The pandemic and lockdown have together escalated the safeguarding risks that children face as they become isolated from social support and move towards online learning. We discuss measures to help curb the negative impact of these events. 

It has been around 9 months since the first lockdown was announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. It’s now widely known that the disruption to normalcy has impacted children in a number of ways – from detrimental impact on their academic performance and mental health to the endangerment of their safety. It is well known that infectious disease outbreaks can exacerbate vulnerabilities and generate new risks for children.

According to an INTERPOL assessment, such risks to children’s safety manifest in striking ways. Increased time spent in lockdown and confinement has increased the amount of time spent online by children for educational purposes as well as for entertainment and social interactions. According to the report, “During COVID-19 children seek alternative ways of socialising through games, chats, social media, etc. whilst not necessarily being aware of any associated risks.” It sheds light on other possible challenges, too. For example, instances where victims of exploitation or abuse may be in lockdown with the offender might not be surfacing enough due to underreporting or delayed reporting, lack of reasonable access to communication services, among others reasons.

Research has also shown us that boredom can lead to indiscreet risk-taking – which in the case of students can manifest as an increase in the taking and sharing of self-generated material – with further possible negative ramifications. Such safeguarding risks are present across the world. In fact, according to the INTERPOL study, some countries have even reported “concerns with regard to the impediments victims face in accessing safe accommodation, alternative care options and related health-services during COVID-19” and all of these challenges exacerbate when we factor in the possibility of children living in potentially abusive households.

Various stakeholders have been recognising these threats to safety of children and taking measures to combat these challenges. Before diving into the solutions, let’s explore the possible risks facing the children in a pandemic.

While all children face some form and level of psychological distress under the pandemic, some children are at a higher risk of abuse and neglect. Here are the broad risk factors identified in children: 

Isolation and loneliness, adverse psychological tendencies & emotional distress

Dr Lucy Russell, a clinical psychologist based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and founder of They Are The Future, a wellbeing support website for parents of school-aged children shares, “The main safeguarding issues I come across in my clinic are related to loneliness and isolation, and generally deteriorating mental health leading to self-harm and thoughts of suicide. These have increased since the pandemic.” 

In America, CDC reports that one in 4 young adults have struggled with suicidal thoughts since the coronavirus hit. Children are also finding themselves in increasingly uncertain routines — they’re trying to understand why we’re going in and out of lockdowns. At the same time, their social interactions are now limited, monitored, and extremely measured. Children — especially the younger ones — need an open environment & routines to thrive with a sense of security and to help develop self-discipline. In fact, when the schools in the UK briefly opened for hybrid classes, UK-based mental health charity YoungMinds found out in their autumn survey that the respondents highlighted seeing friends, seeing teachers and returning to a routine as being positive for their mental health. 

There have been exceptions to this, as Dr Sarah Mundy, Consultant Clinical Psychologist who specialises in working with children and families & Author of Parenting Through Stories explains, “for some of the children I work with — I specialise in adoption — they thrived during the first lockdown, particularly the younger children. I think this related to having a "nesting" period with their adoptive parents, which they may not have had when they first arrived, as well as school often being a stressful experience for this client group.”

But for the most part, she agrees, that “the pandemic has been a negative experience for most children and families and, for some, devastating.”

When children are confined to their homes, the amount of time they spend online for educational, entertainment, and social purposes has shot up exponentially. This increased exposure to the online world has created an inadvertent risk of online abuse, exploitation by predators, and other concerns. Zoom-bombing, the term coined to describe incidents where trolls with unwarranted access to the meeting hop on to the video calls, has been reported in isolated incidents across the world, from Germany to US, from India to the UK.

Children have been interacting with the outside world through a screen, whether plonked in front of the screen for their online classes or for fun activities or even a family meet-up. When children are online for longer, they’re also at an increased risk for interacting with strangers. Gaming rooms have also become a breeding ground for such risks as cyberbullying, online harassment, . Even the act of putting out more content online puts them at a higher risk of online abuse as the viral circulation of content can lead to continuous re-victimisation. 

Family’s economic hardship, uncertainty and domestic discord

The pandemic hasn’t been kind to adults, either. Many people are undergoing economic hardship, some professionals have been furloughed, yet others might have experienced a personal loss due to the pandemic. There’s a widespread concern that when parents resort to maladaptive coping mechanisms, like substance abuse, to cope with the increased pressures, it can create a plethora of issues for children. It starts with reduced supervision & neglect of children and can aggravate into physical abuse. Some caretakers/parents believe in corporal punishment and might take out their frustration on children. Therefore, children who weren’t vulnerable in the pre-pandemic phase might now be falling in the “at-risk” category.

The impact can get particularly amplified for families who moved right before the pandemic, and are strangers in the new house, are operating with low social capital and support, or possibly even facing language barriers. Children in such households are situationally predisposed to neglect and/or violence at home.

The fact of the matter is that children who come from vulnerable contexts often look at schools as their safe space, where the school’s security and protection makes them comfortable enough to learn in peace. So school closures, or lack of access to public transportation due to social distancing protocols, etc can hit them hard as they are forced to stay at home.

