MATHEMATICS AND THE IMPACT OF THE COVID SLIDE

Rupert Stonehill, English, Latin, Maths and French tutor 

Over the last few months it has been impossible to escape the constant stream of digits, line graphs, vertical spikes and percentages that fill every news briefing and Downing Street update. Many have stared bemused at endless statistics for the first time since sitting their GCSEs. 

Yet with schools closed since March, a whole year of academic progress for maths pupils threatens to be lost. In a typical 6 week summer holiday, the extended break presents an ever frustrating trend for our nation’s teachers. As pupils bury their schoolwork under festival tickets and beach holidays, they inadvertently regress in their academic progress. 

Research has shown that, typically, a 6 week interlude from schooling wipes out up to 2 months of educational growth. What is known as the ‘Summer Slide’ results in a dip in productivity whilst necessitating valuable teaching time in September spent re-learning the Summer Term’s syllabus. 

In the aftermath of COVID-19, the losses to learning following 24 weeks of school closures in the UK could prove catastrophic. 

Alarming studies have predicted that students could lose between half and all of their annual mathematical growth from the previous year. This worrying regression, termed the ‘Covid Slide’, effectively wipes out an entire year of progress. This is particularly concerning for pupils who were meant to sit their GCSEs this summer. 

These pupils were due to spend March-June solidifying their Maths syllabus, laying the foundations from which to springboard into the more challenging A-Level course. They have only been exposed to calculus and advanced trigonometry (topics typically reserved for months just preceding their summer exams), through online seminars. 

This is where remote digital learning falls short: individualised queries and confusion are almost impossible to address in the cacophony of a group video call. 

The cancellation of exams, and by extension revision, has also removed the impetus for pupils to practice problems and equations over and over again in order to gain a deeper understanding of the mathematical process. This cognitive iteration, prized by STEM teachers up and down the country, has forcibly been forgotten during the Lockdown period. 

Come September, those pupils going on to study Maths at A-Level (a content-heavy and challenging course at the best of times) will find themselves on a steep uphill climb to catch up. 

This, taken with the absence of face-to-face learning and the taxing mental strain of staring at a screen for 6 months, requires more than government rhetoric to reverse the inevitable Covid Slide. 

Already the government is scrambling together a year-long national tutoring programme aimed at complementing the year-long catch-up. After months of inadequate virtual learning, students are more likely to feel disengaged and despondent about their school work. 

While Humanities pupils can make a significant headstart by tackling a reading list over the summer, for Maths there is no equivalent solution. 

Try learning angle bisections over Skype or how to use a compass; and the most worrying effect for examiners comes in the lack of working out as students use online learning as an excuse to cut corners. 

Therefore, the need for high-quality face-to-face Maths tuition has never been greater. 

Maths requires a tailored approach in which the unique learning style of the pupil is central. 

The summer of 2020 thus presents the perfect opportunity for a tailored and bespoke Maths tutoring programme to make an overwhelming difference to a student’s development. 

Though the educational disruption over the pandemic has wide-ranging and long lasting effects especially in the numerical field, a socially distanced face to face tutoring programme could easily fill the educational void and disillusionment that comes in the aftermath of school closure and nationwide lockdown. A specialised Mathematics programme generates an increased intrinsic motivation and a more engaging approach to Mathematics. 

Only this can aid the pupils’ seamless transition back to school in September. 

The Covid Slide and the impact on other subjects 

The Covid Slide is not unique to Maths. To find out the impact on English and The Sciences and Languages please read our other blogs at https://mykidstutor.co.uk/blog/ 

Overcoming The Covid Slide 

Please contact Nicola at learning@mykidstutor.co.uk or call on 07887634779 to discuss how My Kids Tutor can help give your child the academic boost they need this summer.