With just a few short days or weeks until our children return to school, parents, carers and schools are busy preparing for what is arguably the biggest step back towards normality since schools closed their doors on the 20th of March 2020. Schools have issued their Covid-19 pandemic protocols; new shoes, blazers and pencil cases have been purchased and our children and young people can’t wait to get back to school again. Or can they?
Research shows that whilst the vast majority of pupils of all ages are keen to get back into the swing of things, there is still a significant minority who have serious concerns about the return. Even those who are eager to see their friends and teachers again are bound – after six months at home – to have some worries and anxieties about how things will work in the post-Covid-19 era.
‘It’s important to remind children and young people that feeling worried or apprehensive around any transition is totally normal,’ says educational and child psychologist Dr. Jeremy Monsen. ‘Going back to school in September is often a nerve-wracking time for children and young people, whatever their age and Covid-19 has added a layer of complexity and uncertainty as to how it will all work. Parents and carers should try to create a sense of calm and reintroduce the structures and routines that were in place before lockdown well before school starts, and remind them that their friends will have all the same worries as them.’
Grace Moody-Stuart, consultancy director at The Good Schools Guide agrees. ‘Our clients often ask us how to prepare their children for school in September,’ she says. ‘We advise them to try to model a practical, can-do, approach. It’s important to nurture a sense of safety and, at the moment, bear in mind that until a certain age, children don’t have the emotional maturity to process all the bad news, so keep exposure to news media at a minimum for younger children. Try to talk about the future in a positive way to promote optimism and enthusiasm’.
Good schools are more tuned in to the needs of families than ever before and are working to ensure that the return is as stress-free as possible for their pupils. ‘We know that some families are flourishing, some are struggling and most are hovering between the two,’ says Gavin Franklin, head master of Wellesley House School in Kent. ‘We have more time to prepare for the return to school than we did to prepare for lockdown and there are many ways that parents can support their child at home in the run-up to going back to school’.
Together with these specialists and educators, The Good Schools Guide has come up with some advice on how best to overcome back-to-school worries for children and young people of all ages:
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