Science and Maths Tuition

A LIFELONG SKILL, NOT A SPRINT

Days in lockdown were an opportunity for children to reinvent ways of play and learning, exploring their immediate environment and making the most of what they had available.

“Together, parents, caregivers and teachers have done an amazing job of continuing children’s education outside the school environment, and its vital that this work isn’t diminished.” Dr. Dan O’Hare

The crisis also brought with it opportunities for personal growth and family cohesion. Tomislav Georgiev, journalist and UNICEF photographer, turned his lenses from the outside world to observe the greater value of how “these unprecedented times began to shape our younger generations to think differently about their own individual roles and how we as individuals can all contribute in our own way to find a solution to collective problems. “I realized that no matter how much time we think we have; at the end of the day, what I came to appreciate was that we simply don’t spend enough quality time with our families.” Dr Dan O’Hare, co-chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Educational and Child Psychology said: “The notion that children need to catch up or are ‘behind’ at school due to the pandemic reinforces the idea that children have ‘one shot’ at their education and puts them under even more pressure to perform academically after what has been a challenging and unprecedented time for everyone. “It’s important to celebrate the progress, learning and development children have made “it is through adopting the dispositions and characteristics of the tortoise in Aesop’s fable that we are most likely to keep making strong, steady progress. “ George Gilchrist

in the last year and ensure that they feel proud of what they’ve achieved so that they can build upon their strengths and continue their key learning moving forward. “Together, parents, caregivers and teachers have done an amazing job of continuing children’s education outside the school environment, and its vital that this work isn’t diminished.

“It’s important that children know that education and learning is a lifelong skill, not a sprint and it’s vital for their psychological wellbeing that the rhetoric around ‘catch up’ doesn’t detract from their achievements and progress.” Former school principal, author of I’m Not Different, You Are and blogger, George Gilchrist, wrote: “I believe we celebrate hares too much, and tortoises not enough. School systems are full of people racing to do lots of things, as quickly as possible. Education is not a race. Education is a relentless process of personal enlightenment, growth and development. It is through adopting the dispositions and characteristics of the tortoise in Aesop’s fable that we are most likely to keep making strong, steady progress. Such a relentless approach to personal, and professional growth, is more likely to produce deep sustainable change for ourselves and our systems. Adoption of a slow and steady approach to our growth may also help us deal with some of the difficulties we face with regard to teacher retention and leader recruitment.

“We live in a society that is driven by instant results, instant success ... often ignoring or failing to see the hours and years of effort people have put into achieving what some characterise as ‘overnight success.’ “You only have to look at the life stories of people like Mo Farrah, Ed Sheeran, Rodger Federer, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, to name but a few, to see how their successes were grounded in a mix of years of hard work and application, set-backs, good luck and bad luck, but driven by a relentless desire to succeed and get better. “If you have read any of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, he recounts hundreds of cases of successful entrepreneurs and outliers, who have gone on to great success. Their histories grounded in the same characteristics displayed by those mentioned above, as well as the tortoise in the fable.”

Children are remarkably resilient and although we don’t know everything, we can all hope that the punchline is that if there continues to be a concerted and collective effort and understanding from parents, teachers, social workers, psychiatrists and politicians, it is entirely possible that this generation of children can emerge from the crisis ready and able to cope and thrive admirably in the post-Covid-19 world.