One year on from the first national lockdown, there is a great deal of talk about “catching up” in the early years. This comes from a place of concern about the needs of our youngest children; you have to spend only a few minutes in the company of a small child to know how much they crave social interaction and play.

As the nursery school pioneer Margaret McMillan once said, young children “feel life in every limb”. They need space, movement, exciting things to do, and adults to chat with and address their “why” questions towards.

But just how badly affected by the pandemic are our youngest pupils? How worried should we really be?

Many families with young children have found lockdown very hard to deal with. In some families, older children have needed lots of help with home learning, leaving carers with less attention to spare for babies and toddlers. Some young children have now become nervous about mixing with others.

As the number of children in our setting has increased, we’ve welcomed back many who have put on weight and are less mobile. Others have found it hard to rekindle friendships; they struggle to cope with the negotiations that are part of pretend play with others.

On the other hand, many children have bounced back and got stuck into nursery life with their usual relish.

Covid: Supporting parents of EYFS pupils

This all tells us something important, which may be obvious: young children have lived through the pandemic in very different ways. It is important not to generalise.

The pandemic has also affected parental loneliness, especially in more disadvantaged areas. Children need confident, warm and responsive parenting above everything else. Anxiety, stress and loneliness all make it harder for mothers and fathers to offer this.

A continual focus on catch-up is likely to have a negative effect on parents’ moods. If we’re not careful, as we try to meet children’s needs, we may undermine the sort of family environment required for them to thrive.

Much of what we do in the early years comes down to a few straightforward principles. We know we do our best work when we build respectful relationships with parents. We also know that it is important to build on children’s strengths rather than focusing on “deficits”, which can quickly lead to low expectations.

We need to observe carefully and have fine-grained assessment systems to notice when children are struggling, with learning or social skills. For some children, we will need to act quickly and give them encouragement and intensive help.

We call the birth to age 5 phase the foundation stage for a good reason. It’s about all the foundational experiences, understanding, skills, language and attitudes that children need.

We wouldn’t build a house without foundations. Where children have missed out on key aspects of the foundation stage, we need to make sure they have time and space to experience them.

However, in doing that, we mustn’t let a focus on “catching up” contribute to the burdens that this pandemic has already placed on children and families.

High-quality early education and care is about careful assessment, and responding appropriately to each child’s learning, social and emotional needs.

That’s one thing that hasn’t changed, even in the wake of Covid-19.

Julian Grenier is the headteacher of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre. He co-leads the East London Research SchoolThis article originally appeared in the 19 March 2021 issue under the headline “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”One year on from the first national lockdown, there is a great deal of talk about “catching up” in the early years. This comes from an understandable place of concern about the needs of our youngest children; you only have to spend a few minutes in the company of a small child to know how much they crave social interaction and play.

As the nursery school pioneer Margaret McMillan once said, young children “feel life in every limb”. They need space, movement, exciting things to do, and adults to chat with and address their “why” questions towards.

But just how bad is the problem? How worried should we really be?

Many families with young children have found lockdown very hard to deal with. In some families, older children have needed lots of help with home learning, leaving carers with less attention to spare for babies and toddlers. Some young children have now become nervous about mixing with others.

As the number of children in our setting has steadily increased, we’ve welcomed back many who have put on weight and are less mobile. Other children are finding it difficult to rekindle friendships; they are struggling to cope with the negotiations that are part of pretend play with others.

On the other hand, many children have bounced back and got stuck into nursery life with their usual relish.

This all tells us something important, which may be obvious: young children have lived through the pandemic in very different ways. It is important not to generalise.

The pandemic has also affected parental loneliness, especially in more disadvantaged areas. Children need confident, warm and responsive parenting above everything else. Anxiety, stress and loneliness all make it harder for mothers and fathers to offer this.

A continual focus on catch-up is likely to have a negative effect on parents’ moods. If we’re not careful, as we try to meet children’s needs, we may undermine the sort of family environment required for them to thrive.

Much of what we do in the early years comes down to a few straightforward principles. We know we do our best work when we build respectful relationships with parents. We also know that it is important to build on children’s strengths rather than focusing on “deficits”, which can quickly lead to low expectations.

We need to observe carefully and have fine-grained assessment systems to notice when children are struggling, with learning or social skills. For some children, we will need to act quickly and give them encouragement and intensive help.

We call the birth to age 5 phase the foundation stage for a good reason. It’s about all the foundational experiences, understanding, skills, language and attitudes that children need.

We wouldn’t build a house without foundations. Where children have missed out on key aspects of the foundation stage, we need to make sure they have time and space to experience them.

However, in doing that, we mustn’t let a focus on “catching up” contribute to the burdens that this pandemic has already placed on children and families.

High-quality early education and care is about careful assessment, and responding appropriately to each child’s learning, social and emotional needs.

That’s one thing that hasn’t changed, even in the wake of Covid-19.

Dr Julian Grenier is the headteacher of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre. He co-leads the East London Research School

This article originally appeared in the 19 March 2021 issue under the headline “We can’t allow catch-up to impact on parenting”