Page 40 - SEN116 January-February 2022

Wellbeing
Supporting SEN pupils
mental health post-Covid
Sarah Johnson takes the ‘Thinking About School’ survey as the starting point for pupil-led mental health proposals
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In March 2020, the previous Secretary State of Education of England made the statement that schools were closing for the majority of students, in order to reduce the number of infections and deaths, resulting from Covid-19. For the
first time in the UK’s education history, a mandate was made for the majority of children to stay at home and not attend school. However, as those working with children identified as having Special Educational Needs and/or medical needs know, absence from school may be something that they experienced long before the pandemic and will continue long after.
As a reflection and assertion that children are the experts in their own lived experiences, the ‘Thinking About School’ survey was designed to be completed by children to share their perspectives. Over 2000 school children from England completed the survey, a similar survey repeated shortly after when many children had returned to school had over 1500 respondents.
“Children are the experts in their own lived experiences”
One of the young people who participated in the survey commented: “I think the government need to be asking the kids how we feel about going back, our views [are] not being taken into account”
So, how can we draw upon what these children said themselves? We can theme the children’s comments into several important areas, and the good news is that children (those identified with
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