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15 Apr 2021 | 13:13

Two out of three teachers and support staff at schools and colleges across the UK think that opportunities for sport and physical activity are amongst the most important approaches for supporting pupils and students who have missed months of in-person education because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The findings come from a National Education Union survey of more than 10,000 school and college staff, conducted in advance of its annual conference recently held online, which asked how to best to steer a course for education out of the pandemic.

VULNERABLE

The survey was conducted in the days leading up to the wider opening of schools on March 8. Whilst schools stayed open throughout lockdown for the children of key workers and the vulnerable, many others studied from home.

The NEU reports that its members have strong views about getting the transition back to on-site education right, and states on its website: “For those students who have worked from home throughout lockdown, they will be seeking a continuity of learning which in part also recognises the emotional needs and adjustments of physically returning to their school/college.

School sport

“Teachers, leaders and support staff know this better than anyone and can diagnose the most important ways of providing support.”

The survey asked members to identify approaches which would be most valuable to support students who have missed in-person education, choosing all that apply, and ‘opportunities for sport and exercise’ (68%) was second only to the most important response, which was ‘flexibility in the curriculum so we can decide at school/college level what is important for learning and wellbeing’ (82%).

Other popular approaches included ‘increasing creative and practical learning’ (66%) and ‘increasing the number of teachers/lecturers’ (51%). However only 2% selected ‘extending school days or term lengths’ which the Government has been contemplating.

POVERTY

Almost all respondents (94%) believe poverty affects learning, with 51% saying it does so to a “large extent”, while just under half of respondents to the survey (49%) said that a greater public recognition of the needs of disadvantaged pupils had been a positive outcome of the pandemic. More than two-thirds (68%) said a rise in child poverty – exacerbated by the economic downturn – was an urgent matter for Government to address as society emerges from the pandemic. Finally, in accordance with some of the responses to the Coalition’s own #AdaptSupportRespond initiative - which seeks to highlight how sport for development organisations adapted their services during lockdown and throughout the pandemic - 69% of NEU members welcomed new ways of working with technology in teaching, believing it had gone well. More than half (57%) said online parents’ evenings had been a good innovation.

Commenting on the survey results, Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “If the Government is serious about building back better, then they should take on board these views. Education professionals have been on the frontline, either virtual or physical, throughout the last 12 months and it is their insights on what has worked best that should be taken forward.

“The world has changed because of Covid and the education system should change with it.”

Read the full article.