Author Archives: Helen Pemberton

Next week, we go back to school in England. My teenagers will return and I will go back to work as a science technician.

Am I happy and confident that this will all work out? No, not really. Will we all be going to school? Yes.

The government says we’ll be safe. They claim that the virus won’t be a problem. They also tell us we don’t need to wear masks, that children won’t need to stay 2m apart. The children will be in “bubbles”. They gloss over the fact that some of these bubbles will include whole year groups, 100s of people. Our household combines 3 schools. I work in one school, my teenagers go to two further schools. We are not the only family with feet in more than one school.

The Guardian tells me that the chief medical officers say they are “confident the evidence showed an exceptionally small risk of children of primary or secondary school age dying from Covid-19.”

They do not say children cannot get ill or suffer long-term side effects. They don’t mention staff. Are sixth formers more like 5 year olds than young adults when it comes to this virus?

This Prime Minister thinks that repeating something frequently, will make it true. He does not provide evidence that it is safe, nor will he issue measures to ensure safety. He will not convince everyone. It has been the same with so much during this government’s tenure. Repeating the mantra that our Test & Trace system is “world beating” has not made it so.

On balance, I will be sending my teenagers back. They want to go. They need the social interaction. They need to be in their classrooms with a teacher. On balance, the risk to their education is probably greater than the risks to them from coronavirus.

But not everyone will return. Some of our young people will be unable to return due to health issues (their own or in their immediate family). Other families will pivot in favour of keeping their youngsters away for all sorts of other reasons. Some will simply be afraid.