This presentation will be split in two parts with an overarching focus on children's well-being. The first part will present findings from a recent report on the implications of the current COVID-19 crisis and related (partial) school closures on students' academic achievement as well as students' and teachers' well-being. Nearly 1,800 teachers in the UK were surveyed and six focus groups conducted to determine teachers' views on the impact of partial school closures on learning, wellbeing, school reopening plans and potential long-term implications for education. Overall, results highlight the essential role of schools and teachers in supporting children's socio-emotional development, particularly during the current crisis. Teachers felt unprepared to support grieving and traumatised children, which supports findings from a recent survey by Child Bereavement UK (2019) in which 90% of teachers said that they had not received any training in supporting grieving children.

The results further show that teachers fulfilled a crucial role in community support that went far beyond their usual responsibilities. This corroborates findings from previous research on healthcare and natural crises which showed that schools fulfill a crucial role as a social hub during such events. Finally, the report discusses teachers' concerns about rushing back to 'business as usual' as schools reopen instead of focusing on settling students back into school and supporting them after the disruption caused by recent school closures.

The second part of the presentation will focus on the links between multilingualism in the family and child well-being. It will present findings from a scoping review that was published recently in the International Journal of Bilingualism. Given the strong link between communication in the family and child well-being, the review addressed the question how children's knowledge of the family language or lack thereof can impact their relationships with immediate and extended family members. It explored the direct effect of language proficiency on family relationships as well as the role of children's and parents' acculturation profiles as mediated by language and how a mismatch therein can impact communication and, in turn, well-being.

Overall, the reviewed studies suggest a positive link between minority language maintenance and child well-being, and a positive influence of bilingualism, rather than knowledge of only the home or the majority language. However, the directionality of these relationships will need to be investigated in future research.
Potential implications for policy, practice and research will be discussed.