Rebuilding key skills: How schools are closing the gaps post-pandemic

2020 was a year no one will forget. For school-aged children it meant being removed from the routine of the classroom and adapting to learning from kitchen tables, bedrooms and screens.

As hard as parents and carers worked to support their children, there’s simply no substitute  for the learning that takes place in a classroom surrounded by peers, supported by skilled teachers — and free from the distractions of home life.

One of the biggest losses during that time: key skills 

With fewer opportunities for face-to-face interaction, children missed vital stages in developing language, communication, handwriting, and fine motor skills. In many cases, typing replaced pencil work, and digital lessons replaced the dynamic, collaborative experiences of the classroom.

As schools returned to in-person learning, the challenge was clear: how do we help pupils rebuild those essential foundations?

We spoke to leaders from four schools and MATs to find out how they’ve supported pupils in recovering — and strengthening — those key skills.

Back to basics at Shirestone Academy 

For Nadeem Bashir and his team at Shirestone Academy, writing stood out as a major area of concern. From grammar and handwriting to creativity and expression, writing skills had taken a noticeable hit.

In response they made a bold move: stripping the curriculum back to basics. The focus shifted to reintroducing SPAG essentials and reigniting a love of creativity.

The Academy also introduced further opportunities for writing across the full curriculum. They found ways to include more long form writing in subjects such as geography and history. Thankfully, every subject leader brought into the need and found new and exciting ways to bring more writing opportunities.

Small steps, big gains at St Thomas Moore Primary School 

At St Thomas More Primary School, writing was also a significant challenge. It was one of the hardest areas to teach remotely, and providing meaningful feedback proved equally tough. It remains a tricky area even now.

The school tackled this with a two-fold approach:

High-quality first teaching and then offer additional support that minimises time away from the classroom. Interventions come in the form of short, focused 10-minute boosters – giving pupils extra help without taking them out of valuable class time.

It’s a balanced strategy that recognises the need for both high-quality teaching and smart, responsive intervention.

Centralised planning at Mossbourne Federation 

At Mossbourne Federation, the team took a strategic approach: centralising lesson planning.

This freed up teacher’s time to think more deeply about how to adapt the lesson plans for their learners This shift brought:

• Greater clarity and consistency
• Faster identification of where support was needed

It placed teachers at the centre – trusting them as the experts in their classrooms — and it’s made a real difference in targeting skill gaps effectively.

Rebuilding the curriculum at ONE Academy Trust 

Graham Boyd, CEO of ONE Academy Trust describes how they remodelled their curriculum with recovery in mind. The aim? To reintroduce and rebuild the fundamental skills pupils needed most – from letter formation to fine motor skills in mind. The aim? To reintroduce and rev Changes to the curriculum focused on re-building skills such as fine motor skills and letter formation to support pupils to work on the basics. Their first step was asking a simple but powerful question: where is the disadvantage? Was it in communication? Language? A lack of wider experiences?

Only by identifying those gaps could they design a curriculum that truly met the needs of their pupils. And from there, the work began — building a stronger foundation so every child could begin to thrive again.