Schools have been closed for many months and parents have taken over the supervision of home schooling, often juggling this with working from home. The impact on children has been huge:Young Manchester, a charity supporting children and young people’s development undertook a review1 in March 2020 of the state of the youth and play sectors. In summary it concluded:
‘Without prompt, significant and sustained support and investment into the sector, the pandemic will result in serious and long-term damage to children and young people’s lives.’ The report stresses the importance of a co-ordinated response to ‘build back better’ which will include the need for nurses working with children and young people in whatever setting, to play their part.
This then is the backdrop to school reopening.
Why children need school
There are four main reasons:
Be with friends:
Moore2 recentlyasked children to respond on a scale from 0 (not coped very well) to 10 (coped very well) to the question: How well do you think you have coped with the following changes the Government put in place because of coronavirus? Encouragingly, 84% scored above the midpoint. Children coped less well with not being able to see friends (37% scoring below mid-point) and not able to see family (30% scoring below mid-point).
Disruption to education regime
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