In this article, the authors discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic completely changed the way one project communicated with children, parents, and teachers. The authors describe how they developed Science Gateways out of the need to handle the limitations of the Science Open Doors program that was developed prior to COVID-19. Science Gateways serves…

During the COVID-19 'lockdown', members of the Association for Science Education (ASE) primary science community worked together to develop a series of remote learning resources for the 2020 summer term. This article describes how the aim of making science, with embedded science enquiry activities, accessible to parents and children in their home…

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for practical teaching within the sciences. While many instructors adopted innovative alternatives to conventional practicals, many relied on digital approaches that did not give students hands-on experience. In this study we evaluate the use of 'at home' practical kits used in first year physics…

In March 2020, when COVID-19's lockdown restrictions saw schools closed to the majority of children, Carenza Lewis quickly began thinking of ways to help both teachers and parents. Drawing on extensive experience of enabling children and young people to learn from practical engagement in archaeology, she came up with a plan. Almost overnight, Dig…

Homeification refers to the intensification of the home environment through the accelerated lifestyle changes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes resulted in blurred and altered boundaries between places and new relations with spaces, things, and technologies. Drawing on multi-modal creative research with UK undergraduate students,…

Since 20 March 2020, almost all school-aged children across the UK have been unable to attend school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Exceptions are small numbers of vulnerable children and those whose parents are keyworkers. Schools have pivoted to remote delivery of learning using a variety of online and offline resources. This report adds to a…

Within a learning family, every member is a lifelong learner. A family literacy and learning approach is more likely to break the intergenerational cycle of low education and inadequate literacy skills, particularly among disadvantaged families and communities. The selection of case studies presented in this compilation show that for an…

In both schools and homes, information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely seen as enhancing learning, this hope fuelling their rapid diffusion and adoption throughout developed societies. But they are not yet so embedded in the social practices of everyday life as to be taken for granted, with schools proving slower to change their…

The paper presents findings from a large-scale mixed methods study of young people's uses of new technologies at home to address a number of key conceptual issues in understanding the home as context for learning. First it is argued that young people's engagement with new technologies is fundamentally bound up with their own identity. It then goes…

This paper presents data collected in individual case studies that aimed to investigate children and their families who succeeded against the usual "odds" of disadvantage. Funded as an extension of EPPE 3-11 by the Cabinet Office for the Equalities Review, the study focused particularly closely upon the performance of disadvantaged…

In this study we assess whether and how the Homework System was effective in creating greater continuity of understanding between home and school. Children in a mixed Year 1 and Year 2 class (aged 5-6 years old) were taught numeracy using the Homework System on tablet PCs, and they were assigned activities to carry out on the tablet PC for…

This descriptive state-of-the-art report presents a survey of recent distance learning developments in Britain, mainly by local colleges in the public education sector, and discusses the motivation and experience of adult learners. Distance learning in general is examined, and current models of provision and the audiences served by these programs…

The Open University is described as an independent, autonomous university which offers an opportunity for higher education to adults who could not or did not take advantage of the limited opportunity in England to enter an institution of higher education immediately on or shortly after leaving secondary school. It provides a basis for continuing…

Thirty-two families were given six market-leading, educational CD-ROMs each, and usage of them was logged over 11 weeks. These children and their parents were also interviewed on three occasions. Although parents and children were enthusiastic upon receipt of the software and envisaged that it would be a useful learning tool, children's use of…