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Help us ensure 230,000 children do not fall further behind. This is an urgent appeal to support Literacy Recovery of children and young people in our most disadvantaged communities.
Pre-pandemic studies show that on entering primary school, the attainment of children from lower-income households is around 4.6 months behind those from higher-income households, increasing to around 9 months by the time they leave primary school.
The gap increases again at secondary school, with pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds leaving around 18 months behind their peers. Following some progress, efforts to narrow the attainment gap were stalling prior to the pandemic, and in 2019, the gap was found to have increased at primary level for the first time since 2007.
One factor identified in relation to the lack of progress made in narrowing the gap is a higher proportion of children in persistent poverty (Hutchinson et al., 2020).
‘Learning loss’ describes differences between levels of learning in pupils affected by educational disruption related to COVID-19 and what would be expected in a typical academic year. Research carried out over 2020 and 2021 has found some differences in learning loss in relation to socioeconomic background and region. For example:
An ongoing summary of findings from assessment reports is available from the EEF.
Figures on the pre-pandemic gap in attainment between children from lower and higher-income households are concerning. Despite commendable and hard-won progress to close the gap over the last decade, the gap doubles between entry and exit from primary school (from 4.6 months to 9 months) and does so again (from 9 to 18 months) between finishing primary and finishing secondary school. In recent years, progress in closing the gap has shown signs of stalling, with researchers identifying an increasing proportion of children in persistent poverty as a contributory factor.
The likelihood of school closures contributing to a widening of this gap is a key concern for educational researchers. To date, studies appear to show that the impact of the pandemic on pupils' learning has been greater for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and further that pupils in urban areas and regions such as the North, North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the Midlands have suffered greater learning loss in reading than their peers elsewhere.
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It is important that outcomes in reading and writing assessments continue to be monitored, however, to examine the extent to which such differences may increase, or indeed narrow, over time. It is also worth noting differences in assessment methods and analysis may lead to different conclusions. For example, one study suggested that the attainment gap in reading may not have changed significantly. We will continue to read new studies with interest, and offer our thanks to all those engaged in studies providing insights into the priorities for funding and interventions over the coming months and years.
Help us ensure 230,000 children do not fall further behind. This is an urgent appeal to support Literacy Recovery of children and young people in our most disadvantaged communities.