“A generation scarred by the Covid-19 pandemic” published in CentrePiece – the magazine of The Centre for Economic Performance considers how the closure of schools during lockdown has impacted on social interaction skills and mental health as well as educational achievement.
It suggests firstly that, compared with other countries, the UK’s response to the pandemic was more geared to short-term academic matters and less to socio-emotional skills, extracurricular support and wellbeing.
Secondly, the authors have identified a relationship between socio-economic skills and academic attainment. The implication of this, which the article refers to, is that the effects of the pandemic will be long-term, with an impact on the socio-emotional skills of those as young as five during the pandemic – hence there will be lockdown-related benefits in encouraging participation in expeditions among young people into the next decade.
One of the recommendations is: “An enrichment guarantee in schools so that all children benefit from wider activities outside the classroom that nurture socio-emotional skills.”
We think expeditions do exactly that. Our Impact Measurement data backs this up, as does the feedback we receive from the cadet expeditions we support.