
Covid-19: Pandemic has had lasting impact on South East pupils
Children in the South East are still feeling the effects of Covid-19 five years on, school leaders have said.In March 2020, the UK's 24,000 schools were closed for most children at the start of the pandemic, opening and closing multiple times in the months that followed.Anne Longfield, who was the children's commissioner for England during this time, told the Covid inquiry that its impact will affect the most vulnerable children for years to come. Michelle Catterson, headteacher at the Moon Hall School in Reigate, Surrey, for children with dyslexia, said pupils' "normality was gone - it was out of the window".
Ms Catterson said the increase in children having anxiety, school refusal and mental health referrals seen since the pandemic hasn't subsided with time.She attributes this to the long-lasting impact of the pandemic."Children did not see their friends, their normality was gone - it was out of the window," Ms Catterson said."They didn't see the teachers. That routine, especially for children with special educational needs is really important."I think that has had a long-term detrimental impact to them."
The loss of routine is something that children at Edenbridge Primary School in Kent also struggled with.Headteacher Mary Gates said this created learning gaps that "we're still seeing today".Efforts are being made to redress this, she said."We recognised that social skills was a really big factor...[and] also speech and language development - particularly for our younger children, so we put a big focus on vocabulary, on speaking and listening opportunities within the curriculum," she said.The school is "almost over teaching certain elements", she added.
Both Ms Catterson and Ms Gates agree that Covid-19 represented an incredibly challenging time. Ms Catterson said that managing a pandemic "definitely didn't come up" in her training, while Ms Gates believes this period was ultimately "transformative" for school leaders.Kent-based educational psychologist Dr Mickel Johnson said the enduring effects were most visible in children in Years One to Four.Dr Johnson said: "The impact that we've noticed in our role is definitely the increased awareness of anxiety or difficulties in implementing social behaviours in the playground within the school environment."

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
UK abortion laws set for huge overhaul as MPs vote on decriminalisation
According to proposed changes to UK abortion laws, MPs are set to vote on decriminalising terminations after 24 weeks or without approval from doctors in England and Wales Women will no longer face prosecution for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales under a proposed law that is set to be passed following an MP vote. In the biggest overhaul of abortion law, terminations would be decriminalised and women would no longer be prosecuted for ending a pregnancy after 24 weeks or without approval from doctors. The proposed changes come after an e-petition created by Labour MP Stella Creasy calling for the decriminalisation of abortion was launched in December 2024, and has since received over 103,000 signatures. The petition stated: 'I am calling on the UK government to remove abortion from criminal law so that no pregnant person can be criminalised for procuring their own abortion.' The petition also pointed out that the UK is out of step with advice released by the World Health Organisation in 2022, which advises that medically unnecessary barriers to safe abortion, such as criminalisation, should be removed. It was brought forward for a parliamentary debate on June 2. The changes are said to be widely backed and now, MPs have been offered a free vote on a change to the law. Their free vote means they will not be told how to vote by their party. What are the current guidelines for abortion in England and Wales At present, all abortions after 24 weeks are illegal, with exception of limited circumstances. This includes the mother's life being at risk or if the child were to be born with a severe disability. The Abortion Act was introduced to Great Britain in 1967, and allowed women to legally terminate a pregnancy up to 28 weeks with the certification of two doctors. In 1990, the limit was changed to 24 weeks. This means that a woman who undergoes an abortion without the permission of two doctors – for example, by buying abortion pills online – can be charged with a criminal offence. READ MORE: Inside the Victorian era law of 1861 that governs abortion rights in the UK The Act states that abortions must be carried out either in a hospital or licensed clinic. However, this was changed during the Covid pandemic in 2020, when at-home abortion pills were made available by post for people seeking to terminate their pregnancy in the first 10 weeks. What are the proposed changes to abortion law in England and Wales? Labour MP Tonia Antonizzi is calling for an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill in her attempts to decriminalise abortion at any stage by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy. Consequently ending the threat of investigation or imprisonment. Access to abortion would remain the same, as would time limits in healthcare settings, and patients would still need sign off by two doctors. "The police cannot be trusted with abortion law – nor can the CPS or the wider criminal justice system," Antoniazzi told the BBC. "My amendment to the crime and policing bill will give us the urgent change we need to protect women." Katherine O'Brien, a spokesperson for BPAS, previously told The Mirror: 'In recent years, more than 100 women are believed to have been investigated by the police.' Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you! She continued: 'These include women who have experienced a late miscarriage or a stillbirth, and women who were pressured to take abortion medication by abusive partners. Women have been arrested straight from hospital wards, their homes searched, their children taken away, all under our cruel and archaic abortion law.' However, Labour MP Stella Creasy told the Mirror that "decriminalisation isn't enough" and is putting forward a second amendment to make a woman's access to an abortion a human right. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will decide whether to select one or both amendments for a vote, expect on June 17 and 18. According to the BBC, Rachael Clarke, head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) told Radio 4's Today programme: "For us, unfortunately, although we truly believe that we need overwhelming and generational change for abortion law, Stella Creasy's amendment is not the right way to do it."


