COVID-19: Back-to-school anxieties for children
Guidance on managing a child’s worries about being back at school during restrictions and during periods of time off school due to the pandemic.
Guidance on managing your child’s worries when changing schools during the pandemic, especially for parents of children with a visible difference.
For children with a visible difference, changing schools can be challenging at the best of times. COVID-19 can add an extra layer of stress and worry for both young people and their parents.
On this page, we share some suggestions on how to manage a child’s worries and concerns about transitioning to a new school during local, regional or national restrictions.
It may be helpful if you are:
We will focus on the transition from primary to secondary school but the advice may apply to nursery also.
Changing schools during COVID-19 restrictions may create additional challenges around transition from one school to another. The thought of changing schools, going from nursery to primary school or moving from primary school to secondary school can cause many children to worry. The transition to secondary education can mean moving from a school of a few hundred to an institution with over 1,000 pupils.
Normally, managing this change might include the pupil visiting the secondary school and meeting their new teachers to ensure they are familiar with their new environment. However, restrictions may mean that this can’t happen in the same way.
If a child has a visible difference, changing schools can feel even more difficult and anxiety-provoking. As well as worries about transition, your child may have felt comfortable at their current school or have been cocooned at home and could be even more anxious about a new school and public scrutiny. There is also a concern that important information about your child’s specific needs may not be passed on from school to school.
Ideally, the primary school would liaise with parents and the secondary school to ensure any support needs are put in place. Parents can encourage the schools to liaise with each other by getting in touch with their child’s primary school to discuss the transition and what has been, or will be, put in place. Primary and secondary schools will be familiar with the process of transition and may already have plans.
There may be reasons the primary school isn’t in a position to pass on information. In this case, you could consider contacting the secondary school yourself. Initially, do this by email to arrange a suitable time for a telephone call. You will be able to find a suitable email address on the school’s website.
Here are some suggestions that may help you when speaking with the school:
Here are some suggestions of things you can do to support your child and ease concerns they may have about changing schools:
Guidance on managing a child’s worries about being back at school during restrictions and during periods of time off school due to the pandemic.
A guide to help you if your child is getting ready for school or nursery, exploring how to introduce teachers and staff to your child’s visible difference.