The longer-term impact of COVID-19 on pupil attainment and well-being

This longitudinal study will examine the impact of school closure on the academic progress and well-being of primary school aged children.

Current academic literature has measured the impact of school closures on learning loss of certain pupil groups. However, the cancellation of national testing over the last two years has meant that national outcome data has not been available to look comprehensively at the long-term impact of lockdown. As we look to recover from the pandemic, measurements on the impact of school closures will be relied on for evidence-based school improvement. This project will therefore build upon prior research by using commercial data from RS Assessment to provide a more rapid and complete picture of the effects of lockdown on attainment in maths, reading, and spelling, punctuation and grammar. In addition, the project will uniquely consider how children’s well-being may mitigate or exacerbate the impact of school closures.

Completion of the research and analysis will help answer the following research questions:

1. To what extent have primary school children been able to get back to prior levels of attainment?
2. How does progress in Maths and English compare to prior years, and how does this vary for different sub-groups of pupils?
3. What factors and characteristics of schools have the biggest impact on pupil attainment, particularly for disadvantaged children?
4. Are there patterns of learning loss at child level and topic/question level that could be described and mitigated?
5. How have school closures impacted Key Stage 2 pupil’s wellbeing and have they returned to pre-COVID-19 levels?
6. Can the trajectory of recovery be identified and predicted through analysis of historic data?
7. Have aspects of children’s wellbeing mitigated or exacerbated the impact of school closures on attainment?

A core project output will be an online dashboard, presenting the findings as interactive graphs, designed for use by school leaders, teachers, and policymakers. This will allow researchers to place their own findings in the context of this new analysis and help shed light on the impact of policy choices in England. Three white papers will be published in an accessible format for the wider school community. In addition, academic papers will be submitted to journals which permit open access publication, guaranteeing the findings remain in the public domain.