Supporting Children After a Pandemic
Disrupted learning due to unpredictable government guidelines
Since schools have re-opened, children have been in and out of school due to the virus. It is imperative to make sure your school has the correct support for its pupils, as the rising number of positive tests affect the whole class. Every pupil in an affected class must be sent home, therefore they miss out on fundamental learning.
Issues to consider
You need to consider the impact this has on the pupils and how children can cope with the change of being at school and then being at home again. Create a plan of action for new support within your school and guide your teachers in what they can do to help the pupils catch up. Do this by setting up a place where they can talk, whether that be in a group or just with your teachers.
Even though restrictions have eased, there still is uncertainty in government guidelines. There are possibilities tighter restrictions need to be enforced too, due to the rising number of cases. It is difficult to know exactly what to do for the best to ensure you keep your school safe. The best way to do this is to keep up to date on the government website. Also, make sure you still implement mask-wearing around the school and have a large stock of hand sanitiser and anti-bacterial wipes.
Mental health support and mindfulness
Everyone has been affected by the pandemic, in some way. People have suffered losses, and no one knows each other’s experiences. Most adults have struggled to understand what has happened, so for children it has been a challenge to get used to. Create a safe space environment so pupils feel like they can explore their feelings that are hard to understand. Have the right resources for mental health support that children can access easily. Implement mental health and mindfulness training to your staff so they can rightly approach hard topics, as well as being there for their pupils.
To enable a great mental health support system for your pupils, you must take care of yourself. SBMs put a lot of stress on themselves due to the demanding role. Make use of mental health resources that you can turn to for extra support.
Additional support
There are a plethora of different charities that offer support to people suffering with mental health. Mind is a huge mental health charity and a good place to start looking for support.
To help yourself, and your staff, with mental health and mindfulness there’s Education Support. This is an organisation dedicated to helping everyone who works in the education sector. On their website, there are plenty of useful resources that includes sections of Helping You and Helping Your Staff. This enables you to get your support but also advises you on how you can support your staff.
Reach out to your colleagues for help, or to see if they need your support, and remember if things worsen or persist go and see your GP.
Be concerned about finances
School Businesses Managers must deal with many different situations and some of them can get out of their control and staff control. Although it’s best practice to keep an eye on mental health and key dates during and after a pandemic, it’s also crucial to keep on top of finances. Researching any available government grants and analysing your current running costs are good ways to start.
You could end up moving away from usual suppliers and finding ways to make savings during uncertain times where savings will be needed more than ever.
Useful resources
Government catch-up funding - help students catch up on missed learning
