By Gavin Mackintosh-
UK Parents and pupils themselves should fill in learning gaps an Ofsted research found in schools due to the pandemic.
The education watchdog’s report detailing the progress made on the education recovery of pupils in the Uk gave a worrying result of the effect of the pandemic on pupils education.
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Ofsted based their findings on evidence from routine inspections of 43 primary schools, 48 secondary schools, and 14 special schools between November 22 and January 28.
Ofsted said it took evidence from an estimated 280 inspections and multiple focus groups with inspectors, to understand how early years, schools, further education and skills, and prison education providers are responding to ongoing issues, and the approaches they are taking to help children and learners catch up.
Its report found that ‘the pandemic has continued to affect young children’s communication and language development, with many providers spotting delays in speech and language. Others said babies have struggled to respond to basic facial expressions, which may be due to reduced social interaction during the pandemic’.
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The report found that the pandemic continued to hinder pupils’ learning and personal development into this year. Leaders described gaps in pupils’ knowledge, particularly in mathematics, phonics and writing stamina. However, more leaders said these gaps were closing, a positive conclusion.
It is hoped that parents and pupils will take the responsibility to close the gaps more.
Past research show that many parents do not play a strong enough role in motivating and disciplining their children to read enough at home. This weakness was present in many families during the pandemic, with many primary and secondary school children allowed to do what they liked.
Schools in the Uk need to lay more emphasis on parental support to children’s academic development, and though there are many schools that already encourage parents to support their children, not enough do.
Children from dysfunctional homes are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to support from parents. This does not mean they should suffer from lack of support. All parents can be made to commit to contributing money for tutorial support for their children if they cannot play a role in supporting their own kids themselves.
The fact inspectors saw schools were using effective strategies to check what pupils have learned and to adapt the curriculum to fill gaps in knowledge and skills is seen to be encouraging. Some schools were using regular assessment to identify what pupils have remembered and providing time to revisit concepts that had not been learned well remotely.
The pandemic’s impact on some pupils’ mental health and well-being remained a concern. Leaders talked about pupils having lower levels of resilience and confidence, and increased levels of anxiety. Many schools were providing in-house support for these pupils because external agencies often had long wait times. This has been particularly challenging for special schools, who rely on a lot of support from other agencies
The negative impact on children’s personal, social and emotional development has also continued, with many lacking confidence in group activities, Ofsted’s report showed.
Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said the worst affected were the most vulnerable children, with those living in smaller homes without gardens typically spending more time on screens during successive lockdowns, which also resulted in delays in learning to walk and crawl.
She said it was clear from four briefings on education recovery published by Ofsted that the pandemic had created “lingering challenges”.
She said: “I’m particularly worried about younger children’s development, which, if left unaddressed, could potentially cause problems for primary schools down the line.”
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said the inspectorate had “seen lots of really good work across early years, schools and further education this term”.
“Most providers are using effective catch-up strategies to spot gaps in children and learners’ knowledge and skills and help get them back to where they need to be. In many cases, those gaps have closed altogether.
“But elsewhere concerns remain, and it’s clear that the pandemic has created some lingering challenges.”
There was a “strong but understandable focus” on assessing year 11 and 13 pupils, with some teachers also providing exam preparation.
The report concluded that some schools prioritized exam year groups and ensured they had specialist teachers, leaving other groups to go without.
Ofsted also said it had “commonly” seen SEND pupils taken out of foundation subjects for extra teaching in core subjects.
This “may be appropriate” in some cases, but leaders “need to be sure that their choices do not lead to unnecessary narrowing of the curriculum for these pupils”.
“Many schools” using the tuition partners arm of the National Tutoring Programme found there was a “lack of available tutors”, and some said there was “not enough evidence” about the quality of the tutoring.
Instead, leaders turned to the school-led route and trained their own staff as tutors, “internally or across academy trusts”. Using internal staff has “placed additional pressure on already strained school staff”.
5. Supply cover challenge as teachers work as tutors
With high staff absence, schools faced a “challenge” in sourcing supply teachers due to high demand and “because some supply teachers were working as tutors”.
Many schools therefore used their own staff to cover lessons, including leaders, teachers and higher-level teaching assistants. This “increased staff workloads”. pandemic had influenced pupils’ subject choices.
“A few schools” reported a drop in pupils choosing triple science, while others noted declines in EBacc subjects.
One leader “thought that the latter was due to pupils’ lower level of confidence in languages following lockdowns”. Schools continued to assess pupils to identify learning gaps.
But where schools relied on standardised testing, specific gaps in learning “were not identified as effectively or as quickly as they were in schools that took a more granular approach”.
Some primary schools also focused narrowly on core subjects, meaning they “have not yet clearly identified gaps” in other subjects.
The pandemic also “appears to have amplified the impact of weak legacy assessment practices”, Ofsted concluded.
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