Wednesday Well Being

Wednesday Well Being Message 9.9.20

The Importance of Routine

Leisa Randall

Principal Educational Psychologist

 

In last week’s Wednesday Well Being bulletin, I wrote about uncertainty and how we deal with it. The area of focus for today’s Well Being bulletin is the importance of establishing routine.

Routines are important to humans. We need them as babies and developing young people in order to help us make sense of the world, to learn to trust what is happening in the world and to feel secure with others. Some people may have found they developed new routines during lockdown which quickly became the way they lived their lives. There is a process of mourning for what has been lost which might be manifested in lamenting the queues at the supermarket, or the mandatory wearing of face masks in shops, and simultaneously, an adaptation to and adoption of a new way of life.

When children do not have routine, or clear, consistent and contingent care-giving their developing brains find it hard to deal with the unpredictability. This can result in attachment disorders. I am interested in the importance of routine as a psychologist, an educator and also as a parent. We had a new routine as a family during lockdown which was to play a board game together after dinner each night. This has resulted in me learning a lot about Warhammer (youngest 15 year old) and revisiting the joys of Snakes and Ladders (eldest 16 year old).

As a primary school teacher, I was always fascinated by the process of establishing a class identity and new routines and rituals for each new class at the start of a session or a new term, or a new week, or a new day. I can’t remember the all of the content of the curriculum I taught my Year 2/3 class now, some 20 years later, but I can recall some of the routines the children and I established together to work, think and play as a class team. They were simple things like a simple consistent greeting at the door of the classroom each day on arrival, and a process for moving furniture when the pupils were doing specific tasks. When I observe classes as an Educational Psychologist, I often see original and unique traditions that allow teachers and pupils to interact in a whole class way which convey reliability, safety and trust.

This reminds me of a school I knew well overseas, where the Head teacher stood at the entrance of the building every morning to shake hands and say good morning to each and every pupil as they arrived. Shaking hands is no longer in our toolbox of social interaction skills because of COVID, unfortunately, and we have to find other ways to convey those messages of welcome, trust, connectivity and support. A smile is a much underrated non-verbal which does this well. If you are familiar with Zoom or TEAMs meetings you may have become aware of the ‘resting face’ of yourself or of colleagues. Not everyone’s ‘resting face’ is a smile. It’s worth being aware of your own ‘resting face’ so you can make sure you are regularly and frequently ‘dosing‘ those around you with frequent non-verbal messages to convey warmth and welcome, such as a simple smile.

Coming back to school, rediscovering routine and structure, connecting with others in classes and finding a new ‘groove’ for Monday-to Friday life will be especially important to children and young people this session. Routine can be healing and helpful in and of itself. We have a chance to establish new routines, and create new traditions with each new class. Routine tells us and others ‘You are safe’. And this question is the big important one that children subconsciously ask themselves all the time. They may not know why or be able to express it but feeling unsafe will impact their physiology and their behaviour. Routine makes children feel secure. Even my teenage boys notice and comment, if I don’t say the same thing (‘Another Happy Day Tomorrow’) when they go to bed each night.

What routines do you have in your life in the morning, at bedtime? How do these support you and tell you what you have to do next, how do they signal that you are safe, that things are within your control?

What routines have you established for and with your students. Are the routines consistently applied? Are pupils clear about them? If they forget them, why do they forget? Some routines can be invisible and taken for granted e.g. partner makes cup of tea each morning which tells you it’s time to get up.

Routine is important as it generates in us a knowledge of what to expect, a predictability which allows us to develop trust of the world and of others. Without it we can feel insecure and unsafe within the environment and with others. This is especially the case in learning environments because learning is a risky business, particularly if you are an adolescent growing through the sometimes torturous process of identity formation.   You have to get things wrong, often publicly. You have to learn from your mistakes and redo things, you have to admit there are things you don’t understand and ask for help over and over again. I had a Chemistry teacher who patiently revisited dynamic equilibrium for me more than 20 times way back in 1982, never once making me feel more stupid or incompetent than I already felt about not being able to retain the concept. Learning is risky, and learners are constantly being assessed as a normal and natural part of teaching. It has to happen, so we need to make it happen in a safe environment with adults we can trust. Routine promotes that.

With routine, we can encourage young people to develop their sense of personal agency. This is as important a predictor of successful recovery as connectedness and relationships. Personal agency, in my view, is a much under-rated notion. It has perhaps been overshadowed by the drive for promoting self-esteem.

