Coronavirus parent survey one — March 2020

When schools closed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to help slow the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19), many parents felt a range of emotions. There was initial relief that they and their children would be able to self-isolate and stick to the social-distancing measures the government has recommended for all of us. Here at Parentkind we fully supported the closures as a necessary safety measure.
But parents were left with major concerns. How can they, especially those who work, manage from home when their children need home-schooling under virtual quarantine conditions? And what about the possibility of a full academic term (or more) of learning that their child will miss out on? What about those pupils in cohorts that were scheduled to take exams this summer? How best can parents support learning at home, and are they confident to do so?
This uniquely worrying time has raised many challenges and asked so many of us to address fundamental questions about family life, guiding children through a crisis, and the role of parents in education.
Parent survey
Many Parentkind staff are parents and have wrestled with the same questions. To gain an understanding of what parents are going through during this pandemic, we put out a survey to our social media followers to gauge their reaction. We were encouraged that in under five days, almost 700 parents (691 in total) representing 1181 school children across the three nations we operate in gave us their views. This level of engagement demonstrates the strength of feeling among parents. The results have given us a snapshot of parents’ major concerns in the week that school closures and the wider ‘stay at home’ messages were announced. Of course, the situation is changing daily, so we will check in on parents’ responses over time and keep you posted. But in the initial aftermath of school closures, this is what parents told us.