A glorious sight
As I stood on the front drive on Monday morning, the sun shining on a beautiful spring day, I became aware of a strange noise. Like a loud, sustained whisper, it was not unpleasant but it was not something I had heard before. Suddenly I realised what it was: relief! It was the collective exhalation of parents all around the school heading back to their cars, having handed over their children to in-school learning once again. Breathe, sigh… and relax! (And then back to work!).
Monday was a great day. I was worried the ‘back to school’ feeling would overwhelm some, or over-excitement would consume others and manifest itself in boisterous behaviour. But not at all. The approach from the children was spot on and they just continued with lessons as if the whole term had been delivered as normal. It was simply a calm and happy day.
As well as things went on Monday, though, and indeed have continued through the week, we are aware that we need to give the children time to re-calibrate to life in school. The build-up of anxiety in young people has been widely reported in the press as the effects of the lockdowns have become clearer. For early-adolescents who were beginning to make sense of themselves in the wider world, the restriction from their friendships and communication through a screen brought an extra layer of complexity and confusion to their emotions and we know this is where we need to provide support.
It is very important that young people have a voice for their emotions. We must encourage them to express their feelings so that they can learn to self-regulate, be in control and make sound and sensible decisions. Children who try to bottle things up often then find it hard to contain their emotions and this leads to ‘emotional’ behaviour with things spiralling uncontrollably.
Having the chance to express one’s feelings regularly helps us to reflect on our emotions and by doing that we are often motivated to take action. For instance, the anxiety that comes from the prospect of exams encourages us to study harder. Or, because we feel better about ourselves when we are fit, we are more likely to go for a run or tackle the gym. Charles Darwin believed our emotions have evolved as part of our survival instinct – when we are angry we are likely to confront the source of our irritation or if we are scared then we are likely to flee.
How we react sends signals to others through our body language and they can understand our interests, passions, dislikes and fears. Equally, we need to be able to read these signals in others. So, emotional intelligence is crucial for young people to grow up and be successful. It is as important as any other aspect of education and why here, at St Andrew’s Prep, it is at the vanguard of our provision.
Seeing the children playing eagerly with each other on the fields this week, or heading off to do sport with hockey stick and gumshield in hand, is a glorious sight and a sign that things are heading back to normal. But we’re not out of the woods yet – the masks will remind us of that (and I have to say well done to the senior pupils for wearing them so well this week). We are still restricted in what we can do and events will continue to be affected.
There will be another Richardson Recital next week, albeit slightly smaller and still delivered remotely. We are not holding an Easter Service on Friday as originally planned, though there will be an end of term chapel service for the pupils instead. We cannot hold an end of term mini prize-giving either but we will encourage the children to recognise Comic Relief Day next Friday and, through various fun and games, we hope this will bring an end to the term in a positive fashion and celebrate the undoubted camaraderie that has prevailed in the school over the last year. With that in mind, next Friday the pupils may come to school in their own clothes (not games kit).
Have a lovely weekend everyone!