Education: Closing the Post-Lockdown Learning Gap

Schools in the UK have been forced to close to all but children of key workers and vulnerable children for large parts of 2020 and for most of the first term of 2021, as part of the measures to attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As children return to school, educational establishments need to be focusing on implementing measures to close the post-lockdown learning gap while continuing to protect and support the most vulnerable children.

Sir Peter Birkett is an ambassador of Arbor, which has published several articles aimed at supporting schools as children and staff return.

Assessing Gaps in Learning

The first stage in post-lockdown recovery is to assess the gaps in learning that have occurred as a natural result of children being home-schooled for long periods of the past year. Many parents have been trying to work from home as well as instigate remote learning, while others have not had access to the same digital tools and resources as others. This has left numerous learning gaps to be addressed.

Schools need to assess where each child is at and identify these gaps so they can implement strategies to make up the shortfall. This also includes identifying those pupils who may not have been classed as vulnerable prior to the onset of the pandemic, but who may now require additional support as a result of the events of the past year.

Strategies for Getting Back on Track

There are a variety of strategies schools can use to help students who have fallen behind to get back on track. This includes focusing more class time on the skills that students have missed out on developing or not fully developed, embedding these key skills as a priority rather than re-covering the curriculum.

Once these key skills are embedded, most students will naturally begin to catch up on curriculum work. Schools can also use technology to benchmark students against national averages to discover areas that need more work.