COVID-19 has caused the closure of university campuses around the world and migration of all learning, teaching, and assessment into online domains. The impacts of this on the academic community as frontline providers of higher education are profound. In this article, we report the findings from a survey of n = 1148 academics working in universities in the United Kingdom (UK) and representing all the major disciplines and career hierarchy. Respondents report an abundance of what we call 'afflictions' exacted upon their role as educators and in far fewer yet no less visible ways 'affordances' derived from their rapid transition to online provision and early 'entry-level' use of digital pedagogies. Overall, they suggest that online migration is engendering significant dysfunctionality and disturbance to their pedagogical roles and their personal lives. They also signpost online migration as a major challenge for student recruitment, market sustainability, an academic labour-market, and local economies.

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Background: This paper outlines the findings from a research project carried out in the UK that explored the relationship between parental engagement and student achievement. Purpose: The 12-month research project was commissioned to explore the relationship between innovative work with parents and the subsequent impact upon student achievement. A main aim of the research project was to capture the views and voices of parents, students and teachers and to explore the barriers to parental engagement and the respective benefits to learning. Programme description: The study was qualitative in design and collected in-depth case-study data from 20 schools and 314 respondents. In addition a range of documentary evidence plus performance data were collected at each case-study site. Sample: A sample of schools in England was selected on two main criteria: firstly, the type of development, and secondly, the particular focus of parental engagement. Schools in the sample were selected to ensure that there was a broad geographical spread and a mix of urban and rural schools. Other factors were also taken into account to ensure a diverse range of schools (e.g. number on roll, socio-economic status (SES) and black minority ethnic (BME) percentages). Design and methods: Case-study methodology was used as the prime method of data collection in the study. In addition, school data sets relating to student performance, behaviour and attendance were analysed. These data sets allowed patterns and trends to be identified. This analysis formed the basis of the more detailed interrogation of the case-study evidence at each of the 20 sites. Results: The research findings highlight a number of barriers facing certain parents in supporting their children's learning. It is clear that powerful social and economic factors still prevent many parents from fully participating in schooling. The research showed that schools rather than parents are often 'hard to reach'. The research also found that while parents, teachers and pupils tend to agree that parental engagement is a 'good thing', they also hold very different views about the purpose of engaging parents. It is also clear that there is a major difference between involving parents in schooling and engaging parents in learning. While involving parents in school activities has an important social and community function, it is only the engagement of parents in learning in the home that is most likely to result in a positive difference to learning outcomes. Conclusions: Parental engagement in children's learning in the home makes the greatest difference to student achievement. Most schools are involving parents in school-based activities in a variety of ways but the evidence shows but this has little, if any, impact on subsequent learning and achievement of young people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed "emergency remote teaching" across education globally, leading to the closure of institutions across a variety of settings, from early-years through to higher education. This paper looks specifically at the impact of these changes to those teaching the discipline of computer science in the UK. Drawing on the quantitative and qualitative findings from a largescale survey of the educational workforce (N=2,197) conducted in the immediate aftermath of institutional closures in March 2020 and the shift to online delivery, we report how those teaching computer science in various UK settings (n=214) show significantly more positive attitudes towards the move to online learning, teaching and assessment than those working in other disciplines; these perceptions were consistent across schools, colleges and higher education institutions. However, whilst practitioners noted the opportunities of these changes for their respective sector-especially a renewed focus on the importance of digital skills-they raised a number of generalisable concerns on the impact of this shift to online on their roles, their institutions and their sectors as a whole; for example, the impact on workload, effective pedagogy and job fragility. More specifically for computer science practitioners, curricula and qualifications, there were concerns raised regarding the ability to meaningfully deliver certain core topics such as mathematical foundations and programming, as well as the impact on various types of formal examinations and assessment. Based on the data obtained from this rapid response survey, we offer informed commentary, evaluation and recommendations for emerging learning and teaching policy and practice in the UK computer science community as we move into the 2020-2021 academic year and beyond.