Place2Be’s Director for Scotland and Wales, Jacqueline Cassidy, spoke to Headteachers about how their school communities have found the latest return to school, and what they are expecting over the coming months. This is an extended version of a piece originally published in The Scotsman.

For many children and young people in Scotland, it had been months since they set foot in a school – so how are they faring now that they’re back? And how are the staff coping?

Place2Be provides mental health support in more than 80 primary and high schools across Scotland, and the overriding message we are hearing from our partner schools is that children and young people are glad to be back.

While some children have benefitted from more time at home with their families, most are grateful to be returning to their routines and a sense of normality.

Claire Gray, Headteacher at Holy Cross Primary school in Glasgow, and her team have been working hard with families to ensure a smooth return, providing the information they need to feel reassured about coming back to school.

For many children who don’t have outdoor space at home, fresh air and exercise have been welcome. Coughs and sneezes are doing the rounds but as Claire says: “These are good things. The children are building their immunity and resilience.” Now looking to the future, Claire wants to help change the rhetoric around the pandemic.

For the majority of primary school children, coming back to school has been positive for mental health, and for some, it’s actually boosted their wellbeing.

However, some others have needed a bit of extra support.

One of the challenges that staff have noticed is difficulty reconnecting with friends, perhaps because they haven’t had to share or take turns in the same way they do in school, or because they have spent so much time alone with only online contact.

At St Monica’s Primary School in Glasgow, each day the children come in and are encouraged to say how they are feeling.

While the specific approaches are different in different schools, Headteachers have stressed they want to do all they can to support children and staff to recover from the pandemic.

For some children in Secondary or High school, the constant change and transitions over the past year have been hard to deal with. For others there have been significant life changes, perhaps through the death of a loved one or parents losing a job or being furloughed.

At Tynecastle, they are taking practical steps to remind students of the support systems in place, like providing reassurance about expectations around exam grades, support for children in their final year of primary school through enhanced transition, and continued focus on staff wellbeing so they can support students - this is where Place2Be has played a vital role.

We don’t yet know what the long-term impact of this pandemic will be on children and young people’s mental health, but what is clearer than ever is the important role that schools will play as we try to regain a sense of normality.

By providing easily accessible mental health support in the safety of the school environment, we can ensure that every young person gets the help they need, whenever they need it.

With thanks to Claire Gray, Headteacher, Holy Cross Primary School; Martin Broadley, Headteacher, St Monica’s (Milton) Primary School, Hazel Kinnear, Headteacher and Jacquie Ramsey, Deputy Headteacher, Tynecastle High School.