Long Covid Kids Education Team Introductions

This is a blog to tell you a little about the Long Covid Kids Education team; our achievements and our plans for the future. We welcome new volunteers and new ideas, so if you have any time or ideas, please do get in touch!

• Who Are We?

• Specific Challenges for The Education Team

• What Have We Achieved?

1. Long Covid Kids Support Guide

2. Padlets

3. Articles

4. Podcast

5. Blogs

Plus...

• What Are We Working On?

• What Are Our Plans Going Forward?

• About

• Support our work

• Our mission

Who Are We?

We are a team of six, with a variety of backgrounds in education; from the early years, through primary, secondary and with adults, including SEND. We give our time; alongside our other jobs, roles within LCK and caring responsibilities.

Dr Sue Peters is an Educational Psychologist and leads the team. She has been working with LCK since December 2021.

Specific Challenges for the Education Team

There are quite a few, but the main one is a lack of awareness of Long Covid in children which leads to:

• A need to support families to be able to advocate for their child and their education and to raise awareness among educators so that they can ensure access to education, inclusion and support for children with Long Covid in the classroom;

• Increasing pressure on schools from the government to improve attendance rates, leading to schools prioritising attendance over wellbeing and leading to children with Long Covid returning to school before they are well enough;

• Children missing school and unable to access education because they are too ill with Long Covid;

• The impact of Long Covid on mental health and the emphasis on academic ‘catch-up’ above wellbeing.

What Have We Achieved?

When you put it all together... quite a lot!

1. Long Covid Kids Support Guide

• We have written content for ‘Shining a Light on Long Covid in Children. Recognition, Support, Recovery’. It is free to download from the Long Covid Kids website here Support Guide | Long Covid Kids.

2. Padlets

• Developed 5 Padlets for children and young people, their families and the professionals supporting them to accompany the Support Guide. Padlet is an interactive website/app that provides a visual library of internet links that our team will update as new information emerges. These contain resources and information to improve recognition, support and recovery. There are five Padlets for different audiences;

• Children

• Young people

• Families

• Schools/education professionals

• Health and social care professionals

3. Articles

Written 2 articles for Sec Ed and Headteacher Update on the impact of Long Covid on children and how schools can support them:

a) The Impact of Long Covid on Children - Sec Ed and Headteacher Update:

Exhausting, painful, lonely: The impact of Long Covid on children (sec-ed.co.uk)

Exhausting, painful, lonely: The impact of Long Covid on children (headteacher-update.com)

b) How Can We Support Pupils Who Have Long Covid? – Sec Ed and Headteacher Update:

How can we support pupils who have Long Covid? (sec-ed.co.uk)

How can we support pupils who have Long Covid? (headteacher-update.com)

4. Podcast

• Recorded a podcast with the headteacher of a secondary school to accompany the SecEd and Headteacher Update articles. In the podcast Sue discusses the range of symptoms, the implications for schools & offers lots of tips/advice for supporting students living with Long Covid

5. Blogs

• Written a number of blogs about Long Covid:

a) Children and Young People Describe Their Long Covid - LCK Blog:

https://www.longcovidkids.org/post/exhausting-painful-never-ending-lonely-children-young-people-describe-their-long-covid

b) Supporting the Wellbeing of School Staff With Long Covid - LCK Blog:

Teachers, along with Health and Social Care workers are in the occupational groups most likely to be affected by Long Covid and so supporting the wellbeing of staff with Long Covid, should be a priority for leadership teams.

https://www.longcovidkids.org/post/school-staff-with-long-covid-five-things-you-can-do-to-support-your-wellbeing

c) Reflective Blog, Becoming the Mother of A Child With Long Covid and an EP Working with LCK – Edpsy.org.uk:

I wish I didn’t have to: becoming the mother of a child with long covid and an EP working with Long Covid Kids. - edpsy.org.uk

d) The Long Covid Kids Support Guide

The Long Covid Kids Support Guide - edpsy.org.uk

Plus...

• Delivered the Support Guide to 10 Downing Street with handwritten letters from children living with Long Covid

• Been interviewed for Times Radio and TES

• Presented at the POTs and Long Covid Masterclass, POTs UK Conference

• Liaison with other charities such as the education team at PANS PANDAs UK

• Gathered children’s views on Long Covid via their parents in the Facebook Group.

• Responded to emails and questions on Facebook Support Group re school support, exams, home education etc. Had discussions with the Division of Clinical Psychologists (DCP) and Division of Educational and Child Psychologists (DECP) about endorsing the support pack and future work together

What Are We Working On?

The team are working on further awareness raising, training, writing, research and support for children, their families and the professionals supporting them, in particular:

• creating an attendance questionnaire to ascertain how many children are missing / attending school and how much of the time

• Setting up Educational Psychology consultations for parents and school staff to attend together to discuss needs and to plan support strategies. The pilot study will be written up with the plan to roll out more widely in the new academic year

• Working with Twinkl to develop resources and information leaflets for children, school staff and families

• Developing and delivering training for school staff, Local Authority staff, Educational Psychologists, ELSAs etc

• Writing further articles, e.g. an article with the Health team on transitioning back to school after the school holidays for Evidence-Based Nursing

• A project to collate letters from children to their new teachers for September

• Responding to the SEND Review/ Schools Bill

What Are Our Plans Going Forward?

We have plans for further awareness raising, training, writing, research and support for children, their families and the professionals supporting them:

• Further research into children’s views

• Presentations at a national ELSA conference, EdPSyUK's Festival of Psychology and others

• Develop a FAQ for the website on exams

• Input into LCK Connected Sessions for parents

• Evaluation of the support guide and padlets

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Dr Sue Peters

Educational Psychologist and Educational Team Lead

28th June 2022

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