Disabled children at particular disadvantage

Among the vulnerable children and adolescents are those with disabilities, those living in institutional facilities, refugees in camps, those in densely populated areas, those on the move, or children who are internally displaced. 

Particularly for children with disabilities, even the shift to virtual learning is riddled with challenges. Issues like bad sound quality or lack of accurate captioning can impede their progress in school, especially in subjects that require jargon-heavy texts or contextual group discussions. On top of it, the usual impediments — limited internet access, lack of interpersonal communication, etc — can be harder for those with special needs. Often, children on the spectrum are more sensitive to changes in routine, and teachers may be too burdened to support them independently. The bottomline? None of this is easy for them.

Having enumerated the possible risks confronting children, we now explore the measures that can help us mitigate or alleviate the damage from these risks.

Parental engagement and age-appropriate supervision

As screen time goes through the roof and hybrid/online learning gets more commonplace, it becomes important to engage the caretakers in the action plan. Imparting lessons around digital citizenship, talking to them about using privacy and security settings when online, blocking suspicious people or accounts, is the first step. Children should adobe able to tell a trusted adult if something uncomfortable happens in their online world.

At the same time, Russell suggests it’s equally important for parents to be emotionally healthy during this time, “Adults must do their best to prioritise their own self-care and emotional stability, so they are in the best position to be emotionally available for their children, or those in their care (eg teachers). We need to contain children and young people’s emotional distress, helping them to feel safe and less out of control.”

SEL on consent & body autonomy and a robust reporting mechanism

It has also been suggested that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is easy to overlook, but important to prioritise in a pandemic situation. SEL is defined as “how children and adults learn to understand and manage emotions, set goals, show empathy for others, establish positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

It is critical to apprise children on topics like positive discipline, healthy relationships, and bystander skills, in order to help reduce vulnerability to abuse. They should be taught about their rights, body autonomy, consent, etc without attaching negative connotations with these themes so not to scare them more. To this effect, it’s equally important to have robust communication with children to facilitate reporting of any issues. This can be done through multiple reporting pathways including options for anonymous reporting like monitored email, an app, or a digital form.

Russell also suggests that schools and extra-curricular activities must remain open. She explains, ”These provide essential social contact, a sense of safety and structure, and are an opportunity for vulnerable children who do not feel safe at home to connect with safe adults.”

Prioritise child protection in onboarding, induction, and staff professional development 

It’s also important to incorporate child protection measures in the school’s recruitment and hiring protocols. Conducting a background check on all employees should include confirming identities of the employees, social media searches with modifiers to corroborate the character checks, and to expand the scope of staff training to cover school policies and procedures regarding reporting and first responder to disclosure; signs and indicators of abuse; and risk assessment. As Mundy recommends, “It may be helpful for schools to be provided with advice from psychological practitioners on the best way to support their student's mental health, as well as how they support their own staff to manage these difficult times.”

Conduct periodic teacher or counsellor check-ins

Each school should have a Code of Conduct under their Child Protection Policy where child protection is made a community focus and various stakeholders are involved. A teacher or school counsellors should do regular check-ins with children to find out what’s going on with them in their lives, apart from their classes. Teachers are far more likely to receive first disclosure of abuse than any other profession. The disclosures usually happen over informal chats, so it’s important to create that space intentionally. 

In certain cases — for example, when the parent is in the background — the child may not be comfortable talking about issues. To circumvent this, schools can make provisions for anonymous reporting channels as pointed before. This is also where enlisting the help of community can be useful. For instance, in Chennai, India, the help of a police wing was enlisted to ensure that the cases of child abuse were addressed and attended to, that the children were fed and provided for. 

Mundy suggests that we shouldn’t go quiet on our efforts now, “Certainly there seemed to be a fantastic response to the first lockdown, with communities pulling together, identifying the most vulnerable and offering support. However, with increased uncertainty and anxiety, particularly with new restrictions and new strains of the virus, people seem to be less hopeful and the changes in restrictions leads to confusion for many.” It’s still very much an all-hands-on-deck situation. If all entities in the community join hands, identification of safeguarding risks, prevention of such risks and management of the impact can be done more effectively. Having various stakeholders working together can help keep everyone emotionally resilient and better equipped to deal with the uncertainties.

Safeguarding risks for children in lockdown & measures to mitigate the risks

There are many ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic might take a psychological toll on children. Here’s how we can protect them.

What has been the impact of coronavirus on children? According to most reports, children have largely remained unscathed from the severe symptoms of the coronavirus infection. However, the social and economic impact “is potentially catastrophic for millions of children", according to a UN report. Recently, TIME also reported on how the effect of the pandemic on children’s mental health is deepening. 

In an unprecedented situation, over 188 countries worldwide suspended schools as a preventative measure to mitigate person-to-person transmission. The lockdown panic, the quarantine, the deluge of information and glaring statistics about the pandemic together make for a heady mix of psychological stressors for the children. For months now, they’ve been living in a world where their daily rituals have been unequivocally altered.

