That it took a pandemic to get people to realise what teachers have been saying for decades must be more than a little frustrating for those who work in schools. They’ve always stressed that education is as much about the social, the relational and the societal as it is the process of academic learning, but the noise of accountability drowned them out.

Now that the data-related static has quietened down, a school’s additional role as a place where children grow and develop, make friends and form life-long relationships is suddenly clear to all.

Yet, even with that acknowledgement, the debate in the past few months has still centred on the impact of school closures on learning. What if children are falling behind? What if the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is widening? What if those a year out from exams are unduly hindered by so much time out of class?

Important as those questions are, they should be accompanied by other, just as crucial, queries. Last week, we looked at the impact that social isolation and time away from school has had on teacher wellbeing. Just as complex and important is the impact it has had on pupil wellbeing. And what we find, in looking into this issue, is that if we do want children to truly “catch up”, focusing on those non-academic roles of school will be crucial.

Best friends for ever?

What do primary-aged children miss about school when they are not there? What do teenagers miss? The answer, if you ask them directly, will almost always be: “My friends”. And the importance of those friendships should not be underestimated.

“Children’s social interactions are not just for fun - they provide a context where emotional, moral, intellectual and behavioural development occur,” explains Mitch Prinstein, John Van Seters distinguished professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Robin Dunbar, emeritus professor of evolutionary psychology and head of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience research group at the University of Oxford, told Tes last year that friendships provide us with several layers of support, starting with an inner circle of a few very close friends who serve as our “shoulders to cry on”. Beyond this core group, he argues, people will develop several circles of friends by adulthood, all offering different types of support. The largest and outermost circle averages about 150 people.

The reason why humans make friends in the first place is to secure access to this network of support, Dunbar explains. But he stresses that these benefits do not always come easy - we have to practise being a good friend. So the friendships that we make at school are not only important for the creation of the layers of friendships we have later, but also for developing the skills we will need to manage all those layers.

The closure of schools will have disrupted that process. Not only was the daily interaction with friends taken away from pupils, but their out-of-school interactions were also reduced to digital formats. It all happened without warning, and at a time when they really needed friends the most.

So, as far as potential challenges caused by the closures go, this is a big one.

On top of that, pupils also had another key relationship taken from them: daily, communication-rich interactions with their teachers. Whether or not pupils know it, this is another crucial facet of their social development; engaging with authority figures - some kind, some strict, some fun, some severe - shapes who they become.

“Teachers act as important role models in the development of social skills, demonstrating, for example, attentive listening, providing support to others in need and modelling respect for others,” says Aleisha Clarke, head of What Works: Child Mental Health and Wellbeing at the Early Intervention Foundation.

Both teachers and friendships also provide a safety net, an outlet and support for vulnerable pupils, some of whom will have certainly become more vulnerable during the school closures.

So, while pupils may have missed learning, they have missed all this, too. How might this situation have affected them during the lockdown, and what could the consequences be when they return to school?

There are no easy answers to these questions, not least because nothing like this has ever happened, and a full return to how things were is unlikely until we have a vaccine - but, even then, there could be a new normal to which we will have to adapt.

What we should be clear on is that schools assist with the process of self-identification, says Monique Verhoeven, a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam who has authored a paper based on an in-depth look at the various research that exists around how school shapes children’s identities.

“Not only does school help children to prepare to participate in the labour market later on (termed the qualification function), it also helps them to acquire citizenship skills - for example, through learning about and constructively engaging with differences between people (the socialisation function),” she explains.

“Additionally, by engaging in qualification and socialisation practices, they also learn a lot about who they are: they discover talents, interests and learn about the norms and values they do and do not identify with - called the subjectification function.”

How far the school closures have disrupted this process - and how far the process will continue to be disrupted even when schools go back - is difficult to predict, but certainly the loss of regular in-person contact with friends is likely to cause wellbeing concerns, according to researchers.

For younger children, challenges will come from the lack of relatedness - being connected to others and feeling cared for - because school is where so much of this happens, says Lajos Göncz, a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia.