 

 

 

Wednesday Well Being 21st August

Taking Action Against Uncertainty- Growing Your Circle of Inlfuence

Leisa Randall, Principal Educational Psychologist

August 2020

 

Dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak has forced us all to face uncertainty. As soon as plans are made they get unmade and something else happens. I don’t think I have ever experienced a more uncertain period in life. From March onwards each day it has felt like anything could happen and what was agreed yesterday could change again, several times, today. This can be confusing stressful and create worry. Pupils have returned to school and yet we are still faced with uncertainty; what PPE will be required and in what circumstances? Will there be further lockdowns whether locally or nationally? Will there be a vaccine? How long is this all going to last?

As educators we really do like to plan and be organised. It is integral to the way we work. We map out what we are going to do over the short and long term and specify our aims and goals for the future. The levels of uncertainty that we were faced with this year have shaken many people, leaving us feeling out of control and sometimes, helpless.

Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern

When I am working with young people on managing stress and uncertainty, I ask them to complete a Circle of Concern. This is a summary of all the things that worry or stress them. I am including in this bulletin 3 photos (below) of this activity done with a group of secondary pupils which were taken over a period of 6 weeks;

 

Creating the Circle of Concern

 

The Circle of Concern is like a stress wall. It is stuffed full of things that create havoc with our sense of stability, security and ease. The things in this circle feel beyond our control and can present as overwhelming. Uncertainty about the future is often a post-it people place in the Circle of Concern.

The good news is that there is another circle we can place inside the Circle of Concern- called the Circle of Influence. This could start as a small circle which lists one or two things that we do to help ourselves to cope with the stressors in the Circle of Concern. They might include very simple things like getting outdoors, or even singing in the shower.

 

The students I work with are encouraged to ‘grow’ their Circle of Influence throughout the workshops by exploring and finding other ways to cope with anxieties and stresses in their lives.

 

 

 

The Circle of Influence is one way to identify coping strategies. Sharing these as a group can help others build resilience too. This could be a useful activity to do in a staff group, or with a class of young people. It is a way to acknowledge that the Circle of Concern will always exist, and there may be things in there that we can’t ever change or control, such as the outbreak of coronavirus. Nevertheless, inside that circle we can grow our influence with many small ways to cope. Here are some of my post-its in the Circle of Influence;

  • Walking on the beach every morning at 6am come rain or shine
  • Going for a walk when there is a beautiful sunset
  • Getting a cheese scone from the local deli on a Saturday morning
  • Playing board games with my family after dinner each night
  • Singing in the car on the way to work
  • Reading each night before bed to escape from daily concerns

 

These simple things can help me to cope with unpleasant news or uncertain circumstances. They don’t change the circumstances – they do change me and my ability to face the world.

What do you have in your Circle of Concern right now? What things do you do to help you cope with them? What would you put in your Circle of Influence? How can you grow this?

 

Taking action against uncertainty

This term, we are in a clear and obvious state of uncertainty. We don’t know if there will be a ‘spike’ and whether we face another lockdown locally or nationally, we don’t know when and if there will be an effective safe vaccine developed, we don’t know deep and for how long economic recession will last.

All of this ‘not knowing’ could have a negative impact on mental health unless we choose to take action against it. We need to reflect regularly on the internal and external resilience tools we have and could use to protect us against unpredictability, unwelcome news and ongoing instability.

Taking action in schools to explore the ways in which we protect ourselves and help children and young people to do the same, will help us and young people to get through difficult times now and in the future and encourage a resilient generation to come.

 

The Five Ways to Well Being leaflets attached to this bulletin, are useful tools to think about mental health for adults and for young people. This was created by a multi-agency group at the start of lockdown this year and has been used in Hubs and communities to develop a shared awareness of what we can do to take care of ourselves, particularly during challenging times.

 

Principal Educational Psychologist’s Well Being Wednesday

This week’s Wednesday well being chat is all about Resilience and Nurture.

This period of planning for return to school has reminded me of when I was running an infant department in a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during a time of civil war. The school had to shut down for a few months when the Communist regime was overthrown by rebels from Eritrea. There was a period when young people could not attend school and then a reopening and recovery phase a few months later.

