In an unprecedented situation like a pandemic, there is much to discuss.  What about all that lost learning?  What about exams?  What about catch up opportunities?  Or even, what’s happened about my dental appointment?

I came across this table the other day and you’ll see it clearly marks out how each year group, with the exception of Reception, years 1 and 2, have lost a whole 2 years of continual, consistent learning.  But, how do we make that up?

There are a number of factors to consider here.

Firstly, schools are doing their best to plug the gaps in lost learning by focusing on areas which have been missed.  In particular, year 11 are being offered ‘intervention’ or ‘period 6’ after school sessions and students are being strongly encouraged to attend regularly.

Secondly, some families may choose to employ a one to one tutor as this focused tuition is a foolproof, effective way to hone in on those challenging areas. There are also online/face to face tuition groups where students learn alongside their peer group – this is a cheaper option to the more intensive one to one tuition.

Thirdly, there are a number of excellent online resources available for all key stages.  You’ll find a suggested list on my resources and tools page. There are also a large number of revision tools/books for those facing GCSEs or A levels in 2022.  I would particularly recommend these published by CGP.

With this latter point in mind, it has just been announced that there will be adjustments to the 2022 exam series.  It varies depending on the subject, but for AQA English Literature, schools are being given a choice as to which elements of the curriculum they want to focus on with their students.  The Shakespeare and unseen poetry sections will remain mandatory, but schools are being asked to choose 2 out of the 3 other elements.  For example, the 19th century novel and poetry anthology OR modern play and 19th century work.  More information about this can be found here.

So, my advice is don’t panic!  There’s plenty of time to work on those tricky components which a student feels less confident about and with supporting measures in place, all year groups will have the chance to catch up again and get their learning back on track.