Before the pandemic there was always one, one child who would come into year 1 longing to crawl under the table and make a den, itching to roll a tractor along the window ledge or draw a flower on the back of their hand. Our current curriculum jumps children from reception where play is at the forefront of learning to year one where pressing academic targets means that play is relegated to smaller pockets of time, in between literacy or numeracy skills and a long list of knowledge, awareness and evidence across the humanities, science and PSHCE, a transition which many 5 year olds are shaken by.
As a drama teacher these same children would come bursting into my lesson with more energy than they knew what to do with, desperate for games, improvisation or just the chance to run around and role play. Since the pandemic this experience has become less positive. Children who never really got to be fully expressed two- or three-year-olds, were throwing tantrums, pocketing resources to provoke attention or assaulting other children. As a staff member, the weekly increase in containment measures and safeguarding guidelines added extra pressure to an already loaded brief, not just in class but in the codes of conduct governing how we guide children through day-to-day school routines
The pressure on class teachers to follow the curriculum and evidence its coverage has little scope to adapt to children who are simply not ready for this stage. This is a challenge that is being faced more and more by teachers and parents alike. After such a disruption to their social and emotional development and their ability to learn, explore and play, children are being challenged across every frontier of school life. Some years ago, I worked for many months with excluded children. We had significant success coaxing them back into a learning journey after they had arrived feeling rejected and resentful and not particularly cooperative. In one memorable moment I encountered a 12-year-old who had been expelled at 10, the same age I was when I was expelled after an incident where I hit a teacher. Dramatic as that sounds, no one investigated why or how I had come to lash out. Reflecting now, as a teacher and a parent, it is very clear to me that I exploded because of being hit by teachers on a regular basis, and on the day itself, assaulted from behind. My 12-year-old art pupil had had a similar moment lashing out at a boy who had bullied him repeatedly. The difference was that in the 70s I was quietly moved to a different school. 40 years on, my pupil was marked for life in a school where he was learning new and creative ways to express his anger and frustration.
Our post pandemic children need time to catch up on childhood, not academic targets. Before we land even greater numbers with the stigma of being unacceptable in mainstream school, we need the courage to adapt to the children we have in front of us, not the academic targets set by ministers and professors. Experienced primary school teachers have the skill to meet this moment, our education system needs to value that skill and learn from them.