This week’s A-level results are set to return to pre-pandemic standards, while the pupils leaving school are the first cohort since 2019 to go through their major exam years without any Covid-related disruption. A staged return to “normal” grades was felt by Ofqual, the examinations regulator, to be fairer to those pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, who missed out on their learning during lockdowns. This, coupled with strong claims made by universities that a swift restoration of pre-Covid grading would have caused chaos with their offers, explains why it has taken five years to reach this point.

So Thursday would seem to mark both a real and symbolic moment when schools in England can finally say that they are back to normal, and the collective trauma of Covid-19 is finally behind us.

Unfortunately, this isn’t quite true. The legacy of the pandemic persists in Britain’s schools. Perhaps the most marked change since 2020 is the high rates of truancy:  according to the Department for Education (DfE), over 147,600 pupils missed at least half of their classes last year. The knock-on effects are obvious: these pupils will score badly in examinations (if they even turn up for them), are less likely to go on to further education, and will have worse job prospects than their peers.

From a teacher’s perspective, there is only one thing worse than a pupil who is persistently absent, and that is one who is persistently present and disruptive. By any measure, behaviour since the pandemic has worsened considerably. The figures released by the Government are shocking: suspensions have increased by 21%, from 787,000 in 2022/23 to 955,000 in 2023/24.

The DfE states that “since the pandemic, the rate of annual increases has accelerated.” Behind these rather bland words lies a depressing picture: according to the NASUWT, one of the main teaching unions, 40% of teachers reported that they have been physically attacked by a pupil in the last year, including being punched, kicked and spat at. Perhaps most worrying of all is that the biggest increase in permanent exclusions is among primary school children, up by 22%, suggesting long-term problems and disengagement from education.

Many of the difficulties facing schools since the pandemic are interrelated. The rise in mental-health issues among young people can be related to a number of factors, including problems at home. But if school is chaotic or unsafe, these issues are exacerbated and add to those absence rates. Once again, the figures here are staggering: 500 children a day are referred to mental health services, with one in five children and young people claiming to be suffering from anxiety or depression.

How many teachers go into the profession to deal with complex psychological conditions, or risk being attacked by abusive and aggressive pupils? Very few, and many will leave because they cannot cope with the resulting pressure. Before the pandemic, around 75% of teachers expected to be in the job in three years’ time; now it is down to 60%, and pupil behaviour is given as one of the main reasons why so many plan to quit. I know from working in both an independent and state school that filling positions becomes harder each year. The Government’s commitment to recruiting 6,500 new teachers, financed in part by imposing VAT on school fees, looks set to fail. Worse, recruitment is significantly down, with job advertisements falling 31% from last year.

The pandemic is gone, but it is far from a distant memory in schools. While many issues in the education sector have deeper roots, that prolonged period of disruption has exacerbated certain forms of behaviour that could take decades to reverse. On Thursday we should celebrate all those students who have worked hard to earn the grades they need to move on to university: they will no doubt be a net gain to the country. But we should also note those who are not there, who didn’t turn up to their lessons, or missed their exams. Although they are absent from those front pages, they exist in unwanted statistics and will, in a very different way, also go on to shape our society.

---

David James is deputy head at a leading independent school in London, and also teaches at a local state school.

drdavidajames

---