This article is unique because it fills a significant gap among COVID-19 related educational research in three ways. First, it analyses data from face-to-face interviews with 23 children, whilst most COVID-19 related research has been based on online data collection methods. Second, it involves 'lower-attaining' children who were already part of an ongoing five-year research project set in England, UK. Third, it captures a 'before' and 'after' picture of the children's experiences during schooling-as-normal and after the two periods of school closures, in relation to their well-being. Within the context of Seligman's PERMA theory, we found that the absence-of-schooling-as-normal had adversely affected their well-being, but in so doing, the children's perspective on schooling had altered, as they had missed being part of something bigger than themselves, in a setting which offered socialisation, structure and purpose.