The recent pandemic has turned the world of education upside down, especially at Chantry Primary Academy. Now, students such as Freya, 16, who is currently studying for her GCSEs, are paying the price. Having moved from primary to secondary school in the midst of COVID-19 disruption, Freya has had a very different education than many others. When she started her first term at Chantry Primary Academy, the school was working in bubbles. This created an environment where students found it hard to meet and bond with one another. Freya saw firsthand how isolating it is to make new friends when all learning went virtual during the move to online education in 2021. Interactions were limited to only viewing the instructor.
The pandemic’s impact went beyond just social interaction, taking a significant toll on their education in foundational core subjects like science, English, and math. According to Professor Lee Elliot-Major, "School is a leveller, but when you take that away, people's home lives are very different." The disruption to how students learn and teachers teach was deep, with schools shifting teaching models on a dime. "What we used to do for one or two children, we're now doing for the whole class," said Elliot-Major.
Education institutions across the UK are still reeling from these changes. The Pioneer Learning Trust, which operates Chantry Primary Academy, has changed in order to respond to the new requirements. Cori Bateman, Chief Executive of the Trust, highlighted the rise in additional needs since 2020, forcing a complete overhaul in teaching strategies. "We just don't have the staff to give one-to-one support anymore because there are so many children who need it," Bateman stated.
As the first Covid-19 lockdown started, schools and nurseries across the country shut their doors to all but a small number of children. This closure affected elementary schools and high schools too. Comberton Village College, just outside Cambridge, has a roll of close to 2,000 students aged 11 to 18. Related Story College students speak out about housing insecurity Max, a 17-year-old student at the college, marvelled at how his year group was “the luckiest” throughout the pandemic. Even with those disruptions, Max felt their timing softened some of the academic blows. "We were in Year 8 so we'd done our SATS, made good friends, and GCSEs didn't start until Year 10 so this was the best year of education to miss," he explained.
Max recognized the challenges that were experienced in every other short content area. "I definitely took a hit in maths in Covid and it didn't recover because the GCSE builds on what you've learned before." His experience highlights the sweeping challenges students all over the nation have encountered.
Moreover, the Department for Education has been citing a regular increase in the number of children receiving Sen support since 2016. The pandemic has sped up this movement, but caused universities and colleges to rethink how they support their faculty and staff. Freya echoed the sentiment of many students who found catching up academically demanding: "it's taken a lot of work to catch up."
