Page 41 - SEN116 January-February 2022

Wellbeing
About the author
Sarah Johnson is an education consultant at Phoenix Education Consultancy with varied roles including, author, Head of Behaviour and Inclusion for
a London Borough, school improvement partner and keynote speaker.
phoenixeducationconsultancy.com @PhoenixEdSarah
special educational needs, with medical needs or excluded from school as well as those attending mainstream school) offered lots of practical ideas to help those returning to school that can be generalised beyond the pandemic. These themes were friends, teachers and family.
Friends
The connection that children have to others remains an important issue; how they may make friends as well as maintaining them. This is particularly challenging in instances when they have had absences from school, or during key transitions. Whilst moving between schools (such as primary to secondary, mainstream to specialist or Borough to Borough), the often lengthy process of identifying suitable provision can have a fundamental effect on a child’s wellbeing. These system issues may also be compounded by a child’s Special Educational Need. During school closures for COVID-19 we recognised friendship and loneliness as a key factor in children’s wellbeing but we are in danger of forgetting those children who, for whatever reason, may have disrupted attendance at school both long before and
“Identifying suitable provision can have a fundamental effect on a child’s wellbeing”
after COVID-19. Here are some practical ideas of what we can do to build these connections with other children:
• Encourage light-touch visits to school with low demands. For example, is there a quiet space that children recently on roll can meet others before attending the classroom environment?
• Provide opportunities to ‘drop in’ to class through technology such as telepresence solutions or the now ubiquitous virtual platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Classroom?
• Other children provide a video tour of the environment to share with the new or returning student. This may be especially important if there have been changes to the premises or how the school space is used.
Family
One issue that comes up repeatedly, and with good reason, is the fundamental role of communication between families and schools. Children in the ‘Thinking About School’ survey saw families as being a key element in supporting their mental health in returning to school. Something that is vital, and built around ethos, is ensuring that there is a belief in the experience of parents/carers. Families are the key stakeholder in being able to tell you how their child is doing, what their mood is like when
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