Such a psychological toll on children has been observed all over the world. Early reports from World Vision showed that the isolation and loneliness – triggered by school closures – was impacting 71% of children, while 91% expressed their extreme discomfort manifesting as emotional distress, anxiety, anger, and worry. This impact – in one version or another – is palpable across countries. In Spain, reportedly 90% of the parents described concerning “emotional and behavioural changes in their kids”, spanning concentration difficulties, irritability and anxiety. 

Here in the UK, mental health charity YoungMinds surveyed 2111 young people aged 25 years and under with a history of mental health issues. Eighty three percent of them experienced an aggravation of their condition, with 26% facing problems in accessing mental healthcare as teletherapy can be challenging for some groups to use. Similar reports have surfaced from Italy, China, and India, among others. 

The most obvious cause here is the disruption of routines. As Ezra Golberstein, a health-policy researcher at the University of Minnesota explains, “There’s the disease itself and the fear of it. On top of that, you’ve got the lock-downs, with kids removed from the school environment and their friends.” Children have gone through an entire summer without the normalcy of socialisation. The rules of interaction have changed – and it has certainly not escaped their notice. Routines are important for children, as they provide a sense of security and help them develop self-discipline. Right now, any semblance of certainty has gone awry. It doesn’t help that the pandemic has caused a surge in internet usage, putting children at a greater risk of being targeted by perpetrators through social media, apps and gaming.

Let’s dive into the ways in which this prolonged school closure and home containment has made children more vulnerable. It has been observed since the early days how some children believe that the very act of stepping outside could be deadly, as they’re having what the American Psychological Association defines as “an emotional response to a terrible event”. Cath Knibbs, a Cyber Specialist and trauma psychotherapist shares:
“Children pick up on fear by watching behaviours – they could possibly be anxious even to step out or to infect the older people in the house. Their fears can be calmed to a large extent by having a transparent conversation with them, so they can get all accurate information with a complete picture, rather than scary statistics that they might be exposed to inadvertently."

For younger children, it's a struggle to understand what’s happening. For the adolescents, it’s aggravated. Children have been acting out. Dr Koyeli Sengupta, a developmental paediatrician shared, “A mother told me that her child is not even letting her go to the bathroom. In slightly older children, three to six-year-olds, a common thought is ‘did I do something wrong that my parents went away?’”

Other negative experiences as children become vulnerable 

Another way children have become vulnerable during this time is through their home confinement with family members who are possibly not coping well with the events. Experts maintain that a child’s safety is largely influenced by the extent to which their family has been impacted by a turn of events. A loss in the family or a strained economic situation can aggravate vulnerabilities or create new ones. 

Risk factors for violence, exploitation and abuse increase manifold for children under restricted mobility (as is the case with lockdown and quarantining measures) and socioeconomic decline (as the economic consequences become more defined). Kate Young, CEO of Safeguarding Association calls it the perfect storm where parents are struggling to manage the financial impact & their constant worry about the children, “From a safeguarding perspective, I would anticipate a huge increase in the number of concerns. And probably, even for those children who've never been on your radar before. Some children have suddenly fallen into the at-risk category. To manage that, schools need to have a good support system in place to manage such cases, and have resources in the form of professionals that the children can turn to.”

At the other end of the continuum, there are children experiencing abuse, neglect or exposure to potential harm. This could either be due to reduced access to trusted adults outside the family, unclear communication from stressed parents or individual feelings of loneliness.

Parents taking to maladaptive coping mechanisms – alcohol misuse, substance abuse, or denial – can exacerbate the situation further. Such behaviours are known to co-occur with child abuse, and with such behaviours increasing during the lockdown, the knock-on effect on children is concerning.

It’s likely that when children return to school, they’ll bring with them a mixed bag of experiences. It is important to be prepared for the impact that the pandemic has had on children’s mental wellbeing and to provide active support in this regard.

As a starting point, the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) in the school should chalk up a bespoke plan to provide a safe space for children to share their experience, especially in the first few weeks back. Some measures include:

An extensive identification of the range of possible issues concerning children’s mental health

Providing signposting and information to children seeking help/support if they experienced abuse or neglect during this time, especially with limited access to trusted adults

Provision of specialist support for victims of domestic abuse or trauma 

Training for school staff to recognise signs of troubled conditions and to respond sensitively, including child development science and how trauma can manifest in behavioural problems or poor emotional regulation

Scrutinising attendance records to identify patterns in children missing from school and sharing information with necessary relevant parties where appropriate

Address digital exclusion and provide resources – technological, therapeutic and mobility-related – for greater access under a blended learning approach

Scheduling mandatory psychological check-ups with school counsellors

Leveraging the power of peer support groups to help children feel safe

Ultimately, it is imperative to acknowledge that the pandemic has unevenly impacted all children – for some the pain will be more pronounced than others, while some may be suffering in silence. The goal, for school authorities, teachers, and safeguarding professionals, will be to successfully address any and all traumatic experiences and to help create safe spaces that provide much-needed relief through such hardship.

Kritika M Narula shares how to protect children as the coronavirus outbreak takes its psychological toll.

