Returning to School after Six Months At Home

Ad – we received a Smiggle gift card to purchase back to school stationary in exchange for this feature.

Like almost every other parent with school age children I am facing the return to school with my daughter next week. She finished her classroom learning in March after a school trip with friends and now returns taller, older and a bit more anxious. Smiggle have helped make this transition a little easier by allowing us to purchase some back to school supplies. They have a lovely new Smiggle Budz range which has everything you need in one back to school bundle and perfect for the new school year. However, Evie still had a few things from last year that would be fine to continue and wanted to select a different bag. She also picked a pretty cool stationary kit and some new headphones – not back to school, but Smiggle have an amazing choice of fun things for kids and it’s one of Evie’s favourite shops.

How are you feeling about being back to school? I think Evie’s excited to see her friends but I’m not really sure. She has missed them but her closest friends are in a different class to her which always affects her quite badly. She stopped attending the classroom but continued with learning at home in March, half way through year 4. She went in for two days over the summer to meet her new teacher and half of her class as it was staggered to keep numbers low. One thing is for sure is that starting Year 5 is not the same as we pictured or even started school this time last year.

I have no issue with what the school are doing to keep everyone safe and try and catch people up with their maths and English. Evie has done various bits of school work over the last six months from workbooks to BBC Bitesize lessons and some of the home school learning packs from the school too. It’s been a challenge for us all being stuck in a small flat with no garden and being anxious. Here are some ways I know getting back to school will benefit Evie, even if we’re worried about the risks.

1. She will get outside every day. We didn’t walk daily during lockdown as we didn’t have a garden, Felix was new to walking and there’s only so many times you can do the same walk without having to travel from home. I was never really sure what we were allowed to do as everyone was doing different things. Evie will get time to burn off some energy outside and be walking to and from school each day.
2. We will all benefit from some routine again. I mean don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed not setting an alarm and relaxing around bedtime but that needs to change this week. I think we are all going to benefit from getting back to school routine in place and getting out the door the same time each morning.
3. She will socialise with her friends again. Evie will be intereacting with everyone in year five as a “social bubble” which seems weird as that bubble is around 60 kids. However, even with the risks, she really does need to see her friends again. I don’t think she will socially distance at all because she will forget. Others will forget. Because they’re children.
4. Having some structure to each day. We were pretty relaxed with home learning and it didn’t take us six hours a day to do the worksheets and online learning we had. Having some proper, clear structure to her day will be a benefit to her for sure. She will probably enjoy learning from her teacher more than she ever did with me!
5. Even though it won’t be the same as normal, I think it will be good for her to be back to some sort of normal. This virus hasn’t gone away and so we will be limiting our time spend with others because of course children can cause transmission of this virus and I don’t want to be the cause of anyone geting sick with both Adam & Evie returning to education this month

I know I’m looking forward to having a bit of time during the day back. So much has changed since we first had Evie home. Felix can walk and is hurtling into his toddler years fully. The time spend working will be different and there’s a chance we will face another few periods of isolation depending on how school goes. I hope though, that it will be a good experience for everyone, that everyone stays safe and that mostly kids enjoy this strange start to education, their new classroom environments and having some normality back in their lives.