The government has commissioned an independent assessment to determine the scale of catch-up required across the school system in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the research will use data from assessments that schools are already running at regular intervals throughout the year to understand their pupils’ baseline knowledge and understanding, and associated catch-up needs.

The contract, awarded to Renaissance Learning UK at a value of £143,201, commences today and ends on 15 October 2021.

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The news comes after Tes revealed last month that the government was exploring options to track pupil progress over the next academic year in response to the coronavirus crisis.

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The independent research will focus on a large sample of pupils from Years 1 to 11, which the DfE said will allow it to understand how particular groups of pupils may have been affected by time away from school.

The department stressed that pupils will not have to sit any additional tests as part of the research, no additional burdens will be placed on schools, the research will not be used for accountability purposes, and it will not identify individual schools or pupils.

It added that a full report on the research findings will be published next summer.

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “It seems that the idea of this study is to give the Department for Education an evidence base on which it can make decisions over where to target extra support.

“That is potentially a good thing, particularly as this can be achieved without asking schools to implement additional tests.

“But the success of this strategy obviously relies upon the amount of support that is available and exactly what this constitutes.

“So far, the government has announced a £1 billion catch-up fund, but has allocated £350 million of this fund to subsidising a complicated system of tutors and mentors, rather than providing it directly to schools.

“The remaining £650 million sounds like a huge amount of money but actually works out at about £80 per pupil. So, it is likely to be the case that more investment will be needed to address learning gaps.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We have commissioned an independent agency to provide a baseline assessment of catch-up needs for pupils in schools in England and monitor progress over the course of the year, based on existing assessments, to help us target support across the system.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been clear no child should fall behind as a result of coronavirus.

“Now children are back in school, teachers are assessing what support their pupils need to get back on track, and headteachers have the flexibility to spend their allocation from our £1 billion Covid catch-up fund in the way they decide is best for their pupils, using approaches that are known to have the most impact.”