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on making the academic side of things as engaging and manageable as possible, while also introducing fun activities, such as baking clubs, music contests and form-time games. “What we’ve found works well has been a combination of maintaining a sense of community, providing a personal approach to support and making every interaction with our pupils count,” says Ed Wiseman. “We’ve also sought to maintain challenges at an appropriate level to develop self-esteem.” The Leys school was able to draw on work done by its Mental Health Project – an initiative launched by two sixth formers in 2017 and still going strong. The project has involved an enhanced mental health and wellbeing strategy at the school, including a broad range of resources on topics such as stress and sleep, plus guidance on mindfulness and meditation techniques. “Our strategy for mental health and wellbeing continues to develop, but it was good to see that our work over the past three years meant pupils had a knowledge and understanding of mental health as they went into lockdown. This helped them understand the experience,” says Helen Hynd. “Feedback from pupils is important, and we recognised that readjusting to being back in school could pose challenges. Damien Rigden, our mental health first-aider, produced guidelines that parents could share with their children. These acknowledged that mixed feelings – from excitement to apprehension – would be quite normal under the circumstances. He also offered tips for returning to the school routine and reminders about healthy living, assisting others and seeking support.” Reflecting on the past year and a half, the school has been delighted at how resilient and resourceful its students have been in meeting the “challenges of the pandemic with good humour and flexibility”, concludes Helen. “We are so proud of how they have coped and grown because of their experience.”
“As we go back to normal – don’t lose that creative spark!”
arts and crafts, playing board games or getting out into nature for walks or cycling excursions,” he says. “With schools and businesses reopening, things have started to go back to normal – but don’t lose that creative spark!” As is often the case, talking it out can be useful. Rather than taking a stiff-upper- lip approach, one way to help a child process what’s happening is to look at the changes together and talk through them. “Find out what your child is thinking about and how they are feeling,” suggests Matthew. “Try to answer their questions in an age-appropriate way, reassuring them that it is fine to feel worried or unsure. Just talking through their worries might help your child to feel calmer, or you can use play to try and eke out their feelings through role playing. If you have any concerns, talk to your child’s class teacher. We encourage a two-way conversation with all our families to ensure we are all focused on the children in our care.” Another recommendation involves reminding children that, while they can be frustrating, the rules help keep them and others safe. Encouraging them to see things like hand sanitising and keeping to bubbles as a way of doing their bit can help kids contextualise everything. Ultimately, Matthew concludes: “Let your children know that the rules won’t be in place forever – and things will eventually go back to normal.”
While we can now tentatively hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, the period of readjustment ahead brings its own challenges. So as we return to normality, what can we do to keep children’s mental health, and long-term wellbeing, intact? Staff at The Perse wanted to ensure that any issues on the horizon were caught early and mitigated, carrying out a school-wide survey designed to identify needs for returning to school. Looking to the future, the school will focus on inspiring and motivating students, “generating a love of learning, rather than considering learning to be the end goal,” says assistant head Dani Creese. “We also want to ensure the positives that have come out of the pandemic – such as increased uptake for school community interests and extracurricular activities – continue. We want students to keep embracing and understanding the importance of these.” St Mary’s School has a whole host of ideas for adapting to the new normal, including looking after physical health factors such as sleep, healthy eating and exercising. The Junior School head, Matthew O’Reilly, also advocates embracing a variety of hobbies. “Lockdown encouraged many of us to take up new (or old) hobbies and spend more time together as a family, whether it was cooking or baking, doing
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