ARU Final Report

Full Report – May 2021 17 Meanwhile for others, their education moved either partly or entirely online. Many found this experience difficult, expressing a lack of motivation, not enough support or contact, or their course not being available online: I have found school good (post 16). I like doing the home and school learning in the same week. I found getting set up for online lessons very hard. College closed for a period of time and had an isolation period when bubble sent home. Has not been attending college recently and this is due to difficulties with motivating self to get up on the mornings, finding work a bit challenging and laptop not linked up and working from home. It’s been terrible unable to have good contact with lectures. I have had Zoom calls with other students but Art is very hands on and I have been doing more hands off and doing more background writing. My Art and Design course finishes in May but I don’t know what I will be doing after this. I did a short Prince’s Trust course face to face when they opened again. I was supposed to progress to the next course, but it went online and I don’t like doing stuff online. I have recently started a study programme with a training provider. I can go in there 1 day per week, because I’m classed as a vulnerable learner, and they work with me on a one-to-one basis, which I like. We used to do cooking but that’s been stopped because of Covid. I really would like to go back to doing that, we used to do that a lot, and I mean a lot. Indeed, The Disabled Children’s Partnership (2020) conducted an online survey to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown on families with children and young people with disabilities across the UK. They received 4,074 responses from parents and carers relating to 4,868 children and young peoplewith disabilities (of which 23 per cent were aged 16-25). One of the most difficult aspects of lockdown for these families was managing home schooling. The literature suggests that many children and young people with SEND were unable to receive the services that are usually delivered through education settings (Children’s Commissioner, 2020; Special Needs Jungle, 2020; Lebrasseur et al., 2021).