Teachers fear bad behaviour from children as a result of the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting their education.

MPs told the Commons about worries raised by teachers in their constituencies that two years of lockdowns have left them ‘feral’, and suffering ‘extreme’ separation anxiety from their parents after spending so much time at home.

During a debate on the Government’s education catch-up and mental health recovery programmes, Mark Fletcher, Conservative MP for Bolsover in Derbyshire, shared his concerns.

‘It’s amazing how many of my primary schools have said that children, particularly the youngest, have returned and were unable to share space, were unable to share toys and resources,’ he told the Commons.

‘And that is a massive challenge because of Covid. And actually, more than one head teacher has used the word feral, in terms of behaviour.

‘Pupils returned in a state in which they really had to be managed in a completely different way on a scale that schools haven’t had to do before.’

Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, added: ‘As I’m speaking to headteachers I’m hearing all sorts of stories.

‘They’re telling me about the new reception class that started in September 2021, these four and five-year-olds, so much of their lives have been spent in lockdown that they’re suffering extreme separation anxiety from their parents.

‘It’s not unusual in any reception year to find one or two children get anxious and teary about separating from their parents but they have whole classes who are crying for hours.

‘This is completely unprecedented and I really, really fear for our very youngest entering their schools years.’

She added some of the older children at primary school are even struggling to ‘play football in the playground’ with their friends now.

‘I don’t know about anyone else, it’s these little details – particularly as the mother of an eight-year-old son – that I find really distressing, the thought that our young people don’t know how to play with each other, they don’t know how to share in the classroom, they don’t know how to talk to each other,’ she said.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative chair of the Education Select Committee, opened the debate and warned the impact of lockdowns on education has been ‘nothing short of a national disaster’.

A poll of 1,130 school leaders and staff, carried out by children’s mental health charity Place2Be, said 95% of teachers have noted a rise in anxiety levels from children compared with before the pandemic.

Some 86% said they had noticed an increase in pupils experiencing low self-esteem, 76% reported higher levels of depression, while 68% reported seeing increased feelings of anger among children.

And 72% of staff in secondary schools said they had seen an increase in pupils engaging in self-harm, while 61% reported an increase in suicidal thoughts among children and 56% saw an increased number suffering from eating problems.

The findings come ahead of Children’s Mental Health Week, which starts on Monday.

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