repeat first class covid 19

pologirl

Hi All,

I wonder could I please get your opinion on my little girl.

Her birthday was 04 Feb 2013, she started school in 2017 at 4 and 7 months. And is now just finished first class

We thought about holding her back in senior infants last year but school advised against it as it was only senior infant work,

Now with Covid 19 like all kids she has missed 3 months of school.

She has friends in the class below and says she doesn’t mind repeating as she’s friends with all 8 girls in class below (small rural school)

Academically she’s not bad, gets hard to focus some times and is giddy, but she is also easy led which is a worrying thing for me and copies off friends.

My worry is more in future years and her ability to cope with the demands of teenager and secondary school years.

Could I please get your opinions on this? Particularly teachers who see this thing all the time. Thank you very much for reading.

kandr10

I would just pose a few questions for your consideration.
Is it going to tackle the lack of focus by having her repeat? Is it possible it might cause greater lack of focus since she will be familiar with the work already? Her being easily led won’t necessarily change just because she stays back a year either.

heldel00

Being granted permission to repeat a year is extremely difficult. Years ago no problem but now, no. We have had to argue long and hard over a child who needed to repeat because of missing so much school due to severe medical condition.
Every child will be in the same boat come Sept. But remember teachers will be going back to square one, particularly with maths. What has happened since 12th March cannot be considered progression.

byhookorbycrook

As already mentioned , having a child repeat a year is now quite difficult and most unlikely to be allowed for immaturity.
Repeating has been shown to be at least , unhelpful and in many instances , detrimental to the child .
If she is inclined to be inattentive, doing the same work again next year may well make that lack of attention worse as she may feel she has “ heard it all before .”

thebronze14

I would generally only advise parents to do so in cases where a child has missed the vast majority of a year or really is in no way ready for Secondary School AND is pretty young to be heading there. As others have said, I would advise against it

byhookorbycrook

I would also add that being allowed to “ repeat” for the next school year is probably going to be even more difficult, as many parents may want their child to repeat due to Covid .