Poorest children missing more school and further behind after Covid, study says

At Queen’s Drive Primary School, in Preston, teaching assistant Sarah Barraclough has been trained in a national programme to help four and five-year-olds in England with speech and language.

She says the impact of Covid has been “huge” and if they don’t learn to say and understand more words, children then become isolated. “You’re lonely and not getting involved in the games in the playground,” she says.

Emaan, now aged four, was born during the first UK lockdown and is one of the children receiving help through Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI).

His parents, Ruby and Charles, really notice the difference between Emaan and his older brother. During the pandemic, Emaan barely went out and met other people.

Charles says there is a “stark difference” between their sons and that Emaan is a lot more clingy.

The NELI programme to train teaching assistants is funded until the end of this school year in England. But beyond then, funding has not yet been confirmed.