WIREDGOV

In light of recent announcements that many students may not go back to school before September (if then), the Children’s Commissioner’s Office has undertaken some preliminary research on the homeschooling provided to children during lockdown. Understanding which children are missing out and why will be crucial for targeting help over the summer, in September and in the coming years as we help those disadvantaged by the pandemic to catch up.

Our research is based on the first wave of Understanding Society’s Covid survey, conducted over 5 days at the end of April. It includes a module on homeschooling, asked of all children who would usually be attending school at this time. The sample consists of 4559 school-aged children. Children who are not yet in school or have left school are not included in this, and it is therefore not a representative sample of all children, just school-attending children. We have broken down our analysis by teenagers (13 and over) and young children (12 and under).

The overwhelming majority of children (96%) were not attending school at the time of the interview (around the end of April). For those who were attending, the most common reason was being a child of key workers. It was much more common for the children of key workers to attend school when those children were younger, likely due to the fact that older children can more safely be left at home alone.

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