It was a dreadful few hours weather wise. Just so cold and wet. Really grey. Well this is Yorkshire. Really poor visibility.

Next week it’s a big schooling week. Hawklad has to pick his subject options for the final two years of secondary school. He has to do Mathematics, English and Science. But then he has to pick 4 further subject options. Two of those are really easy. History and Geography are definite selections. I think he would spend all his time on just those two if he could. But what about the other two?

Now here the problems start.

First off – will he actually return to mainstream classroom teaching? I’m not betting that he will.

Then

Our pandemic lockdown has resulted in basically zero direct teacher input on Hawklad. Apart from the occasional test result, the teachers have no grasp on things like his current state of writing and reading. What help and support he needs. What he needs for the exams. They haven’t seen him directly work since February last year. A lot will have changed in that time. Equally we have little idea what the teachers actually think of Hawklad’s position. One page summary reports issued three times a year basically tell you nowt.

So we are selecting options feeling like we are doing this in the blind. Because of the pandemic we haven’t had an Education and Health Care Plan Review meeting since May 2019. In that time virtually everyone one of the multi disciplinary team has left…. These are big decisions being made with so little visibility. The school are offering video chats with teachers but these are strictly limited to 4 minute per child. That’s 4 minutes to discuss performance, concerns, issues AND future options. It just feels a mess. It’s a mess for teachers, for parents and most importantly for the children. It’s another area that the Pandemic has found a way of undermining. No point looking for help from the Government, the PM can’t even manage to comb his hair never mind support real people. So like most things these strange times it feels like we are winging it. Winging it with so little visibility.

49 thoughts on “Visibility”

  3. That stinks too! I just had to help my older two pick their classes for next year. A lot were already picked out for them based on their teacher’s recommendations from this year, and some we guessed on. Thankfully, we had a school paper guide to tell us how many to pick from each category and we could pick those based on interest. May the force be with you as you wade through the choices! You got this!

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  4. Only four minutes?! Wow. We could not begin to scratch the surface on suchba time limit! I feel for you both. But, though vision is limited, remember there a God who sees all. He will continue to guide. One step at time, my friend. Sending prayers.

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  5. If it helps – I was thinking about this subject earlier in the week. About 45 years ago I made some bad subject choices (or had them made for me, to be more accurate). You can’t do any worse, and will probably do better than that, and probably don’t need the input of teachers as the two of you will know what is right.

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  7. The way the school is run, you might as well throw darts to pick the subjects, I doubt that any of them will support him much.
    Unfortunately he’s not getting much of an Education from school.
    The weather may have been yucky to experience, but the picture has a certain beauty. All soft with the rough edges smoothed out.
    Maybe low visibility is okay for now, maybe trust your instincts😉
    Big 4 minute Hugs!!💌💌💌💌

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  10. I hate math but regardless it is an important subject. Agree with you that history and geography one can score 100% easily subject to remembering the things read. Gee visibility is indeed poor and I will not be driving if I live in UK. Scary and dangerous 😉

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  11. Oh no! What a mess! I hope they will open their eyes soon in the government level about the education situation. We got some extra money to fill up if pupils are falling behind because of the Covid. What will Hawklad would like to do as he grows up, pick from there the other subjects. Something that supports the early dreams.

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  12. Although it’s foggy the only advice I can give from my own experience with my children was to try and find the subjects that complement his chosen one’s in life. So he can see a connection for his path in life. If he finds it interesting he will have the tools for later.

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  16. 4 minutes is about the time it takes for audio and video to load and to say hello … I’m so sorry this is happening to you both! I know you must both feel exhausted and banged up, but Hawklad has you firmly in his corner, where you know you are staying. And I don’t know much about you, except this, you’ve been through a lot and always have each other. Whatever subjects he chooses will be a journey, not the ultimate destination. I’d advise you to get as many books, videos, and other material as you can to inspire and supplement subject learning. Maybe ask teachers to email recommendations. You should in no way have to do this. But, as you say, we live in messy times and the PM (whose hair now resembles a toilet brush) cannot be relied on for an answer any time soon. Whatever you decide to do, I know it is a struggle, but I believe you’ve got this.

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