“YOU must be slowing down now.”
Words I have heard directed by well-meaning yet utterly clueless friends and acquaintances to fellow teachers and school leaders throughout my career as the lengthening days of June pass by and summer warms into view.
The truth is that there is no month more hectic nor stressful in schools than June – save, possibly, for December, when the stresses and strains of life, Christmas nativity shows and mid-year assessments can drown out the festive cheer for many not known for handling pressure too well.
But back to June.
End-of-year reports, school assessments, transition meetings and evaluations would be enough on their own before adding in requisition orders, the movement of teachers, classes and resources to new rooms in preparation for a September term that seems so distant from this remove yet which always sneaks up on us in no time.
And that is before mentioning the end-of-year shows, leavers’ and prizegiving ceremonies that stir the emotions and remind us why we all chose this path in the first place.
We are within touching distance of having completed our first full school year in the time of Covid. Our schools remained open through thick and thin over the past year, in spite of a period of months over the autumn and winter when infection rates caused considerable upheaval and challenge.
The staff communities approaching a well-earned and deserved holiday break do so in the knowledge that their shift was difficult yet necessary for society to function.
The tentative steps back to normality in the second half of the academic year took the form of parental attendance at sacramental celebrations, sports days and school shows – the latter selling out in record numbers in primary schools as parents, grandparents and close friends eagerly grasp the priceless opportunity to see their children make those lifelong memories repeating much-rehearsed lines amidst song and dance in PE halls across the land.
Last week, I had the pleasure of watching my own school’s girls’ Gaelic football team win the prestigious President McAleese Cup to claim the status of Belfast’s pre-eminent team in the company of the children’s peers, parents, grandparents and family friends, all savouring the return of school competitions last played three years ago due to the pandemic. Count amongst the things we once took for granted but now cherish.
Masks are much less prevalent now, social distancing a thing of the past. Hand sanitizing remains an established routine and possibly one worth retaining as a matter of good practice to try to stem the spread of the bugs and germs that have always swept through classrooms long before Covid entered our vocabulary.
The Happy Healthy Minds Therapeutic and Counselling Service Pilot has been running in schools throughout 2022, providing much needed counselling support (including from art and music therapists) for children experiencing social, emotional and behavioural difficulties for a variety of reasons, many exacerbated or indeed triggered by the pandemic.
Another positive initiative introduced locally was the Engage programme, first announced by the then Education Minister, Peter Weir, in September 2020.
Earlier this year, in March, his successor and party colleague, Michelle McIlveen, said when announcing the extension of funding to carry the Engage II programme through to the end of term in June that the initiative was “making a real difference in the lives of those children and young people who have been most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Yet at this very moment, we are still not certain if the programme will continue to run in September, a situation causing great anxiety amongst school leaders.
Schools are reporting that the enduring legacy of the Covid-interrupted years and its impact upon society continues to be not just the enhanced volume of children requiring pastoral and counselling support in schools but also a worryingly high number of children at risk of underachieving academically.
The children starting Primary Four in September have not had a year free of Covid’s turmoil and tumult. Where the Engage programme has worked most effectively in schools has been when the additional teacher secured through the programme has been deployed to work in a focused manner with identified groups of children struggling with literacy and numeracy concepts, helping to consolidate understandings and close gaps widened by Covid.
The focus on underachievement in recent years has been welcome but if it is not followed up with substantive policies and initiatives over a sustained period, then it will come to naught.
It is to be hoped that both the Education Minister and wider Executive can find a way to continue prioritizing programmes proven to make a difference at a time when children need them the most.