One thing I learned from that experience was that receiving and reconnecting with children and young people after such a disruptive, major event involved thinking differently about education. It meant committing as a whole school to the giving over of time; to hear the stories of staff and pupils, acknowledge the difficulties, contain the emotions, re-introduce routine and structure, and crucially, explore how both staff and pupils had coped. It was an opportunity to discover and celebrate the resilience of adults and young people. This had to be done with an approach that conveyed to young people that they were safe, both physically and emotionally. In those days we didn’t call it nurture, but that is what we meant.

Building resilience along with a nurturing approach can be achieved whilst holding on tightly to aspirations of high quality learning and teaching. At first, in September 1991, I didn’t think it could, and I was proved wrong. Giving time to lay the foundations for feeling safe, making time for reflection on how we all coped, providing the time students to be welcomed, reconnect, adjust and acknowledge their coping strategies meant that they were able to learn.

Resilience and Nurture are the themes of the Health and Well Being Recovery Curriculum launched this week which is attached to this Bulletin.

The Health and Well Being Recovery Curriculum aims to support staff teams in planning for emotional well being, in preparation for some pupils returning to school buildings in August.

It is a collection of questions and practical suggestions for promoting emotional well being. Teachers and other education staff are not therapists, but they can provide a therapeutic environment for young people to re-adjust and regulate to the structure and routine of school in order to be effective learners.

Accompanying this document are other materials;

Resource Pack,

Resilience Reflection Tool

Nurture Reflection tool and

Virtual Headstrong programme for P7s

These documents will be circulated to all Head teachers in Midlothian and will be available on Glow. Three of them are also attached to this bulletin.

Teaching pupils when they come back to school will be different and there are still many questions which do not yet have answers. This uncertainty can be hard to manage. My advice is to acknowledge and be explicit about these ’unknowns’ in your staff teams and with children and young people. Naming the ‘unknowns’ and also the ‘knowns’ can help to develop a sense of control and influence over some things.

The Recovery phase will take time, and will be different for different individuals. It will certainly not be complete in the first few weeks of school starting back. A key issue will be schools generating a sense of hope, welcome and belonging to all staff and young people, acknowledging that everyone will have different stories and experiences of being in ‘lockdown’ which may be both positive and negative and have had a range of impacts.

Planning for the well being of our staff and young people through this Recovery Curriculum will be based on a solution focused approach which puts Building Resilience and Nurturing practice at the forefront of all decisions.

Resilience- the ability to bounce back from adversity

We will best be able to support the school community if we focus on how we have all coped, and are still coping. There are both internal and external factors which give help to build a person’s resilience. We now have a ‘real life’ opportunity to build resilience in ourselves and our young people, as we have all gone through, and are still going through, a global pandemic. Reflecting on what has helped us to manage and is still helping us to deal with it, will be an important task as students start the new school year. The Resilience Reflection Tool is an additional resource which accompanies the Health and Well Being Recovery Curriculum with plenty of practical tips and advice.

Nurture

Some people think of nurture in schools as being a room where pupils get to sit on sofas and eat toast. I think of nurture as necessarily needing to be in every space in and around a school, providing the structures, boundaries, routines and relationships to allow young people to feel safe enough to self-regulate, interact and learn. This might involve a sofa and the occasional piece of toast. Nurture is fundamentally about people being ‘seen’, and feeling safe, soothed and secure.

Nurturing approaches are based on the following 6 principles;

  • Learning is understood developmentally
  • The learning space is a safe base
  • Nurture is important in the development of well being
  • Language is understood as a vital means of communication
  • All behaviour is communication
  • Transitions are significant in children’s lives.

We may need to establish new routines at the start, during and end of each learning session which help students to adjust through other activities not normally within the standard school curriculum. By this, I mean recognising the need to provide a rhythm to the day which allows for plenty of outdoor time, play, music, art, social interaction, laughter, fun, discussion, reflection, mindfulness, relaxation and movement. These will support the regulation of students who may have become out of routine, or dysregulated through ‘digital hangovers’ and/or ‘nature deprivation’ during school closure. A blended learning model will mean that students need opportunities to re-adjust each time they come into school.

These principles are illustrated with practical tips and reflections in the Nurture Reflection Tool which accompanies the Health and Well being Recovery Curriculum.

