The rapid worldwide expansion of enrolment in higher education (HE) has led to greater diversity among students, with more first-generation learners, HE returnees, and disadvantaged groups. Yet, inequalities in participation persist and have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of flexible learning pathways (FLPs) can help HE…

The study uses data from five assessment points for reading and maths. It focuses on a constant sample of students, all of whom completed a Rising Stars assessment in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also administered three teacher surveys: the first focused on the initial period of lockdown, the second focused on the autumn 2020…

The Queen Elizabeth II recently made her fifth public speech on COVID-19 since taking office. Through the use of systemic functional linguistics to analyze her speech text, this article mainly analyzes the text from the perspective of the concept of function and finds this speech text involves only four processes: material process, metal process,…

For the second time in less than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools to close for most children, with the majority of children once again learning remotely. During the first lockdown, research from the Sutton Trust found that children's experiences of remote learning varied substantially across different socio-economic backgrounds.…

A child's early years play a significant role in determining their chances later on in life, including their chances of social mobility. But the poorest children are already 11 months behind their peers when they start at primary school, with efforts to close the gap stalling, and evidence that the gap has started to widen once again in recent…

The Department for Education (DfE) provided funding for secondary schools to establish short face-to-face summer schools over the 2021 summer holiday, to help them make up for learning lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lasting for one or two weeks, summer schools involved a blend of academic learning and enrichment activities and were intended to…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

Prior attainment is a major factor in both educational and career progression, but even young people who do show strong initial academic potential from less advantaged backgrounds often fall behind their better-off peers during their time in education. Indeed, the first piece in our Social Mobility: The Next Generation series found that by GCSE,…

The unexpected advent of a global pandemic and, in the UK, as part of the government response to control the spread of the virus, the closure of schools with just 48 hours' notice, meant many English teachers were faced with entirely new pedagogical, curricular and technological demands. This article reflects on the experiences of five English…

This paper examines experiences of families and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with a focus on Autism during a 9-week period in 2020 of 'lockdown' due to COVID-19 where the UK Government's message was 'stay home, stay safe'. For these families, home is where children can be themselves, shut out the outside world…

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on society, the economy and on the entire education sector. Teachers' workload, well-being, recruitment and retention have been affected by the national crisis. The aim of the National Foundation for Educational Research's (NFER's) annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports is to monitor the…

At every stage since the start of the pandemic, decisions across education and care have been informed by the scientific and medical evidence -- both on the risks of COVID-19 infection, transmission and illness, and on the known risks to children and young people not attending school and college -- balancing public health and education…

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, England faced a considerable teacher recruitment and retention challenge. The last ten years have been characterised by insufficient numbers of new teachers joining the profession and an increasing proportion leaving the state sector, particularly in secondary schools. This research is designed to…

For many students, the closing of schools caused serious upheaval in their studies. The advent of widespread schooling at home is commonly believed to have placed great burdens on individual students who often had to take much more responsibility for their own learning than they had done previously. There was a much greater reliance on technology,…

Many lives have been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic and school-aged students are no exception. The closures of schools and disruption to learning will have an impact as they go forward in their lives. In this article, I set out the various school year groups in England who have seen both their learning disrupted and other…