Returning to school: The challenges and benefits – A conversation with Sarah Loader, Literacy Consultant

Rebecca Durose-Croft and Sarah Loader continue their conversation from episode 2, discussing some of the challenges and the benefits of returning to school, for children, parents, and educators.

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Episode Transcript

Rebecca Durose-Croft (00:01):
Hi, and welcome to Westchester Words, UK
and international.
I'm Rebecca Durose-Croft,content and services director at
Westchester education services.
So most schools, in particularin the UK have gone back now on
and off from March.
And having spent a bit of timetalking and thinking about the
challenges and benefits oflockdown, we're gonna talk today
with literacy consultant, SarahLoader, about some of the

(00:23):
challenges and benefits of goingback to school.
So Sarah, were there really anychallenges with going back?

Sarah Loader (00:29):
I think there probably were, yes.
And while we're used to talkingabout what was so hard about
being in lockdown and attemptingto homeschool, there were
definitely some trials withsending our children back.
I guess a bit of that was to dowith anxiety and relinquishing
control, but also probablypicking up the relationship we
had with school and teacherswhere we left it, when that had

(00:52):
become so altered.
That shift was for many of usquite disorientating and
destabilizing.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (00:59):
Yeah.
I bet it's just the other wayaround isn't it?
It was really confusing in thebeginning and then we all got
used to it and then suddenly itwas back to normal again.
Absolutely.
Okay.
So let's pick apart those issuesthen, uh, starting with the
anxiety you mentioned, what wereparents most anxious about?

Sarah Loader (01:13):
I think there was a lot of anxiety from a health
perspective.
Understandably.
Yeah.
Um, having cocooned ourselveswithin our immediate families.
For, for many parents, sendingchildren back to school, felt
like a pretty big risk and assuch quite frightening and
unpredictable, especially in thecontext of so much of normal
life not having yet resumed.

(01:35):
I also think that school was formost, different.
There were new systems andbubbles place.
Some schools did things likestaggered starts.
Others did convoluted one-waysystems.
So even the school run abenchmark of our normal weekdays
had changed.

(01:55):
And there was anxiety amongstthe children themselves, um,
whether that was about health,which it was for some or fitting
back into friendship groups inthe classroom dynamic, but also,
you know, worrying about thework, whether it would be
harder, unmanageable, too much,how different it would be from
that homeschooling experience.
I think on the whole people,especially children actually

(02:17):
adjust pretty well to change.
Yeah.
And the positives of schoolsgoing back far outweighed those
negatives of, but it's importantto acknowledge them nonetheless,
and to be aware of them and tounderstand that for some,
parents and children, thoseanxieties persist.
And I don't think any of thiswas helped by the stop start
nature of bubbles being senthome and kind of intermittent

(02:39):
bouts of homeschooling, whichwas then thrown into the mix.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (02:42):
Yeah.
And it was just so confusing forthem, wasn't it?
You know, the rules changed dayto day for them.
They still couldn't travel tosee family or have grandparents
to stay, but they could go toschool.
So those tricky concepts were,were quite difficult for them to
get their heads around.
Yeah.

Sarah Loader (02:55):
Yeah, not just children.
No, not just, I think lots ofpeople struggled actually more,
I would say with the changingyes.
Of the rules and the kind offluid nature of those rules than
they did with full, full onlockdown.
Making sense of that.
And constantly having to adjustour behavior was, was difficult
for adults too.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (03:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
So what about that relinquishingcontrol then?
Can you delve into that a bitmore?

Sarah Loader (03:18):
Yeah, I think for most people, school is a given.
It's not a part of life that wequestion, we do it willingly and
happily.
We don't particularly interferewith it.
We get glimpses of informationor insight from our children, if
we're lucky.
Um, I have very limited accessto any information from my son,
but you know, his friends tellme things and we, get something

(03:39):
from parent consultations, weget homework that comes home and
letters that come home and, youknow, you find out about
achievements or discipline.
And for most of us, that's kindof enough.
That's all we really need.
We don't need a deepunderstanding of the curriculum,
the assessment criteria, theteaching pedagogy.
We just, we leave that to theschool, and we do that happily.

(04:01):
It's their responsibility toteach our children.
And yeah, many of us want tosupport that from the sidelines,
but we're definitely not in themost part, you know, full on, on
the pitch and in lockdown thatchanged.
And suddenly we were thrown intoa situation where it was our
concern, our responsibility andparents needed ideally, some

(04:23):
knowledge of maths concepts ofphonics, grammatical
terminology.
They needed to know the best wayto help their children absorb
difficult ideas and conceptsand, and to develop new
strategies, which could helpthem to learn.
So it was hard.
And I think for many parents therespect and gratitude, they felt
towards school and teacherssoared.

(04:44):
Yeah.
But lots tried with varyingsuccess.
I would say to embrace thatchallenge, which meant that when
schools did go back, it wasdifficult to just hand over that
control in its entirety.
Um, I mean, of course for somethat was a very welcome
transition.
But for others.
It, it was harder.
Definitely.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (05:03):
Yeah.
It's interesting, isn't it,because we talked so much about
how hard homeschooling was,which it was, um, that it's,
it's easy to think parents werejust swinging from the rafters
about sending their kids back,but this offers a completely
alternative perspective to that.

