Challenges lie ahead as pupils go back to school
Schools across Sussex have welcomed back pupils after the summer holiday – but normality has not quite returned to classrooms.
Strict safety measures have been put in place to keep both staff and students safe, as cases of coronavirus begin to rise once more.
Some schools across the country have already seen virus outbreaks – with 90 schools across Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland having reported cases as of last week. Many have been forced to close, while groups of pupils have been asked to self-isolate in classes where a case of the virus has been detected.
After months of educational disruption, West Sussex teachers now face the challenge of getting students back into the swing of learning while also attempting to catch up on lost time.
It comes as new research reveals the attainment gap in the county – with disadvantaged secondary school pupils in West Sussex found to be more than 18 months behind their better-off peers. The Education Policy Institute’s annual report shows that disadvantaged GCSE students in West Sussex were 20.9 months of learning behind their betteroff peers nationally in 2019.
This has shrunk by 0.2 months since 2012, however, suggesting West Sussex’s poorer students might be catching up slightly.
But David Laws, executive chairman of the think tank, warned that the lockdown was likely to have exacerbated the issue.
He said: “Before the
Covid crisis, disadvantaged children were around 1.5 years of learning behind other pupils, and this figure seems almost certain to have increased since the closure of schools. It is deeply concerning that our country entered the pandemic with such a lack of progress in this key area of social policy, and the Government urgently needs to put in place new policy measures to help poor children to start to close the gap again.”
Around a seventh (15 per cent) of West Sussex’s secondary school pupils were classed as disadvantaged, meaning they were eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.
The figures also show that four per cent are defined as persistently disadvantaged – eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent or more of their school life.
Jo Hutchinson, report author and director of social mobility and vulnerable learners at the EPI, warned that vulnerable children who have suffered abuse or neglect are at risk of falling further behind because of lockdown.
She added: “Our research shows that over the last two years an increasing number of children are living in long term poverty, and since these children are furthest behind in their learning, that is contributing to adverse trends in the national disadvantage gap. There is now abundant evidence that poverty and social vulnerability require urgent action both in and outside of school.”
The education gap also exists for disadvantaged young children in West Sussex, with five-year-olds trailing by 6.0 months and primary school pupils 11.8 months behind.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “While the attainment gap had narrowed since 2011, many have had their education disrupted by coronavirus, and we cannot let these children lose out.”
He added that the £1 billion Covid catch up package will tackle the impact of lost teaching time, with £350 million for disadvantaged students, for whom getting back to school is particularly important.
Seperate figures show that vulnerable children in West Sussex were allocated more than 1,000 laptops from the Government during the lockdown. West Sussex County Council ordered 1,655 laptops and tablets, the maximum number they were allowed to, figures obtained by the office of the Children’s Commissioner for England show. West Sussex was also allocated 235 4G hotspot devices, and 104 for year-ten students.
Simone Vibert, senior policy analyst at the CCO, said nine per cent of families in the UK do not have a laptop, desktop or tablet at home – a ‘digital divide’ that became more apparent during the Covid-19 crisis. She said: “During this pandemic, proper access to the internet is not a luxury for children having to learn at home, it is a necessity.
“The Government needs to ensure that all children are able to access education in the months, hopefully in school, but also remotely if that becomes their only option.”