“Because the current life situation is preventing people from satisfying their needs, it is to be expected that many of [these children] will become frustrated and experience anxiety, insecurity, fear, anger and aggression,” he says.

Arrested development

Meanwhile, for secondary students, the “list of developmental processes [during adolescence] is extensive,” says Verhoeven, who cites everything from making friends and discovering interests to learning skills such as collaboration and conflict resolution.

The loss of time to interact with friends will hit teenagers hard, agrees Edward Melhuish, professor of human development in the department of education at the University of Oxford. “School is immensely important from a social developmental point of view and the impact of social isolation for those in secondary school will be painful,” he says.

You may think that with technology, much of this impact can be mitigated. But for younger children, digital tools are usually ineffective as at that age, they don’t tend to connect through conversations but through play. And while it can help with teenagers, according to Brett Laursen, professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, it is not a direct substitute and can actually make things worse for some young people.

“Most children already have an electronic life from ages 10 or 12, and are plugged into social media to help them engage with friends,” he says, adding that this means that for many, it will prove a reasonable substitute for in-person contact, for a while at least. But he stresses that it “won’t be as rich as in-person contact” - it will miss all the non-verbal parts of friendship that physical contact brings.

And he adds that if children lack the means to communicate via tech, or have less access, this could exacerbate the loss of these key areas of their development.

“Social life and academic life will be easier for those who are more advantaged. Some children will suffer socially from this digital divide, particularly those who don’t have ready access to the internet, or those who have to share devices with siblings and other family members,” Laursen explains.

What’s more, Amelia Roberts, the deputy director University College London’s Centre for Inclusive Education, says that relationships thrive around shared - and often new - experiences. And children and teens will not have been getting as many of those shared experiences since the novelty of “home school” and isolation wore off.

“The teenage brain thrives on stimulation and new experience, so remaining in the home will be challenging,” she says.

So, it’s likely children will have missed a good chunk of personal development time, and the loss of regular physical contact with friends may leave many of them anxious, may cause behavioural challenges and may mean that on their return they struggle to adapt to the social dynamics with which they were once comfortable.

Just like the summer holidays?

How should schools react? Pastoral teams are going to need to be ready at all phases of education to support many more children than they perhaps would normally, and an increase in behaviour issues - beyond that normal readjustment to routines common after the summer break - seems likely.

Indeed, there is a suggestion from some experts in this area that secondary schools should also watch for teens rushing to make up for lost time: risky behaviours may be even more appealing than they are normally.

An awareness that children and teenagers will need time to get to know each other again, leaving space for them to do so, and understanding that there is a huge transition challenge pastorally that will need to be overcome will also be key. Expecting everyone to pick up where they left off is unlikely to be realistic.

But, as mentioned, it is not just peer relationships that will have been disrupted: a pupil’s relationship with school and teachers will have been compromised, too. In the short term, this could have a knock-on impact on attainment and wellbeing while children are out of school, says Ros McLellan, from the faculty of education at the University of Cambridge.

“One thing that is important for children to do well in school is this sense of belonging to school, the physicality of it - seeing your mates and having good relationships with teachers … and I do wonder if in this context, when people are not doing this, how it will impact on sense of belonging to an institution, whether we can feel that as strongly if not being enforced by that physicality.”

A positive physical relationship with school can be integral to a child’s wellbeing, as research by the department of psychiatry at the University of Michigan makes clear: “Youth[s] who felt more connected to their school reported lower levels of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, social anxiety and sexual activity, as well as higher levels of self-esteem and more adaptive use of free time. Findings suggest that family and school connectedness may buffer youth on a trajectory of risk, and may therefore be important potential targets for early intervention services.”

This is both positive to hear in general - it underlines the importance of schools - but also worrying: how far have things slipped while children have been away from school and how much support will children need to rebuild those relationships when they return?

Writing it off as “just being like the summer holidays” is unlikely to be helpful: the disruption was sudden, unplanned and connected to other constraints on the autonomy of young people. In addition, this disruption is likely to last even when children are back at school, and we may yet get more closures. Feelings of abandonment and mistrust are a real danger.

