With covid having set children back academically, some covid-catchup in the form of after-school tuition is in order - but why exactly is it beneficial? We are here to break it down for you!
1. Disadvantaged Students Will Benefit Most
Studies such as that by Cook, Shaw and Morris (2020) have revealed that disadvantaged students who are entering secondary school (ages 11-14) are the most likely to suffer from falling behind academically due to covid (even further so than other students), and so are the most in need of covid-catchup tutoring.
Disadvantaged students are more likely to struggle with the material they are being given in school, and are more likely to be absent from lessons due to struggling with lesson plans, and so they are most in need of targeted intervention. William Cook from the Manchester Metropolitan University has said these catchup sessions should reach well beyond when the covid-crisis has ended and should be part of a long-term strategy alongside regular schooling.
2. Comprehension Intervention
Since 2005 under 26% of under 18 year olds read daily - and it is only getting worse now that English lessons have been interrupted by covid. As kids have become demotivated to read in their free time over the last couple of decades, covid has put even further strain on this motivation and has likely contributed to an escalated downtrend in recreational reading in kids. Recreational reading has a dramatic impact on the vocabulary and comprehension skills of children, so encouraging them to read is imperative to their education.
Every Lesson Counts are doing their best to counteract the negative effects of covid on literary ability and interest by creating literary content in and out of the classroom. Alongside spelling quizzes with Word Wizard and Word of the Day with Mrs Boughey on our social media, ELC is providing comprehension quizzes on thinkific based on excerpts of popular children's books in 2020 and 2021, as well as regular book reviews on our blog alongside the weekly Wednesday post, so keep updated!
3. Maths on the Mind
Are you familiar with the Nintendo game 'Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training'? Well, this game utilises one of the most important aspects of learning - consistency and repetition. When learning Maths these two components are extremely important and without them, simple sums and equations are easily forgotten.
With all this time off from school during Covid, that daily repetition of sums that to many 11+ students, would seem easy as cake, have been left alone for so long that children in the year or two years below are struggling to grasp them (especially those that already struggled with Mathematics). However, with dedicated practice kids at ELC can catch up to their peers in no time. On Mondays our Instagram stories are dedicated to a ninja-fast maths quiz with Numeracy Ninja, our thinkific page offers content for those studying Year 3, 4, 5 and GCSE maths and we are now offering free maths content for Years 3 and 4!