Pause and reflect
How a group of young leaders are tackling their challenging emotions head on and inspiring others to do the same.
An initiative encouraging young people aged between 3 and 17 to pause and reflect on lockdown before rushing headlong into summer is vital for their mental well-being after a period of uncertainty and adjustment.
Young people are being asked to share their personal memories from lockdown for posterity, to give children of the future a glimpse of what lockdown life was actually like through a child’s eyes. The memories that children submit for ‘Children of Lockdown’ will be stored in a digital time capsule that will be archived by the British Library and preserved forever as an important part of the UK Web Archive’s COVID collection.
Charlotte McMillan, founder of Storychest, an app that allows families to share their precious memories privately and safely, observed that it has often been through children’s accounts of historical events that we have gained true insight, capturing key moments through a unique, unaffected lens and in a way that benefits future generations, keen to understand the impact first hand.
Charlotte, who created lockdown reflections with her own boys, before launching Children of Lockdown, says that views from parents about the project have been mixed. “Some parents might think that it’s gloomy asking children to go back in time especially when lockdown has represented a time of turmoil and stress for a lot of people, but this activity can be done sensitively and in a playful way. In contrast, I’ve received many messages of support from parents and teachers who have used Children of Lockdown as a pause and reflective literacy project that complements the conversations they have had with their children around lockdown.”
Naomi Osei, parent of two and transformational coach, says: “The pandemic and subsequent lockdown has been traumatic for many adults all around the world and if we’re not careful, it can be easy to forget that our children are having to process circumstances that even we are not necessarily equipped to deal with. While they may not as yet have developed the emotional intelligence or have the words to accurately express their innermost thoughts and feelings, I believe that as parents, it’s our job to find healthy ways of providing outlets for them and this initiative is a great example!
My daughter Rhianne, age 8, has chosen to be part of this project as a way of showcasing her creativity and being a part of something huge and exciting. In her words “I want to write something that gets published again”!
Lockdown has led to an increase in mental health difficulties in children, with parents reporting their children experiencing emotional problems, being restless and having difficulties concentrating. 10,000 parents were interviewed for the Co-SPACE (COVID-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents, and Children in Epidemics) survey led by experts at the University of Oxford.
Laura Berridge, Founder and Artistic Director of Arts Insight, a charity with the aim of creating a brighter future for young people through the arts, commented: "As adults, we can rationalise, we can use our years of life experience to apply the necessary coping strategies to our daily struggles. That is why our voices are heard in the media and within our homes and schools as the decision making force, hence the mantra that every child on earth has heard, “adults know best”.
She added: “Projects such as Children of Lockdown and ‘A Sense of Lockdown’ - a short film which shared year 6 primary school children’s experiences of lockdown through storytelling, poetry and the children’s personal accounts are so relevant as they encourage children to confront and overcome any emotional stress that COVID and lockdown has caused them. The process of creating the film was designed to be multifaceted in the therapeutic and artistic benefits for those children involved. The power of the arts and creative subjects that encourage self-reflection, communication and expression should not be overlooked, especially at a time when mental health services are struggling to support the number of people who desperately need it after the pandemic.”
To enter this landmark historical project, you have until 5pm on 31st July to upload your entry to the Children of Lockdown website. All entries will be displayed on the website and the British Library will be saving them in an archive, so don’t include personal information that could identify you easily. Winners will be announced on Storychest’s Facebook page and website.
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Background information
Children between the ages of 3 and 17 are being asked to reflect on their experiences of lockdown for a digital time capsule to be displayed on a dedicated Children of Lockdown website that will be kept forever as part of the British Library’s UK Web Archive.
Poems, stories or pictures can be submitted for the Children of Lockdown Digital Time Capsule up until 5pm on the 31st July.
Submissions from UK residents will also be entered into a competition to be judged by a panel of British children's authors with National Book Tokens to be awarded to the winners.
Children of Lockdown Supporters Pack & a few of the amazing entries we have received so far.
The judges for Children of Lockdown are:
Nicola J Rowley, award-winning author of Mug the Wumph the Dancing Wizard
Janey Jones, writer of the best-selling Princess Poppy series
English teacher in South East London and author of Incredible You
Natalie Reeves Billing, author of My Mummy Is A Monster, and Ben & The Bug
Sandra Horne, author of the Crow’s Nest and Goose Anna
Children of Lockdown advocates & supporters
Storychest
Storychest is a digital scrapbook app that has helped families through lockdown to create cv-19 and lockdown diaries. People can record stories and mementos that are special to them and help them tap into the essence of who they are and relive their personal stories and memories in a private and safe place.
Charlotte McMillian
Charlotte is the founder of Storychest and creator of Children of Lockdown, an initiative that is encouraging children to share their lockdown reflections so that children of the future will be able to see through the eyes of the children of today what life was like during lockdown.
“It started as a personal project that I asked my three boys to do; they have witnessed a fundamental moment in history, when everything that was predictable about our lives was suspended - the ability to come and go as we please, to see friends and family, to go to school. I thought it was important for them to express their thoughts and reflections about lockdown, almost as a way of putting it into perspective - the negatives but also the positives - and to see what we can take on board for the future. My friends also got involved and I thought how great would this be if we could extend the idea to all children across the UK, for their reflections to be captured in one place.”
.. “I’d heard about the British Library Web Archive, so I approached them with my idea of creating a digital time capsule”
Naomi Empowers
As a Transformational Coach, Business Consultant, Trainer & Author, Naomi works with aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners and professionals helping them to master their mindset, get unstuck, be more, have more and achieve more. Through the delivery of seminars, workshops and masterclasses, Naomi is committed to improving organisational performance by developing leaders, upskilling managers and training teams.
www.naomiempowers.co.uk
hello@naomiempowers.co.uk
A Sense of Lockdown
A Sense of Lockdown is a project that involved 210 Year 6 students from six REAch2 Primary Academy Schools working with Arts Insight for 6 weeks to produce a short film (https://youtu.be/1A9NFTVlavo), to replace all the ‘Leavers Productions’ that were forced to cancel due to COVID-19.
We wanted to create a project exempt from current restrictions and limitations that utilised the skills gained over the 12 weeks of lockdown, to include remote teaching and learning practices.
The ideology behind this project was that children would benefit therapeutically throughout the process by being given a chance to discuss their feelings, stories and thoughts in a fun and nurturing environment, driven by creative stimulus to ensure it was inclusive and engaging for this age group whilst being designed to work in school and remotely, so no child was left behind.
After months of disruption and void, we hope through creating this film we will be leaving the children and school communities with a positive memento to mark the end of their primary education. In the hope that they can all look back at this time and be filled with a sense of achievement and pride as opposed to negativity and trauma.
A Sense of Lockdown was created by the founder of Arts Insight, Laura Berridge. Arts Insight is a charity that creates a brighter future for young people through the arts.
laura.berridge@arts-insight.com
www.arts-insight.com
Press contacts
Charlotte McMillan, founder of Storychest
charlotte.mcmillan@storychest.com
Sarah Handley, PR & Marketing
sarah.handley@storychest.com