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VIEWS & OPINION


Teaching children about conflict


Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation


One of the biggest challenges in classrooms and at home is how we talk about controversial and challenging issues. Some of these are issues that we as adults barely comprehend, but in a world saturated with social media and instant connection, we cannot pretend that children don’t hear what’s going on. War is one of those issues – we try to teach our children about empathy, understanding and conflict resolution, while children are hearing daily about the impact of war. This isn’t a distant problem and, sadly, it’s not a new one. At the


Learn2Think Foundation, every year we mark the UN’s International Day for Tolerance. It was established by the UN in 1995 in response to the wars in Bosnia and Rwanda, but its importance is becoming ever more important. Children cannot help but see that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has left thousands dead and cities destroyed, while millions of refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine and seek refuge in neighbouring countries and further afield. Helping children to understand what conflict is and why it happens can help them to understand more about the world around them. There are couple of lesson plans that can help to facilitate the discussion


of conflict in a way that helps children understand where conflict can come from, in an age appropriate way. One of these is to use The Butter Battle by Dr. Seuss and the lesson plan created for it. It tells the story of how the population is divided between those that butter their bread up


and those that butter it down. This ‘dangerous’ difference makes neighbours distrustful of each other, so much so that they build a wall to keep themselves ‘safe’ and hostilities escalate until they risk mutual annihilation with the ‘Big Boy Boomeroo’. There are questions about how this could be avoided, and how misinformation can lead to conflict, all of which can be drawn out for children. While lesson plans alone don’t help children to cope with scary real


world news and images, it can help to prepare them to understand a wider context. It’s important to ensure that children know that you are open to talking about the things that they’ve seen and heard, because it’s often half heard information that can be scary and unsettling. One of the more important things is to be clear that you don’t necessarily know all the answers. Trying to describe everything in binary terms can be unhelpful in terms of assuaging fear. Children must be encouraged to discuss and explore their feelings, their understanding and their concerns. When it’s unclear whether a battle is over resources, language, power or something else, schools are in a unique position to help children tackle one of the most confounding aspects of the modern world – war. There’s also an opportunity to help children understand about


information and where and what they learn. It’s important to find out where children are learning information from and howl is it discussions at home, the latest online, elder siblings? There are different fears and worries that can come with biased or half concrete information. And always remember that many children fear that which they can’t control – see if there actions they can take to make themselves feel less powerless, whether that’s raising funds, talking to other children who have fled violence and creating an open and accepting environment. It's challenging, and maybe even unfair, that teachers should have to


play a role in helping children understand war and violence. Unfortunately that is the reality of the world in which we live, and children need to be given every opportunity to explore their fears and concerns in a safe and open way. In the end we must remember that hiding things from children doesn’t really work – what we need to do is ensure that they are helped in understanding the things that they fear.


The strength of governing boards


Comment by NEIL COLLINS, GovernorHub founder and head of governance at The Key


We’re a huge, and yet often hidden, volunteer force, giving our time and energy to support schools and trusts to improve education for all. It’s our job to hold leaders accountable for the quality of education they provide, make sure money is well spent and ensure clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction. Where we do this well, we can have a really positive impact. We use the


vision we develop with our leaders to inform our strategic decisions and ultimately drive school improvement. We set high-level objectives, gather evidence towards those goals and use this evidence to support or challenge leaders where necessary. Yet, arguably in recent times there’s been a new element to our role: to


provide an outside perspective and a listening ear, during times of great uncertainty. Governors and trustees have had a unique insight into the challenges


faced by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve heard first- hand about the many difficult decisions that leaders have had to take in a rapidly changing environment; from risk assessments to bubbles, home learning to teacher-assessed grades, and, most recently, mass COVID-19 testing and staff absences. More than 4,000 of our governor and trustee members responded to a


recent GovernorHub survey asking about how they think their heads and CEOs are doing – with many expressing widespread concerns about the mental health and workload of those working in our schools. More than half (57%) reported being concerned about the mental


health of their headteacher or CEO, and 7 in 10 (71%) reported being concerned about the mental health of school staff, including support staff. On the issue of workload, a worrying 70% said that they’re concerned about the workload of their headteacher or CEO, and 75% reported being concerned about the workload of all school staff. With this in mind, many governors and trustees are tracking workload


and wellbeing; the survey findings reveal that such monitoring has increased in the pandemic period. 8 in 10 (81%) of those surveyed said that their board is tracking the workload and related mental health of the headteacher or CEO, while 86% said they’re doing so for all school staff. One governor told GovernorHub, “I believe the majority of people


involved with governance are seriously concerned about the pressures and impact of COVID-19 on all areas of school life – from the children to the staff, and especially the senior leaders of the school.” This ongoing support, concern and monitoring of the mental health and


wellbeing of school leaders and staff during the pandemic is perhaps not something that many outside of the education sector are aware of, but it’s been an important part of our meetings in recent times. 89% of governors in the survey said that they would recommend being


a governor to other people, with the main reason being because ‘they can make a difference’. This desire to have a positive impact and do our best by school communities is why many governors choose to get involved. This commitment and passion is a great strength of governing boards, and it's surely one that’s been most valuable to our schools and leaders in recent times.


April 2022


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