Protecting children as the pandemic takes a psychological toll

The recent shift to online learning came about as a result of an emergency, but going forward the trend will only get more defined. The traditional means of instruction where teachers lecture students in a physical classroom setting might be replaced by a mixed-method approach – one where online learning wouldn’t just be an “alternative”, but a part of the teaching-learning framework. As experience has shown, a drastic shift to solely online modes of instruction has its own challenges, too. There are glaring issues pertaining to access, technology, and equity that need to be addressed. 

The good news is that there’s a middle ground: one where education will be imparted both in-person as well as online, involving the students as more than just passive recipients of knowledge and information. This middle ground is presented in the form of the blended learning approach.

Also referred to as hybrid learning, blended learning is exactly what it sounds like: a “blend” of traditional in-person or in-classroom instructional strategies along with online learning techniques. Both have their own set of advantages, and the idea behind blended learning is to combine the positive points of both, minimise any friction in this combination in order to ultimately offer an enhanced learning experience for students. 

An obvious concern for educators and school business leaders is finding ways to make the distance learning component within the blended learning model more effective. As Professor Stephen Heppell, an English educator who specialises in the use of ICT in education writes, “Online learning is not a subset or analogue of face to face learning; it is different, can be better, and like all learning is complex to get right.” In that vein, it’s important to understand that our digital classrooms will look different from the in-person classroom – and that’s okay. We now have to move more consciously into a hybrid model where we distribute the lessons according to what can suit each mode.

It’s realistic to think that we’re going to stay in hybrid schedules and that even when we’re in the traditional setting, it’ll involve socially distanced classrooms. So it’d make sense for the instructional planning henceforth to take a remote-first approach. 

How can that be achieved? Here are some steps educators can take:

Coordination with publishers to secure digital counterparts of each lesson. Educational publishers often offer online resources to accompany the textbooks and in-classroom lecture plans. 

If curriculum resources have not been made available by the publisher, educators can create their own resources, or collaborate with other educators to find complimentary online resources.

Accessible resources should be arranged for students with disabilities. 

Lesson plans for the virtual classroom components should have an element of interaction, eg. using breakout sessions or check-ins.

Under the hybrid model, the time in the physical classroom should be leveraged for peer interaction & collaboration. Activities could include:
1. Collaboration for problem-solving
2. Sharing peer feedback on assignments/projects
3. Guessing games for scientific phenomena
4. Creative writing exercises
5. Performance of music/short skits/poetry

A BLENDED LEARNING TOOLKIT FOR EDUCATORS 

In adapting to the virtual classroom component under the blended learning approach, technology is going to be key. While not all communication and work need to be synchronous and on-screen, there are several apps and tools that can help you plan, deliver and assess the curriculum. 

The difference between the early-2020 adoption of these tools & an ongoing adoption lies in the decision-making: you should weigh all your options, look at available alternatives, shortlist the most suitable ones, test them out for various features and then choose the one that checks most requirements on your list.

“Technology alone will not improve education, but it can be a powerful part of the solution.” - Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google

Apart from the obvious options of Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and Zoom, there are other platforms that come with pre-loaded templates.

Messaging tools for school-to-home communication

Discussion boards and tools for peer interaction

Creating a more consciously inclusive classroom

Implementing a blended learning approach in classrooms now gives us the chance to find ways to be flexible, to connect, and to grapple with the considerations we might have overlooked before. In designing your blended classroom plans, start out with the awareness that education isn’t one-size-fits-all. Then, take measures that can help create an empathetic classroom, providing for students with disabilities or psychosocial problems.

In your quest to design quality distance learning experiences, the obvious problem of equity will surface. Children at home might not have access to a dedicated laptop or may have limited internet access; older children may sometimes be responsible for their younger siblings, parents might have been furloughed or laid off. The question of access amplifies for children with special needs. 

Some simple guiding principles to minimise inequity:

Keep synchronous lessons crisp and short. This way you can keep the lessons accessible and prevent the dwindling of attention spans. 

Make the files and modules available offline by sharing downloadable formats for asynchronous study. Synchronous lessons can exclude many children, so include pre-recorded lectures in your lesson plans.

Try and record the classes for those who find it hard to make it at the specified time.

Try to create lesson plans that can be viewed, accessed and studied over smartphones – these are more affordably available with families.

Online learning also shouldn’t mean that everything is to be done on a computer. Make space for non-screen activities too. 

Technology shouldn’t determine the task. Your instruction doesn’t need to revolve around technology, it just needs to be intentional and organized for maximum effectiveness.

Sort children into the same breakout rooms every time, so that they can establish a continued and comfortable relationship with their peers.

Pre-announce tasks/projects along with their deadlines, so that children can get an ample window of time to turn in the work. 

Whether the student wants to be on video should be optional. Don’t force them to be on camera. Always give the benefit of the doubt: there might be a reason why they want/need the video off.

Flexibility and collaboration are key ingredients in order for distance learning to work. Collaborative tasks in small groups of 2-4 can teach children teamwork, while at the same time give them an immediate sense of audience. They can act as positive motivating forces for each other and flag problems with their peers – the way buddy systems work.