Sarah Loader (05:15):
Yeah.
And I mean that, of course therewere parents, lots who were
swinging from the rafters orjogging to the school gates, but
there were others who will havebeen feeling a bit, you know, a
bit of trepidation and, andmany, I think, who were feeling
a combination of those things,starkly opposed as they are.
A bit of relief and joy, a bitof confusion about who was

(05:36):
holding the baton of educationat that moment.
And I think that sort ofcombination in itself was quite
difficult to manage.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (05:43):
Okay.
So the last thing you mentionedwas about that shift on our
relationship with school.
So what did that change forparents and, and what was the
impact of it?

Sarah Loader (05:51):
I think that this point sort of ties together the
other two factors.
It's about being able to handthat baton over back to where it
belongs and to feel okay withtaking a step back.
Slipping back into that attitudeI mentioned at the beginning of
treating school as a given wasnot seamless, not least because
there was so much uncertaintysurrounding the reopening and

(06:11):
the continued opening ofschools.
So something that had once feltso secure and solid, felt a
little bit shaky and that initself is really unnerving and
unsettling.
But also having taken on a roleas a teacher parent, most
parents had to shift back to,you know, plain old parent where
you're desperately trying to getinformation out of your child on
the way home, scanning emailsand newsletters to find out what

(06:35):
the plans and activities are,and the topics.
Flicking through exercise booksto see evidence of work or how
well they did in a test.
And it was a bit like beingincluded into something that
don't, you know, don't get mewrong.
That was totally unexpected andchallenging only to be excluded
again, uh, sort of shut out and,and looking in through a window

(06:56):
and to a large extent, it'sabout trust and being able to
force ourselves back into therole of parent where we don't
need to know everything thathappens at school.
We need to trust the school tobe doing what they do well.
We need to be able to enjoybeing able to head back to the
sidelines and reclaim asupportive role, but it's okay
to admit that there are thingswe miss about homeschooling,

(07:17):
even though, you know, we neverthought we'd say it, even if
that nostalgia or nervousnessabout school return is
inextricably linked with a giddysense of freedom and not having
to spend all day, every day withour children.
I don't think the picture isblack and white, and we do
ourselves no favors by notputting a spotlight on the gray
and talking about that from timeto time.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (07:39):
Yeah, that is a good point.
That giddiness you mention, andthose parts of school where
there were, it was positive andit was beneficial to children.
Can you touch on that a littlebit more?

Sarah Loader (07:46):
Yes, of course.
I mean, there are lots ofbenefits for going back to
school.
Obviously for parents, it freesthem up to go back to their
normal routines and takes awaythe need for multiple hat
wearing.
You know, holding down a job,looking after, you know,
littlesse, you know, if you'vegot those at home as well and
homeschooling.
But for children, it's soimportant for them to get back

(08:06):
to school.
Aside from the learning side ofthings, which in itself is
fairly critical, there's thewhole social aspect, interacting
with peers, again, being in alarger group setting, plus, you
know, the concept of respondingto and communicating with other
adults who aren't parents orcarers.
Children learn a huge amountfrom being at school other than
what the curriculum stipulates.

(08:27):
They learn a lot about how tobehave in settings, where
they're less comfortable thanthey are at home.
Um, in fact, speaking toteachers after the first
lockdown, there was a realcommon theme about how much less
respectful and rule abidingchildren had become during that
first bout of, you know,following that first bout of
homeschool schooling, whichraises some interesting points

(08:47):
about what school teaches ourchildren.
And I think that boundaries andrules and repercussions fall
into that, which incidentallyunder the pressures of lockdown
might have been hard forfamilies to maintain anyway.
So at the end of the day,children benefit from adult
influences outside theirimmediate families hugely.
And I think parents benefit fromhaving some time away from their

(09:08):
children.
Yeah, I would

Rebecca Durose-Croft (09:09):
Yeah, I would definitely agree with
that, Sarah.
So with those positives in mindthen, can we think of anything
from a lockdown and thehomeschooling experience, which
we can take forward, which willhelp us as parents and with our
children as well in a normal wayand benefit schools?

Sarah Loader (09:23):
I hope so.
, I think we've learned alot during lockdown for lots of
parents, a bit of engagementwith the curriculum and the
expectations on children is nobad thing.
And hopefully that will help us,you know, be better informed and
involved to the right degree, uh, moving forward.
As we've talked about in otherepisodes, um, we know more about
our children's learning, notjust in terms of capacity, but

(09:46):
yes, to some degree perhapswhere the gaps are, where the
supports needed, but I'mactually thinking more in the
sense of how they work best,what, what factors work and what
don't.
I hope and believe that we knowthem better.
We're more in tune with theirstrengths, their weaknesses,
their classroom personas theirattitude to learning and their

(10:06):
interests, which we can use tohelp develop more successful
learning outcomes.
I think we can communicatebetter with schools and teachers
to have a more open, frank and,and informed discussion, um,
about our children and how wecan help them together.
A, a genuinely joined upapproach, which we've talked
about for years with schools,and which I think now feels a

(10:29):
bit more achievable.
So there are lots of positives.
Um, and we just have to try andkeep hold of what we learnt,
embrace the return of normality,even if it no longer feels
normal and talk about it witheach other, learn from each
other's experiences as well.
Yeah.
And keep those avenues ofcommunication open.

Rebecca Durose-Croft (10:49):
Yeah, absolutely, I couldn't agree
more.
That was great.
Sarah, thank you so much forthat.
It was really interesting andgreat to talk with you again.