Half term has allowed us to relax (a bit) and look back on an unprecedented winter term. It wasn’t easy – there have been tears & many of you moved into survival mode.
Today, we are looking specifically at … how much work was set over the term, how you were feeling, and how your children felt. Lots of this data is part of our fantastic Big Lockdown Learning Parent Survey, supported by the Education Endowment Foundation.
But first, 4 quick non-school facts that we enjoyed collecting over half term!
❤️ 1 in 5 mums sent a valentine’s card to their children
💔 1 in 3 parents didn’t receive a valentine’s card
🥞 8 in 10 families ate pancakes on Shrove Tuesday
🍋 1 in 2 parents vote lemon & sugar the best pancake topping.
How much work
Reflecting on the past term, most of you told us that the amount of work set by school hit the Goldilocks’ spot… i.e. not too much, not too little, but just right! One in five wouldn’t like to see any changes in the way work is delivered.
Of those that do want something different, more live lessons topped the charts again.
Around a quarter of you also said your child’s school had a “screen-free day” last term. BUT, despite there not being any schoolwork set on a screen, over half of kids still used their device that day!
How you were feeling
Every week last term, we asked you how you were feeling about home-schooling. We asked you to rate your feelings on a 10-point scale, where 1 was “I cannot do it at all” and 10 was “certain I can do it.”
We have put all your responses into a chart of the term showing who was struggling (the red lines) and who wasn’t (yellow lines).
If the yellow line is high and the red line is low (as we see on the secondary chart) it suggests parents are generally feeling good about home schooling. When the lines are closer together (as we see on the primary chart) it shows things are tougher, but at least the yellow line is still on top!
Apart from a few little blips (week 4 for primary-school parents and week 5 for secondary) feelings have been remarkably consistent. We’ll continue tracking as we head into the (hopefully) last few weeks of home learning.
How the children were feeling
Finally, while commentators have raised concerns about the impact of lockdown on children, it is worth remembering that not all children are feeling a negative impact. In fact, a small proportion of you reported that your children are more happy than usual!
Coming up next week
As the kids return to learning, our questions return to your experience of supporting your kids at home. Hopefully a return to school is on the cards for everyone, so there’s only a few weeks left to collect this vital data.
Your answers matter more than ever! Don’t miss a question… Download the app and set your notifications to PING every day!