The Impact of COVID19 on young people (Project Brief 1), Crisis Coping-Marginalised young peoples living and learning experiences during COVID-19 in Ireland Project Brief Series.

Since March 2020, young people internationally have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education, with the closure of school buildings and the overnight move to online learning to stem the spread of COVID-19. The emerging research internationally points to the significant impact academically, socially, developmentally, and in relation to mental health, for children and young people. Research on previous school closures in response to epidemics highlights the social and educational costs (Braunack-Mayer et al., 2013), with the severity and longevity of the negative effects increasing for students who were already experiencing marginalisation or disengagement (Cullinane, 2020). In terms of COVID-19, in line with the international governmental response to move to remote learning (Dreesen et al., 2020) during periods of closures, research internationally suggests that young peoples experiences of `schooling at home (Flynn et al., 2020) differed depending on their socio-demographic positioning. Research has pointed to significant `learning loss for marginalised groups (Engzell et al., 2021; Flynn et al., 2021), socio-emotional and developmental impacts of isolation (Symonds et al., 2020), as well as the loss of food security (Darmody et al., 2020) and a safe space, which schools provide for many children (Barnardos, 2020).