By Joanna Williams, the founder of the think tank Cieo. She is the author of Women vs Feminism, Why We All Need Liberating From the Gender Wars and is a regular columnist for Spiked. Follow her on Twitter @jowilliams293, /RT/ – The NSPCC and OFSTED have each just published a report on the terrible impact the first lockdown had on children’s education, but their findings were hardly surprising. What is a surprise is why they were so silent at the time.
Slowly, evidence begins to emerge. Today, it’s the turn of OFSTED, the body responsible for inspecting the UK’s educational establishments, to appear in the witness stand. Its newly released report, based on 900 visits to schools and nurseries, details the extent to which children fell behind with their learning and social skills as a result of the first lockdown. According to Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, “Older children have lost physical fitness as well as reading and writing skills, and some are showing signs of mental distress, which can be seen in an increase in eating disorders and self-harm.”
Yesterday, it was the turn of the children’s charity, the NSPCC. Its report warns that young people were left feeling isolated, anxious and insecure, after being cut off from their usual social support networks. They noted that some children had developed eating disorders for the first time, while others with existing eating disorders had reported their symptoms had worsened.
Last week, the group No More Marking released findings from its assessment of the writing skills of 116,000 Year 7 pupils. They found that, on average, pupils were 22 months behind what would typically be expected from children their age. Not only did children not make educational progress during lockdown but they may have gone backwards, forgetting knowledge and skills they had previously learnt.
News that effectively closing schools for months on end had an impact on children should shock no one. And let’s not forget: it wasn’t just schools that were closed. Extracurricular activities, music and sports clubs, swimming pools, leisure centres and playgrounds all shut down too. Lockdown meant that even hanging around with friends at home or in a park was forbidden.
We are now being bombarded with sensational headlines about escalating mental health problems in older children, and younger pupils forgetting how to use a knife and fork or regressing to wearing nappies again. It’s true that, while parents undoubtedly did their best under extremely difficult circumstances, many children will have experienced prolonged periods of boredom, loneliness, frustration and perhaps anger or anxiety.
But it’s important we keep in mind that for the vast majority of children, this will not lead to mental health problems. As Spielman points out, some youngsters even found lockdown a positive experience. A majority “neither thrived nor significantly suffered”, but have slipped back in their learning to varying degrees. Some, particularly those whose parents needed to continue with full-time work, who live in cramped accommodation without a garden, who did not have access to a laptop or wi-fi to complete schoolwork, or had a pre-existing learning difficulty or mental health problem struggled most of all.
Read the full story on RT
