Only a fifth of state-school pupils work for 20 hours a week during lockdown lessons

The startling difference between the amount of work pupils at private schools have been doing during the lockdown compared with those in state schools has been revealed in a survey of parents.

About 63 per cent of children at independent schools have spent at least 20 hours a week in home education, but the proportion of local authority school pupils doing this much is just 19 per cent and for those at academies it is only 23 per cent.

The differences laid out in an exclusive Mail on Sunday / Mumsnet poll come as the first pupils prepare to return to classrooms tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, other research showed: 

• A North-South divide has opened up in parents’ attitudes to sending their children back;
• At least 25 councils will defy Government guidance to reopen schools tomorrow;

The Mumsnet survey of more than 1,000 subscribers found about 83 per cent of private students have spent at least ten hours working each week. 

Just 53 per cent of state pupils have been doing this much and 47 per cent of academy ones.

When asked to characterise the effect lockdown has had on their child’s education, the majority of parents of pupils at all types of schools agreed that it had been damaging.

Only about one in five parents from any group believed lockdown had been beneficial.

A majority of families in the Midlands and East of England intend to send their children back this week. Yet only 45 per cent of parents in the North East said they would do the same, with similar figures for Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West [File photo]

Experts fear the gulf between children receiving daily online teaching and those in schools with poor home-schooling could blight a generation. 

Senior Department for Education official Vicki Steward predicted the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers could widen by as much as 75 per cent.

The Office of National Statistics has found that allowing early years and pupils in year 6 (10 to 11-year-olds) back to school – those due to return this week – could potentially release up to one million parents, or 3.8 per cent of the workforce.

But the reality is that many parents will keep their children at home, especially those in the North where Covid-19 infections may not have reached a peak.

Research by data service firm Dynata reveals a divide with those in the South, East and the Midlands and the rest of England over their willingness to send their children back.

In the South West, more than 60 per cent of families questioned said they were ‘comfortable or very comfortable’ with schools opening this week. 

The figure for the South East and the East Midlands was also more than half. But in the North East, 78 per cent of parents said they were ‘very uncomfortable, somewhat uncomfortable or neutral’ about school resuming so soon, and 62 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside felt likewise.

Asked if they would send their children back to school on June 1, 66 per cent of parents in Greater London said yes, as did 72 per cent in the South West. 

A majority of families in the Midlands and East of England intend to send their children back this week. Yet only 45 per cent of parents in the North East said they would do the same, with similar figures for Yorkshire and Humberside and the North West.

Thousands of state primaries have been told by councils and teachers’ unions not to open. 

A Mail on Sunday survey of local education authorities has found that at least 25 councils of the 152 in England are refusing to allow schools to open.

The startling difference between the amount of work pupils at private schools have been doing during the lockdown compared with those in state schools has been revealed in a survey of parents [File photo]