Remote learning in first half term — February 2021
Read our short survey of views around remote learning from parents of school children in England.

Key findings
- Around two thirds (69%) of parents are not confident that schools reopening to more pupils in March would be safe for their family.
- Parents worrying about the impact of the pandemic on their child’s education has significantly reduced (by 22%) since January 2021. This could be related to a number of factors; the increased satisfaction in remote learning provision offered by their schools, increased confidence in supporting learning at home or recent government announcements on catch-up funding.
- Parents overall satisfaction with their child’s school’s provision of remote learning support continues to improve, with a slight increase since May 2020.
- The majority of parents (80%) continue to be confident in supporting their child’s learning at home.
- Other ways to improve parents’ confidence further would be:
- More live lessons
- Better explanations of work being set
- More feedback
- More flexibility to work set and timings
- Around a third of parents are either spending more time (37%) or the same amount of time (36%) overseeing their child’s schoolwork compared to March 2020 (the first lockdown).
- Over half of parents (53%) are coping with the current learning arrangements better now compared to March 2020 (the first lockdown).
- The current arrangements for their child’s schooling has impacted parents’ mental health and well-being in different ways, with a small majority (23%) of parents’ mental health and well-being not being impacted.
- The top three challenges for parents with the current learning arrangements are:
- Motivating their child to do their schoolwork
- Managing their child’s mental health and well-being
- Juggling work and schooling
- Other unprompted challenges highlighted include:
- Anxiety caused by schools re-opening too soon
- Anxiety over public exam arrangements
- Managing their child’s physical health
- The top three positives for parents with the current learning arrangements are:
- Being more aware of what my child is learning
- Having alternative options to engage with my child’s teacher e.g. virtual parents’ evenings
- Being provided with learning resources that can help me engage with my child’s learning
- Other unprompted positives highlighted include:
- Their child prefers learning at home
- More time spent with child and family
- Their child being able to work at own pace
- Flexibility to learn other things
- Improvements in their child’s mental health