As the 8th of March comes speeding towards us like a freight train with no brakes; parents, children and teachers are caught in a whirlwind of anticipation. Whether you are the parent who is concerned or worried about your child returning, or the parent who is marking the days off with glee, the time seems to be flying by as we approach the date. 

For schools, there is likewise a tension. So many schools are desperate to see the children again, welcome them back and do the job they are really designed for, but with this too comes worry. Staff are not vaccinated, secondary schools have to be prepared for lateral flow testing and increased mask wearing, and who knows what state children will be in when they come through those doors on Monday morning. This all comes in the midst of talk of catch-up, a phrase that as you know I am not a fan of, and that’s putting it politely! 

I really think that we could get this so wrong if we don’t get our priorities in the right order, and I know that majority of the education professionals I have spoken to agree entirely. The pressure isn’t from the schools, its from the pressure being put on the schools, and that dreaded Monday morning call from you know who (Ofsted – if you don’t work in schools) can still come – don’t even get me started! So, the temptation, even if you don’t think it’s the best way, is to immediately begin to focus on and panic about academic attainment, and trying to work out where the children are, as compared to where you expected they would be, based on…. 

Well that’s my first concern, based on what exactly? Are we comparing the children to where last year’s cohort were at this point in the year?  - An entirely different set of children, and where they actually were was about to go into the first lockdown. Are we thinking about where these children should be based on where they were at the start of the academic year? - Well, they were just coming out of the most bizarre 6 months of our lives and trying to remember what school was all about. Are we comparing where these children are to their peers?  - Well given the whole country, never mind beyond that, is all in this same complex and unprecedented situation, this likewise seems a dead end. 

This is why the notion of catch-up is a fallacy. It suggests that we have something to catch-up to, and as I have previously said it ignores any additional skills and attributes that our children have gained during lockdown, that wouldn’t normally be expected, and certainly therefore would be unlikely to come out in assessments. It also assumes that assessing where children are, and planning to move them forward, isn’t something that teachers do already. It seems to overlook the fact that this is in fact what every decent teacher does every single day. Assess, Plan, Do, Review, this is the bread and butter of teaching. By talking about catch-up it almost suggests that teachers assessing where children are is a new concept, and that adjusting their teaching and curriculum accordingly is a revelation. 

But, more importantly than any of that, comes back to the fact that attainment shouldn’t even be at the top of our priority list. Schools are going to, once again, feel like a real life ‘Spot the Difference’, with many things seemingly familiar but with a whole load of new rules that everyone has to get their head around. Not to mention that everyone has developed new habits, children and staff alike. Children have to return to sitting at desks, rather than lounging on a sofa or crowded round a kitchen table, everyone has to get properly dressed - in shoes and everything, all a sudden the teacher is a real-life person rather than a screen, and you can no longer mute your pupils with the click of a button. These changes are significant, however much we joke about them, and we know majority of people struggle a little bit with change, and for some it entirely rocks their world. Just pretending everything can go back to ‘normal’ is not only ridiculous it is unrealistic and risky. 

Children who struggle ordinarily in school have not magically disappeared, and the things that they find difficult are only going to be exacerbated with constant change. Add to this those children who prior to Covid-19 were generally emotionally regulated, now having had their world turned upside down and increasing numbers of children for whom lockdowns have revealed abuse and neglect; we are left with even more children who are likely to need additional support just to get through the day. If we ignore this fact and try and get things back to ‘normal’ as quickly as possible, and put pressure on academic achievement, these children will just find school harder. We will not see catch-up, we will see increasingly anxious children, presenting with increasingly challenging behaviours. This will lead to stressed and overwhelmed staff that are struggling to cope. What we will create is not increased academic attainment, but instead increased exclusion figures and increased numbers of teachers leaving the profession. A profession where staff retention is already a concern, and a profession where not enough is done to support wellbeing. We need to be able to offer our children a calm and reassuring adult, not an overwhelmed and exhausted one.

“When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, its our job to share our calm not to join their chaos”.

L. R. Knost

For me, teachers should feel reassured and supported to believe that their job over the next few months is to welcome children back to school, and to help them to feel happy and safe. Teachers need to be supported with their wellbeing and given the opportunity to breathe after months of everchanging demands and priorities. Like a town after an attack, our schools need the chance to rebuild their communities and get used to being together in a safe space again. They need a chance to reflect on everything that has occurred and celebrate coming through what we all hope is the other side. Children who struggle to deal with their emotions, need to be reminded that school is a place that can help them with their potential feelings of anxiety and fear. We have all had a taste of living in fight, flight or freeze over this past year, so we have an opportunity to be more empathetic then ever with children who always live like this. My fear is that we waste that insight, as we default back to ‘normal’. 

So, my plea with this blog is that we don’t focus on catch-up, we instead focus on calm and we focus on connections. Children need to have those positive relationships re-established, and to understand that there is time to worry about academic attainment, but it isn’t right now. Children are hearing all this talk about catch-up and they themselves are worrying that they have fallen behind and that this will impact on their futures. This doesn’t need to be the case. Children who survived the World Wars were not generations of academic failures, and we still talk about the strength and resilience of those generations. Likewise, parents need to support their schools in inviting their children back and feel relieved that learning has returned to schools, trusting that their children are in safe hands. 

Teachers are best placed to assess what children need and when, in terms of their education. So why don’t we, for once, let them do their job, without unnecessary and unhelpful pressure? Let us take stock and appreciate the positives that will come out of this pandemic for many of our children. Teachers may be fascinated to learn what some of their children have learnt during lockdown, and lots of it won’t have been delivered via Teams, Oak Academy or Purple Mash! It would be amazing if teachers actually felt that they had the time to be curious and explore the learning that has taken place. So, in my optimism I would like us all to agree that we just focus on approaching the 8th of March with curiosity, compassion and kindness (and we never use the phrase catch-up again!).

#justbekind #calmnotcatchup #becurious