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“I appreciate everyone is feeling extremely anxious and concerned about the weeks ahead and making plans to fill your children’s time. You may have high hopes for hours of learning including online activities, science experiments and book reviews. In many ways it is good to have a timetable to maintain normality, but these are not normal times. Children are confused, anxious and upset even though some may initially celebrate no school! Their reality is now not seeing their friends or running off energy at playtime or sharing stories of their weekend. A large proportion of your time will be spent comforting and reassuring your children. You can bake, play board games, race around the garden, learn to juggle, explore new topics on the internet or even just snuggle under a blanket on the sofa watching films.

Please do not worry about your children’s education being compromised, every single child in the country and many across the world are in the same boat. We will support you through this worrying time with some learning but please don’t feel pressured to complete it, no matter what. Gently encourage and explore and when they come back into the classroom we will adjust and adapt to where they are. Teachers are experts at this!

If I can leave you with a thought before the home schooling adventure begins, it is that the happiness and security of your children is far more important than their academic progress. The weeks ahead will have an impact on all of us, aim to do something uplifting which brings optimism so that your children will remember positive family time rather than fear and anxiety.”

Words written by a colleague but fitting for all schools. We will overcome this. Take care and stay home.

Bridget Harris