Covid legacy still affecting children, say teachers

Children in the South East are still feeling the effects of Covid-19 five years on, school leaders have said.

In March 2020, the UK's 24,000 schools were closed for most children at the start of the pandemic, opening and closing multiple times in the months that followed.

Anne Longfield, who was the children's commissioner for England during this time, told the Covid inquiry that its impact will affect the most vulnerable children for years to come.

Michelle Catterson, headteacher at the Moon Hall School in Reigate, Surrey, for children with dyslexia, said pupils' "normality was gone - it was out of the window".

Ms Catterson said the increase in children having anxiety, school refusal and mental health referrals seen since the pandemic hasn't subsided with time.

She attributes this to the long-lasting impact of the pandemic.

"Children did not see their friends, their normality was gone - it was out of the window," Ms Catterson said.

"They didn't see the teachers. That routine, especially for children with special educational needs is really important.

"I think that has had a long-term detrimental impact to them."

The loss of routine is something that children at Edenbridge Primary School in Kent also struggled with.

Headteacher Mary Gates said this created learning gaps that "we're still seeing today".

Efforts are being made to redress this, she said.

"We recognised that social skills was a really big factor...[and] also speech and language development - particularly for our younger children, so we put a big focus on vocabulary, on speaking and listening opportunities within the curriculum," she said.

The school is "almost over teaching certain elements", she added.

Both Ms Catterson and Ms Gates agree that Covid-19 represented an incredibly challenging time.

Ms Catterson said that managing a pandemic "definitely didn't come up" in her training, while Ms Gates believes this period was ultimately "transformative" for school leaders.

Kent-based educational psychologist Dr Mickel Johnson said the enduring effects were most visible in children in Years One to Four.

Dr Johnson said: "The impact that we've noticed in our role is definitely the increased awareness of anxiety or difficulties in implementing social behaviours in the playground within the school environment."

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