Under the blended learning approach, flexibility also means dividing activities for in-person classes and online classes based on their suitability in each environment. This gives children the opportunity to work on different timetables, without feeling alienated from the rest of their class. Children can also be extremely inventive with extra-curricular activities online – if given a comfortable space to do so. 

Universal Design Learning (UDL) guidelines can come in handy to achieve the goals of equity and access. For example, if students with sensory sensitivities need to tune out noise, they can choose to wear earbuds or headphones during independent work. Multiple media can be used in virtual classrooms and pre-recorded lessons to make it accessible for the deaf or hard of hearing. Visual tools can be used more flexibly and generously to highlight patterns, features, ideas and relationships in concepts so that these are easily comprehensible. Students should have many options for reading, including print, digital, text-to-speech and audiobooks. Provision of alternate keyboard commands for mouse action and software that works seamlessly with keyboard alternatives can also go a long way in creating a safe learning environment. 

Remember that relationships are at the heart of instruction. We can foster a sense of belonging through peer groups, regular check-ins or one-on-one interactions. At the same time, it’s important to ensure that no one’s left out when it comes to accessing resources. Using mobile-friendly and offline functionalities, balancing synchronous – asynchronous lessons and planning around project-based learning can help achieve this goal.

Kritika M Narula shares a comprehensive guide to the blended learning approach.

A guide to the blended learning approach

Schools across the UK were shut down on 20 March as a preventative measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Almost three months down the line, there is a general consensus that keeping children away from school for a long period could have potentially detrimental consequences on their long-term health and academic performance. This concern has been studied to show the direct impact of school attendance on exam performance. Policymakers and thought leaders have also talked about the “summer slide” impact i.e the lag in learning that occurs as a result of long absences from school like over long holidays.

Acting upon those concerns, the government has announced a phased lifting of the lockdown and return to schools. Now, the governing bodies and senior leadership at schools have an array of tough and sensitive decisions at hand. The safety and wellbeing of children are paramount, but the pandemic is an evolving situation; this makes it hard to have rigid structures and plans in place. Certain guidelines, templates and checklists can help in ensuring the wellbeing of children. We look at each of these pressing concerns one by one.

What’s the safest way to get back to a routine? How can the risk of reigniting infections be controlled? 

So far in the study of the pandemic trends, children seem to show fewer symptoms of Covid-19. Yet, there’s no definitive evidence of the role of children as carriers of the virus, or for that matter, the amount of susceptibility they have towards it. Could they be transmission agents for staff and adults back home? We don’t know yet. 

In a way, we are shooting in the dark, so the best practice here is to take all possible precautions as children head back to school. We’ve listed some actionable steps below.

Schools should establish the capacity of the campus for teaching under conditions of physical distancing beforehand. Assessment of the reduced capacity in quantifiable terms will provide a solid basis for critical decisions related to scheduling and management.

In order for physical distancing to work, it is imperative that the physical teaching hours are restricted. One solution is splitting classes into micro-groups and re-arranging time tables to accommodate the reduced capacity. Many classes will only be able to run 2 days a week, for instance. 

Schools should also stagger arrival, departure and break times to avoid crowds and congestion.

In addition to staggered attendance, a blended learning approach will be quintessential to limit the number of children and staff on the school premises.

Health measures specific to COVID-19 would include temperature screening at the entrance to schools and classrooms, sanitisation routines to clean furniture, fixtures and facilities and monitoring the usage of masks or shields.

Schools should come up with detailed isolation and hospitalisation protocols for children and/or staff presenting at school with a temperature and communicate these measures to parents.

Physical distancing would also necessitate spatial reconstruction. These measures would include providing seating that is two metres (6ft 6in) apart, using spaces and rooms like libraries, community halls, leisure centres, conference venues etc as makeshift classrooms to boost capacity. 

Mobility plans should be revamped. The teacher can move from one class to another instead of a significant number of children doing the same. If the school has enough entry points, a one-directional movement path can be set up using tapes and arrows.

Schools should also identify socialising spots where children tend to gather and monitor those areas.

If educational programmes and infrastructural elements are redesigned, they should be made accessible to children with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

School transport should also be accounted for in the plan. With the recommended seating guidelines, each school bus can now carry just seven children. These numbers should be considered when creating new schedules.

Playtime should be reinvented. Solo indoor activities should be encouraged, games involving tossing of balls or exchanging hands should be discouraged. Substitutes can be creatively invented, for example, children can chase shadows of their friends instead of complete physical touch.

How can schools facilitate children who have fallen behind during school closures?

Once we have the safety measures in place, the focus should be on the learning recovery process. We understand that the sudden school closures could have created learning chasms and that these disparities need to be addressed. So, what’s the best way forward? Murray Morrison, a leading education expert and founder of EdTech learning program Tassomai.com shares: 

“I’d suggest avoiding overreaction - schools construct excellent schemes of work for their curriculum and put a lot of thought into their intervention strategies to make sure every child gets the best possible education. We should trust in that rather than indulge in knee-jerk measures that end up distracting the very professionals we're relying on. What does need changing, however, is probably pupil funding to ensure that each can access that support especially when they have less access to the school building. Some of that needs to be on school budgets, but also provision for childcare will be needed to make sure that families can continue to function and parents can keep working too.” 

