Interesting article in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... SApp_Other

"Recent surveys from Teacher Tapp, Public First and the Sutton Trust confirm that while children at independent schools are receiving significantly more online lessons, only 33% of those from low-income homes spend more than four hours a day learning at home. And some headteachers have said that in their school, up to 40% of pupils do not have a home computer. Many have no internet or phone either.

Tracy Thomas, headteacher of Marden primary school in Kent, the largest remaining grammar-school area in the country, says: “I fear that the gap this year [in terms of 11-plus admissions] will be greater than ever.” "

Made me laugh... ‘only’ 33% of low income homes spend more than four hours a day learning at home....

I count squeezing 2 hours of learning out of my children to be a productive day

Realistically though, how much time do the kids actually spend working at school? They attend for 30 hours a week, but playtime, PE or assemblies and transitions between classes etc significantly eat into those hours. I'm not saying that they're not important things to do, but I don't think parents should beat themselves up if they're not reaching that 4 hour mark. I think we also shouldn't forget that more of the learning will be 1:1, focused specifically on what that particular child is struggling with (although parents are not normally teachers!)

I also don't think that online learning is the only way to go. It can be good, and the social aspects of conference calls etc are really good for mental health, but paper and pencil work can really get things into your head. That said, workbooks and printers etc aren't cheap either, but our school will print out weekly work packs for those without internet/printer/pc etc.

If anything, I think it's access to a library that could make a difference... some households have more books available, whereas others are more reliant on the library to expand their reading material. We're really missing the library, but fortunately we're all bookworms, and are able to afford to buy a book, but I do feel for kids without those resources available.