Sussex headmaster: children are coping better in Covid-19 than adults

Mike Fairclough is headmaster at West Rise Junior School in Eastbourne, where pupils get to take part in outdoor activities such as fire-lighting, cooking and knife skills at the site's Forest School.

The school also has its own farm with chickens, sheep and ducks and 120 acres of marshland, as well as a herd of Asian water buffalo.

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Mike believes that while many parents are suffering from anxiety during lockdown, children are better equipped to cope.

He said: "People often assume I'm the headteacher of a private school for middle class kids when I tell them about the activities we do.

Mike teaching, before the pandemic

“Instead, the school is populated primarily by children from working class backgrounds and every year group has children with conditions such as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

“Regardless of their background and psychological makeup, every child engages in activities with an element of risk about it, which moves them out of their comfort zones.

“Some children suffer from anxiety and other challenging conditions, but sometimes it is the parents who don’t like change or who are anxious about life.

“Although there are children experiencing heightened states of anxiety during this time, in my experience the vast majority are displaying levels of resilience which outstrip those exhibited by many in the adult world.”

Mike believes parents can project their own anxieties onto children, but children cope with adversity in a different way.

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The headmaster says carefully exposing children to managed risk and danger allows them to develop and they are better equipped to deal with anxiety as a result.

He said: "I've had children with ADHD handle guns safely and children who are low-attaining writers suddenly write magnificently after being immersed in nature.

"I’ve seen eight year-old children who have run away from a single bee in the playground have thousands of bees crawling all over them in protective suits, after lifting the lid off a hive.

“Rising to a challenge and defying low expectations actually moves children up a notch with their personal development - and we know this is true for us adults too.”

The headmaster has just published a book to teach adults how to regain confidence they had in childhood, inspired by techniques he has used at West Rise Junior School.

Wild Thing by Mike Fairclough

Wild Thing is published by Hay House and is available to purchase online.

Mike said: “Five years ago I introduced positive psychology to my school and began to embed its principles into the culture of the community.

"We identified character traits such as resilience, gratitude and teamwork, and actively promoted them within the school.

“Traits such as resilience significantly increased once this became the focus, while levels of anxiety dropped.

“Perhaps we have equipped our children with the skills and attributes to deal with the pandemic better than we had imagined."

Wild Thing is available at www.hayhouse.co.uk and other online book shops, and as an audiobook at audible.co.uk.