As we enter the Recovery phase, bringing staff and children back into their schools we need to be aware that ‘every interaction is an intervention’. This makes all our verbal and non-verbal communications so vital. We will want to offer a continuous welcome which invites staff and pupils in, and gives them a feeling of reconnection and belonging. It will mean we have to give time to reflect and discuss together in staff groups, and to plan new routines and rituals for putting Health and Well being at the forefront of the curriculum in August.

The Recovery Curriculum, The Resilience reflection Tool and the Nurture Reflection tool are all attached here.

The Resource Pack referenced in the Health and Well Being Recovery Curriculum is not attached as it is too big. If you are not able to access Glow to get to the Resource Pack please contact Leisa Randall on 0131 271 6686 leisa.randall@midlothian.gov.uk

Principal Educational Psychologist’s Well Being Wednesday

This week the Well-being message to school staff is about worry. This relates to the 5th Way to Well Being- Take Notice of Feelings                                                      

The key well-being messages in last week’s Wednesday Bulletin explained that worry, sadness and fear are all normal and natural responses to the COVID 19 crisis. Together, adults and young people are experiencing a range of worries, stresses and concerns which can affect our daily life and haunt our sleep. This does not necessarily mean we are suffering from anxiety. General Anxiety Disorder is defined as excessive anxiety and worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities, such as work or school performance.

There are hundreds of resources available to help children, young people and adults cope with worry and build resilience. The Midlothian Health and Well-Being group for children and young people which is made up of staff from Education, Health and Children’s Services recommend the attached resources as a starting point for those members of staff looking for advice and materials in this area.

When someone is worried, the most helpful response is to listen and encourage them to talk about their concerns without being tempted to ‘fix’ it. If a person feels listened to, acknowledged, and has their feelings validated in a non-judgmental way, they are more likely to feel accepted, respected and able to move forward with a coping plan.

If you have any queries about mental health relating to children and young people, contact your school link EP, or Leisa Randall on 0131 271 6686. Leisa.Randall@midlothian.gov.uk  For more resources relating to health and well-being go to   https://mideps.edublogs.org

Adapting to the new normal

The restrictions announced by the Prime Minister on Monday night means that all of us have had to radically adapt our way of life with little notice or time to prepare. We are all finding our own ways through this constantly changing landscape.  There is no one route map; there is no one way of coping. The restrictions have unique implications for every family in the country.

In amongst concerns about health, jobs and finances, parents are also having to cope with the challenge of looking after their children alongside working from home. While schools are setting up work to be sent home and arranging methods of distance learning, it is important to remember that in this transition period, there is no immediate need to home school.

Your children will be very anxious at this unprecedented state of affairs. They need reassurance and to feel safe and connected before they need to learn. They will not be ready and able to learn if you are stressed or tired or need to take the time to make arrangements for your work or to keep finances together.  It can be useful to think of Maslow’s hierarchy of need in this situation.

So what can you do to create feelings of reassurance and safety?  Here are some suggestions you may want to try.

  • Maintain a routine – especially for getting up in the morning and going to bed at night.
  • Get dressed in the morning! (Even if that means changing one set of pyjamas for another!)
  • Limit time watching the news and on social media. It’s vital to stay informed about what’s happening, but rolling news can build our anxiety. There is a lot of misinformation and “fake news” circulating so try to stick to sites and accounts such as gov.uk, BBC etc.
  • Encourage your child to read or read to them/with them. If you have no time to read to them, download Audible – they are making lots of children’s books free to listen to.
  • Find time to exercise – there are lots of online workouts available for adults and children!
  • Play with your child – board games, dressing up games, building Lego, or hide and seek – your imagination is the only limit!
  • Colouring and drawing are wonderful calming activities. The could draw a rainbow poster for the window – many neighbourhoods are doing this for children to spot when they are out for their walk.
  • Engage your child in cooking, baking, small household tasks – allow them to be active participants in family life and in keeping everyone together and safe.
  • If you can get out safely for exercise, do so. You can hold a scavenger spotting hunt (you don’t collect things, but tick off if you see them). You could count how many rainbow posters you can see!

We recognise that there are a range of resources online to support children and young people manage change to their familiar routines. We have collated a Mind Map of free educational resources and activities for children of all ages and will continue to update this over the coming weeks.

It can be difficult to balance your children’s needs with the demands of homeworking.  Here are some tips that might be useful.

We can’t take credit for these lovely memes – shared from Facebook!