Earlier this month we commissioned our own comprehensive survey amongst Muddy readers into Lockdown Learning – and we’ve been blown away by the response! Thank you to the 1200 of you who expressed how you felt about virtual-schooling, the difficulties you and your children were facing, as well as revealing surprise success stories and offering your advice on how schools could improve.

So what did you tell us?

Only 56% of parents were satisfied with their children’s learning and development during the CV19 lockdown. It also showed that the schools that embraced technology, creativity and virtual social interaction delivered a more fulfilling educational experience to kids.

41% of parents from poorer performing schools were more likely to send their children back to school this month verus parents from better performing school at 25%.

82% of readers said their children missed their friends and social interaction with teachers during in-home learning.

Of the least satisfied parents, only 13% of their children had any direct teacher contact over the last 12 weeks, contrasting with the most satisfied parents at 74% – proof that schools that kept their teachers visible and contactable to pupils were delivering better

The best performing schools were using more video and interactive learning experiences plus real world experiences to add variety. They were also more likely to use on-line assemblies, YouTube, interactive websites, and practical ‘real life’ lessons such as DT, Science, PE lesson and Cooking

Parents of children at lower-performing schools were more likely to say their kids were bored (61% vs 27%), that they lacked motivation (72% vs 26%) and that their child’s education had been set back (73% vs 32%).

Worryingly, nearly half of parents who were less satisfied by their schools’ Lockdown response were more anxious about the long-term adverse effects of their child’s mental health than those with children at the higher performing schools (47% vs 25%)

Finally, there were four key ways that most effective schools were engaging their pupils:

MAKE THINGS REAL
The best schools combined the virtual and experiential, making sure they integrate topics such as art, baking, experiments, science, nature projects, at home Sports Days and PE classes for maximum interaction

CREATE A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Assemblies every day for the whole school or small groups, online group lessons, class blogs, weekly school podcasts

MAKE THINGS FUN
Video show and tells, online story-telling, personalised videos from teachers, dressing up, singing, dancing, hosting quizzes, discos, school heads writing and performing lock-down songs, afternoon virtual tea parties

REWARD AND RECOGNITION
Having points systems to keep children motivated, awarding virtual badges, weekly awards ceremonies and inter-house competitions

We are compiling a full report and will add it as a link to this feature, hopefully by Wednesday – thanks once again for taking part, and feel free to share it with your local schools if you think it will help spur some creativity and technological innovation!

Visit our national Best Schools Guide for our indepth reviews of over 200 of the UK’s top schools.

Parent ‘Lockdown learning’ survey – the results

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