Covid-19 impacts pupils in exam years the hardest

A study by not for profit research organisation ImpactED has revealed that exam students have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study tracked 62,000 pupils over a seven-month period between June and Christmas 2020.

Pupils in years 10 and 11 experienced the greatest challenges with motivation for learning, and this did not change when they returned to school after the first lockdown. This group reported the lowest learning scores from June to November.

Almost 3 in 20 key stage 4 pupils regularly didn’t understand work set by teachers, and a quarter of pupils said they could not get help from family with questions about their school work. Forty per cent said they did not have a routine to help them learn at home, compared with 32 per cent of key stage 3 pupils and 31 per cent of those at key stage 2.

The report recommended that teachers stress the need for motivation for learning, especially during uncertainty around assessment arrangements.

The report also found that pupils who struggled the most were not always those previously identified as vulnerable. While vulnerable pupils are those with a social worker or an education, health and care plan, the government widened the scope of the definition of vulnerable pupils last month, saying those who had difficulty engaging with remote education could also count.

The report recommends that schools aiming to understand pupil learning and wellbeing needs should look for manageable ways to gather data from pupils themselves as well as from teacher observation. Where possible, they should use validated measures to reliably identify pupils who struggled during lockdown and to assess the impact of support.

The report also found that challenges posed by the pandemic were felt more by pupils eligible for pupil premium funding. Only 45 per cent of these disadvantaged pupils said they understood their school work while learning remotely, compared with 57 per cent of non-disadvantaged pupils. 67 per cent of disadvantaged pupils said they were able to use a device when they needed to complete online work set. The figure for non-disadvantaged pupils was 78 per cent.