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However, based on epidemiological research, data that was available during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that closing schools only had a limited effect on COVID-19 infections:[70] 'With such varied evidence on effectiveness, and the harmful effects, policymakers should take a measured approach before implementing school closures; and should look to reopen schools in times of low transmission, with appropriate mitigation measures'. The closure of schools has worsened the divide, and while it was a consequence of closing schools that was entirely obvious and foreseeable to policy makers, there is no evidence that it was given any proper consideration on the multiple occasions when the Government decided to close schools. A further November 2020 paper compiled jointly by Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) and the Department for Education (DfE) further illustrates how aware the Government was about the damage they were inflicting on children and young people through school closures.[60] And yet, the Government went on to impose two further mass closures of schools. 1. On 18 March 2020, the Secretary of State for Education (SSE) announced to Parliament the first ever nationwide closure of schools in England.[1] Schools were closed between 23 March and September 2020 for most of England's nearly nine million enrolled pupils and then closed again between January and early March 2021 in connection with the third national lockdown. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines the political and relational dimensions of leading and managing schools in the early stages of pandemic-induced school closure in the four nations of the United Kingdom. It draws on in-depth interviews with 12 headteachers from primary, secondary and special schools. Headteachers used adaptive leadership strategies, including bridging, brokering and buffering, to recalibrate provision at pace. School closures demanded enhanced levels of coordination and communication around what mattered most. However, despite exercising creative agency, headteachers spoke of "clipped wings", with some feeling "vulnerable" or "alone" in attempting to mitigate often unknown risks amid constantly shifting guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ideology of intensive mothering through analysis of posts on lockdown learning in an online mothering community. It is argued that although the school closures seemed to constitute an endorsement and normalisation of intensive mothering ideology [Hays (1996). The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven: Yale University Press] by the machinery of government, and increased the pressure upon many women, some mothers resisted these expectations in this online forum. The online community served as a space in which intensive mothering expectations were articulated [Lehner-Mear (2020). "Good Mother, Bad Mother? Maternal Identities and Cyber-Agency in the Primary School Homework Debate." Gender and Education 33 (3): 285–305] but also offered an arena for cyber-agency, enabling women to express negative emotions, and normalising the rejection of expert constructions of mothering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools across the UK were mostly closed from March to July 2020 due to Covid-19. Therefore, parents and children found themselves thrust into a prolonged period of home-schooling. In this study, parents (N = 2,122) reported on their children's (N = 3,230) home-schooling experiences and its impacts on their children's academic progress. Parental reports suggest that children spent around 3 hours each weekday doing schoolwork at home. Children enrolled in private secondary schools received 4 hours of virtual lessons each weekday from teachers, while state school children received just 1 hour. Parents, on the whole, reported concern for children's academic progress. This is particularly so for children in secondary school and, most strikingly, those in school years antecedent to final exams (Years 10 and 12). Parents were less concerned about academic progress for those in Years 11 and 13, who had received their final exam grades shortly before the time of the survey. This study highlights the fact that children have been unequally affected by Covid-19 school closures, depending on their year group and school type, which should be considered in future research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]