The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a report on the impact of school closures in Key Stage 1 on attainment and social skills of pupils in Year 4 and Year 5 in academic year 2023/2024, using a longitudinal observational study that followed a group of children who were at the very start of primary school during the
Covid-19 partial school closures in 2020. The key findings are:
- Overall, the Covid-19 gap appears to have closed for Year 4 and Year 5 pupils on average in both reading and mathematics
- The disadvantage gaps for reading have decreased for Year 4 and stayed the same for Year 5, and are around seven and six months’ progress, respectively.
- For mathematics the disadvantage gaps remain wider overall for Year 4 and 5 than gaps reported pre-pandemic, and are around seven months’ progress.
- On average, the social maturity of pupils in 2023/2024 was not significantly different to those
- expected of children of the same age had the pandemic not happened. However, for disadvantaged children, disadvantaged pupils, and boys, were assessed as having significantly lower social skills than non-disadvantaged pupils and girls, respectively.
- Absences, difficulties obtaining external support for pupils, and increased staff workload relating to pupil behaviour and wellbeing (both of the latter more so than in previous years of this study), have all been adversely impacted.
You can download the full report from the NFER website here.
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