Teachers, of course, have tried their best to help to maintain as much normality as possible, but they have been limited by circumstance. So, in general, it is likely that work will be needed to reform the pupil-school-teacher bonds when schools reopen: parties, plays, sports matches, celebration assemblies - these communal activities will all be essential, according to the researchers. There is a fair bit of research around the unifying impact of singing, so maybe a big sing-song will help. In secondary, more time in tutor groups and more focus on PSHE might be useful, too.

But even if schools do these things, there will be some pupils who will need even more help to rebuild a bond with school.

For example, the most vulnerable children may have lacked the support they needed for a worryingly long period. In the first instance, schools will need to find out from vulnerable children if they need extra support and be alert to disclosures of new information. Teachers will need to be aware that they - and the school - may now be less trusted by these children if something has occurred while schools were closed. For some, it will be like starting from scratch, according to staff in pupil-referral units and specialist social, emotional and mental health provision.

Being mindful of this, not expecting too much, and introducing reintegration plans on an individual pupil basis will likely help.

Readjust, recalibrate, reconnect

Also in need of extra support will be those who were already struggling at school owing to things like bullying, and who may have welcomed the break and be even more reluctant to attend school than they were before. “A child who is being bullied will [have felt] a great relief not being in that environment, but in time that could make the idea of school become even more of a phobia and they won’t want to go back when it restarts as they will get used to the relief of being at home,” says Melhuish.

There may also be pupils who did not have any issues but who now do have them. For younger age groups, it may be that transition into school was difficult before and the extended time at home will mean they require a phased return. For older pupils, it may be that bullying has emerged while they have been away, and it could be even more acute than if it had happened in school.

“At least if you’re in a maths lesson, you can’t be cyberbullied, but if you’re in a lesson remotely, it can still happen,” says Roberts.

And finally, our youngest children need particular attention. These children will likely not understand why they were suddenly without all their friendship groups and also why they were suddenly without their class teacher. A return to school before the summer holidays, then an extended break over the summer holidays, will likely confuse them even more.

“Depending upon the child’s age, he or she may not understand why they are not able to play with their friends any more, and long bouts of boredom and tension with parents may make the experience even more unpleasant,” says Frank McAndrew, the Cornelia H Dudley professor of psychology at Knox College, Illinois.

It may be wise for schools to contact parents and ask them to highlight any issues they should know about that have emerged over the closure period. For older pupils, an additional reintegration meeting or anonymous survey may be useful. And Melhuish adds that anti-bullying policies should be reviewed and best practice recalibrated to ensure that everyone is ready to tackle this issue.

But many things cannot be fixed with a policy or a quick intervention. As with friendships, rebuilding teacher and school bonds will need time and patience: we can’t expect too much too soon.

How likely is it that this time will be available when children are being rushed to catch up? The researchers stress that without it, children won’t be doing any catching up. The longer children are out of school, and the longer it takes them to readjust when in school, the bigger the potential issue for the child’s social development, and that is as important as academic development in predicting adult outcomes, says Clarke.

“Longitudinal research carried out in the UK has shown that the development of social and emotional skills by the age of 10 [is a] predictor of a range of adult outcomes (age 42), such as life satisfaction and wellbeing, labour market success and good overall health,” she says.

It is this message that academics and researchers stress above all: yes, academic outcomes are key and should be addressed, but that should be done alongside pastoral concerns that should be given equal weight.

“One thing that worries me,” says Roberts, “is that when the children go back to school, we will be focused on academic issues - how can we catch up to where we should be? - and so there will be a pressure on children to catch up quickly, whereas actually what they need is time to reconfigure how they operate within the school environment.”

Many teachers are no doubt aware of this and will want to give children time to readjust, to help them recalibrate and reconnect with everyone - just as they themselves will have to find their feet in the classroom, in the staffroom and at the school gates again.

But school leaders, government, Ofsted, multi-academy trusts and everyone else involved in accountability needs to give those teachers the time to do it.

Dan Worth is a senior editor at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 8 May 2020 issue under the headline “The impact of isolation: part 2 - how it affects students”