Talking about “learning loss” and “catch-up” in schools after the pandemic is “unhelpful” and “runs counter to what we know about educational psychology” an expert has told a conference.
Bradley Busch was contributing to a panel discussion at this week’s Bryanston Education Summit when he raised concerns about the language used around children missing out on education during the Covid lockdowns.
Busch, who is a registered psychologist and director at educational training company InnerDrive, said: “The language of learning loss and catch-up is quite unhelpful and runs counter to what we know about educational psychology.
“This avenue of cramming and catch-up isn’t in sync with how we know learning happens.”
“These terms promote anxiety and put pupils – and teachers – under even more pressure at the very time they are looking for reassurance, inclusion and community.”
Other contributors to the panel agreed, with journalist Afua Adom warning that it could be harmful to refer to children as “the lost generation” as they may pick up on it. Her own daughter, she said, had expressed concerns about “not being ready for Year 6”.
“They are where they are and that’s ok,” she said. “We need to be really careful about how we talk about them.”
In a separate talk at the event in Dorset, education expert Daisy Christodoulou from assessment company No More Marking explained that evidence showed that the concept of “learning loss” was inaccurate and was better described by the term “learning decay”.
There was strong evidence from large-scale research carried out by No More Marking that children were bouncing back from the interruption to their education, she said.
Many of the contributors to the Bryanston Summit panel also highlighted how the pandemic had affected their students socially.
Even at Bryanston, a well resourced independent school, headteacher Richard Jones said the level of social maturity of children was “behind what it should be”.
Sally Wilson, head of nearby state-funded The Blandford School, said that students were “less mature” and there were not always the social structures at home to mitigate these issues.
The panel concluded with contributors highlighting what they considered to be the priorities for education post-pandemic.
David Weston, founder and chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust charity, explained that simply asking teachers to be better was not a solution.
“There was no lever that wasn’t being pulled already. You can’t just teach harder,” he said.
Giving teachers time to “reflect on research” was key he said, as was funding for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
He explained that a survey had shown that, given the choice, more teachers would prefer a mental health nurse in their school rather than a pay rise.
Sally Wilson stressed the importance of relaunching her school’s extra-curricular programme to children’s mental health, the value of peer-to-peer mentoring, and above all, more funding from central government.