Losing loved ones during the pandemic, including one to Covid-19, puts things into perspective for Allan and Jo Griffiths – our latest ‘home schooling’ case study.
“We are grateful that family and friends are safe and well,” says the husband and wife, who live in Cheshire with their three primary school age children.
Allan works in our West Midlands network as a reinstatement manager and Jo is a technical specialist in our North West network. They’re also daddy and mummy to Max (8), Joseph (6) and Rosie (4).
Here’s their story, in their words:
“Our initial thoughts [when the latest lockdown was announced] were of dread and ‘well, that’s an end to dry January’!
"Our workloads are busy and we wondered how we could fit in home schooling, cooking and entertaining the kids too.
“Well, dry January is still on. We’re both still busy with work but we have made time to fit everything in. We knew we could do it and we will continue to do it, albeit with adjustments to normal routines.
“We aren’t keeping to normal school schedules – some of it happens at evenings and weekends – and we are not feeling guilty about that. We also try not to ‘keep up’ with other families. You just have to do what works for you.
“The biggest challenge has been getting over the feelings of guilt when the kids want to play ‘right now’ and you just can’t.
"We feel well supported [at work]. People accept disturbance at meetings and slights delays in deadlines. Our line managers are very understanding and sympathetic to our situation.
“The kids’ teachers are setting them daily activities and keeping in touch with Zoom calls, phone calls and emails.
"Rosie turned four in August and started school in September. She is learning to read and write, which is challenging as she needs constant support.
"Joseph is able to undertake set tasks on his own, once they’ve been explained.
"Max is more independent and does manage with little support, but his work is a lot more structured and the difficulty level is creeping into territory that we haven’t explored for 30 years ...
“We have learnt that if we work together as a family we can accomplish anything (Team Griff!).
"We are most grateful that our family and friends are safe and well, having lost loves ones since lockdown 1 – one of which was because of Covid. It certainly puts things into perspective.”
We’re giving the Cadent team a platform this week to share their experience of working and teaching. More case studies in this ‘home schooling’ series are available here.