If I’m honest, I’ve used tiredness as an excuse for poor parenting more frequently than I would like to admit. I use it when I am irrational, short-tempered and rude, and I also use it when my children are irrational, short-tempered and rude. That time I decided to put everyone on lockdown due to a missing Nintendo Switch game? I was just tired. That occasion one child rudely snatched toys off a friend at a particularly fractious play date? It was not bad parenting, they were just tired, OK?
But tiredness really is a factor touching most aspects of my family’s life as we limp towards half-term in Hampshire (a week later than many areas of the country). As the teacher of one of my daughters explained to me this week: “It’s not just the slog of a long half-term that is decimating energy levels, it’s the fact that the past seven weeks have still had so much disruption and that they have come after a relentless 21 months of constant change and uncertainty. It’s no wonder tiredness has set in and emotions are a rollercoaster.”
To be clear, she was referring to the staff as much as the primary-aged children for whom they are responsible.
We should not underestimate the impact that this has had on schools. Already a highly exposing place, the classroom will be much more precarious: failures will hurt more, small moments will become huge issues, the tolerable will become intolerable, things will escalate that much quicker. For both the adults and the children. And that could have extremely damaging consequences.
Teachers exhausted after holding education together during Covid
One week “off” isn’t going to do much at all to alleviate the exhaustion that everyone working in schools is experiencing. We need to look after each other and provide a cocoon of stability, safety and understanding if teachers and pupils are to rebuild.
Unfortunately, the next half-term won’t bring much of that.
We will see an end of Covid precautions before the reason for the precautions has subsided - and as Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said this week, there is not much of a plan about what that might look like. Stress and uncertainty will abound.
We will see teachers once again used as political pawns. Expect more ideological posturing, as with the government guidance on teachers’ “political neutrality” released this week. It will feel like - it arguably is - a personal affront to teachers at a time when their ability to put that into perspective and shake it off is at its lowest (they shouldn’t have to “shake it off”, of course).
And we will see huge amounts of change touted. We have been promised both the SEND review and the education White Paper in the next few months. With those documents will come the promise of a reimagining of the way schools work. Stability? Not a chance.
There will be much more than this besides. And yes, education is a dynamic, ever-changing environment to work in. Of course, we can’t just stop everything to let teachers recalibrate.
But ministers could look more closely at the change that could be postponed, the instability that could be side-stepped, the cultural grandstanding that could use a different platform. Ministers could acknowledge that school staff need recovery from the pandemic, too.
Those who work in scbools are exhausted because they held education together despite all the challenges of the past two years. As things begin to settle, it’s our duty to help them get back on their feet.
Jon Severs is editor at Tes. He tweets @jon_severs
