Purpose: There is an urge worldwide that school leaders' mental health and well-being must be prioritised within the education recovery at the local, national and global policy levels. This research identified the intentional well-being practices that school leaders cultivated as they faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Since 2010, government policy in England has positioned further education almost exclusively as employment-orientated training for school leavers whilst also imposing severe budget cuts. During this period, values-based pedagogies that foreground social justice for students, many of whom come from low-income households, have been undermined.…

This paper explores teachers' anxiety about work at 75 timepoints between October 2019 and July 2022, covering the period before, during and towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. We find the work-related anxiety of headteachers increased substantially throughout the pandemic -much more so than amongst more junior staff. Female…

A national survey of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in England was conducted during the summer of 2020 in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The annually conducted survey typically collates demographic data about the SENCO workforce, but given the wider context, this particular survey also included nine questions about…

Telepsychiatry has been rapidly adopted to help control the spread of coronavirus. Clinicians have raised concerns over this for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The remote delivery of psychological interventions in particular requires further attention as their in-person delivery has autism spectrum disorder--associated…

This article is unique because it fills a significant gap among COVID-19 related educational research in three ways. First, it analyses data from face-to-face interviews with 23 children, whilst most COVID-19 related research has been based on online data collection methods. Second, it involves 'lower-attaining' children who were already part of…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an acutely challenging time for families and parents of young children. Periods of lockdown, and the economic and social dislocation associated with the pandemic, will have far-reaching consequences for children's education, life chances and social relationships. This article extends our understanding of these issues…

Natural disasters happen across the world. The situations are different but the disruption to children's education and wellbeing is similar. This study focused on the school context changes caused by the COVID-19 global disaster, and the impact of these changes on children's mental health. The aim was to better understand the associations between…

Attention to children's emotional health and wellbeing (EHWB) has increased over the last decade due to a decline in children and young people's mental health. COVID-19 escalated this need globally as children were subjected to immediate and drastic changes to their education and daily lives. This paper reports on a UK qualitative study exploring…

The COVID-19 pandemic control measures substantially impacted the life of university students in the UK. While multiple studies investigated early stages of the pandemic, focusing on risk factors for depression and anxiety, fewer studies assessed later phases of the pandemic or examined positive protective factors for mental wellbeing. Our…

Purpose: This paper explores the dissonance between co-production and expectations of impact in a research project on student loneliness over the 2019/2020 academic year. Specific characteristics of the project -- the subject matter, interpolation of a global respiratory pandemic, informal systems of care that arose among students and role of the…

Following lockdowns in 2020 owing to COVID-19, schools needed to find a way to ensure the education of their pupils. In order to do this, they engaged in digital learning, to varying extents. Innovations emanated from all school staff including, for example, teachers, leaders and teaching assistants. Some were already innovating in this area and…

The quotation in the title from a college leader is a stark reflection of the experience of the Further Education (FE) Sector during the COVID pandemic (2020-21). Traditionally regarded as a poor relation of the English education system, evidence from Sector sources suggest that the five COVID harms identified through a scoping review of the…

This paper addresses one of the biggest challenges facing Pastoral Care in Education today: the impact of COVID-19 on children's wellbeing. The negative effects on children's wellbeing and mental health are already being widely reported (e.g.; Loades et al. 2020). Therefore, this paper will outline both the impact of COVID-19 on children's…

The prevalence of mental health problems in school children has grown, especially during the pandemic, detrimentally impacting the lives of those affected. In the UK, primary school teachers and schools are well-placed to spot and support pupil mental health. This preliminary research completed during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic,…