Whether you are a parent, teacher, learner or someone with a vested interest in education, the reopening of schools during a time of Covid-19 brings a multitude of mixed feelings.
These can range from anxiety around the safety of the learners and those they will come into contact with and the confidence or lack thereof, in the school and the systems the school has put into place to protect learners and other stakeholders.
As schools prepared to reopen in various countries, the team at TomorrowToday began noticing some panic and uncertainty from parents, teachers and learners.
For teachers, there is a very real apprehension around the curriculum and completion of the syllabus, as learners prepare for assessments. Never have teachers felt more pressure to keep learners safe, while also fearing for their very own lives. Teachers are looking to consistently do right by their learners, now more than ever.
For parents, returning to school posed a similar dilemma…is returning the ‘right’ thing to do? How do I know my child will be safe? These questions combined with the need to send their children back to school to enable their own work to be done effectively, results in a state of confusion and high anxiety for many parents.
It is like being stuck in-between a rock and a hard place for teachers, parents and students as they try to navigate this uncertain and often, paradoxical landscape. Hence, The Returning To School Keep Calm Conversations webinar series is aimed at assisting parents, teachers and learners with asking the right questions that will help them manage some of their deepest anxieties around schooling in the Covid-19 schooling system.
The series is facilitated by Psychologist and Consultant, Tamryn Batcheller-Adams and UnLearning Expert and Past Elementary School Teacher, Zanele Njapha. Together, they share a wealth of experience in working with both education stakeholders and corporates.
The first webinar in the series was titled Returning To School: Keep Calm, You’ve Got This (watch the replay here) and was aimed at working through some of the question marks that hung in the air as teachers and parents began preparing to return to school. Tamryn and Zanele each shared a list of topics that are high anxiety drivers for parents and learners at this time and then suggested a few practical tips to help manage and adjust.
The focus of this webinar, was to reassure education stakeholders that Covid-19 schooling is new to all, and that as we navigate this new terrain together, one of our best tools for success will be our ability to stay calm and remember our own internal self competence.
The overwhelming feedback received from the first webinar highlighted continual high levels of anxiety and the desire to keep these conversations going. So we will be continuing with the series and invite you to join us for the second instalment:
Returning To School: Keep Calm and Assess The Situation.
Friday 12th June at 14:30 (RSA) Register here to attend.
As a good number of schools have reopened across the world and learning continues, we’d like to collectively assess what we are picking up and noticing about schooling in times of Covid-19 and what this could mean for you. We encourage all who have returned to school to begin doing the same.
Begin to engage with questions such as:
- Which parts of schooling have changed?
- What has stayed the same (perhaps even surprised you?)
- What have been the implications of these changes?
- What is making you most anxious at the moment? Perhaps a better way to put it, ‘What is keeping you up at night?’
We would love to hear some of your insights and answers to the above questions and use these as discussion points for the conversations as we meet online this coming Friday the 12th to continue our Keep Calm Series.
If you’re an educator looking for further engagement on how we can begin shifting our thoughts on education, register here to attend Zanele’s conversation with Future of Work Expert, Graeme Codrington on Monday, the 22nd of June.
Please respond to this email with your answers and insights.
We look forward to seeing you online on Friday – register here to attend the webinar.
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About the authors of today’s Tuesday Tip – Zanele Njapha & Tamryn Batcheller-Adams
In the face of disruptive change, Zanele Njapha assists organisations and schools to navigate various transitions through adopting key unlearning principles.
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With her Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology, and aMasters Degree in Research by Dissertation, being an Accredited Enneagram Practitioner and a Psychology lecturer, Tamryn Batcheller-Adams helps clients by developing insight into their teams and those they work with.
Email [email protected] for more information or to connect or begin working with Tamryn or Zanele.
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