COVID catch up - Abacus or Apple?

As schools have returned and the focus is increasingly on ‘moving beyond’ the pandemic there’s lots of talk about COVID catch up and how to support learners. Sir Kevan Collins, COVID catch-up TSAR, has stated that on average children in England have lost 115 days of face to face learning over the last year, that’s 60% of classroom teaching time. Clearly schools have adapted and responded throughout the year and have learnt new skills to support remote teaching and learning. That’s not 115 days of ‘lost learning’ but it’s 115 days (and in some schools more) of meaningful classroom time, of high quality face to face teaching and of peer interactions.

However we should be mindful we’re not through this yet, there’s parts of the world where schools are now closed again and responding to the challenges of delivering learning. Closer to home bubbles are still bursting and in some cases, whole schools are closing again due to an increase in cases. It’s still a changing situation and schools need to be ready to respond and switch approach quickly. 

As focus has shifted to how to respond to this loss of face to face learning, there’s talk of summer schools, extending the school day and even of bulk buying abacus’ for every school to support maths catchup. One of the positive things to come out of the last year is the huge amount of professional development undertaken in the use of technology and schools and teacher ability to quickly adopt new technologies and new ways of working. It would surely make sense to build on this and look at how technology and the growing EdTech market can support schools, teachers and learners. 

It’s not about adding more ‘screen time’ to the daily diet and it definitely isn’t about increasing teacher workload. Technology can support teachers to provide meaningful, engaging activities that challenge and support learning; technology can ensure interaction with the learning content to encourage concentration and thinking (not staring at a screen taking nothing in). Technology can make life easier for the teacher by providing insights into how children have responded to and performed in different activities, helping them to pick up in class on common misunderstandings on identified gaps. 

2020/21 has seen an Edtech revolution in terms of usage and adoption, at Kidsloop we believe 2021/22 and beyond should be about harnessing what we’ve learnt; improving on our practice and using technology not just to communicate or broadcast content but to challenge learners; encourage engagement and thinking; and harness data to make teachers lives easier and maximise the impact of classroom face to face time.