Nearly two in five pupils did not meet the government’s minimum guidelines for learning time during the second wave of school closures, new research shows today.

And while remote learning in England “substantially improved” between the 2020 and 2021 school shutdowns, there was a significant dip in provision for pupils self-isolating during the intervening autumn term, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

However, headteachers’ leaders have defended schools’ remote learning provision during the pandemic - arguing that they did an “outstanding job in very difficult circumstances and at great speed”.

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A new report from the IFS, published today, shows that learning time among children out of school rose significantly between April/May 2020 and February/March 2021: from 22 hours a week to 26 hours a week for primary pupils, and from 22 to 29 hours a week for secondary students.

Covid and schools: Remote learning provision ‘dropped last autumn’

But even with this improvement, nearly 40 per cent of primary and secondary pupils did not meet the Department for Education’s minimum learning time guidelines during the second shutdown, the IFS said.

The institute found that schools “dramatically changed their home-learning provisions between the lockdowns”, with a marked transition towards “active” resources, such as online classes.

“Amongst primary pupils, the share of parents reporting that their child’s school offered any active provisions increased from 49 per cent to 78 per cent, while for secondary pupils the share increased from 62 per cent to 92 per cent,” the report says.

But during the interim, when pupils were welcomed back to the classroom for the autumn term, the IFS found there was a “fall in provisions across the board” for children forced to learn from home while self-isolating.

Overall, the IFS found that the average child missed more than 10 per cent of school days during the autumn term - and disadvantaged pupils spent even more time out of the classroom.

“The poorest fifth of primary school children lost around 8.5 days on average in the autumn term, compared with 6.5 days among pupils in the middle and at the top of the earnings distribution,” the report says.

But the remote learning offer during the autumn did not match up to provision during either period of mass closures, the IFS found.

“The resources provided by schools for those isolating were orders of magnitude less than what were available during the first set of school closures - which were themselves significantly less than what were available during the second,” the report adds. 

“It suggests that home learning during the autumn term was possibly even more challenging than during the periods of school closures - especially given the break in the continuity of learning experience it implied.”

And support was “particularly lacking” for disadvantaged children, the IFS warns.

“Poorer pupils were not only more likely to be required to self-isolate; they were also less likely to have access to effective resources, such as online classes, to help them learn while they were at home,” the report says.

The researchers found that 31 per cent of primary pupils and 35 per cent of secondary students in the poorest fifth of families had access to online classes while they were self-isolating, compared with 36 per cent and 43 per cent of their peers in the richest fifth, respectively.

“Since online classes probably represent the best resource - as they allow children to keep track with their in-school peers - this suggests that periods of isolation during the autumn term were both more extensive and more disruptive for poorer children,” the report says.

The IFS also identified inequalities surrounding the Covid recovery effort, with richer parents “more likely to accept catch-up provisions when offered”.

“Going forward, if catch-up provisions remain voluntary, this will skew access towards richer children,” the report adds. 

“To prevent this from happening, the government should consider making some catch-up policies obligatory, or - failing that - at least focusing resources and communications on poorer families. Schools will also play a significant role in identifying the pupils who most need support, and in helping and encouraging them to access it.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools and colleges were given 48 hours’ notice at the beginning of the first coronavirus lockdown to develop and deliver remote education for more than 8 million children and young people - something which had never been done before.

“They did an outstanding job in very difficult circumstances and at great speed to provide this form of learning.”

He added: “This study shows that the poorest families were the least likely to accept an offer of catch-up tutoring, and this clearly shows that the government must give schools and colleges greater flexibility about how they use recovery funding to deliver support, based on their knowledge of the needs of their pupils.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The government acted swiftly to minimise the impact on children’s education and wellbeing and help keep pupils in face-to-face education as much as possible.

“To ensure that pupils could continue to receive their education at home, we provided more than 1.3 million laptops and tablets to disadvantaged students, funded Oak National Academy to provide video lessons, and set clear expectations for remote education quality, including a minimum number of hours per day.

“We have also committed to an ambitious, long-term education recovery plan, investing over £3 billion and significantly expanding our tutoring programme to support children and young people to make up for education lost during the pandemic.”