By Orna Herr, Communications Officer (Education) at the British Science Association

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The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly had a huge impact on classroom education. Between March 2020 and March 2021, primary and secondary schools across the UK were closed for multiple, extended periods. It was a necessary measure, but for children and young people (and of course parents/carers, teachers and schools), it was incredibly disruptive. The long-term effects on young people are just beginning to emerge.

As we come out on the other side of lockdowns and height of the pandemic, we can start to look closely at how the disruption affected children’s learning, the disparities in how children from different backgrounds were affected, and how we can try to improve children’s outcomes.

A growing gap in maths attainment

Earlier this year, four years on from the start of the first lockdown, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) released a new report looking at primary and secondary assessments in reading and maths between the academic years of 2017/18 and 2022/23. 

One of the most startling results the report produced is that the attainment gap for maths between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged primary school children (terms used in the report, defined as children who have been eligible for free school meals in the past six years, and those who haven’t) is significantly wider now than it was before the pandemic.

The attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children, also known as the disadvantage gap, is by no means a new phenomenon. The EPI measures the gap through months of lost learning; before the pandemic the gap was 6.9 months. It has now grown to 8.7 months – almost the equivalent of a full school year.

Starting engagement early

While primary school is the first time meaningful assessments like this can take place – as sending children to nursery is optional – it is not the first opportunity for STEM education to begin.

In our blog, ‘The benefits of science education for early years learners’ we looked at how engaging with maths, along with the other STEM subjects, from a very young age often creates a solid basis for future success.

We cited a study that investigated pre-school maths learning specifically, which found that:

The process of learning mathematics during the early-grade years may set students on a higher achievement trajectory throughout their time in school.

A new report from the Educational Endowment Foundation discussing issues in secondary maths, highlighted that earning a passing grade in maths at GCSE level is:

an important gateway to training, to Level 3 study, and is an entry requirement for studying a number of professional qualifications.

Young people who aren’t granted the opportunity to succeed in maths will finds doors are closed to them.

Battling the growing disadvantage gap in primary, and indeed secondary school, starts in early years education.

Inequality in access

As we’ve explored in another previous blog, ‘Equal early years education is crucial for future success’, the amount of quality time small children spend in early years education before they start school has a substantial impact on the education outcomes, through primary school and up to GCSE level.

However, access to free hours at nursery is not equally distributed. While in England changes to the number of free hours parents/carers can claim for their children and from what age are coming later this year and next year, the allowance for 3-4-year-olds remains the same.

Working parents/carers can claim 30 free hours per week, while households where at least one parent/carer doesn’t work or works less than 16 hours can claim 15 free hours.

Children from low income households, therefore, get less opportunity to build a foundation of maths learning which could bolster their future academic attainment, and so the disadvantage gap persists.

A new early years CREST resource

While the number of free childcare/early learning hours families are entitled to is outside of our control, making the most of the 15 or 30 hours per week littles ones spend learning before they start school is something the British Science Association can help with.

In February this year, we published the first CREST Awards resource for early years children aged 3-5. Developed in partnership with the Ogden Trust, the pack contains eight activities all themed around ‘Earth and beyond’ which can be run by early years education practitioners and parents/carers with littles ones to kick start their STEM engagement, including maths skills.

The activities include ‘Crater creators’, in which children drop balls of playdough (or an alternative) from various heights onto different coloured powders to simulate the craters on the Moon, and then measure results.

Through this activity they learn keywords and concepts such as moon, size, measure, high and low, to name a few. Measuring circles is a great way to put what they may have already learned about numbers into a real-world context; a ‘crater’ that measures 7cm across is bigger than a circle measuring 3cm across.      

All of the activities allow the children to meet different Early Learning Goals such as exploring and representing patterns within numbers, and recognising when one quantity is greater or less than another quantity.

The disadvantage gap is an entrenched issue throughout education which needs to be tackled at the government level with targeting funding. In the meantime, running specially designed STEM activities with early years children at nursery – whether they’re there for 15 or 30 hours per week – or at home, can help them start primary school with the best chance of flourishing.