When the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020 schools across the globe were forced to close. Since then, on a stop-start basis, schools have reopened. Many schools, however, are still experiencing the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on pupil and teacher absence as well as the social, emotional, physical and academic impact on the entire school community. While the world has experienced global pandemics like Spanish flu before, the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. In May 2020 United Kingdom Research Innovation(UKRI) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) awarded a team of researchers at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society with funding to explore the challenges the COVID-19 crisis set primary school teachers. One part of this research was to conduct a review of research on previous learning disruptions to see if we could learn anything from these events that might match with the COVID-19 pandemic.
This booklet summarises:
What we did and why we did it
What we found and educators’ reflections on how it aligned with the COVID-19 learning disruption
What we recommended based on our findings and educators’ recommendations for schools and policy makers
We have shared these findings with educators to combine their reflections on our findings with their experiences
