Lockdown has a profound social and emotional impact on vulnerable children!
For many of our learners, the boundaries and routine of our normal school life are the most important contributors to their sense of emotional security.
With lockdown and the closure of our school as a result, this changed literally overnight and our children no longer had access to their usual sources of stability.
We immediately had to make supporting and helping to strengthen “family systems” our most important focus and priority during this lockdown period. Our learners are now wholly dependent on strong family and social support amidst the anxieties, uncertainties and deprivations that surround them and from which they cannot easily escape.
So, on a daily basis, we have actively and continuously been motivating our parents to connect positively with their children to engender their emotional growth during this time. Our teachers are investing all their time to create whole-family-based lessons. Families are learning that with limited resources and creative thinking, learning can happen in a play-based manner.
Our focus has been on essential soft skills that we sometimes lose during the hustle and rush of our normal school teaching programme. We provide activities that can help build relationships and assist all members of the family to understand the difficult process and emotions that all of us are experiencing during this time. New family conversations about compassion and empathy have sprung up.
Families are responding extremely positively and eagerly await our daily structured activities. The connectedness that it has created has built mutual trust between the parents, learners and the teachers. Our learners are finding the security they need within their own family systems and are having fun during a very strange time!
