We were lucky enough to sit down with Beth Kerr, the group director of wellbeing at the schools group Cognita and a brilliantly calm touchstone in today’s somewhat unsettled world. Beth began her career as a teacher and senior deputy head before joining
Cognita, where she’s in charge of the welfare and pastoral care of more than 50,000 children at 78 schools across 10 different countries. Take it from us: anything that Beth doesn’t know about children and teenagers’ wellbeing isn’t worth knowing…
We’ve broken up the video into handy chapters, so you can skip ahead to the questions you are most interested in being answered:
1:19 - How early can parents start teaching their children about emotional wellbeing and what sort of things should they be doing?
3:15 - What should we as parents do if our child or teenager is reluctant to open up?
8:05 - There’s a widespread perception of higher pressure in London schools, for example: tutoring, tougher admissions processes and overscheduling. How can we help our children enjoy their childhood for as long as possible?
13:03 - Do boys’ and girls’ wellbeing needs differ?
14:18 - How can we establish rules with our children about social media and screen time?
19:41 - Lots of schools talk about AS Tracking in their pastoral care programme. What is it and do you use it?
23:22 - Exam season is looming for prep school age children. What are your tips for calming nerves?
26:03 - These are horrendously tricky times for us all. How can we help our children and teenagers ‘Covid-proof’ themselves when the future currently feels so uncertain?