Poorer pupils and those in the North and the Midlands impacted worst by pandemic, admits report

Today the Department for Education (DfE) has published new research on the extent of learning loss among pupils in England during the summer and spring terms.

The research, which provides new evidence on the impact of the pandemic on pupils’ school attainment, was carried out by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and Renaissance for the Department.

The analysis from EPI researchers considers the extent of pandemic learning losses at both a national and regional level, in primary and secondary schools, and by pupil characteristics – including among pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds.

The report finds that pupil learning losses reduced by around a month after the return to schools in the 2021 summer term, but pupils have still suffered substantial losses, particularly disadvantaged pupils and those in deprived areas.

Pupils in parts of the north of England and the Midlands saw greater learning losses than those living in other regions.

By the end of the first half of the autumn term, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds had lost, on average, approximately 1.9 months in reading amongst both primary and secondary aged pupils, and around 4.5 months in mathematics for primary aged pupils.

In comparison to their peers this means that early in the 2020/21 academic year, disadvantaged pupils had experienced similar learning losses to non-disadvantaged pupils in primary reading; lost about half a month more learning than non-disadvantaged pupils in secondary reading; and lost around a month more learning in primary mathematics.

It was also concluded that disadvantaged pupils in secondary schools had fallen even further behind by the 2021 summer term, compared to where they were in the 2020 autumn term.

As well as variation by pupil disadvantage, the report also said that variation by the level of deprivation of the area in which pupils live was an issue. In fact, non-disadvantaged pupils in areas with medium and high levels of deprivation experienced a similar or greater degree of learning loss to disadvantaged pupils in areas with low levels of deprivation.

Researchers find an association between absence from school (despite being open for in-person learning) and higher learning losses – the first study to uncover this relationship.

The research comprises two new DfE reports, one examining pupil learning loss during the spring term 2021, and another covering pupil learning loss during the more recent summer term 2021.

“Learning loss” refers to the months of learning pupils are behind following the pandemic, compared to a typical, pre-pandemic school year.