TP-14.4

In these strange times we’re having to consider the wellbeing of pupils and staff in a way we could never have predicted ANDREW COWLEY A s a global community we are living through unprecedentedand frightening times. The word ‘pandemic’ in itself is alarming enough, and even those with a rudimentary knowledge of history will know of the Black Death in the 14th century and the inaccurately entitled ‘Spanish Flu’ of 1918-1920. Knowledge at the time of these two outbreaks was restricted, the first by speed and ignorance, the second by wartime censorship. Now however, we are dealing with an international outbreak in an era of 24-hour news, social media and endless conspiracy theories. While the whole country unites in drawing together a strategy to deal with this unusual situation, schools have tomake consideration of the wellbeing of their children and staff inways we would never have imagined and were never trained to support. There are three factors whichwill help schools tomanage fast changing and challenging events: being empathetic, being realistic and being proactive. Raiding cupboards Many schools could see closure coming, not because of the clamour to do so and the declining rates of attendance as isolation became a strategy, but because we recognised that young children and social distancing don’t sit together easily. Cupboards were raided for books to be sent home, teachers sought means to set work remotely and rotas were hastily drawn up so only a skeleton staff remained on site. A new NORMAL 70 | www.teachwire.net By the time of the mid-March announcement, these schools were as ready as they could have been. Some however were not; tales of schools where the whole staff was expected to attend on the first Monday of closure abounded on teacher social media. Teachers and support staff were as scared as the rest of society, for their own health and that of their families, older relatives and pupils. However, in school this fear was exacerbated, given that as school staff, we were now potentially exposed to the virus even with such small numbers of children. Additionally, we were expected to teach remotely and online, something that none of us had been trained in and only those with the time or inclination to use digital platforms could understand. To expect teachers to function in circumstances they could never have envisaged is close to unimaginable, so to hear of teachers having to submit a daily log of their activities at home, of virtual ‘learning walks’ of their online lessons and of graded feedback indicated not only a lack of empathy but an unawareness of the harsh realities we now faced. Fortunately there were plenty of examples of proactive thinking to more than outbalance less supportive practices: l Identifying which members of staff had health vulnerabilities, or with loved ones with similar issues, and insisting they were left off any rota for their own protection l Planning to give staff not just days, but complete weeks away from school l Explicit instructions for teachers not to be in front of a screen all day setting work for their students and to look after themselves first l Virtual staff meetings through a range of online platforms, simply to allow teachers to hear their colleagues’ voices Fluid situation The most proactive and empathetic workplaces make the mental, as well as physical, wellbeing of their staff a priority. There is no ‘normal’ as things currently stand and even the ‘new normal’ is a constantly shifting and fluid situation. Of more pressing concern though should be the mental wellbeing of our children. The first week of school closure might have seemed an adventure, and for all our quips about ‘parents seeing what it is like for us’, the reality for our children is that their isolationmeans being apart from their friends. The occasional video call, interaction through appropriate computer games or, if they neighbour each other, a socially- distanced conversation over the fence, isn’t going tomake up for the daily interaction that playtimes and whole class lessons give our youngsters. We don’t know how long this isolation will last. Within the first fortnight of the enforced closure, parents expressed how difficult their children were finding the situation. Five hours of learning in school each day is supported by interaction with the teacher and each other; five hours with one parent and a differently-aged sibling isn’t going to produce the same return. By summer the limited social contact and