A LEADING psychiatrist has warned schools may feel like a “strange place” to pupils when they return next month due to safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Many children will be looking forward to being re-united with their friends and returning to formal learning next month for the first time since March.
Classes will not be the same as before lockdown, even though the Scottish Government’s scientific advisers have said pupils can return in August without physical distancing if coronavirus continues to be suppressed.
Dr Justin Williams, vice-chair of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, said going to school could feel very different.
He said: “It’s not just about going back to a routine, it’s about going back to a routine with a lot of extra rules that are likely to be necessary to minimise risk and that’s going to be challenging for a lot of young people.”
He also said many children find masks upsetting as it can make it hard to read people’s facial expressions.
Williams said children will have mixed emotions about returning to class.
He said: “Some will be looking forward to going back and seeing their friends, and some are really not looking forward to going back and have loved being away from school, while some hated being away from school – so there is a huge range of views.
“For some children, such as those going into P1 or S1, they are starting at a new school and will have anxiety about that along with worry about Covid.”
Williams said being able to spend time with other children without social distancing – as is now allowed for under-12s – has helped restore some sense of normality ahead of the return to school.
He said parents should be given as much information as possible to help prepare their children for what to expect. He also suggested parents could create some sort of structure to the day in the last couple of weeks of the holiday to prepare children for the routine of being at school.
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