Chapter 8: Education in Post-Pandemic England

With recurring waves of infection continuing well into 2022, the endpoint of the pandemic is debatable. However, the Department of Education declared that schools were back to normal in February 2022 by lifting any remaining restrictions. This meant an end to social distancing, and the end of isolation by children and teachers with COVID-19 as long as they felt well enough to attend school. Ofsted had already resumed full inspections the previous year, so February 2022 heralded the shift to a period of ‘catch-up’ and an expectation that schools would run ‘normally’. However, reflecting on what has happened in the so-called post-pandemic period requires us to understand the context in which schools are now operating; we cannot understand the current trends in the sector without understanding the wider social backdrop.