Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in the United Kingdom
[1] The emergence of a new variant of COVID-19 in December 2020 led to cancellation of face-to-face teaching across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales the following month.
[2] GCSE and A-level exams and their Scottish equivalents were cancelled, with grades assigned based on teacher predictions after controversy about the method.
[7] On the same day, the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon announced that Scottish schools would also be closing from 20 March, and may not reopen before the summer.
[9] Shortly thereafter, the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson announced that schools in England would close from 20 March for an unspecified length of time.
[12] The Coronavirus Act 2020, which came into force on 25 March, gave the relevant ministers and departments across the UK powers to shut educational institutions and childcare premises.
However, schools had been instructed to continue to primarily educate young people in these age groups at home, and to keep face-to-face lessons to a minimum.
[16] Meanwhile, schools in Wales reopened on 29 June, and although all year groups returned, until the summer holidays attendance was non-compulsory and part-time.
[20] In the new academic year schools reopened at full capacity with some changes to ensure social distancing remained in place.
[25][26] Amidst exponential growth of cases, on 13 December the London borough of Greenwich instructed its schools to switch to remote learning.
[27] The London boroughs of Islington and Waltham Forest took similar steps the following day,[28][29] while Redbridge council stating it would support its schools if they want to move to online teaching.
[29] Gavin Williamson ordered the schools to stay open for face-to-face teaching, and Greenwich council reversed its decision in the face of threats of legal action from the government.
[49] Amid ongoing omicron related fears, new guidelines released in Wales on 1 January stated that whether pupils would be educated online or in the classroom would be delegated to individual local authorities and schools.
[50] The following day, it was announced that face mask requirements would be tightened in England on a temporary basis for secondary school pupils as part of the measures to combat Omicron.
[52] Obligatory facemasks in classrooms were removed in Scotland (where they have been a far more long term aspect of school life during the pandemic) on 28 February.
[59] The TES and Oak National Academy also ran weekly assemblies, with speakers including The Duchess of Cambridge, the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
[60] Fitness coach Joe Wicks released a series of training videos targeted primarily at schoolchildren to help them remain active whilst at home.
[62] The Bitesize website had 1.6 million individual users on the day its lockdown learning programme was launched whilst CBBC had a 436% increase in viewership during the slot when educational programming was broadcast.
[68][69] Following increasing pressure to and public opinion, the regulator decided to withdraw the computed results, and to regrade students based solely on the original teacher predictions.
[80] Cambridge University was criticised for their incoherent response to the pandemic which required international students and staff to make arrangements to return home with only two days' notice.
On 13 March, students and staff were advised that international travel was discouraged and university facilities would stay open at reduced capacity.
[81] The president of Cambridge UCU criticised this sudden shutdown, saying it would exacerbate the pandemic as students from countries with weaker healthcare provisions were forced to return home.
[93] The NASUWT teachers' union contacted 28 local authorities for data on COVID-19 rates amongst school staff in the autumn term.
[98] Between September 2020 and April 2021, the number of children across the UK being taken out of school to be educated at home on a permanent basis increased by 75% in comparison to previous years.
[99] Reporting conducted in late 2021 into the impact of the COVID-19 on schools in Scotland suggested that pupils behaviour had worsened since the pandemic and that academic standards had fallen.
