Schools are using strategies including small group work and staff redeployment as well as one-to-one catch-up and small group wellbeing sessions, the report finds, as they continue to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic on pupils’ social and academic development.
The latest measurement of recovery progress, published this week by the Education Endowment Foundation and the National Foundation for Educational Research (Rose et al, 2024) draws on evidence from a key stage 1 longitudinal study which is following a group of children who were at the very start of primary school during the Covid-19 partial school closures in 2020.
These pupils are now in years 4 and 5 and this update finds positive signs of recovery: “Overall, the Covid-19 gap appears to have closed for year 4 and 5 pupils on average in both reading and mathematics. Indeed, in year 4 mathematics and year 5 reading there was no significant difference in pupils’ performance compared with the 2017 pre-pandemic standardisation samples.”
The study even reports that year 4 pupils are two months ahead in reading while year 5 pupils are three months ahead of expectations in maths when compared with the 2017 samples.
And while the report warns that the overall disadvantage gaps “remain wider than gaps reported pre-pandemic”, there is progress on this front too.
The disadvantage gaps for reading in Spring 2024 are around seven months’ progress in year 4 (a reduction compared to Spring 2021) and six months’ progress in year 5 (no change although both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged groups are scoring “significantly higher”).
In maths, the disadvantage gap in both years is around seven months’ progress. Again, the year 4 gap has been reduced when compared with Spring 2021 while the year 5 gap remains the same due to both disdadvantaged and non-disadvantaged groups scoring “significantly higher” than in 2021.
The report states: “While Covid-specific disruption, such as Covid-related absences, has reduced in schools this year, the longer-term fall-out of the pandemic is evident in the challenges reported by schools.
“The most common were absences, difficulties obtaining external support for pupils, and increased staff workload relating to pupil behaviour and wellbeing (both of the latter more so than in previous years of this study).”
The report highlights practices that have been effective in primary schools in supporting Covid recovery: “Small group work and staff redeployment are still commonly used strategies for learning recovery, along with one-to-one catch-up, although less so than last year. Schools are also frequently using small group wellbeing sessions and external support to improve pupil wellbeing.
“The majority of schools felt that parents were as capable of providing support in 2023/24 as they had been in the previous academic year. This was also the case for parents’ willingness to provide support.
Nearly all schools were prioritising additional support for very low-attaining pupils, and two-thirds (fewer than last year) were doing so for disadvantaged pupils.”
Commenting on the findings, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders said: “While it is encouraging that there is some evidence of recovery from the pandemic, and teachers and school leaders deserve great credit for this, a number of difficulties remain. Concerns around pupils’ attendance, behaviour and wellbeing have grown substantially since the pandemic and, as this report suggests, will take concerted work within and beyond the school community to address.
“It’s important that we continue studying the impact of the pandemic on pupils’ learning and wider development, and as we begin to see the green shoots of recovery in some areas we must not lose sight of the many lingering effects and keep striving to overcome these.”
- Rose et al: Impact of school closures in key stage 1 on attainment and social skills of pupils in year 4 and year 5 in academic year 2023/24, EEF & NFER, 2024: https://buff.ly/4eC2eQg