Much has been written and documented about schoolchildren and parents who struggled to keep up with - or engage with - online learning. And now the Department for Education has announced its plan for summer schools, to help children catch up on lost learning.
But at our school we’ve witnessed a slightly different phenomenon as a result of lockdown: we’ve seen the benefits for children of spending time at home.
Some children across the country have started to mirror their parents’ use of language. It appears that lockdown exposed some children to a wider range of language skills, with some even using an increasing number of positively grown-up phrases in conversation. We’ve also heard that children have begun asking their parents - unprompted - how their work and projects were going.
It’s been both enlightening and encouraging at the same time - and, importantly, it shows that some children did adapt and added value to their parents’ busy days, as well as learning new life skills.
Covid lockdown: Pupils baking cakes and cleaning their bedrooms
Don’t get me wrong, though. We know it wasn’t all fairy-tale harmony in UK households. We know that the pandemic has had a profound impact on parents and that many have, at times, felt claustrophobic. We know that access to technology hasn’t been readily available for everyone, and it’s been one of the most difficult periods of life for teachers, parents and, most importantly, children.
But there were also plus sides - and, interestingly, these emerged particularly in households where there wasn’t the luxury of shutting the door and escaping to a home office.
Parents said that, in addition to the curriculum, they weaved much more practical and enrichment activities into their children’s days. Baking cakes, gardening and planting seeds, and learning how to ride a bike, clean their bedroom and make a sandwich are all fundamental skills that aren’t all taught in the primary school classroom. They are skills that are acquired through life, via self-motivation and gentle, positive encouragement.
Some schools introduced a work buddy to encourage children who were at home to link up, share ideas and interact with other pupils. Others launched a “daily challenge”, such as putting the washing machine on and putting clothes away neatly (these often mirrored the practical skills that were being taught at home - but with other activities that parents would also appreciate).
Setting pupils up for the next stage in their lives
Learning to be proficient and confident in these areas now will help set these locked-down pupils up for the next stage in their lives. It will teach them to be self-sufficient, not to rely on family to do chores for them, and to feel proud that they have moved a step forwards, towards becoming confident young adults.
Every day, teachers strive to ensure that children are valued, supported and understood and that, when they leave school, they are well-rounded individuals who are highly literate and highly confident in themselves, in their capabilities and with other people.
The events of 2020 and 2021 have brought schools, families and staff closer together. The collaborative response to the pandemic, ensuring that our children were well cared for and that they didn’t experience lost learning opportunities, has been truly remarkable.
Certainly, learning to ride a bike or do the laundry are not the skills we’d anticipated our pupils learning this year - but they are great skills all the same.
Rather than focusing on talk of “catch-up” and “lost learning”, maybe we should embrace these different ways of learning, and focus on making the most of the stronger links between home and school.
Gavin Booth is CEO of Infinity Academies Trust
