Delaying school examinations

by a week is not going to help some students in lock down very much. Even here, where there has only been a week of lock down, there are problems for those in their final year.

I know a number of those students. I have had them emailing me with all sorts of anxious queries. Yes, their teachers have tried to be available but some of them need more than that. 

And the younger students need it too. They want to be back at school. They want to be with their friends. They want some sort of structure to their days. 

A few are coping well. They seem to have no problems getting on with the work that has been set. They seem to be able to sit down at their study desks at home and work through until they are finished. 

But even these students have problems. The mother of one phoned me about something else yesterday and said, "She was in tears this morning - over something that normally wouldn't bother her at all." I can well believe that.

For some weeks now I have been seeing S....  He has been coming to me for an hour a week to do some "catch up". By his own admission he got in with the wrong crowd last year and "mucked up". It was his first year at high school. He skived off occasionally. He was in with a gang who scrawled graffiti and more. One or two of them were involved in more serious offences and he could easily have gone along that path. He caused some damage to property belonging to me. When he got caught I think he was actually relieved. 

He's changed schools. It took him away from the boys he was associating with and he has found a couple of friends who are a much better influence. He's turning into a nice kid. If he can go on the way he has been going for the past few months there is some hope for him. Next term he will once again be trusted to go to and from school without supervision. He has admitted to me that this actually frightens him - which is probably a good thing.

I couldn't see him as I usually do this week. I wondered if that would mean the end of the sessions as well. Would he decide that all this was too much? Would he want to revert to old ways? 

It seems not. At the time I would usually have seen him the phone rang. It was S.... Was is it all right to call me? He had work to do and he needed help and his parents "are okay at maths and stuff but they don't know about English" and "anyway I just want to talk to someone".  We talked about the English - which he struggles with - and we talked about something else he wants to do for school. I've promised to look at the plans for that as well. 

I don't know if he wanted to talk about anything else. He didn't mention anything. All he said was, "Is it okay if I come next week if we are out of lock down?"

Yes, of course it will be. As long as we don't have an extended lock down like those in a neighbouring state he won't need me much longer. He will go back to his mates. He's back on track with his schooling.

But if we do have an extended lock down again he is going to need support. There are also a lot more like him. There are also a lot of other students who need more support than they are getting. The final year of school is hard enough without adding lock downs to it. Yes, it might be teaching some of them how to work alone - a good thing if they are going on to university - but that doesn't mean they don't need support. They do. 

I hope the local library will be able to be open for them next term. I hope they can supply those who go to work there with the healthy snack packs and the coffee and - most important of all - a listening ear when they need it.  I'll call in on a regular basis so they can nab me if they need me.