How are children, including the most vulnerable, coping with the covid19 pandemic and home schooling? Will the covid-19 pandemic have longer term effects on our education systems? What impact has the pandemic had on adolescents' rites of passage?

This week, our host Dr Rob Doubleday sits down with Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology and Paul Ramchandani, LEGO Professor of Play in Education, to discuss how the pandemic is impacting on the learning, wellbeing and mental health of children and adolescents.

CSaP's Science and Policy Podcast is a production of the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge. This series on science, policy and pandemics is produced in partnership with Cambridge Infectious Diseases and the Cambridge Immunology Network.

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Our guests this week:

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, UK, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. She is a member of the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee, and Chair of the Royal Society of Biology Education and Science Policy Committee.

Professor Paul Ramchandani is LEGO® Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at Cambridge University, UK. He leads a research team investigating the role of play in children’s early development. He also works as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in the UK National Health Service.

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This series is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil. If you have feedback about this episode, or questions you’d like us to address in a future week, please email enquiries@csap.cam.ac.uk .