Report details the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on young learners

A report issued by the Education Endowment Foundation details the results of a longitudinal study into the impact of Covid-19 and the related school closures on pupils in Year 2 and 3 last academic year. The study follows a group of children who had not completed their reception year before the first set of partial school closures and those that had missed much of their first year of formal education in Year 1. The research looks at the impact on reading, maths and social skills and compares the gap between the attainment of this cohort with similar cohorts in 2017 and 2019 as well as the disadvantage gap within the cohort.

The findings show that:

• Year 2 pupils have caught up in maths 
• Year 2 pupils are around 3 months behind in reading
• Year 3 pupils have caught up in both reading and maths 
• There is a greater proportion of very low attaining pupils. This population was between 2 and 3 times larger compared to cohorts before the pandemic. 
• The disadvantage gap found in the baseline has not widened further but it has not narrowed. Those pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) were around 8-9 months behind their peers in Year 3 and 5-6 months in Year 2. 
• FSM pupils performed significantly lower than non-FSM pupils for all domains across both year groups.
• Academic catch-up and additional support for wellbeing and home learning have contributed to increased workload for teachers. In addition, there have been high levels of staff absences.

The impact of these findings is that within classrooms there are many more children not ready for the formal education being presented, this is a challenge to teaching staff and school accountability. Further intervention and support for those lowest achieving and those who are already disadvantaged will need continued funding and attention to ensure the disadvantage gap is closed.