Granddaughter is disengaged from schoolwork

Ask hr why she isnt bothering and really listen to her answers. Encourage her but avoid sounding like a lecture. . Talk about the point of doing it because of assessments. Acknowledge her anxiety, depression, misery as valid and then talk about what she could do to help with that. Focus less on exams and schoolwork and more on longer term options when things are better....help her to see a light at the end of tge tunnel. Help her to think if small and bigger solutions to the problem, problem solve together.

Tge worst thing to do would be to go in heavy handed about doing online work. This applies mainly to her parents and to then to you as another listening ear

I’m going with the old “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” thing, although a teacher myself I could not find a way to make my own child work. A bright child he did the minimum to stay of real trouble but came unstuck in sixth form as you can’t flannel your way through A levels and had to repeat.
He’s fine now and has a good job.
All you can do is try to help her gently and kindly and point out that if she gets through this year with some decent results life will certainly start to be better for her.

tanith, it's the usual reaction. I'm sure that I would have been exactly the same at her age.

While we're in a crisis situation, trying to save lives, normal rules simply don't apply. Encouragement is good - but nagging is counterproductive.

She's unlikely to 'fall behind' when most are struggling.

She may be happier just following her own interests, as far as possible, for the time being. Perhaps you could help out with art supplies for use at home?

Please don’t pressurise her I think our teens are having a dreadful time and as her subjects are all the arts which she can’t attend she will be very downspirited (I also have a granddaughter who can’t bear being seen on zoom lessons and I don’t blame her I couldn’t do that either) she is beavering away on her own though but that in itself is not good for their mental health she’s had nearly a year of sitting on her own in her bedroom most of the day
Your granddaughter will hopefully catch up but I think this is very common She’s not being bad she’s lost heart
(Just a footnote my son left school early without any further Ed and earns more than my two Uni kids put together)

Someone needs to talk to her Form Tutor or Head of Year. Don't email, phone.
You need to discuss this asap. Despite what you may think, I'm sure that they will be pleased to hear from you. Teachers want their kids to succeed, even the most feckless of teachers needs good results! You need to discuss your concerns and the best way forward for your Granddaughter.
Parental involvement and family support is one of the best indicators of good educational outcomes, so you are at an advantage already!
I wish your GD all the best.

i agree with Trisha above.
this is not the end of the world.

Year 11 or year 12? If Year 11, this is an urgent issue because of GCSEs. Teacher assessments require evidence. That evidence needs to be in the form of written work that the teacher has marked. If a student doesn’t do work, there’s no evidence. If the child doesn’t care about getting a low grade or failing completely, then that’s ok. But if she wants any kid of job in the future, GCSE grades of 5 or above in English and Maths are essential.

If Y12 and she’s not working, she won’t get even halfway decent A level grades if she isn’t working. She might as well quit the A Level course now and find a place at a local further ed college to study something she does want to do that isn’t academic.

My niece felt the same at the beginning of this week as she is no longer going to sit her A Levels or BTECs this year. But after I pointed out that her teachers will be submitting grades and the work she is doing now and probably up to April, will be part of that assessment, she has decided to work really hard at home to push up her end grades. I have no idea really how her teachers will evaluate her work but as I used to be a Secondary School teacher until recently, she tends to believe me!

We worked out that she has only had about two terms of teaching in the sixth form, full time until April then alternate weeks from June to December with four periods of self isolation due to other students in her classes testing positive. I’m just relieved that the decision to postpone exams has been made early and results will only be based on teacher assessments.

tanith poor girl it sounds as if the whole Covid thing has really got to her. I'm not sure there is much you can do. You could perhaps ask her if she would like to conact you every day to chat and offer each other support, but I wouldn't push her to do the work, leave that to her parents and the school. You could however offer her some other things, if she's into drama RADA do some short on-line courses www.rada.ac.uk/short-courses/?course_type=22&course_type=7
There are all sorts of art courses available I did a great one cutting out paper like Matisse.
Perhaps this is an opportuity for her to develop her creative abilities outside school. Just encourage her to do so, the schoolwork might follow.

It’s not helping as her favourite subjects which are drama, art and DT all creative subjects that she loves. We have no idea how they can assess work that clearly can’t be done online nothing has been explained and I think she’s thinking what’s the point. It must the same for so many I’m sure.

You can see her point though, the exams are cancelled. I am not condoning her just having some sympathy for someone who has really had their life messed up. Good luck Tanith, I hope you can get her back on track.

That is a very difficult one tanith. What a silly girl. What does she think is going to happen? I'm sure it's a common enough problem and you can't put an old head on young shoulders etc.
Could you write a heartfelt plea as her grandmother urging her to keep up her school work as otherwise she could end up losing many life choices? She might take in something actually written down and hard to ignore. I hope so anyway. Good luck.