I’ve just had the privilege of having a coffee morning with some of our new parents, the first time we have been able to do this in over 18 months. It was so lovely to sit together again and the parents really appreciated having some support and face to face contact.
New beginnings can be challenging for us all, and returning to or starting school is full of mixed emotions, often a sense of excitement and anxiety. This is perhaps being felt even more keenly this year, after living with Covid restrictions, and now returning to a ‘new normal’ which perhaps feels familiar but also different.
Supporting each other through these new transitions makes such a difference now we can have more contact. However, it really highlights the importance of having those core values in place within your setting, which can help support everyone in your community. Our values of trust, respect, courage and kindness, feel all the more important at the moment. It has taken a lot of courage for new parents, many of whom who have been quite isolated through Covid, to come and join a new school and hand over their children; trusting us with their most precious being. Equally, for many staff, returning to work has been challenging, and trusting each other and respecting our different experiences and feelings feels all the more important at the moment. Ultimately, though, kindness during new beginnings and new transitions feels so important. I hope our parents and carers feel that everyone has been kind to them and that feeling supported has helped reduce those feelings of anxiety. During Covid, we shared a lot of quotes from the book by Charlie Mackesy, and in this time of new beginnings they seem as important as ever. Hopefully all schools and settings will have many moments of kindness as we transition into a new term.