Chapter 5: Give every child the best start in life

Most children have missed months of education. However, the impact of this has been different, and there have been marked inequalities in learning hours, digital access and completion of homework. 

Early Help Services observed limited access to devices and internet connectivity for sections of the community, significantly impacting on students' capacity to complete online work This was especially prevalent in larger households of three or more children where devices were often shared and more likely to be broken. School attendance was impacted by a range of factors, including reluctance to use public transport, difficulty resuming family routines, increased anxiety at the risks of returning to a public environment and specific concerns for children and young people providing a carer role for parents or siblings. 
Gavin Bradshaw, Service Manager - Early Help Services, Gateshead Council 

Early Years children have missed out hugely on the school experience. The 'lockdowns' have meant that the youngest children have not had the chances to socialise, develop language skills or to play with learning resources as they normally would. You can see the difficulties some children have, which is unusual for us, in the way they struggle to share toys and resolve conflict. The knock-on effect will be felt by the youngest pupils for years to come.

 

Keeping children in bubbles last year meant that our younger children have not had the chance to mix with older children across the school. The losses children have had around their social skill development, and the lost learning, leading to academic gaps will take a long time to put right - you can't just put a plaster on things like that and think it will fix quickly.
 

The children in Year 3 haven't had a full year in school since Reception, where the curriculum learning is very different as it is play based. Children are trying to put the pieces of Year 1 and Year 2 into our Year 3 curriculum and make sense of it. If you try to do too much, too quickly, the pressure on the children is immense. It has to be done slowly and sensibly. You aren't going to catch up the gaps in two years' learning in just a few months.
 

Many children are behind where they are expected to be nationally. It's not surprising as before the summer holidays, we regularly had a third of children out of school, whether they had been 'pinged', had symptoms or parents/carers were anxious. This just simply increased the gaps in learning.
 

Some families, as we have heard nationally, struggled with home-schooling. They were unable to do it to the full if they were working at home at the same time. Other families were too worried, because of the risk of Covid, to bring their children into school.
 

The digital divide has been a massive issue for our families. We knew there were children we had to get into school as they couldn't access learning digitally, they did not have the right equipment, skills or time. We ensured that all children with Special Educational needs, who needed specialist support, and our vulnerable and EAL (English as an Additional Language) children were learning with us in school, if medically appropriate.
 

The need for safety has led to increased anxiety in adults and this is quickly picked up by children. On many occasions, where we were informed that a child had tested positive for Covid-19, we then had to inform all their close contacts that they would have to stay at home for the next 10 days. I knocked on classroom doors and you would see faces fall, the realisation that they were going to be sent home - I felt sick every time. We had many children crying as they left, but we had to get them home to reduce risk of transmission. 
 

Devices from the government didn't arrive at the right time. We spent days looking at different home learning platforms which could be accessed by children - no matter what kind of device was used. We set up a relatively easy to access home learning platform and gave tutorials on how to navigate it. We also photocopied hard packs for children and invited parents/carers and children to school each week to pick them up. We talked about buying textbooks for children, but staff felt these wouldn't be bespoke enough for the individual needs of our children. 
Paul Harris, Headteacher, Gateshead Council