Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect on pupils attainment of the number of in-person learning days that have been lost to pupils since schools reopened in March 2021 as covid-19 restrictions were eased.

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 disruption on the attainment and progress of all pupils is a key research priority for the Government. The Department has commissioned Renaissance Learning to provide a baseline assessment of missed learning for pupils in schools in England and to monitor progress over the course of the year. The latest interim findings from this research were published on GOV.UK on 4 June 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupils-progress-in-the-2020-to-2021-academic-year-interim-report.

Primary pupils were on average around 2 to 3.5 months behind expectations in March 2021 - similar to the amount pupils were behind expectations by when they returned to school in September 2020. The Department will be using the research to monitor progress for the rest of this year to further understand the continued impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on lost education and education recovery. The next phase of analysis will allow us to assess the impact of any disruption to education since schools reopened to all pupils in March 2021. The full report will be published once the study is completed in October 2021.