What might school chaplaincy involve in August 2020?
With lockdown restrictions beginning to ease in Scotland and schools planning for phased return to school, what does this mean for the role of a school chaplain? Steve Younger, CVE Scotland’s School Chaplaincy Project leader, recently shared his thoughts on this at a CVE Scotland online event for school staff and school chaplains. Here it is in brief:
What will school staff be facing?
A lot of school staff will be dealing with bereavement. The effects of Coronavirus are no longer something that just effect other people that we know. A lot of staff members will have suffered personal loss. In these strange times it has been difficult to find the time to grieve. They may return into schools with unresolved grief. School staff will almost certainly return exhausted. They will not have had the usual pattern of breaks or the same length of summer holiday. There is a lot of uncertainty about how schools will operate, with different LEAs planning for the new school term in different ways. Staff are worried about the pressures from role changes or additional roles, perhaps having to take on the role of carer, social worker and councellor in school now. They are worried about having to re-engage some pupils who will have had almost six months out of the classroom, concerned about making up lost curriculum time and how they can be expected to close the attainment chasm that will have arisen in some classes.
What will pupils be facing?
Similarly to school staff, some pupils will also return to school with significant bereavement issues. Pupils will not only suffer from the death of loved-ones but also the loss of vital social circles, familiar patterns and their former safe places at school. Pupils will have various anxieties and fears about going back to school and the future. Statistics are already showing that mental health and resilience issues are a problem in young people during the COVID-19 crisis.
What about the role of the school chaplain?
Faced with the above, it is important that school chaplains can offer pastoral and prayer support for both staff and pupils.
School chaplains are ideally placed to be a HGIOS 4 partnership between the school and community. There could be ways in which chaplains and churches can partner with schools such as:
- Hosting breakfast clubs (the use of Foodbanks across the UK is already increased by 89%)
- Church homework clubs to help re-engage pupils and close the attainment gap
- The sharing of IT skills and/or resources
- What does your school need? What can your church offer?
Not every school chaplain will be seen by a school or LEA as being a visiting professional and therefore allowed to enter the school building during the first phases of return. If they are allowed in, Time for Reflection, which has often been seen as a major part of a school chaplains role, will look very different. With social distancing measures looking set to be in place for quite some time, Time for Reflection events will be held no longer for a whole school or year group.
School chaplains can help by preparing input into Time for Reflection and RME lessons from offsite. They don’t need to fear this as they are already doing a great job online with churches and youth groups. It is only a small step away from moving to supporting the school online.
There are a number of resources on the CVE website to help prepare content for assemblies, lessons and other groups. A good place to start is the Chaplains and Churches page in the resources centre. On this website can be found resources specifically for use during the Coronavirus and return to school.
Worth a particular mention also are:
- SU Scotland’s It’s Your Move
- Colin Buchanan’s Kids’ Talks with Colin
- The Scottish Bible Society resources online
- The BibleProject videos on Youtube
- Big Start Assemblies
Do keep checking back to the website and sign up for our school chaplaincy news updates with ideas for further support, training and networking.
