The Coronavirus pandemic has brought challenges for us all. It has affected everyone’s lives and each individual’s experience will be different. We will not really know the impact it has had on our pupils until they return to school. Some will have had an enjoyable time being with families in a loving and safe environment, sadly this will not be the experience of all pupils.

This area aims to provide a range of resources and guidance for all school staff as they prepare for and welcome pupils returning to school and beyond. It aims to help schools to enable pupils to settle back into school life, to rebuild relationships, cope with their feelings, manage their emotions and to begin to look forward.

This area has been created around core themes identified by the Early Years and School Improvement Service, Educational Psychology Service and the Language and Communication Team to be a priority as pupils return to school. Colleagues in schools who are pastoral and PSHE leads have also contributed.

These themes are:

Reconnecting, relationships and friendships
Acknowledging the challenges, difficulties and upsets
Coping with bereavement and loss
Bouncing back / being resilient
Managing feelings and emotions.
Developing confidence and self efficacy
Physical and mental health
Looking forward and promoting a sense of hope
Resources, lesson ideas and activities are being collated for each key stage under each of these themes. You will see that the themes have an icon and key stages have a specific colour to help navigation around the document.

Additional sections have been added too offering support related to:

Training opportunities
Communication with parents and carers
Transition for all
Staff wellbeing and guidance
Books and stories related to the themes

This is not an infinite guide and schools are urged to make use of the Mentally Healthy Schools website, which houses a vast amount of resources and guidance. Schools with comprehensive PSHE education programmes will already have a good foundation for this work and can build on good practice already established.

Schools are also reminded of the guidance provided on Perspective Lite in the Emotionally Healthy School Resource pack, particularly related to developing a whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
The resources contained in this document are a starting point and over time, a comprehensive bank of resources, guidance and training for all themes will be created.  This will be a point of reference for schools navigating through the process of settling pupils back into school and ‘normal’ life across this year and into the future for our communities.

We hope you will find the resources, guidance and training available in this area useful.