Principal Henry Grossek, Berwick Lodge Primary School
A question I am frequently asked, as we move through what is now the third year of this pandemic, is “how are the children doing?”
It is quite a straightforward question yet, in being so, answers are multi-layered.
There’s been a lot of media coverage on this question, with evidence indicating that some children are doing well, with others struggling to varying degrees both academically and mentally.
In short, as would be expected, the impact of the pandemic on children has been varied, with predictions of long-term consequences being varied, depending on many factors.
What I’ve noticed at our school is that the vast majority of children have bounced back well from the moment they have returned to school.
Just being at school, interacting with their friends and returning to the familiarity of their school routines has been incredibly therapeutic for them and, by extension, school staff.
By the way, that’s not to ignore the very real negative impact on some children, both socially and academically.
For those children it is vital that schools, ours included, work very closely with their families in rebuilding the educational framework for them.
That’s most certainly a significant challenge and one in which we cannot afford to fail.
The lesson to be learnt from the positive ‘bounce-back’ to school by the bulk of students is that as adults, in our role as custodians of children’s education and wellbeing, parents and teachers, we can at times underestimate children’s capabilities.
Children feed off our emotions – that’s worth remembering, too.
