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EDUCAT ION IN CAMBR I DGE
“Schools worked miracles to create online materials, lessons and resources within days of lockdown, bringing teachers up to speed with technology”
Resources, including an innovative online maths platform, a free coding club and courses and programmes designed to help people gain extra qualifications or change careers have been launched by many local organisations, including schools and colleges. We also remain an area full of creativity, innovation and sheer brilliance. All of these traits ensure businesses continue to see this as fertile territory in which to set up shop and develop the workforces of our community’s future. This could be a contributory factor in positive news within other sectors. According to a survey by estate agent Savills, demand for property in our area is rising. When searching for a new home, buyers are increasingly prioritising gardens and outside space – perhaps unsurprisingly given that many more will now be working from home, at least some of the time. Thinking outside of the box is certainly something our educators are likely to be doing as they work out the best way of navigating the next few years. So much in education has had to change during lockdown that now could be the ideal time to re-evaluate everything, from our reliance on stressful, high stakes exams (particularly GCSEs) to the positive impact of families being able to spend more time together. Whichever way things go, you can be certain that our community will find a way through it. After all, in an area packed with such high levels of brainpower, it’s an absolute given.
older, frailer family members living elsewhere were faring when visits were out of the question. Many parents, whose lives were already a complex juggling act, were understandably anxious about how they could possibly take on a new responsibility; particularly one they simply did not feel equipped for. Anxiety levels grew, with government data suggesting levels of depression across the country had doubled compared with 2019. During the early stages of lockdown, there was a steep rise in the number of people claiming Universal Credit or Jobseeker’s Allowance – though here, too, Cambridge came off better than many other areas with a rise of under 1% – one of the lowest in the country. Nearly six months on, how has our area fared? Parents have done their best to cope and be there for their children, helping and supporting them during lockdown. Schools, meanwhile, worked miracles to create online materials, lessons and resources within days of lockdown being announced, bringing teachers up to speed with technology that was completely unfamiliar to most and compressing training that had been designed to take place over weeks into just a few days. Schools then mounted another heroic effort by giving up their precious holidays to ensure pupils could return to school in time for the new academic year. As for the future, it’s anyone’s guess as to how things might turn out. While the outlook may seem bleak, we should be proud of what we have been able to achieve as a community.
CAMBRIDGE EDUCAT ION GUIDE
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