From the study

One cannot exaggerate the negative impact of the Covid-19 on schoolchildren, says Principal IAN RIMMER. He reports on a new initiative to restore normality to the classroom.

SURELY every one of us should have some ambition; and is it too much to ask people to show good character? Well, sadly, traits that one may have taken for granted a few years ago have been severely affected by Covid, one of the many hidden costs of the pandemic.

As of today, 226,622 death certificates in the UK mention Covid-19. Yet far more people have been impacted socially; for some isolation and loneli ness have been exacerbated, for others an NHS wait ing list has got longer.

For many chil dren, the very fabric of their society has been challenged beyond perception. Not only may they have lost family members or have them living with longCovid, their innocent, unerring confidence in the world that surrounds them has been severely tested. I was thinking of using an ‘earthquake mag nitude 9 on the Richter scale’ metaphor, an event predicted to hap pen once every 300 years, ripping through our consciousness. But I think a snow globe image is more represen - tative; more childlike and symbolic of happy times. Now, imagine shaking it violently for a few moments; we all know what happens.

I am not a psychologist, but I am a pragmatist and I have seen the very essence of what children construct their lives around shaken to the core. Children thrive off familiarity and certainty, repetition and routine; how else do we learn languages, times tables, how to ride a bike …good behaviour! And that is how schools function at their best. So, when those routines are broken, repeatedly, and when all that is familiar is taken away, there will inevitably be conse -

I invite the reader to think about occasions when you have been required to do something you haven’t done for a while - like opening the bonnet of your car, for example. It’s surprisingly difficult when you haven’t done it for some

And then chuck in a few more curve balls for good measure, such as changing schools and redeveloping the site and the course has suddenly become extremely challenging for our children! But do not be fooled into thinking that this is a situation in which King James’s finds itself uniquely. Quite the contrary; the headteachers’ union, the Association of School and Col lege Leaders (ASCL) has been collating evi dence from schools up and down the land and seeing a very famil iar story played out time and time again*. As it says in the article, “ … this is a difficult topic. The last thing we want to do is give the impression that pupils are running amok. Most young people are respectful, polite and abide by the rules. … The issue here is whether poor behaviour is more prevalent and worse, why that might be the case, what impact this may have on institutions and individuals, and how it might be addressed. ” It goes on to say, “The government, predictably, has little to offer in the way of anything that is useful” . And so it is a case of “ … schools and colleges being left to pick up the pieces of a series of complex societal issues” . So how are we picking up the pieces?

As a first step we asked staff, and students, for their thoughts on the type of student we would like to see, and they would like to be, when they leave our doors at age 16. There was a sur - prising degree of commonality in the thoughts of the two groups, with words indicative of the times coming to the fore: ambitious, successful, independent, resilient, caring. Having thought a little more deeply about the messages being given through these words, it became clear(er) that what we were talking about was a fundamental desire to be academically successful and thus to take back control of their own destinies; perhaps an inevitable consequence after being at the total mercy of a pandemic. But also to develop good behaviours, both in terms of learning and social interaction.

But these habits and behaviours need to be modelled and practised repeatedly. Of course, some may find them more intuitive than others, but fundamentally good habits are precisely so because they have become routine. And thus we have come up with two new curricula: Ambition and Character . These do not take up valuable curriculum time, but will be ‘taught’ alongside, ideas being delivered during assembly and tutor time, and opportunities being provided ‘out of hours’. Why Ambition and Character? Because Ambition + Character = Excellence or to put it more succinctly, at KJS we are going to ACE it!

Within the Ambition curriculum *https://tinyurl.com/46a72yz6 we will aim to create an environme nt in which all students are encouraged to ‘think big’ in order to raise the level of ambition and establish a schoolwide sense of ‘why not me?’ To achieve this, we will provide high-quality experiences and opportunities for all. This may include a cultural trip for every child in every year group, a revamped Rewards system that has some value (to a 21st century child), enhanced student leadership opportunities, with various student committees covering issues of interest to them, and performance academies which will encourage participation from all but will enable those elite performers to excel.

And in our new Character curriculum we will aim to make explicit “how we do things at KJS” in order to raise standards in a fair and supportive way. To achieve this, we will be setting clear behavioural standards/routines, expected of all (staff and students). This may include making explicit (once again) what constitutes good behaviour at KJS, re-establishing good learning habits that have become disjointed, rebuilding parental links that have become inevitably more distant through Covid, providing training for staff, some of whom learned their craft during the pandemic (can you imagine how nigh on impossible that must have been?), and others who have simply got out of their good habits too!

So that’s the plan, as it currently stands, to ACE it at KJS . But for this initiative to be a success all stakeholders must buy into it, and gaining staff and student buy-in presents a whole new set of challenges that must be overcome.

If and when we achieve that, perhaps the snow in the globe will finally begin to settle. n l The impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of schoolchildren has been widely reported. On page 9, Assistant Principal Abbi Terry , the Senior Mental Health lead for King James’s School, reports on ways in which the School is responding to the challenge.

Contributions to The Almondburian

We are always delighted to receive articles, letters or photographs for publication in The Almondburian. Photographs should ideally be at 300dpi resolution at the size at which they will appear in the magazine, and in .jpg or .png format. Please submit photographs as separate attachments, not embedded in Word documents.

Editorial email address: almondburian@oas.org.uk