Research School Network: Are we looking closely enough? Kate Fallan wonders if we could make better use of the research to consider how children are managing the wider return to school

The great news about children returning to schools is that they generally seem happy, confident and enthusiastic to get back into the familiar routines their schools provide for them. 

This has been quite surprising for some as we’ve prepared to support children and families to reintegrate and return onsite. At Eko Trust schools, all staff have been taking part in training and discussions about trauma-informed practice and attachment to ensure we all felt confident to welcome back our children.

But did we assume we would be working with terrified and teary children, who opened up to us every day about how the events of the last few months have made them feel and behave? It seems, at least at surface level, that our assumptions have been challenged.

But are we looking closely enough? Are we listening hard enough? And are we using our understanding of research about social and emotional development to really gauge where our children are at?

As part of the Newham Learning programme we have been considering two of the key guidance reports from the Education Endowment Foundation, Improving behaviour and Improving social and emotional learning in primary schools to develop this understanding and bring us back to what the research is saying.

Research tells us that it’s important to teach social and emotional skills explicitly and as a first step, we need to know what we’re talking about.This diagram in the guidance report (adapted from CASEL, 2017) is very helpful, particularly in terms of developing a shared language between adults (staff and parents) that can be shared openly with children and young people.

Once we agree about these SEL skills, we’re able to more easily teach and talk about them explicitly, highlighting to children where we see people using those skills positively and what happens as a result of this. As Recommendation One of the report argues, we should ​‘use a range of strategies to teach key skills, both in dedicated time, and in everyday teaching.’

So we know we should teach and talk about SEL skills explicitly as the number one recommendation from research.

This is how those ​‘core skills’ are summarised in the guidance report:

But if we are too ready to believe that children returning to schools are ​‘fine’, will there be implications arising from this assumption?

According to the report, while most schools out of 400 surveyed by the University of Manchester say that SEL is important (46% say it’s a top priority), they also reported barriers to delivering SEL, namely lack of time and too many other pressing priorities. So, could we get things wrong if we believe too readily that children returning to schools are ​‘fine’?

Can we be sure that they’ve processed the lockdown and its implications for themselves and their families, can name what they’re feeling at any given time and self regulate if they’re feeling ​‘strange’?

I think that the danger is that we might skate over the surface of the explicit teaching of SEL and its importance in the way we run our schools.

So at Eko Trust, we are really looking forward to welcoming back all our children and young people in September and we really hope they’ll be happy, confident and enthusiastic.

But we are going to look and listen carefully, challenge our assumptions and ensure we have everything in place to develop and build social and emotional skills for the children we work with.