| I am very excited about the children’s return to campus on 8th March with all the opportunities and enjoyment this is sure to bring. Once again, despite many uncertainties, with your support and that of their teachers, our pupils have dealt with all that has been thrown at them with a great deal of resourcefulness, resilience and adaptability. They have been a credit to themselves and their families. We are certainly very proud of them! Nevertheless, we must also be mindful that the cumulative and multi-faceted difficulties associated with a series of lockdowns may have taken their toll on some children, who may have struggled at times and may also be uneasy at some level about their physical return to school – however much they are excited about all that is to come. |
| As ever, when considering how to best help the children after this last lockdown, it will be important that we put their well-being at the heart of everything we do. Unlike the national press, which seems to be dominated by the need to immediately ‘catch-up’, ‘fill gaps’ and ensure young people’s learning is ‘accelerated to make up for lost time’, we will not only be focusing on academic learning outcomes, but also children’s mental health moving forwards. As talk around well-being can sometimes seem trite and woolly, what will this look like? Aside from a return to classrooms, what else are we considering to protect and boost our children’s well-being? Getting active again We know that being physically active is one of the best ways to foster emotional wellbeing, enhance mood and help children to respond well to times of struggle. So, we will be encouraging students to get active, and do things they enjoy, to keep their bodies and minds healthy. This will certainly include sport – and many different sports – but also dance, drama, music, camps, outdoor education, Forest School, and very importantly, play. A recent study of older students (click here to read more) found that being active was a key contributor to positive well-being and resilience. As child development professionals and even OFSTED are advocating (click here to read more), as well as academic learning, children should be spending the next few months being physically active, getting outside and having fun with friends. We will meet each child wherever they are with their learning and put in place any measures required to ensure they thrive moving forwards, but we also need to ensure this is balanced with a broader and longer-term outlook. This study also highlighted two further drivers of happiness and wellbeing we would do well to consider – social relationships and perspective. Social Support Strong social relationships are always important, but especially now, after months of lockdown. Indeed, the children with whom I have spoken have told me that this is the part of school life they have missed the most this term. Maintaining good relationships with friends, family and teachers plays a big part in children’s happiness, as well as helping them either feel better about any setbacks and problems, or provides sources of support to tap into when thinking about on how to overcome them. Some children may feel as uneasy as they do at the start of a new school year on 8th March, and we will be keeping this firmly in mind, as it is not only peer relationships that are important to re-build, but also relationships with teachers too. Hence, our teachers will be doing all they can to re-establish those caring, trusting, and warm relationships with each child on their return to school. Not only is this a fundamental pillar of our educational ethos but, at a practical level, this will also help children to feel more comfortable and relaxed as they return to their learning environments, and make them more likely to ask for help, support, and feedback when they need it. Maintaining Perspective Students will flourish and cope well with returning to school if they can think in perspective. This might be defined as the ability to manage one’s emotions, concentrating on the things that we can control and that are important, and choosing the best strategy for any given situation. The pupils often hear me refer to, “controlling the controllables.” Teachers will be supporting the children to maintain a balanced perspective at what might seem to some as overwhelming time by portraying a calm and level-headed view of the current situation. I firmly believe that the difficulties young people have faced over the last 12 months and the challenges to come do not have to define them, nor impact negatively their future successes to any significant degree. If we can infect them with this sense of composure and the feeling that we will achieve great outcomes if we work together, this will only help them manage any wobbles they might experience. Alongside the high expectations we all have of the children, it will be very important to be flexible, understanding and work together as a team around each child as they return to campus. Given the challenges they have faced over the last months, it would be odd if some young people did not experience some ups and downs over the next term or so. Hence, whilst we push on with their learning, we must all take time to talk with them, deal with any queries, listen and attend to their worries, however trivial they may seem to us as adults. |
Protecting and boosting our children’s well-being on their return from lockdown
Dr Trevor Richards 