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'What we used to do for 1-2 pupils, we're now doing for the whole class'

Janine Machin
BBC News, East of England
BBC A group of six-year-olds are sitting on the classroom floor, listening to the teacher. She is pointing at a screen displaying the school values. The children are wearing red jumpers and yellow polo-shirts. The walls of the classroom are covered with coloured images and posters to help children with their vocabulary.BBC
Chantry Primary says that since Covid, they have been using special educational needs teaching techniques for entire classes, even when they contain non-Sen pupils

Five years ago, schools and nurseries across the UK closed to most children as the first Covid-19 lockdown began. A year of online learning, bubbles, flow tests and little social contact followed and school leaders say they are still dealing with the impact - rises in special educational needs (Sen), exclusions, absenteeism and a wider attainment gap between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds.

'Daily battle'

Feroza Turk is smiling at the camera. She is wearing glasses and has her hair tied up in a bun. She is standing in front of a brightly coloured mural depicting a scene under the sea, with coral, seaweed and glittery fish.
Feroza Turk says her Year 1 pupils are struggling much more with speech, language, and social skills since the pandemic

In a classroom in Luton, 27 children are reciting their school values. They include being kind to their friends and reflecting on their feelings, which has proven a challenge for many.

These five and six-year-olds are in Year 1 at Chantry Primary Academy and their teacher, Feroza Turk, believes they are the age group most affected by the pandemic.

"We've seen a big rise in special educational needs," she said. "It's particularly speech and language development and how they interact with each other.

"It's a daily battle to get them to use kind hands [a method of teaching kindness and appropriate behaviour] and many of them have attachment issues because they had their parents with them all through Covid."

Ibrahim is wearing a navy jumper and white T-shirt and is grinning at the camera. He is standing next to Ayla who is taller, wearing a red jumper, with the yellow school crest on the breast, and yellow collared polo-shirt. They are standing in the classroom.
Six-year-olds Ibrahim and Ayla have been given techniques to help them feel less anxious at school and both say they are now "happy"

The school is run by the Pioneer Learning Trust and its chief executive Cori Bateman said the rise in additional needs since 2020 has forced them to completely change how they teach.

"What we used to do for one or two children, we're now doing for the whole class," she said.

"We just don't have the staff to give one-to-one support anymore because there are so many children who need it."

All learning is now broken down to be Sen-inclusive. Ms Bateman insists the approach does not disadvantage pupils who do not have special educational needs.

The school has also introduced class breathing exercises, ear defenders and sensory gadgets which they believe help some children to concentrate.

Pupils explain their feelings by attaching a peg to a picture of a character who is happy, angry or sad.

A classroom door with three posters on it, each depicting a different emotion - joy, anger or sadness and list of words underneath each poster suggesting words that "I might feel", such as "Scared" under the anger poster. The children have each attached their named yellow peg to the emotion which suits their feelings. Most have chosen "joy".
Children are encouraged to think about their emotions and to put their concerns into a "worry box"

Nationally, the number of children receiving Sen support has been rising steadily since 2016.

Now, some 14.1% of primary school students have Sen support and 3% have more complex Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs).

At Chantry Primary the Year 1 figures are 31% and 7.1% respectively.

But how much is the pandemic to blame?

Cori Bateman Is wearing a black jacket and is smiling at the camera. She has shoulder length brown hair and is standing in front of a classroom
Cori Bateman says the closure of pre-school nurseries, toddler groups and parental support services during the pandemic has led to an exponential rise in special needs among younger children

"We have a strong reputation for Sen teaching, so families choose us, which raises our figures," Ms Bateman said.

"But the clear rise in speech, language and social communication difficulties, I feel, has been because of the pandemic.

"We know that from nine to 18 months old children really start to notice their wider world but, without toddler groups and health visits, those children and families lost so much support at a key time.

"They've started school unable to fasten their zips, or understand tone of voice.

"Even recognising facial expressions was harder for this group because people wore masks."

Two white plastic rattan baskets are on a window ledge in the classroom. One is labelled SEN and contains folders. The second is labelled "Sensory basket" and contains blue ear defenders and coloured fidget toys.
Sensory gadgets, ear defenders and breathing techniques are available to all children in the class since Covid

Chantry said it was trying to address these issues before children move on to secondary school, where teachers also face Covid-related challenges.

Comberton Village College is a secondary school near Cambridge with almost 2,000 pupils, aged 11 to 18.

"We definitely saw more challenging behaviour after the pandemic and a rise in exclusions, but that has started to come down now," said its principal, Peter Law.

Peter Law is standing in a school corridor. He is wearing a dark suit and tie, glasses and has a serious expression
Peter Law says the pandemic led to a rise in poor behaviour, exclusions and absenteeism

"Pupil attendance is lower. There's a legacy that 'work can be done online, so you don't have to go to school' and it's a challenge to restore that contract with some parents," said Mr Law.

"The pandemic was an amplifier of situations so we saw plenty of families thrive, but for those with less supportive situations, children didn't have supervision because parents were working, and some drifted into more difficult situations and saw content online that was unhelpful."

Freya is standing in a corridor, smiling at the camera. She has long, curly red hair and a brace on her teeth. She is wearing a V-neck jumper.
Freya, 16, feels her year group had more catching-up to do than older students

Freya, 16, is about to take GCSEs. She feels comfortable with school now, but said "it's taken a lot of work to catch up".

Having had to do schoolwork at home from March 2020 until the summer term or September, a second lockdown was introduced in January 2021 - with many children having only just gone back to school after the Christmas holiday.

"I moved from primary to secondary school in the pandemic," said Freya.

"In my first term here, everyone was in bubbles and not used to talking to people, so it was hard to make friends and then we were back at home again [in 2021] with online learning where you could only see the teacher.

"It was isolating and demotivating. I think it affected a lot of my age group."

Max is sitting in the library, smiling at the camera. He is wearing a black top and shelves full of books are behind him.
Max, 17, felt his age group was the "luckiest" during the pandemic

Max, 17, believes his year was the "luckiest" in the pandemic.

"We were in Year 8 so we'd done our SATS, made good friends, and GCSEs didn't start until Year 10 so this was the best year of education to miss," he said.

Max did not think his A-Levels would be affected by any "lost" learning, but said his GCSEs were.

"I definitely took a hit in maths in Covid and it didn't recover because the GCSE builds on what you've learned before," he said.

Sarah is sitting in the library, smiling at the camera. She has shoulder-length hair and is wearing a grey cardigan.
Sarah, 17, said the pandemic affected her core subjects of maths, English and science

Sarah, 17, moved to Comberton after the pandemic but she recalled being "12 at the time and it was so scary".

"I lost the motivation to work from home and I couldn't even get online at first - my friend had to explain how to do it," she said.

"Things you didn't understand kept piling on top of each other. It affected all the core subjects of science, English and maths. It made me really anxious."

These experiences are reflected in the findings of the Nuffield Foundation report.

Its co-author Prof Lee Elliot-Major said: "School is a leveller, but when you take that away, people's home lives are very different.

"Many lower-income families didn't have the resources, so Covid has widened the attainment gap. It's going to take a long time to address those divides.

"We also found that children's social and emotional development has a big impact on their academic results so it's been a double whammy and we predict that GCSEs won't recover for a decade."

That would mean four-year-old children starting school this September may be the first children in 15 years to be unaffected by the pandemic.

The Department for Education said "this government is determined to get tens of thousands more children school-ready by the age of five and break down barriers to opportunity".

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