The report looked at learning loss in Primary (yrs 4-6) and Secondary (yrs 7-9) school students during pandemic in Reading and Maths (Primary only) using the standardised Star Assessment method which accounts for age.
What did it find? 2/11
Firstly, they assessed loss in Oct 2020 after initial long lockdown & again in July 2021. There was a lot of lost learning initially - and some catch up since so things are better by summer 2021 than they were, but kids have *not* caught up (which would be zero lost months). 3/11
Children in *primary* schools with higher rates of absence due to Covid suffered a lot more learning loss - community with less covid did better.
Primary school maths was hit harder than reading. 4/11
Interestingly, there was less of an effect in secondary schools - they were all hit by similar amounts.
Perhaps because reading is less affected by online learning once for secondary school children (more able to learn independently)?
But still a lot of lost learning. 5/11
Breaking it down by deprivation (using free school meals (FSM) as proxy), bigger loss for primary FSM kids in both maths and reading.
In secondary schools, non FSM pupils caught up a bit but FSM pupils lost *more* learning by July 2021 6/11
Regionally, there was a lot of variation in lost learning for primary schools - and a lot of variation on how much was caught up! Some areas (e.g. London) doing better in catching up than others. Much more catch up in primary than secondary 7/11
Also, the UK has spent far less on catching up per pupil than some other countries - despite the government's extravagant promises.
source: Comparing education catch-up spending within and outside the UK - Education Policy Institute (epi.org.uk)
8/11
It's hard to conclude anything other than that our govt's persistent lack of control of Covid, lack of support for schools trying to prevent transmission and lack of support for pupils learning online or catching up is failing millions of schoolchildren. 9/11
Finally - before the trolls weigh in - @IndependentSage has *always* advocated for schools that are *open* in as Covid-safe a way as possible. The most effective way is keeping community rates *low*. England has notably failed & schools have been very disrupted since 2020 10/11
AND where schools were moved online because of out of control covid or where children had to isolate as cases or contacts, we advocated for multi-layered support for for disadvantaged communities & catch up funding. 11/11
PS thank you to Bob Hawkins for producing the slides!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Quick thread on current Covid situation in England and Long Covid.
I have Thoughts about the Inquiry Report published yesterday but am still trying to organise them.
TLDR: high Covid levels remain, Long Covid remains 1/11
This wave is not over. While the number of admissions with Covid remains lower than the autumn/winter waves, it has now remained highsh for several weeks.
This means there are a lot of people out there getting sick - and having their work, plans and holidays disrupted. 2/11
Scottish wastewater data to 9 July shows a sharp decrease, suggesting that prevalence might be on its way down.
Obviously Scotland and England can have different dynamics, but it’s the best we’ve got as long as England refuses to analyse its own wastwater. 3/11
THREAD: Given tomorrow's election, I've been thinking about our nation's (poor) health, the wider determinants of health and how these have worsened and what it means for policy....
TLDR: worrying only about NHS & social care is missing the point
let's dive in... 1/25
The UK has a health problem. After steady gains in life expectancy for decades, it flatlined during the austerity years and fell for the first time this century with the Covid pandemic.
The number of people out of work for long term sickness is near record levels. 2/25
There are huge inequalities between rich & poor. Boys born in the most deprived areas can expect to die almost 10 years earlier than their peers in the least deprived areas.
Even worse, they can expect to spend 18 fewer years of their life in good health (52 vs 70 years) 3/25
As ever, I am getting lots of pushback.
Here is a compilation of the European countries I've found with recent wastewater data. Some are going up a bit, some down a bit, some are flat, none are anywhere near previous peaks.
I can't see anything here to be panic anyone. 1/3
I can't find the dashboard for Spain, but others saying it is in a wave. Perhaps it is. England has just had one - the last data we had (a couple of weeks ago from Bob Hawkins) looked as if our wave had peaked.
So, I'm not seeing reason to think things are terrible here! 2/3
Yes there are new variants growing right now. They are not growing faster than JN.1 grew in December and that wave did not end up as bad as feared.
Clearly it remains true that Covid is NOT a seasonal disease (unlike Flu and RSV)
3/3
Quick thread on the Astra Zeneca (AZ) covid vaccine since it's been in the news today.
TLDR there isn't a new "smoking gun", the AZ vax was one of first and cheapest, it saved millions of lives globally, there are better vax out there now, adapted to new variants 1/9
the AZ vaccine was one of the first approved at the end of 2020, cheaper than Pfizer, and - importantly - easier to administer in lower resource settings as it didn't require super low temperatures for storage 2/9
In most countries it was first rolled out in older adults. As it was rolled out in younger adults, a *very rare*, serious, side effect was noticed - it could cause deadly blood clots
This was spotted quickly and studied. Vax monitoring did its job. 3/9
A short thread on why this is not a scary chart and why all the evidence suggests that there is not much Covid around right now. 1/6
the above chart is recorded covid hospital admissions / reported covid cases. It is close to 100% now *because basically only hospitals can report cases since Feb 2024*
It is to do with changes in case reporting and NOT hospital testing
2/6