Covid-19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Reading, maths didn't suffer overall in 2020 despite lockdowns

The Carter kids, from left Olivia, 9, Reuben, 3, and Levi, 6, are learning from home during level 4. Supplied photo / Alex Carter

Parents in Auckland - and many 'non-essential' workers around New Zealand - are knuckling down for a few more weeks of their kids learning from home.

It's a tough job, and many parents fear they're doing it badly. But there's some good news: a major recent analysis by the Ministry of Education found that overall Kiwi kids did not fall behind in 2020, at least in reading and maths - although writing skills suffered a little.

That finding roughly holds true across all decile and ethnic groups. Experts suspect that's because of the efforts schools, teachers and parents have put in over the last year.

University of Auckland education researcher Dr Nina Hood, who founded the Education Hub, said it was "completely understandable" for parents to feel they're doing homeschooling badly.

Dr Nina Hood, University of Auckland researcher and founder of the Education Hub. Photo / Supplied

"That's a very human response. For me it's all about balance; learning is cumulative. You're not going to necessarily expect your child to learn the same amount during lockdown as they would when they're in school. And there is always an opportunity to catch up afterwards."

It was "completely unrealistic" to expect parents to fill the teacher's role.

"They don't have the knowledge or the skillset. And in many instances, they're trying to work from home as well, looking after children."

However, parents could support the school's efforts by providing their kids with a structure to their day and trying to keep them engaged with learning.

Younger kids had limited attention spans, Hood said. "Yes, give them bursts of learning but then give them lots of time to do other activities and to engage in other things.

"In secondary school you can expect students to be able to better self-regulate, self-monitor their learning. It's not perfect, they need a lot of support to do that, but if you compare that to, say, a five-year-old and there's a significant difference."

Hood founded the Education Hub, which has gathered plenty of evidence of what worked for schools, like providing a mix of routine and flexibility and communicating clearly with families.

The research also found students who already had the "soft skills" like self-regulation were better able to transfer that to learning online. Strong pre-existing relationships between teachers and students, and a strong school culture, also made a big difference.

The Ministry of Education's He Whakaaro report into student learning, released in June, covered students in Years 4 to 10. It found that in 2020 the average Kiwi kid's maths and English-reading skills didn't suffer last year - if anything, there was a slight gain.

Even in Auckland students in that age group did not, on average, fall behind despite extra lockdowns.

The report said those findings were "sharply at odds with the earlier concerns of many in the education system".

The Government's chief education science advisor, Professor Stuart McNaughton, said the reasons for the "remarkable" results were still unclear, but it could well be due to the efforts put in by teachers, schools and whānau to keep kids learning.

Many people had made the most of the rich, informal learning that came from being together at home. Examples included cooking - where people engaged across age groups and talked to each other as they worked - and children learning more of their parents' or grandparents' language, he said.

The Government's chief education science advisor, Professor Stuart McNaughton of the University of Auckland. Photo / File

The report found writing skills had suffered a little, possibly because there were fewer informal learning opportunities for writing. It also suggested writing was more difficult to teach through distance learning.

But parents shouldn't feel they had to catch their children up on writing skills - that was the school's job, McNaughton said. The transition period when children returned to school would be particularly important in that respect.

The report did acknowledge the "persistent inequities" within the system had not gone away. And there could still be disparities within the groups where learners had struggled more but weren't picked up by the data.

McNaughton said there was a wide variation in people's experiences of lockdown, and some had faced significant stress which would have an impact on their children's wellbeing and learning.

But there was also evidence of how well groups such as iwi and hāpu had supported learning and helped give their children resilience.

There were differences between age groups, with secondary school students more stressed by lockdown. In that light the changes made to NCEA and external exams last year were "absolutely appropriate".

Learning from home: 'Motivation has waxed and waned'

Lisa Carter has to juggle online and offline learning to keep her kids, from left Olivia, 9, Reuben, 3, and Levi, 6, engaged during lockdown. Supplied photo / Alex Carter

Keeping three kids learning in lockdown with one device is tough - even for a trained primary teacher.

Mum Lisa Carter is juggling three-year-old Reuben while trying to keep Levi, 6, and Olivia, 9, on track with the work they're being assigned from Manurewa Central School.

"While they're doing schoolwork [Reuben] will just potter around. He'll do playdough, he'll do rice...he'll go outside with a hammer and bang on the old stairs, break some rocks open," she says. "Worst-case scenario, he'll watch TV."

Husband Alex is still doing his graphic design work, but Lisa isn't currently employed. She took her hat off to anyone that had to work and had kids learning from home.

"Anyone that is working as well is a superhero and I don't know how they're not dead."

Sharing one device has been hard. On Thursday she brought in a new rule - half an hour online per school year. Levi gets 30 minutes a day; Olivia 2.5 hours.

Lisa is not surprised by the research showing kids fell behind in writing skills last year - getting Olivia and Levi to do pen and paper work in lockdown is a chore.

"They're very attracted to the online work and they want to do that but when it comes to the written stuff they don't really want to do it. They just love devices so much."

The Carters have been through lockdown before but the move to level 4 still came as a shock. They weren't fully engaged with school for the first week, she says.

"Motivation has waxed and waned," she said. "To be honest, I'm glad it's the weekend. I'm ready for a break and they are too."