Unprecedented – How many times have you heard this word since the world started talking about COVID-19? Is it in overuse? Does it accurately describe what is going on in school and home life right now?

The Collins Paperback English Dictionary describes unprecedented as “having no precedent; unparalleled” – in simple language, it’s never been experienced before.

That feels about right to me. We are all adjusting to life being temporarily changed for a currently unknown specified length of time. And do you know what? That could be ok.

We will all adapt to our new circumstances. It just takes a little time and when things are important to us like family, grades in school, our health and wellbeing, it is correct to take some time to recognise it can make us feel unsure.

What we need to keep in mind is that this is only for a temporary period and things will return to what was before school closures.

Below is a link to some useful tips provided by the World Health Organisation for coping with stress during the COVID-19 outbreak.

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/coping-with-stress.pdf?sfvrsn=9845bc3a_2