Dr Alex George has said children should be given flexibility when returning back to school. The former Love Island contestant - who has now been appointed an ambassador for mental health by the government - has been campaigning for better mental health support in schools, urging the government to enroll a counsellor in every school.
Speaking on the BBC's Newscast podcast, Dr Alex told presenter Adam Fleming: 'As children are integrated back to schools, we need to be a little bit more flexible about the time of transitioning back. You can’t just expect someone who’s very anxious to go back to school, will go back to normal. It might be that that child needs a bit of time to integrate slowly back in the classroom, so that rather than chucking them in and exacerbating the problem, we do it gently.'
Alex added, 'If you’re happy and you feel good, and you’re engaged and you feel supported at school and you’ve been able to take time when you needed to, you’re probably more likely to not only be academically successful but take care of yourself physically as well.'
Boris Johnson has told MPs that the government hopes to start reopening English schools on 8 March.
Dr Alex was appointed his new role by the government last week, and he has already met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where Dr Alex told him it was important to break the stigma surrounding mental health. It's a cause close to Dr Alex, as he has publicly spoken about losing his younger brother, Llŷr, last year following a battle with mental health.
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