As we’re all too aware, the UK continues to find itself plummeted yet further into the depths of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Just when the nation began to feel a glimmer of hope (in the form of a vaccine), this horrid virus struck again, this time with a far more transmissible strain, forcing further strict Lockdown regulations to be put in place (cue the sighs of many a weary parent whose children are not in schools during lockdown!).

But what does this mean for our children’s education and wellbeing? And what is really going on in schools during lockdown? Here follows a candid insight, drawn from the experiences of teachers who have unwittingly found themselves on the front line…

Schools during lockdown & the impact on education

In March 2020, schools were entirely unprepared. This is not a criticism; the fact is the whole world was caught off guard. Teachers raced around trying to scrape together quality online educational content whilst trying to salvage countless hours of preparation for physical lessons, all the while trying to figure out how to issue said content and monitor its impact.

Guidance was given to schools during lockdown, but the responsibility of how to navigate this crisis was left in the hands of each individual establishment, so everyone has been doing things differently (a blessing and a curse, some might say).

Now that another strict lockdown has been introduced, teachers find themselves once again plunged into the world of online learning. This time round, they are more prepared. They are more knowledgeable in the best online platforms to use and how to distribute learning tasks, however they are still learning. But more on that later.

When a lockdown is announced, first thoughts go to key worker children and vulnerable families. Information about the needs of key worker children must be collected and collated.  This does not just happen once at the start of lockdown.  This must happen every single week.  Due to the ever changing nature of shift patterns, each weekly rota must be carefully planned out in advance. 

Additionally, due to the unpredictable nature of, well, everything during a pandemic, leaders of learning establishments must ensure that they are always one step ahead.  As one teacher accurately described it, ‘We always have to have a back up plan to our back up plan’.

Housekeeping aside, planning lessons presents a whole new challenge. Teachers have a wealth of planning to do for the average school day.  Most of the curricular work your child will engage in over the school year has been carefully planned out weeks, even months ahead of time. 

Planning documents are meticulously pored over and fun and engaging activities for pupils are attentively planned out, well in advance.  Unfortunately, many physical learning tasks do not translate all that easily to the online learning environment. Whilst the country remains locked down at home, teachers are tirelessly working to try and convert their preplanned activities into effective tasks, which are manageable for working parents to support.

Options are being explored to ensure that pupils can access remote learning tools from a range of different resources. Guides are being created to instruct pupils and parents on how access their learning materials through everything from PlayStations to X Box to iPads and other tablets.

This is probably a good time for a ‘Newsflash’

Please stop stressing. You are not home schooling during lockdown. Homeschooling is a choice. You have not chosen this.  Instead of looking upon this as home schooling, try to think of it and refer to it as remote learning.  As a parent, I can assure you that if you make the effort to switch to this description, you should feel some relief from the pressure (and often panic!) about finding yourself suddenly responsible for monitoring your child’s school education. This is a temporary arrangement.   

And don’t be fooled, even the most experienced of teachers are struggling with this set up. Having the responsibility of planning lessons for other teachers to deliver would be hard enough, but handing over curricular content to a wide range of people from different backgrounds, experiences and employment history is a daunting task. 

How do teachers get it right? Should they send out scores of activities on the daily? Provide entire weekly plans/resources in one go? How much should be expected of parents, many (if not all) of which still have to work (and are trying to adjust to working at home also?!) Not to mention the monitoring of pupils development, or the wide range of expectations coming from the vastly different home settings.

And it’s not only the move to online learning which poses major challenges, the planning for those in school hubs can also prove tricky. Alongside providing said online material, teachers must also cater for key worker and vulnerable children in person, whilst ensuring that everyone receives fair treatment. Safety concerns aside, to ensure equality across the board, no ‘face to face’ teaching can occur in the school hubs.  This in itself is a challenge.  As one teacher stated,

‘It’s difficult to plan new fun and exciting activities when you only have a handful of children.’

Impact on Teachers

‘The bottom line is we, the teachers, are dealing with the everyday trauma of COVID-19 in schools during lockdown right now, but we have to put on a brave face.  I think to our pupils we look like swans swimming in a loch, calm and in control.  But the reality is that under that water there is frantic paddling as we try to keep ourselves afloat.’

This quote from a promoted teacher perfectly sums up the current pressure on the education community. And in addition to the mammoth challenge of providing remote services, teachers are having to deal with the emotional demands of the pandemic.  The drastic change of going from seeing their pupils every day, often 5 days a week, to wondering if they are well, if they are staying safe, if they are struggling.

Here are some quotes from teachers about the struggles of adjusting to lockdown:

‘It’s so stressful, having to be on constant alert…and the anxiety of not knowing who’s going to be struck down next, either with illness or through contact tracing.’