Business News Wales
9 hours ago
- Business News Wales
Denbighshire's Prosperous Business Fund Opens for Second Phase Applications
Businesses in Denbighshire are being invited to bid for a share of a £1 million fund. This is the second round of the Prosperous Denbighshire Business Fund being distributed by regeneration agency Cadwyn Clwyd. It follows an initial fund worth £1.3 million that benefited almost 100 companies across the county. Now an extra £1 million is up for grabs in grants of up to £35,000, with the closing date for applications on Thursday, July 31. Smaller grants of up to £2,000 are also available and Cadwyn Clwyd are expecting a similarly high level of interest this time round. Funding from the first tranche of cash helped save a 150-year-old village chemist shop in Dyserth which has seen its business boom thanks to a computerised appointment booking system. Pharmacist Ravi Kiran Palutla developed an on-line appointment booking system for Dyserth Pharmacy which allows customers to book in-person consultations so Ravi can then prescribe medicines and treatments or, where appropriate, refer patients to a doctor's surgery. The computerised appointment system has driven customer numbers up by 44 per cent and seen appointments soar from 20 a month to 300. The system was paid for by a £1,897 grant from the Prosperous Denbighshire Business Fund. Ravi added: 'A grant of just £1,897 enabled me to update the website to make it more functional and install a computerised booking system and the difference it has made has been amazing. 'The population of the Dyserth area is about 2,000 and for me to have a viable business I need a patient base of 4,000 plus and the computerised system has allowed me to build that. 'Because the appointments are made online we don't have the pressure of taking phone calls and making bookings so we have been able to develop new services. 'These range from treating migraines, chest and urinary infections, providing morning after contraceptive pills and giving Covid vaccines which have brought us patients from as far afield as Dolgellau and Criccieth. 'We are already doing virtual travel consultation securely via the internet. This reduces the need for the patient to travel twice to the pharmacy, once for consultation, second for vaccine administration. We will be developing a private phlebotomy business soon. 'I know health authorities in Wales are looking at what we have done and at the possibility of rolling it out across the country and it is the Prosperous Denbighshire Fund that has made all this a reality for us. 'We will be doing it at a smaller scale in Denbighshire pharmacies first which will then give us the opportunity to learn from the implementation. The learnings will be useful for the national project yet to come in the next 18 months. Cadwyn Clwyd Business Partnership Officer Donna Hughes said: 'It is remarkable the difference it has made to Ravi's business and to access to healthcare in North Denbighshire. 'He was in the first phase of the Prosperous Denbighshire rollout which can pay up to 70 per cent of the value of a project to a maximum of £35,000 of a £50,000 scheme. 'The success of what Ravi has done just shows that this kind of funding can do wonders for a business. 'It opens up tremendous possibilities and that's why we're delighted to be able to offer a further £1 million in grants which also include smaller schemes of between £1,000 and £2,000. 'The first phase proved hugely popular which was shown by the number of grants we were able to make and it also shows the need and the effectiveness of this kind of support for local people to build businesses with all the benefits that has for them and the communities in which they live.' The money comes from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, administered by the UK Government.


The Herald Scotland
10 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
RFK Jr. bring on eight members on vaccine panel
"All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," wrote Kennedy in a post on X on June 11. "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations." The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States. "The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well," noted Kennedy, who has a history of controversial views on vaccines. Dr. Paul A. Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, previously told USA TODAY that Kennedy was "fixing a problem that doesn't exist," by overhauling the committee. Picking members for the committee generally involves a three- to four-month vetting process by the CDC. Offit said he would "presumably pick people who are like-minded, and I think that will shake confidence in this committee." The list of appointees includes: Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service; Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance; Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who specializes in healthcare analytics; Dr. Robert W. Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist who claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology and has said spike proteins from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines often causepermanent damage to children's vital organs; Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; Vicky Pebsworth, who holds a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan and Michael A. Ross, a clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. and will replace them with new members, a move that the Trump administration's critics warned would create public distrust around the government's role in promoting public health.