Inspection reports reveal educational impact of Covid-19

Six out of every 10 children at King David Liverpool’s Primary school spent a fortnight having to learn at home last term, according to Ofsted.

While the inspection service has suspended regular visits it has been monitoring how schools have been coping with the pandemic.

One reception class bubble had been sent home no fewer than three times during the winter term and one year-4 bubble twice.

Teachers had been providing additional support in phonics after finding that year 1 and 2 pupils had forgotten some of the sounds made by letters during the previous lockdown.

The use of vocabulary and knowledge of spelling, grammar and punctuation were not as strong as before the start of lockdown last March. Pupils were being given extra opportunities to write.

Some basic maths had been forgotten during the long period of home-schooling. Greater emphasis was being put on number bonds in key stage 1 and multiplication in key stage 2.

Some curriculum content had been adapted so that pupils could cover the learning they missed in the spring and summer terms.

Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox Primary in Salford had been less hit by absences with less than a quarter of pupils having had to self-isolate for a short period during last term.

Some subjects had been reduced in order to allow more time for English and maths.

Younger pupils were receiving extra phonics lessons, while older pupils were "spending more time working on their comprehension skills, to enable them to catch up with lost learning," Ofsted said.

Pupils were spending time on topics such as fractions and decimals to help them rebuild their knowledge.

Children who were self-isolating followed the same timetable at home as those in schools, with a mixture of online activities and paper resources.