La rentrée 2020 sera très différente ...



OK. So. I know we're barely a week into the official summer holidays here in Wales, but, September is looming large on the horizon.

We don't have a word for "the start of the new school year". For me, "la rentrée" encompases so much more than the physical act of entering the school gates every September. There's the excitement. The planning. The school supplies shopping and organising. That feeling of growing up as you start each new year.

This September, my 7yo starts year 3. The beginning of the next chapter of her school life. Except, this year, there will be no photo in front of the school to show her first day... Because us parents, we're not allowed through the gates.

There's no school bag shopping or stationery acquisition either. Apart from the fact that we can't go spend hours in the shop while she decides which ones she wants... I'm not entirely sure she's even going to be allowed to take a bag or pencil case from home in.

If anything, I'm preparing for my lg to have yet another emotional battering. Because, as it stands, we're asking our children to return to school, where they will be able socialise with peers with no social distancing, whilst still being expected to stay away from their extended families. To sit next to their classmates, but not on their grandparents' sofa.

There's also the question of managing local outbreaks. How well do we think our children are going to cope with school's on... school's off (again) and a with no warning should we enter a cycle of local lockdowns this autumn.

For many of us, the initial hurdles, encountered in March, were technical ones. We've, for the most part, surmounted those, and are ready for it. What we're not ready for is the emotional impact of bouncing our children from one extreme of social distancing to another. Of it being OK to be next to your friends in school, but not on the football pitch. If our adult mental health services are going to be pushed to the limit, our children's ones will be more so.

Our teachers and schools don't know what's around the corner either. How la rentrée 2020 is going to work out in the end. But please, can we remember as we plod through this next school year, that our kids will need extra support to get through this. And somehow, as parents, we're going to have to dig deep, hide our own fears, so that they get chance to make their childhood memories. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plus je vieillis ...

Image
One of my friends shared the Jamie Lee Curtis quote a while ago on FB, and, basically, it set my head thinking a lot. This year has been full of drama of various kinds, not least because of all the chaos caused by COVID.  As a result, this year has been hard.  Really hard.  Between juggling expectations, the constant moving goalposts, as well as general family life, this year has been one I don't ever want to repeat. I've learnt a lot about me though too.  And some of the things that I've learnt are that I am actually a lot tougher than I ever believed.  Yes, it's not always been an easy ride, and getting to the middle of December has been a roller coaster of epic proportions, but, generally, I have come out of it mentally tougher than I went in. I was struck by Jamie Lee Curtis' sentiments.  They pretty much sum up what I want out of life; to relax in my own home, surrounded by people who are supportive and that I know I can turn to when I need to, without...
Read more

When school feels a bit like the Hokey Kokey

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Mainly because, as a family, we've spent most of our time together. In the house, juggling work, study, playing with a baby and home teaching a 7yo.  Like most families, that juggling act has taken a bit of time to get used to. But we've got there. With a bit of 'ooops' when you've got 3 TEAMS meetings overlapping 🙈 Now though, it seems that we are facing being forced to send our children back to school*. And, here in Wales at least, the threat of an extended school term, taking away our children's relaxation time because someone, somewhere, has decided that they are 'behind'. Behind what exactly? OK, we, as a society might have to concede that many of our children aren't currently keeping up with the target driven curriculum that has been constructed for them.  And yes, there will be a minority of children who really do need additional intervention that is realistically only possible in a school...
Read more

Lockdown Christmas

Image
  This year, getting to Christmas has been tough.  For someone who usually throws themselves at the festive season with gusto, this year has seemed a lot like a damp squib, for many reasons. This year, it's my eldest's Dad's turn for actual Christmas day.  And that means that she will miss most of her sister's first Christmas day.  OK, her sister probably won't remember.  But she will.  So we'd planned to do lots of the fun Christmas stuff before the day itself.  Except COVID had other ideas.  And our pre-Christmas out of the house activities were curtailed by the phone call from school telling us that my eldest needed to isolate for almost the entire pre-Christmas period.  So no walks to see the twinkly lights.  No trip to town to see the window displays.  No dash to the shop to buy the new star for the top of the tree. The final blow came when, a week ahead of schedule, Wales was plunged into lockdown-3 with only a few hours' warn...
Read more