Ms Áine Lynch:

Children's anxiety was one of the issues on which we asked questions in our survey. We asked parents to rate on a scale of one to five how anxious their children were about going back to school, extending from "not anxious at all" to "very worried". Some 7% of parents indicated their children were very worried about going back to school. We did not ask if this was specifically due to Covid-19. Typically in any year, there would be children who are worried about going back to school due to bullying and other issues related to going to school.

The supports put in place to date by NEPS and the Department are comprehensive and allow for a whole school approach and also a more individualised approach for children and families who might be experiencing more difficulties. Time will tell, however, as these are early days. Some children have only just gone back to school or today might be their first day back. In a couple of weeks, we will need to find out at what level these anxieties are. We will need to find out whether anxieties have decreased as children have gone back to school and whether things are going well and children have settled in. Time is important here. We do not want to leave this for too long but we need to see how well children and families are settling back in.