Thus, the reopening of schools should be seen as an opportunity to deliver meaningful education to every child, including the marginalised children who were at risk of being left behind by distance learning modalities. In simple words, this can be an opportunity to fill the gaps in resources for the hitherto marginalised groups. Since schools will not go back to operations at full capacity in the near future, it is important to look at how flexible learning approaches can be made inclusive.

Student engagement in blended/remote learning: Learning from global perspectives

This moment is an opportunity to test out new pedagogies that complement flipped classrooms, blended approaches, virtual breakout rooms and other technology-based learning models. It is, therefore, the time to protect and redirect education budgets into innovations and technologies. Morrison takes stock of the situation, “I cannot see how it can work without a good deal of remote working, so, with funding to support, schools need to invest in robust, quality and evidenced EdTech to give students the structure to manage self-directed learning.”

In Denmark, the first country to reopen, children operate in small groups, across classrooms, playgrounds, breaks. There is a massive emphasis on hand washing and sterilising. Germany uses the blended learning approach – classrooms can only hold 10 children at a time, so school days are shorter and complemented with online classes. Belgium and Norway have also followed a similar approach. Countries like France and Israel were forced to close schools after reopening, more proof that the way forward has to be blended learning. 

In places like Italy, Portugal, New York and California, schools are likely to remain closed until September. In India, the government is not prepared to take any risks, so there’s a strong reliance on digital education. Guidelines are being prepared for the same, covering cyber safety, capping synchronous interaction to 3 hours and expediting the development of multilingual educational apps.

We are not going ‘back’ to normal, instead, we are headed towards a ‘new’ normal in education. This will impact children in more ways than immediately obvious.

How can we assess the consequences to children’s mental health & to the social development of young children? How can we preserve their wellbeing?

There are multiple precedents across natural disasters and disease outbreaks to help us understand that in an event marked by significant collective trauma, loss or ongoing community disruption, the impact on children extends beyond the actual moments of panic during the event. 

Besides, wellbeing needs to be seen as a psychosocial concept. The pandemic – and the consequent closure of schools – has likely disrupted learning and created a learning chasm (due to lack of access to computer devices), interrupted social protection or nutrition, and distanced children from their emotional support systems. The nature of the pandemic has only aggravated the situation; we cannot ignore the psychological impact of increased isolation and treating everyone as a potential threat. 

Another aspect of the lockdown – and a rather grave one – is the possible exposure of vulnerable children to a greater risk of exploitation or abuse. Kate Young, CEO of the Safeguarding Association, sheds light on this aspect: 

“Some schools will find that their vulnerable student register gets bigger. There are a few things in terms of safeguarding that I think we really need to be watchful of. Number one is the significant increase in domestic abuse. We are bound to find cases where children who may never have experienced it previously – but have now been living with parents who are struggling and therefore losing temper – are now witness to the escalation of ugly family conflicts. It’s a long spectrum – the seemingly harmless but prolonged frustration and skirmishes over less-than-ideal working conditions for parents to serious physical abuse.”

There are other tangential concerns. Loss of a loved one, for instance, could throw off the emotional balance of a family. Young adds, “What if a family member is struggling to cope, or takes to unhealthy coping mechanisms? Some parents have also seen an impact of the pandemic on their jobs and incomes, so factor that in and we can anticipate that people would have taken to alcoholism, too. ” 

Schools should chalk out a wellbeing plan that includes measures like the ones listed below:

Provide robust access to counselling services and regular check-ins with children.

Keep a keen eye for children showing signs of anxiety or depression. All educators can be provided training on mental health first-aid.

Help children build resilience. To alleviate the impact of the pandemic, give them a message of hope. They need to be told that it is possible to ride out this wave – anything from affirmations to chalk messages on footpaths, or signs in the windows will help.

Peer interaction should be encouraged – as long as such interaction is not in discord with the norms of health and hygiene.

All the steps we take for ensuring safety in education in the ‘new normal’ will be underpinned by robust and timely consultation and communication with parents, teachers, children and communities at large. The best interests of children should be paramount. 

The decisions made in this regard are also context-specific and will vary across districts, countries and schools. The overarching aim remains the same – to reopen better, healthier and safer schools to impart education as well as develop resilience in children. 

A guide to ensuring children’s safety in the new normal

Kritika M Narula provides a guide for a safe reopening of schools, centered around the safety of all children.

Early on in the lockdown induced by the Coronavirus pandemic, education secretary Gavin Williamson acknowledged that the continued school closures will have a detrimental impact on children’s progress because of the lack of pupil-teacher interaction. The government has also been in favour of a gradual return to school as against a complete lifting of the lockdown. Thus, the government suggested a phased return, starting June 1st. Children in Reception and Year 1, along with Year 6 have initially returned. 

