Research to understand how primary and secondary schools in England have responded to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and what further support they believe they need going forwards.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures and disruptions for significant parts of three academic years from 2019/20 to 2021/22. The full impact of this will not be understood for some time, although evidence emerging from this research and others suggests the impact of school absence and disruptions can have a significant and lasting impact on a child’s learning. School closures have the potential to widen the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, with pupils receiving FSM and those experiencing digital poverty being disproportionately affected. Schools’ approaches to assessing the lost learning, and the recovery strategies they put in place to support pupils through these disruptions, will be vital in helping pupils catch up.

This research aims to understand these issues to inform policy makers by:

1. Assessing the scale of lost learning, approaches schools are taking to address lost learning and their effectiveness
2. Understanding how schools are using the Government’s additional ‘catch up/recovery premium’ funding 
3. Exploring how best to reach children who need the greatest support 
4. Assessing how best to support schools moving forward to minimise the impact of lost time in education and to return to their normal curriculum, taking into account longer term factors such as further closures, remote learning and other lockdown measures