Life

Leona O'Neill: Our teachers have been class acts throughout Covid

It's been an enormously challenging year and, while healthcare workers have rightly been celebrated, Leona O'Neill reminds us that it's important to also appreciate everything our teachers are doing to keep education on track during the pandemic

Schools have taken measures to help keep our children as safe as possible
Schools have taken measures to help keep our children as safe as possible Schools have taken measures to help keep our children as safe as possible

OUR kids have gone back to school this week and, for many principals, teachers, parents and children themselves, it will mark the start of another challenging time.

There is immense stress and worry associated with sending the children back to school. Will they get infected? Will they bring it home to other members of the household who might be vulnerable? Will they be OK?

Teachers and principals will have the same concerns about their own health and yet they will turn up in the classroom every day.

Some parents are choosing not to send their children back to school because of fears over infection. Others are sending their children back to school despite their own immense concerns because of real fears over the impact that lockdown and isolation are having on their child's mental health.

I think schools opening again is good, and I write as someone who also has to stand in front of a class and teach. I know our schools have taken all the necessary measures to help keep our children as safe as possible and work hard daily to fight back against this virus and keep it from our classrooms as best they can.

I also know they deal with more than just the threat of the virus as students are faced with the most trying and surreal times in their young lives: isolation, a distinct lack of normality, no end to the measures in sight. Along with the rest of us, young people's mental health has also taken a battering. Teachers are there for them for those tough times too.

My middle son is in his GCSE year. He is a very academic child with big dreams and ambitions and is worried about the last few months of disruption, as well as what still is to come and the impact it will have on his grades next year.

But his school is amazing. His teachers are inspiring and they have managed to keep these teenagers on track, motivated, learning and forging ahead despite monumental, astronomical challenges. No easy task at the best of times, but a Herculean effort during a global pandemic. And for that alone they need to be commended.

My youngest son has transitioned from primary school to post-primary in the midst of a pandemic, yet when he comes home from school he speaks of the interesting lessons, the friends he has made and the stuff he has learned that day – not of the masks or hand sanitiser they all have to use, or the social distancing or the bubbles they are in. The teachers have managed to make all of this normal and non-scary. And for that, they deserve to be celebrated.

We know our health care workers are in the thick of this, at the coalface, helping and saving lives every single day. Without their bravery, we would be truly lost. And we are all so thankful for them and what they do for us and our loved ones. They are fire-fighting every day.

Our educators also deserve praise. They are making sure the future is taken care of. That our children will not be left behind because of this virus. That they get a good education despite enormous challenges and get to have the same opportunities in life as those who have gone before them and who will come after them when this nightmare is all but a distant memory.

When everyone else is being told to work from home for their own safety, not to gather in large numbers, to stay away from people, our teachers are going into classrooms with up to 30 pupils, sometimes even more, teaching and making sure that bright future is secure, that the potential that will shape the rest of their lives is unlocked.

As we head into another phase of this pandemic and the future once more looks uncertain, I want to thank our teachers for their courage and determination and care. You are so appreciated.