According to a new assessment released today, children have slipped behind in their schoolwork as a result of the Covid-19 disturbance.
The research of reception year children aged four to five focused on a group who were all three or four years old during the first shutdown in March 2020, while they were in their reception year during the second and third lockdowns.
It was shown that parents and schools believed that children’s social and emotional welfare, language, and numeracy abilities had been harmed as a result of the epidemic when they entered kindergarten in 2020.
In 2021, four and five-year-olds were less likely than before the pandemic to fulfil predicted levels of development, with 59 percent of children in the sample meeting expectations in all categories in 2021 compared to 72 percent in 2019.
The discrepancy is the equivalent of three additional pupils in each classroom failing to meet the expected standards by the conclusion of the school year.
In a survey of schools that backed up the findings, it was discovered that when this cohort of children started school in 2020, nearly three-quarters, or 76%, said they needed more support than children who started school before the pandemic, though this number had dropped to just over half, or 56%, by the end of the school year.
Amy Hunter is the phonics and Key Stage 1 English trust lead at York’s Ebor Academy Trust, which has 24 schools spread over York, Selby, the Yorkshire Coast, the East Riding, and Hull.
She said: “This is really interesting research and something that is definitely a concern for our staff across the trust.
Many children have entered school without having learned tier one vocabulary, or the everyday language to which they are used. Face masks also disguise facial expression, which has influenced how youngsters interpret the meaning of what they hear.
Many of these things were not able to happen, and as a result, many youngsters not only do not grasp the meaning of the words they hear, but they have also missed the time where they begin to mimic phrases.
