Preparing for school openings in Northern Ireland amidst Covid-19 Uncertainty
Studyseed CIC • Jun 06, 2020
We have never seen such uncertainty amongst our Primary 6 and 7 students. At this time of the school year, P6 students who intend to sit the AQE or GL tests are busy attending after-school Transfer Test clubs, working through papers in the evenings and still learning new material in their regular classes. P7 students should be attending trips, enjoying end-of-year activities and spending their last month as primary school students finalising memories with the school family that they have spent the past seven years with. It is a very difficult transition from primary to secondary school at the best of times - we empathise with every child who will be starting a new unknown after summer without having had the opportunity to end their previous and longest school chapter in the way that they should have been able to.
There is great uncertainty around the Transfer Test examinations. In April, the AQE Board contacted the Department of Education to request that the examinations be rescheduled to January 2021 - this request was unable to be met due to time restrictions. As a result, the Transfer Test dates have been confirmed to start on the 21st of November 2020. A number of schools in Co. Down have announced that they will be doing away with the Transfer Test for one year, but there has been little information provided on how students would otherwise be selected for intake in September 2021. With this announcement, there is growing concern amongst parents that other grammar schools may follow suit.
This is understandably causing frustration for pupils who are currently working through practice papers with the possibility of not having to sit the tests hanging over them. We have already seen the impact that this has had on our Year 10 students in the Dickson Plan who had put so much energy into preparing for their transfer exams - many of whom are disappointed that they did not have the chance to see the results of this hard work reflected in their allocated marks. Our GCSE and A-Level students have been working for years towards exams that they should be in the middle of sitting right now - exams that their teachers, families, tutors and friends have drilled into them as being the most important exams that they will sit - only to now wait anxiously for an outcome that may not reflect the grades that they could have received.
It is a grossly unfair situation. It is also a dangerous situation. We are seeing an increase in students who are demotivated, who feel that there is no point in studying at home, who miss their friends and their hobbies and their sports, who feel ‘stupid’ because they don’t understand difficult topics and who, ultimately, do not know what their future will look like. As adults, we have the benefit of hindsight and can easily see that exams can be retaken in the future, that there are multiple pathways to careers, that a person is the sum of so much more than a list of grades or numbers, that the school or university that was second or third on a student’s list of preferences may turn out to be the better choice in the end - that there are always other options. We know that this is true because, in many cases, we have experienced these things ourselves, but we know that these reassurances are much harder for our young people to accept.
Moving forwards over the upcoming months, we will continue to help our Primary 6 students prepare for the possibility of the Transfer Test exams. We will guide our Year 11 students for what will be a very challenging year ahead as they tackle all of their GCSE examinations in one year, rather than having them spread out over two. We will support our students of all ages and abilities in understanding the materials that they have been learning at home.
However, our priority in doing so is not for the sole purpose of improving academic grades or giving quick tips on how to cover as much material as possible. Our priority and our focus is on the mental wellbeing of each young person that we support. It is not about, ‘You need to learn and understand everything on this list,’ but about, ‘You might be feeling overwhelmed right now - and that’s okay. Let’s break things down and work through everything in manageable steps.’
Education does not stop. It does not stop for a pandemic, it does not stop for summer, it does not stop after you finish a test or an exam or a university degree. We want our students to have the confidence and enjoyment of learning that keeps that thirst for knowledge going long into their adult lives. 2020 must not be the year that demotivated and discouraged a generation of learners.
Everyone has a right to educational support - and we know that there is a disparity between socioeconomic backgrounds when it comes to the private tuition industry. That is the reason why we formed Studyseed CIC and right now, when so many young people are unable to reach extra support, that reason could not be more prevalent. The news that these school closures are undoing years of work in lowering the educational attainment gap between rich and poor is of significant concern and we must do everything that we can to mitigate the long-term effects that this will have.
We have done everything possible to keep our individual prices and our classes affordable in balance with keeping our company running. We have funding to provide free tuition support to students referred to us by schools and youth organisations. We have funding to support children of frontline workers, children with special educational needs and children from families who have lost their jobs or are struggling financially. We have discounts for local companies who wish to pay for 6-8 weeks of tuition for the children of their returning workers. We are working with local government to provide free support to young people in neighbourhood renewal areas.
We are here to support education. Amidst the uncertainty of everything right now, that is one thing that we will always keep constant. We are here if there is anything that we can do to support you, your child, your school, your organisation or your employees.
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