersa

theworriedwell

ViceVersa

Allira

Schools didn't close
🤔

Schools did close.

Yes, they definitely did here. There was only a handful of schools which did remain open - and even then it was only for the children of keyworkers or others which fell into certain categories.

Yes they opened for key workers children and teachers worked doing on line lessons for children.

But the point I and several others have made is that things were different in various parts of the country. In my area, most of the schools were completely closed (for children and staff) and only certain ones were open to cater for the children of key workers and other vulnerable groups. Simply saying that schools weren't closed is not correct. In many places, they were.

Quite right, ViceVersa.

One school in an area would remain open as a hub.

Our local school was open for keyworkers children and any deemed "in need". I don't know how exactly that was decided but some of the "less needy but still vulnerable" children went in part time. Lots had laptops bought for them and lots had lunches provided and delivered to their homes.

It seems some schools managed better than others.

To suggest that schools should never have been closed is to accept that we would have knowingly thrown teachers into the covid firing line with no consideration for their safety or that of any vulnerable relatives they might have.
As it was some brave teachers went in to school to teach the children of key workers ... basically acting as child care for them as online lessons were available to all other pupils.
It is not acceptable for us as retired people to sit back in safety and suggest that others should have been thrown to the wolves.