Vulnerable students: Planning for transition back to school

This article is intended to help your school’s planning for ongoing back to school transition for students. The following tips have been suggested by the Inclusion Expert team, headed up by Jill O’Connell, and available to download with this article is a one-page pdf outlining some of the key questions and steps discussed below (click download button below).

Transition: From what to where?

The challenge before us is as follows: how can we support all children to transition from lockdown back to socialising with others again? How can we give them emotional and psychological stability and predictability, and then support them in their learning? It might go something like this:

Step 1: Emotional response

Annie Thompson, headteacher at Marlborough School St Albans, told me she had bought two big yurts. “Mongolian yurts? The big tents?” I enquired to make sure I had heard right. “Yes, they’re for everyone to use when they come back to school.”

She and her staff decided to prioritise the “relearning” of social encounters for a couple of weeks and were inviting students and staff back to school but not into the classrooms.

Instead, they played games, socialised, rediscovered what it is like to be with others again. Only then, will they be invited back into the classrooms for more formalised learning.

Learning will not and cannot restart in school until everyone is having their emotional needs met. Let’s think of it as “emotional scaffolding”. The school community must feel that needs are acknowledged, understood and met.

How? By all staff demonstrating an understanding of the impact of trauma on children and adults alike. By remembering that everyone went through this and each will have had a different experience.

By understanding the wellbeing and safeguarding needs of every individual. By meeting the needs of children who may never have been on your “concerned about” radar before (e.g. those who experienced loss of a family member, those who have been parted from key-worker parents, those who have had a really good experience of home learning and don’t want to come back, those who feel that school has broken a trust and put them into uncertain domestic situations).

Ultimately, we will do this by recognising that we have all had disruption to our routines, structures and friendships and that there will be an impact we feel from that.

Everyone needs to feel safe, valued and nurtured before they can work efficiently and before children will be in a place to learn effectively.

And just to clarify the “how” a bit further – talk, acknowledge, be open, prioritise and don’t, whatever you do, just rush back to normal (however much we desire it).

Every school is different and you need to do this in your own style – so make it a priority for discussion in the various school teams.

Step 2: Regroup and plan

We know that there will be some staff and families who continue to experience financial hardship because of the pandemic. Do we need to relax any existing policies and remove any possible stigma associated with financial hardship (including uniform for children and dress code for staff)? This is about making sure the rest of the steps on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are sorted out first – see the tables below.

Step 3: Re-establish

School is currently a different place for everyone. It is lacking the hustle and bustle. It no longer looks or feels the same. There may be staff missing. There are students missing. This will be a huge period of rebuilding. Staff and students alike will need to rebuild relationships.

Behaviours will be different. Expect low self-esteem, frustration, anger and aggression and be prepared to support the reasons behind these challenges. Older students may well want to reset boundaries – how will you manage this?

The key to this phase is go slow. No. Go slower than that. Assume a minimum of one year until we return to normal. Take your foot off the curriculum accelerator pedal, go slow enough for everyone to feel like they are fully back.

The most vulnerable students

The first and most important issue is that of the risk assessment for vulnerable students, including those with SEND. We have a “duty of care” to adults and children. The government’s basic advice is around handwashing and hygiene, but what if you are not always able to do this? Most schools have children who have physical or neurological issues that impair their ability to be distanced socially and hygienically.

It is an awful position for a school leader to be in, but it ultimately boils down to if the child is safer at home, why should they be in school?

Another factor is that parents may not want to send in a child without their year group cohort, especially if they struggle socially. A determining issue will be whether the vulnerable child is placed in a year group or a “vulnerable-child bubble”.

Looked after children are also considered “vulnerable”, but this categorisation may not be appropriate for those in secure placements and this needs to be thought about on a case-by-case basis.

No-one has mentioned attendance for months now. Fair enough. But, you know it is coming. What of those children who struggled to come to school consistently before all of this happened?

Transition-planning for vulnerable students

Below is an example of transition-planning for a vulnerable student. This has been thought-through by Sara Alston, an experienced SENCO, and myself. We hope this gives you a useful template for your vulnerable students.

The following assessment is an edited version taken from a real case and considers five aspects: emotional and mental health, physical, learning, home situation, and social. We begin with a risk assessment.

• Daniel Sobel is founder of Inclusion Expert, which provides SEND, Pupil Premium and looked-after children reviews, training and support. You can find all his articles for Headteacher Update on our website via https://bit.ly/3dsSxUN