Bohunt children help study

Pupils at Bohunt Horsham are helping children overcome the impact of lockdown on their education after taking part in a major study.

Its students were among 60,000 across the country who helped researchers track the impact of Covid-19 on schoolchildren.

The study, led by a nonprofit organisation called ImpactEd, looked at which groups of pupils had been most affected by lockdowns and the effect on their wellbeing and learning.

Bohunt Horsham was one of a number of schools run by the Bohunt Education Trust, including one in Worthing, that took part.

The trust’s director of education Phil Avery said: “ImpactEd’s diagnostic tool gave us clear, insightful data that we could action at the level of individuals.

“This allowed us to use our limited resources to have the greatest impact on students’ wellbeing and learning.

“We were then able to drill deeper into the data, and particularly pupils’ written answers, to understand exactly how each of these groups were being affected in different ways.

“From this analysis we were able to adjust our approach so that we were working preventatively, rather than reactively.

“We found that girls, disadvantaged students and those with special needs were most affected in terms of wellbeing and that, for exam years, the lack of clarity caused acute stress.”

He added: “Understanding which pupils are struggling in which areas has enabled us to have more impact with less resource.”