Let’s take a look at how this phased return has turned out, so far. Official statistics from the first week of June showed that just over half of primary schools in England reopened and only a quarter of the children from these three year groups managed to return. It is important to note that even through the lockdown period, most schools have remained open to vulnerable children and the children of key workers. In keeping with this fact, the Department for Education figures report that 91% of educational settings were open in the first week of June, a sizeable rise from 80% in May. 

It is especially important for these three year groups to stay on track with their educational journey. As Dr Stephen Curran explains, it is important for Reception and Year 1 children to learn uninterruptedly for the development of their basic numeracy and literacy skills. The same argument extends to Year 6 students, whose junior school experience would otherwise be tainted and their skill development impeded.  

Murray Morrison, a leading education expert and founder of EdTech learning program Tassomai.com connects the dots, “There is certainly a need to get children back into formal education as soon as practically possible – the risks around a widening attainment gap that disproportionately affects poorer children and the increased pressure on families to support home-learning for months are two compelling reasons to push to restart.”  

The question, then, is simple: what does the return to school entail? What plans do the school management and educators have, if any? Are the parents and/or children scared or are they looking forward to it?

While parents are palpably worried about the impact of these events on the children, they’re also positive about the return to school. One parent based in Portsmouth expressed her concerns about the transition, “My oldest is due to start school in September and I’m worried about how the pandemic will affect his transition.” The fears about the transition after a prolonged distance come from the potential dissonance it could create – it is bound to be an adjustment for children who have been housebound for weeks – and not necessarily from the idea of return.

It is the same concern echoed elsewhere, too. Dr Kate Mason, who is a parent and a clinical psychologist herself, believes that this is a ripe time for a parenting lesson in resilience, “I'm seeing lots in the media about the likelihood of our children developing anxiety and depression with lots of scary statistics, but it's not necessarily the experience of COVID and the lockdown that will dictate whether or not anyone develops a mental health difficulty; it is about how they process the experience and bounce back.” 

It is a matter of providing children with the right tools, but for the most part, children are extremely happy to be coming back. Danielle Fletcher, a digital strategist/coach in Leicester and a single mum to two boys aged 4 and 7, shares, “As soon as it was announced that the schools might be reopening, I knew my younger son would want to go back straight away. He is quite advanced for his age, so he needs to go back to learning. I knew they were going to put strategic measures in place. They play football while observing social distancing, they are washing their hands – so I am not worried about the health risks. But my son is extremely excited and eager every night before school. He is even ready in the morning, hours ahead of school time. For me, it's been the best decision to send him back to school. He was missing his friends, he needs structure, he needs to be learning.” 

Experts generally agree. Over 120 experts in the field recently signed a strongly-worded open letter, addressed to the education secretary, invoking the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 3) that calls for the authorities to look at the best interests of the children. The letter urges the government to change social distancing advice in such a way that summer play schemes and education providers of all types are able to open.

It is evidently clear that children need peer interaction and routines for their wellbeing. Despite this, Fletcher shared that in her son’s class, the attendance was still fairly low.  Even though the class was split, only 6 children were present in the room. 

For schools, operating at full capacity while also maintaining physical distancing is not possible. As an example, each school bus can now carry just seven students. This means it is only feasible to carry one-fourth of the usual number of children. Bringing children back to school in larger numbers can be extremely tricky, logistically. Kate Young, CEO of the Safeguarding Association, sheds light on the other, lingering challenge, “All of this is compounded by the health-related fear that a single case of coronavirus infection could shut down the entire school.”

Schools can try to accommodate different students on different days of the week. Schools can also look towards blended learning strategies. None of the solutions, however, come without their unique set of challenges. 

Morrison takes an incisive look at these challenges, “The issues, as I see them, are around irreconcilable problems of school capacity: that is, teacher and timetable capacity and the physical space available. We know that it will not be physically possible to accommodate students while maintaining existing social distancing and safety guidelines, so for education to work at all, we need to see some considerable funding to make sure a blended learning strategy can work, with software and hardware provided, along with some better support for families who will inevitably need to still host their children at home for a portion of the school day next year.”

Now that the governing bodies are slightly more familiar with the pandemic, planning ahead for the next phases is highly recommended. Young, too, acknowledges that this is a tough task nevertheless – figuring out how to launch into operations in a shifting, precarious landscape without any guidelines. She suggests that the governing bodies and senior leadership at schools should chalk out these plans with inputs from everyone and then be extremely communicative with all parties involved – educators, parents and children. 

In order to effectively and safely move forward, schools need to strike the right cadence. Children will learn through interaction and play, but they simultaneously need to abide by the social distancing measures for public health protection. 

The UNESCO Framework for Reopening Schools looks at six dimensions: policy, financing, safe operations, learning, reaching the most marginalised and wellbeing/protection. Policy considerations and financial requirements together create the enabling environment needed to support each of the other dimensions. Young agrees with this approach, “There’s a need to have an open and fluid conversation, keep a good working relationship and the finance departments might well have to lead the conversation around costing of all these measures.” 

