Most lockdown pupils are ‘three months behind’

As schools return to full in-person teaching, a survey reveals just how far behind pupils are in their education. The National Foundation for Education Research polled 3,000 head teachers and other senior staff across 2,200 schools to ask how their pupils’ education has been affected. The replies reveal not just how far behind children have fallen, but how wide the gap has grown between the most and least-disadvantaged.

The average response is that pupils are three months behind where they would normally be at this time of year. Just two per cent of teachers believe that their pupils have managed to keep up to date with learning. Ten per cent say that pupils are five months behind and four per cent believe their students are more than six months behind. This is remarkable given that schools were only closed from 20 March; children have not lost more than four months’ in school.