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6/11/2020 School reopenings – let’s put the curriculum to one side and focus on mental health
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Lee Prichard
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With the focus now firmly on moving out of lockdown, there ismuch debate about what this looks like for schools.
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School reopenings – let’s put thecurriculum to one side and focus onmental healthAdded: 08th June 2020
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6/11/2020 School reopenings – let’s put the curriculum to one side and focus on mental health
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There has been plenty of guidance on how the disruption tochildren’s education can be managed, particularly for those whowere due to sit exams or transition to a new school.
However, there has been less focus on how this disruption willaffect young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing andthe role schools can play in mitigating this.
Children with existing mental health problems will undoubtedlyhave suffered as a result of the upheaval and stress of Covid-19,while for others, the last few months will have meant additionalpressures and a lack of routine that will have adversely affectedtheir mental health.
There have been more than 35,000 coronavirus deaths so far,which will mean loss and grief in almost every community.
Teachers will be facing more than just disruption to their pupils’education.
They will need to deal with young people who may be severelytraumatised having endured bereavement, witnessed familyarguments or even domestic abuse or been worried aboutfinancial stress because of redundancy or furlough in the family.
When they have to make the adjustment of returning to school,children are likely to display a range of behaviours, meaning thatteachers may encounter confused and distressed childrencommunicating their needs by acting out.
Stressful situations bring about the flight, fight or freezeresponses in children.
Some will be hyper-vigilant and on high alert, others may be veryneedy and require constant reassurance.
Instances of OCD, anxiety and aggression are likely to rise, whilesome pupils will have closed down emotionally.
There will also be children who have enjoyed spending more timewith their families during lockdown and experience distress athaving to leave the safety and security of their homes to go backto school.
This melting pot of different responses will mean disruption tonormal classroom routines through distressed behaviour at atime when teachers will be under pressure to play catch up interms of attainment and when their own mental health will havesuffered as a result of their own experiences during lockdown.
I believe the only way that schools can respond to this challenge isto set aside the temptation to focus on lost attainment time and,instead, to give the rest of the academic year to helping childrenreadjust to their ‘new normal’ as they settle back into a schoolroutine.
Taking the pressure off pupils – and themselves – will allowteachers to prioritise helping children to recover emotionally sothat, when they return in September, they can then considerattainment and what needs to be put in place to make thenecessary progress.
The remainder of the summer term can then be a time of re-engaging and recovery for teachers and pupils so that they areable to come to terms with an unprecedented few months.
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6/11/2020 School reopenings – let’s put the curriculum to one side and focus on mental health
https://www.teachwire.net/news/school-reopenings-lets-put-the-curriculum-to-one-side-and-focus-on-mental-health 3/7
The lesson that self-care and rest are necessary after a stressfulexperience is a valuable one. I hope that schools will be allowed toadopt this approach, especially those in the independent sector,where there can be pressure to demonstrate value for money interms of fees.
As a society, we have come to think of education as being aboutachievement in exams and assessments rather than the muchbroader concept it actually is.
Schools can offer pupils so much more than curriculum-basedlearning.
They can, and should, give children the opportunity tounderstand their own experiences so that they can respond todifficult situations in an appropriate way rather than reactingthrough distressed behaviour.
Taking this pause to focus on wellbeing would also benefitteachers. They, too, will have found the last few monthsincredibly difficult.
As well as the demands of switching to an entirely new way ofworking, possibly while supervising home-schooling for theirown children, they may have had to contend with feedback fromanxious parents worried about how much, or how little, theirchildren are being given to do.
Allowing teachers to take time to rest and recover, while focusingon the wellbeing of their pupils, is what they need – not adesperate race to the curriculum finish.
This approach would give schools the opportunity to focus on therelationship between teacher and pupil.
Teachers have a hugely important role to play in helping childrento navigate their way through the confusing and difficultfeelings that will come up around Covid-19.
Children can’t learn properly unless they feel safe, secure andcalm. A child can then think rationally about the situation theyare in and to understand that there are things they can do to gettheir own needs met.
They will also be able to develop a level of emotional resilience.
Social distancing measures can make a familiar environmentlook unfamiliar to children. By focusing on their relationshipwith pupils, teachers can ensure that physical distancing does notmean emotional distancing.
For any schools who do not have adequate therapeutic andemotional support embedded within their setting, now would be avery good time to put this in place.
As we come out of this crisis, children’s emotional needs will beimmense and must be addressed before even contemplatingformal learning.
In terms of lesson planning, there are some simple ways thatteachers can draw near their pupils emotionally.
They should be prepared to listen and to hold space for children,taking advantage of fewer numbers of children in school to maketime for them.
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By being present for children and really listening to them andletting them know that teachers, too, have struggled, this willhelp pupils to realise that their feelings are normal and healthyand will encourage them to process these complex emotions,rather than pushing them down and pretending they are notthere.
In terms of activities, longer play time will help children to useexercise and movement to release emotional energy. Creativeactivities, including art and writing, will help to strengthen andreconnect relationships.
Time spent in nature and mindfulness will also facilitateemotional wellbeing.
In some ways, putting the demands of the curriculum to one sidefor the last few weeks of term is a brave step that goes againstmuch of the ethos of the modern education system.
But the reality is that social and emotional wellbeing is thefoundation that learning is built on.
If this foundation is not solid and well-established then childrenwill be unable to move forward with attainment.
The current situation, for all its loss and challenges, could be areal opportunity for children to learn about emotional literacyand how to develop the essential life skill of resilience.
As schools begin reopening, they have a real opportunity to helpdevelop emotional literacy among our children – something thatwill help them to truly thrive in life.
As a society, we should be brave enough to allow our schools totake this approach and accept that it will not be business as usualstraight away.
Lee Prichard was a teacher for 20 years and now works for Thrive,training teachers and other education professionals insupporting children’s emotional and social development. One ofthe key aspects of the Thrive Approach is the idea of authenticconnection and relationship between a teacher, or othereducational professional, and their pupils. The training isunderpinned by attachment theory, neuroscience and childdevelopment.
6/11/2020 School reopenings – let’s put the curriculum to one side and focus on mental health
https://www.teachwire.net/news/school-reopenings-lets-put-the-curriculum-to-one-side-and-focus-on-mental-health 6/7
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