How can this approach be implemented effectively? All schools did not manage the lockdown in the same way, so their responses to the lifting of the lockdown are also going to carry some disparities. At the same time, every child had a different experience of the lockdown. Thus, safeguarding children at this point would mean taking actionable steps that are in line with the safe operations, learning, reaching the most marginalised and wellbeing/protection dimensions of the framework. Some of these steps would include:

Providing them robust access to counselling and mental healthcare, as it is possible some children were exposed to varying levels of domestic abuse or alcoholism.

Staggering the different elements in the schedule: start and close of the school day, mealtimes, breaks.

Holding school in shifts, to reduce class size.

Retaining and reinforcing all accountability structures as before.

Rethinking mobility and movements, for example, the teacher can move from one class to another instead of a significant number of students doing the same.

Schools can try unconventional approaches too. Young recollects one school that has physically reopened, but was still teaching through online tools. That way, the children can meet their friends and socialise, and at the same time, study in a safe environment with minimal physical interactivity. 

Heading back to school is in the best interests of the children. However, with physical distancing and hygiene measures in place, going to school will have a vastly different connotation for them than it did pre-pandemic. Communicating with them and checking-in with their feelings will be just as imperative as placing appropriate safety measures within the school premises. 

Kritika M Narula shares what a return to school can look like for students across the world after coronavirus.

Back to school: What does a return to school during the COVID-19 pandemic look like?

As a teacher-parent, it's not easy juggling schooling your child and completing school duties at home, says Sarah Mullin

You’ve just completed your first week as the headteacher, classroom teacher, caretaker and lunchtime supervisor of Home School Academy. As a qualified professional, you might have dreamed of this very moment, when you could use your repertoire of skills to teach your own little treasures. 

The only problem is that you’ve also been working remotely: setting work for your students, writing reports and attending virtual meetings.

As teachers, we know how to work under pressure, meeting the needs of multiple students and juggling our multifarious roles and responsibilities. But teacher-parents are now encountering a whole new set of challenges.

Coronavirus: Parent-teachers working from home

Here are just a few of the wins, wonders and woes of juggling home working with home learning.

1. Your colour-coded Covid-19 timetable didn't go to plan

Daily chores, morning walks and academic time: you've created the ideal timetable for your dream routine as a teacher-parent. 

It was all going well until day two, when you realised that it’s just not possible to take an important call while also supervising your youngest making a tower out of toilet rolls. 

None of us has ever encountered a pandemic before. We are learning to be flexible in the face of adversity. So, if baking cakes puts a smile on your child’s face, it’s OK if the timetable doesn’t quite go to plan this afternoon.

2. You set up an Insta-worthy home classroom that has hardly been used

You cleared a workspace and organised your child’s books neatly in the corner. Highlighters, pencils, pens and rulers were carefully positioned against some brightly coloured Post-It notes. You took a quick photo and shared it on social media, feeling proud of your parent-teacher study area. 

After five minutes, there’s a bowl of cornflakes resting on the maths homework and marker pen ink on the walls. 

School classrooms are designed to meet the needs of multiple learners. But some of the best learning experiences happen when children feel comfortable and content. So why not try dissecting the parts of a flower in the garden, or having fun with fractions using some fruit in the kitchen? 

And if you need to resort to CBBC so that you can manage an hour of work duties, that’s OK, too.

3. You thought celebrity exercise work-outs would be a great family bonding experience

It’s 9am and you’re lunging and stretching in front of a YouTube screen. What a way to get fit, while spending time with your nearest and dearest. And fitness means productivity. 

Pity it also means that you now can’t walk up the stairs without whimpering in pain. Who knew PE lessons could be that painful?

4. You miss your team of amazing colleagues

As a home-working parent-teacher, you’re making lunch while helping the eldest with their history project, supervising free play while checking your emails and tidying up Play-Doh while planning tomorrow’s lessons for your students

The best part about working in a school is being part of a tremendous team: from the caretaker who keeps us safe to the school nurse who keeps us healthy and happy. 

Where would we be without our teaching assistants, lunchtime supervisors, cooks, admin team and bursars? Doing all their jobs ourselves is where.

Thanks to technology, keeping in touch with your edu-buddies has never been easier. But you still look forward to the day when you can laugh with your colleagues in the staffroom once more. 

It may be chaos at times, but it is important to appreciate spending time with our loved ones in the comfort and safety of our own homes. 

We’re no longer sitting in queues of traffic on the daily commute, and exercise feels like a treat rather than a challenge. We’re preparing home-cooked meals for the family, and taking pleasure in spending time with one another.

Board games are coming out of storage, and books that sat on shelves for years are brightening up our evenings. Watching the news has taken priority over watching Netflix, and acts of kindness are abundant in communities across the country.

This period has taught us that our health truly is our wealth, and that the most important things in the world are family, friends, community and love.

Sarah Mullin is a deputy headteacher and doctor of education student. Her book, What They Didn’t Teach Me on My PGCE, is a bestseller on Amazon. This article has been reproduced from TES with Sarah Mullins' consent – thank you to Sarah and to the wonderful TES team.

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