AIBU No going back to school I’m furious.

I lost 8 students overnight when lockdown was announced. They had all been preparing for GCSEs. Two want to continue to A level, so I've been doing preparation work with them. It's been lovely because I've not been limited to the specification and we've done work they've really enjoyed.

Two of my younger pupils have made excellent progress and have told me they don't miss school at all. They've been able to concentrate better and have really got stuck into work which interests them.

Chardy I think you're right. They won't be resits because the students didn't take the exams in the first place. The only ones who will take the exams are the ones who aren't happy with the grades they've been given by their teachers.

It could be to the advantage of some ex-Year 13s who missed out on university places. However, there are likely to be extra places available this year because approximately a fifth of students have decided to defer because they don't want to have to pay for online lectures.

PGAgirl. There is no point teachers teaching GCSE exam work to Y11 students. The exam boards have cancelled GCSEs and international GCSEs everywhere in the world. NO exams at all. The International Baccalaureate exams are cancelled world wide this year. Singaporean exams are cancelled. Schools don't put on exams. The exam boards do.

Exam boards are considering EITHER cancellation of exams next year again OR amending exams to reflect the situation. This is a WORLD WIDE perspective.

Despite what the (few) naysayers on this forum would have you believe, there is a world wide acceptance that this virus will disrupt education for possibly 1 or maybe even more years.

Incidentally, my students have made good progress over the last 2 to 3 months. I marked their end of year assessments this week (Y6, 8, 9, 11 & 12) and most of them have improved significantly. There has been no perceptible dip in levels despite remote/online lessons.

I don't really want to go back to the 1940s or indeed the 1950s much of what was designated as teaching then was just repetition. I'm hopeless at maths, partly because I was never given any practical grounding in numbers. I was incredibly good at chanting my times tables but I thought they were a sort of magic spell!!! I was an imaginative child.

I think A level and AS resits will be in October, GCSE resits in November. This information was dated late May. I can't find anything newer

That sounds about right Chardy. I've spent some of the last three months developing teaching materials for other teachers to use in Zoom lessons. They take a lot ore planning and supervision than people think.

A note to those on here who've been supportive.

Just been observing a subject teacher evening get-together. 3 points I thought might be of interest
One comment said it was stressful for a colleague leading the learning of a bubble of mixed-age secondary pupils (vulnerables and key workers' children), as well as keeping on top of working with their own pupils learning at home.
Others spoke of Y10s and Y12s in school.
Another explained that in their school a Zoom lesson involved 3 teachers, one to be teacher 'at the front', one on the chat line and the 3rd keeping all the pupils on task.
I thought these were interesting insights.

Trisher - assume that it's some years since you taught a class?

The government have to step up to the plate before schools can be fully up and running. Ditto all other businesses etc,

PGAgirl He will be awarded a GCSE grade. To be honest, GCSEs are of limited use anyway. They're just a door to the next stage. I know that pupils don't see it like that, but it's true. If he's in Year 11, he won't have lost much study time. If he wants to use his time wisely, get him to read round whatever he's going to do post-GCSE.

PGAgirl - teachers are stepping up to the plate, but they can only do what the DfE decrees.

You may rest assured that staff are as concerned about the GCSE pupils as you are.

I dont want my son to be in a school like the 1940s my ambitions for him are higher than that.

Great post PGAgirl, States it all.

And?

Galaxy, I think we all as children had additional needs during the time of food rationing.

My granddaughter was showing signs of stress, she was easily getting upset, was so desperate to go back she said even if no one else went she did not mind going on her own. Fortunately she is one of the ones who has gone back. The school is very well organised and putting no one at risk, she is is in a bubble with six of her friends. My grandson is older, he is also showing signs of stress, has stopped wanting to do his home work. My daughter rang the school for advice and was told that it was OK, not push him, as he was learning nothing new, which is exactly what he was saying. He is desperate to go back to school. I wish the the older pupils could catch up on missing GCSE study, by the teaching profession stepping up to the plate, like the NHS, and providing teaching for these pupils during the summer, taking their GCSE exams in the autumn.

Callistemon, I did realise you were quoting growsuffs post, but I did not refer to that as I was on a roll with memories.

Perhaps someone should open a thread on the 1940s and 50s so some of us can have stroll down memory lane.

However, could whoever starts that thread wait until all the present "not normal" is over. ?

I hope not grandad it was an awful time for example for children with additional needs.

Apologies for the text errors in my above above post. Getting carried away with my early years memories. ?

They all went to Grammar School.
However, some I know did not pass the scholarship, left school at 15 and went to a technical college then on to higher education later on.
You cannot generalise.

Grandad I think you're mixing me up with growstuff. I didn't say anything about ^a few months but was quoting growstuff's post.

trisher, in regard to your post @19:59, for once we are in total agreement.

Despite the food rationing and other shotages which are my firs
memories of the 1940s and 50s their was much to recommend those years especially the sense of community that existed until the very last years of the 1950s.

Sadly, I feel we shall never see such again.

I don't doubt you for a minute about abusive parents. I experienced the same.

Callistemon, in regard to the "few months" comment I was born in North Devon in December of 1943, that was four years after the war began and D Day had not even come about at that stage of the conflict. Some few months.

However, sadly I cannot claim to be a war hero. ???

trisher They put them in homes or schools for the mentally retarded.

What kind of school did he go to Callistemon? My parents both learnt Latin, but my father went to a private school and my mother went to a grammar school on a scholarship before they became free. Her parents had been privately educated too, which is why my grandparents were so shocked that their daughter was learning nothing.

About 80% of the population went to elementary schools and didn't learn very much at all. I've seen some of the exercise books and curriculum records in archives.