‘All the projected plans I made for the pupils that are now in tatters…it’s so disappointing… just when we felt like we were getting the kids back on track and now we’re back in lockdown’

‘Persistently telling kids to wash their hands is draining, and the never ending reminders of the need to maintain a 2 metre distance from one another being taped out on floors…it’s difficult to watch, they’re so young to be dealing with all of this’

‘Constantly having to think about how you can adapt lessons with social distancing and regulations, yet still keep them fun, is mentally exhausting.’

‘The sadness of watching a small handful of kids in the playground is so eerie… not to mention how strange the lunch hall is now…no more buzzing chatter of happy children, no more ‘feeding time at the Zoo’.’

And with regards to how far they’ve come since March 2020, here are a few FAQS, with the honest answers that teachers would like you to know:

Q: After the first time, why wasn’t there a system put firmly in place for my child’s education during lockdown?

A: Simply put, yes there was, but the issue here was time. Following the initial March lockdown there were new systems and protocols created, however effectively developing and putting such arrangements into action takes time. Time which, quite frankly, teachers and school leaders have not been afforded. With the return to physical lessons, teachers were catapulted back into their ‘previous life’, which is severely time constrained anyway, without the need to develop a whole new type of curriculum. Teachers are working tirelessly during this current lockdown period to further develop their skills and resources for online learning, so please, bear with them.

Q: But couldn’t these back up arrangements have been organised during the first lockdown, or even over summer?

A: Short answer, no. During the first lockdown, teachers were putting in an unbelievable amount of hours to prepare last minute, quality content for pupils. As for summer – by the time it rolled around, teachers were exhausted. And let’s be honest, would you want to work during your (allocated) holiday time?

Q: Why can’t classes just go online every day, like a Zoom call, and the kids can do the work then?

A: Above and beyond the planning, teachers also have individual Zoom and Teams calls with pupils on a regular basis. However it can not always be possible to provide ‘live lessons: many households have 2 or more school aged children…assuming they only have access to one device, then online lessons cannot be scheduled at the same time, or one child will inevitably miss out on learning experiences.   Additionally, we as teachers have our own caring responsibilities and commitments- many of us are parents, at home, trying to navigate our way through our own child’s remote learning experiences- on top of our own workload.

Impact on pupils

As a parent, I have to admit that a source of relief for me during this pandemic has been that children do not appear to be as physically affected by the COVID-19 virus as often, or as severely, as adults.  But asymptomatic or not, the pandemic is affecting us all, and mental health is a big concern.  A massive downward spiral in mental health and wellbeing has been recorded since the start of the lockdowns:

‘More than half of adults (60%) and over two-thirds of young people (68%) have said their mental health got worse during lockdown.’

‘Young people are more likely to have experienced poor mental health during lockdown than adults.’

Despite the fact that they don’t always seem it, almost every child is struggling in some way.  Losing their everyday routine, having no physical contact with friends, basically having the world as they know it turned upside down.  Adjusting to just one of these would be hard enough on anyone.   The challenges seem to be never ending.   Even those who are still attending school during lockdown (key worker/vulnerable children) are being faced with new trials daily, as witnessed by the observations of teachers in school hubs:

‘The anxiety for some pupils upon their return to school or attending the hub when they haven’t been before can be overwhelming.’

 ‘Kids are pretty resilient but seeing some of them so sad to not be with their friends in the hubs can be heartbreaking.’

‘Poor kids just don’t know what’s happening most of the time.  They’re so worried about their own Grandparents etc… Or they are worried about not seeing their friends.’

But, as has become quietly customary during the current climate, if we are to get through this (and successfully navigate our children through this) we must try to remain positive. 

As educators, we are acutely aware of the importance of the six nurturing principles. Transition in children’s lives is one of these principles. At any time, dealing with even just one transition could prove difficult.  But our children are currently experiencing multiple major transitions, all at the same time. The outcome and impact of this for our children in the future is unknown, yet teachers are already anticipating how they will help pupils to recover from this.

So if you’re wondering what else you can do to support your child in their education, and through this trying time, try to remember that whilst important, academic achievements aren’t everything. Try to take some time out and include a fun activity into each day, something which you and your child can bond over. Get out for some exercise on the daily. Watch some comedy on TV and eat that bar of chocolate. Despite the absolute horror of this time, remember that you are your child’s role model, and try to use that knowledge to motivate yourself and show them that this shall pass.

‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.’

If ever there was a time to live by this motto, it is now.

How are you coping during this most recent lockdown?

Has this article given you a new appreciation of ‘behind the scenes’ in school?

Is there anything you would like to see being done differently with regards to schools during lockdown?

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