HELPING YOUR CHILD RETURN TO SCHOOL AFTER COVID-19

Returning to school after the summer break can be an exciting and anxious time for your child but as we start to think about them returning following the pandemic, it is a good opportunity to consider how your child might be feeling and how we can best prepare them for an easy transition back into the ‘new normal’. After all, they haven’t seen their class mates for at least 5 months.

In this blog we will try and give you some tips and advice about how you can help your child to understand this new normal and make it as easy as possible for them to transition.

Before returning to school

• Start talking to your child about happy things that they remember from school, keep in touch with school friends through Zoom or Google duo.
• Keep up to date using your school’s website, there’ll be plenty of helpful information on these sites to help keep your mind at ease.
• Re-establish routines around meal times and bed times.
• Walk past the school building on some of your walks, if it is close.
• Prepare two sets of pencil cases; one to keep at home and one to keep at school, so your child isn’t mixing and contaminating their stationary.
• It might be a good idea to send your child with some hand sanitiser, individual tissues and some sterile wipes to keep at their desk so they can wipe down their table top before their lunch or break.

Returning to school

• Be prepared to wash your child’s uniform every day. This will probably be a requirement from your child’s school.
• Give your child time to adjust. They’ll have plenty of questions about why they can’t mix with other children a playtime or why they have to have their lunch in their classrooms. Be positive and be honest.
• Talk to the school about your child’s development during lockdown, getting back into the routine of homework’s might be tough on your child.
• Be aware of your own emotions so that you don’t pass your anxiety onto your child.
• Be gentle. It is a new normal for all of us, don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your child. We are all adjusting.

Do you have any tips or advice? Let us know in the comments.