Led jointly by two IOE research centres - the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), and the Sutton Trust, the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is the largest study examining the impacts of the pandemic on young people.
Published as a briefing, the study explores the health impacts and behaviours of almost 13,000 young people across England who were in Year 11 in 2021/22. Most of the cohort are currently in Year 13, if they are still in education. The briefing explores the incidence of COVID-19 and long COVID, and how this has affected young people’s education - including GCSE attainment using linked National Pupil Database (NPD) data.
The study found that around half (52%) of young people who were asked to shield from the virus reported that they had fallen behind their classmates, compared to a third (33%) of those who were not asked to shield. The authors note that part of this difference is likely due to the underlying reasons that the person was asked to shield.
