Commenting on the EEF’s findings on the longer-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on younger pupils’ reading and maths skills, Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“Well before the pandemic hit, the gap in attainment between children from wealthy and poor families had stopped closing. Nearly 18 months of progress already separated pupils from the poorest communities from their more affluent peers. As this research highlights, an already bad situation will have been made all the worse by the impact of Covid, with the attainment gap now wider than before the pandemic and showing no sign of reducing.

“This report is further evidence of the continued need to invest in education and childhood recovery in the long term.

“Schools will continue to do everything they can to help pupils make the progress they need, but they need the resources to do it.”