How To Cope With School Disruption

Children and young people need stability, reliability and consistency to thrive. When their needs are consistently met, and when their days pan out in a stable and reliable way, they can cope better with stress and the daily challenges of growing up.

In recent years there has been an immense increase of disruption to pupils’ education. The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, beginning with school closures in March 2020, is still being experienced by both students and teachers. When we pair that with the cost of living crisis and teacher strikes it creates an environment for even more stress and further disruption.

How do we cope with all this disruption?

We believe that the first step to take in supporting students is to show them that we care. Many students feel huge pressure to succeed – to get specific grades – and of course that is important, but perhaps not more important than the students’ mental and physical wellbeing. Therefore, we think it’s important to listen to our young people and take them seriously. If they say that they have too much work, perhaps instead of pushing them to do the said work, a nice walk in the fresh air or something else for their wellbeing may be better.

The key is to have a balance.

If students receive work from school on strike days, days off due to illness or other school closures the three aspects that can help are: incentive, praise and support.

First, provide your child with some incentive for doing the work. For example, “if you do an hour of school work, you can have extra play/free time this evening.” Children and young people may not yet understand the importance of getting their school work done, so saying “if you do your school work now, you can do well in the future,” may be too abstract to them and not be incentive enough.

Second, praise your child for what work they do complete. There are few things worse than doing something you didn’t want to, and then have someone – especially your parent or guardian – be critical and under appreciative about your work. That is, naturally, you can give constructive criticism, but leading with praise and telling the young person they did a good job will help them feel encouraged to do more.

Thirdly, ensure they have the support that they need to complete the work. Sometimes instructions from teachers can be complicated and your child may need help with understanding what it is they actually need to do. These days work is often set via email or other online means, so help with finding the documents necessary may be useful too. If you find yourself struggling, please don’t worry because there is help out there. Many libraries and community hubs offer help with homework, so you can reach out and ask for support.

How can tutoring support your child through disruptions?

Our tutors are reliable and available through half-terms, school summer holidays, during evenings and day-time. Amongst many other specific times when other educators may not be. This means that our tutors can support children through times when they perhaps aren’t able to attend school, or if schools are closed for example. They know the curriculum well and have expert knowledge. Tuition can be carried out in whichever way best suits the student, for example, one-off or weekly sessions, or sessions every fortnight.

Photo by Julia M Cameron

Blog written by Aleksandra Dul