Archive August 2020

How to prepare our children and ourselves for the return to school

Charlie Green our Senior Emotional Needs and Resources Trainer offers some helpful tips and advice to help you and your children get back into the school routine. 

As the date for schools re-opening is approaching, we will be in the process of preparing our children for their return to school following the coronavirus pandemic. It is a good opportunity to consider how your child is feeling and how we can prepare them emotionally and psychologically for the transition.

If you are feeling concerned or a little overwhelmed by the up-coming changes, that is completely natural. However, it’s helpful to remember that this pandemic has given you lots of experience of change and skills you can use to help your child. Below are some tips and advice about how you might help your child through this transition.

Top tips for parents and carers to help you prepare for returning to school

• Talk to your child about happy things that they remember from school or nursery

• Re-connect with school friends before the start of term

• Keep up-to-date with information on the school website, social media and emails and share it with your child(ren).

• Look back through school work, crafts or snap shots of things you did during lockdown so your child can talk about them when back in school (remember the small stuff – not everyone had the opportunity to do amazing things).

• Walk or drive past the school building – practicing the journey to school can be a really helpful preparation.

• Find out from the school or other parents about transition arrangements and social distancing. Talk to your child about what to expect, even if the answer is you are not sure yet, but you will find out soon or be guided on the day.

• Check if there are any virtual tours and video opportunities from the school that your child(ren) can watch

• Begin to bring the name of your child’s new teacher into everyday conversations and build positive anticipation. If you don’t know much about them, find a photo on the school website or ask previous students for something positive about them

• Re-establish routines around mealtimes and bed times if necessary. Many routines have slid during lockdown – bring the timings back into school routines by changing gradually over a few days.

• Talk with employers about the opportunity for flexible hours for the first few weeks of term to allow for the unexpected. This can help manage expectations and prevent anxiety.

• It’s important to be aware of your own emotions so that you don’t transmit your anxiety to your child. Talk to family and friends and remember it is natural some uncertainty in such unusual times.

• Follow your child’s lead during the transition and respond to their emotions as they happen

• Be positive but honest; acknowledge your child’s emotional behaviour, they are showing you how they feel.

• Be prepared – pack their school bag a few days before, lay out their uniform, and break in new school shoes!

• Have a few trial runs of getting up and ready in the morning, eating from pack lunch boxes or getting into PE kit – this will help build confidence and esteem. Make it fun!

Remember the staff at your school have been working hard to make the environment safe and positive for your children. This is new for them too. Seek to be in partnership with them to make your child’s experience as relaxing and enjoyable as possible.

Author: Kristina Brinkley

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Supporting your team when they return to work  

Our Head of Mental Health Education at Suffolk Mind, Ezra Hewing offers some advice on how to support your team after lockdown

As lockdown lifts you may have concerns and questions about members of your team returning to work. Are members of your team anxious about coming back to the office? Are they worried about increased risk of infection? Are they juggling work and childcare? Have some of your team been furloughed and perhaps feel that their job skills are bit rusty?  

Everyone’s situation and concerns will be different and so it’s worth having a conversation with each team individually. To handle conversations sensitively, at Suffolk Mind we teach and use a framework called RIGAAR. Participants learn the skills to use RIGAAR on our Workplace Wellbeing course Supporting Staff Mental Health for Managers, but you can use some of the same principles when supporting staff who are returning to work after lockdown.  

RIGAAR is acronym which stands for the elements of a supportive conversation: Rapport, Information, Goals, Accessing resources, Agreeing a strategy and Review. 

Rapport 

• Always build rapport and reconnect with team members as an essential first step. Remember that they may feel disconnected from the workplace  
• Before asking about their concerns or talking about work, take time to find out how they have been and what has happened since you last spoke  
• Ask follow up questions to express empathy and encourage them to talk more  
   

Information 

• Ask open questions to allow your team member to talk about how they are feeling and what concerns they might have  
• You could encourage them to complete an emotional needs audit which will identify emotional needs which might be better met  
• If you feel comfortable and confident doing so, you might ask about how lockdown has affected their ability to exercise or sleep. You might mention that many people have found it difficult to get decent sleep during lockdown, which can help to normalise their experiences  
   

Goals   

• Agree small, achievable goals to help them meet emotional needs. If they need privacy and ‘time out’, encourage regular breaks; if they have told you they feel better after taking exercise, encourage walking during lunch time  
• Give your team member as much control as is reasonable over how they manage conflicting concerns; when they return to the office and whether they can work from home some of the time; how they manage the conflicting demands of childcare and work. Letting people decide for themselves empowers them to meet the need for control – especially when so much is out of our control at the moment!
   

Accessing resources 

• Ask questions to identify what has helped your team member cope during lockdown
• Ask them about what they have learnt during lockdown and if there are good habits they want to keep for the future
• Mention their past work achievements and what they bring to the team and the wider workplace 

 
Agreeing a strategy 

• Agree the steps they will take to achieve goals which meet their needs
• Make sure they draw upon the resources you have identified, including coping skills, good habits and previous work successes
• Make sure they have time and space to achieve those goals. This may include time to take breaks and walks, and to manage the demands of childcare and home life   

Review 

Finally, review what has been discussed and agree a regular check in time to see how the strategy is going. Discuss what they have learned, and make any adjustments which better support meeting needs as your team returns to the workplace. Keep a record of what has been agreed and return to it the next time you meet – always taking time to connect and build rapport first! 

Author: Kristina Brinkley

• Blog