Children learned ‘little or nothing’ during school closures, despite online learning

Schooling

Last Updated on 08 April 2021

Monica Costa

As a mother of a teenager in year 10, I am aware that the last year of schooling has been lost and I feel really anxious as next year my boy will have to face GCSE exams after literally missing out on vital learning. My fears have been confirmed by a new study by researchers at Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, published in Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

School closures in the last year have led to serious learning losses, with primary-age school pupils making virtually no progress studying at home, according to Learning losses were particularly pronounced in families with low levels of education.

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Schooling: Teachers from top UK Private Schools say period of online learning helped to close the ‘Achievement Gap’ for children who need more time to learn

Schooling

Last Updated on 24 March 2021

Monica Costa

Today we meet the teachers who explain why they have switched jobs from traditional schools to join future-led online schools amidst the pandemic. Online independent senior school, Minerva’s Virtual Academy, has made several more, new appointments of teachers this term who have each chosen to move away from roles at traditional schools, in favour of teaching pupils remotely.  The rising number of teachers embracing new learning technologies, suggests that the recent period of online learning is impacting the future of education on many different levels.  As well as coming from several state schools across the country, a number of teachers have joined the Academy from top UK private schools including Wycombe Abbey in Buckinghamshire and Bethany Independent Boarding School in Kent, to name a few.  For many teachers, the pandemic has also uncovered gaps in educational success for those children who simply need more time to learn.

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Are ‘Online Schools’ the Future? A New £6,000 per year Private Online School is Attracting Top Teachers and sees Sharp Rise in Admissions Amidst School Closures

Schooling

Last Updated on 20 January 2021

Monica Costa

A raft of pupils at one of the UK’s few ‘online-only’ private schools start their first term with live-streamed lessons, assemblies and after-school clubs, as parents switch from ‘traditional schools’. 

This week marks the start of the first term at of one of the UK’s first ‘online only’ private senior schools, costing parents just £6,000 per year in fees.  Minerva’s Virtual Academy has been created to combine the benefits of a private education with 21^stcentury digital home learning.  Despite being less than two weeks since schools closed across the country, the online-only school has experienced a sharp rise in new admissions and enquiries with many parents taking their children out of traditional schools in a bid to avoid further disruption to their education and to benefit from state of the art remote learning.

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