The students that I call the ‘forgotten covid cohort’ will receive their A and T levels in Wales, NI and England today. But are universities ready to welcome them?
In March 2020, within days of schools closing for lockdown, these then Year 11 pupils discovered they would not take GCSE exams. Some families appreciated the security of being at home (particularly those where pupils had experienced bullying; or had special needs, disabilities or mental health problems). Others struggled with home working, being key workers, or losing their jobs. Pupils affected by a lack of familiar routine, poverty, abuse and domestic violence also lost the safety net of peers and school pastoral care. And risks of online grooming and radicalisation rose.
For this cohort, there was also no closure. No rights of passage. No last exam, prom, or parties. Alongside their older and younger peers, they faced loneliness, isolation, sickness and grief. Alongside anxiety and eating disorders increasing faster than an overwhelmed Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) could cope with.
