How is Covid-19 affecting the nation’s children?
Our partner company, Premier Education, is the No. 1 provider of sport and physical education to primary schools in the UK. Last month they conducted a survey amongst the parents of the children they support to gain insight into how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the next generation.
With schools still not entirely clear on the guidance for reopening and there being no ‘one size fits all’ solution to welcoming students back, we wanted to take a look at the results from the survey and how children have been coping so far.
Results
Of the c.2000+ parents who completed the survey, most have indicated that they are home-schooling in one way, shape or form. This is a very positive indication of the extent to which we all hold the continuance of education in high regard. Despite some parents having other commitments, such as working from home, 95% of survey respondents are home-schooling their children.
However, it’s not all plain sailing. With other distractions in the home environment such as toys, games consoles and siblings, it can be hard to get into ‘study mode’ when you are not in uniform or in a school setting. It is no surprise that lack of motivation was indicated as the biggest barrier in preventing children from doing their homework.
Life-skills was stated as being one of the main positives of lock-down. Children are helping more with general life. Learning to cook, helping with the laundry or learning to make a cup of tea (if old enough). By being at home, children are much more exposed to the everyday goings-on of running a household, much of which may be missed when they spend 6 hours a day at school.
87% of parents say their children are missing school. Will we see a reduction in sick days being taken if children look forward to going to school again?
The pressure of having to home-school their children while some of them are totally unmotivated and missing friends is likely to explain why 45% of parents say that ‘staying at home’ is putting a strain on family life. Children are not designed to be cooped-up for weeks (and now months) on end with little or no social interaction. For the parents of introverts, they may be seeing their child currently flourishing thanks to the lack of social pressure. Yet for the extroverted children, the current lock-down situation is tough to bear.
60% of parents are worried about the mental wellbeing of their children and, as we know from existing clients, this will be a major focus of the school plan once schools reopen. As part of our school support, wellbeing reviews are one of our core product offerings and we intend to increase the provision and availability of this service in the coming months to support school leadership teams in this area.
Support
The reopening of schools is providing challenges for school leaders as well as having the potential to cause anxiety for staff, pupils and parents. If you would like support or would simply like to discuss your plan with an external party, please
You may also like to join us for our school support webinars, delivered with Premier Education, every Wednesday at 15.30. If so, please register here!
If you would like to discuss any thoughts or issues raised in this blog, please feel free to contact us. We are operating with a smaller team but we are here to support you as always.
