Do our children really need to ‘catch-up’?
Just before the Easter holidays, the Children, Young People and Education committee released its final report before the Senedd election in May. The report focuses on what the committee believes needs to be done to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on our children’s lives, and their experiences.
The report differs from many that I have read in the media over the past months, that the committee notes the need to move away from the negative language about “lost learning” and “catching up”. This doesn’t mean that they don’t think that our children need support as we enter the second year of the unknown. Because, undoubtedly, they do. But what kind of support?
My 8-year-old has completed all of the work set by her teachers during the lockdowns. And a lot more besides – things that don’t appear on any school curriculum. She can read, write and count. The National Geographic and books about space and planets litter the house. She might not have been interested in everything she was asked to complete, but she has the skills to do so. And I’ve learned a lot about Microsoft TEAMS myself as she used it to complete all her schoolwork.
Despite this, she’s missed out on social interactions. The playground bickering, falling out and making up that can’t be replaced at home with parents. Playing and talking with her peers. Essential life skills that she, and others like her, need to develop to become resilient adults. The sports clubs have disappeared, and whilst those who participate in outdoor sports have been able to practice … Karate, over Zoom, in the kitchen, is a bit more of a challenge!
My 1-year-old was born at the beginning of the first lockdown. She’s never been to an in-person baby group. Never had to share a toy. She knows fewer nursery rhymes than her sister did … but has an extensive knowledge of 80s rock music. She’s watched more TV than I let her sister watch, because there was nowhere else to go to escape the rain over the winter lockdown, and we needed to break up the day somehow.
A year of watching her sister complete her schoolwork, and her parents working on laptops around the kitchen table mean she’s interested in them. She loves mark making. Loves books and will push them under your nose all day. People though, well, they’re great if they’re on a screen, not so good when they’re real …
Both girls have learned a lot about DIY. One from helping. The other from watching. They can both wield a hammer. And know how the sewing machine works, with the first lessons a year ago on mask making seeming an age away.
What they are both craving right now, over a year since we first went into lockdown, is company. The unscripted, carefree, playful company that your parents just can’t replicate. The ability to socialise and spend time with far flung family. To cwtch their grandparents for the first time in months after the travelling restrictions. Meet friends and go for lunch.
Yes, our children’s development is important. Nobody could deny that protecting our children from any long-term effects of the pandemic, including repeated disruption to education and early years services, needs to be a priority for the next Welsh Government. But that protection needs to recognise that our children’s emotional wellbeing isn’t tied to extra hours spent in baby groups, childcare or classrooms. Our children need time to be free. To catch up with family and friends.
What if, instead of looking for the skills our children haven’t developed, we look for the ones they have? Support them, and their families, to fill the gaps over the long term, without looking for short-term fixes? What they need from us, their parents, and the early years and education settings they attend, is to know that they are loved and cared for and safe. Once they know that, they will settle back into developing the skills we expect them to learn.
We need to make sure that supporting ouryoungest children, our babies, and their parents and carers is a priority. With the reopening of face-to-face cylchoedd Ti a Fi on the horizon, it’s time for us to meet and give our youngest children the chance to make friends, and for us parents to enjoy a chat over a cuppa or two.