The science says it’s safe – we risk a generation on the scrap heap unless we send kids back to school now

THE news that Boris Johnson has pushed back the day he’s going to unveil his lockdown exit plan from Thursday to Sunday is profoundly depressing.

I was hoping he would announce that primary schools will reopen next week, but now that won’t happen.

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From my own experience, both as the co-founder of three primaries and a parent, I can tell you it is absolutely vital that we reopen these schools as soon as possible.

Children aren’t just taught the three Rs at primary school.

They also learn a range of important social skills, from sitting still and listening to playing boisterous games with other children.

They discover how to work under their own steam, as well as in groups with others.

If they pick up something quickly in the classroom, they are taught patience — and if they struggle to understand, they learn how to ask for help.

I know from being stuck indoors with my own four children how bored they are of being cooped up.

At first, they were happy to be skipping school.

But after six weeks, the thrill of playing video games all day has begun to fade.

They are desperate to see their friends again, to be out in the world with people their own age.

I thought being dragged to see the local church choir singing carols at Christmas was as bored as I was ever going to see them. But I was wrong.

Why should they have their childhood stolen like this when all the science suggests returning to school would be perfectly safe?

There are nearly 17,000 primary schools in England, catering to almost five million children.

They’ve now been kept home from school since March 23, when the lockdown was imposed.

That is six weeks in which no learning has taken place, save for what little homework schools have managed to set.

'WIDEN GAPS'

If children don’t return until September, the total amount of lost classroom time will grow to almost half a year.

As it is, kids suffer from something researchers call “summer learning loss”.

This describes all the things they forget during their summer holidays.

If you increase that holiday from six weeks to six months, the impact on their futures will be catastrophic.

That is particularly true for vulnerable children.

Ofsted head Amanda Spielman told the House of Commons education select committee last week that school closures would further disadvantage the poorest, lowest-achieving and least motivated children.

“Whether we like it or not, it is going to widen gaps, especially in the short term,” she said.

One option would be to hold all primary school children back a year, but that is off the table.

Not only would it mean over-crowding in Reception, with four, five and six-year-olds sitting in the same classrooms, it would also mean no new students going to university this year.

Britain’s higher-education sector is in enough trouble as it is without depriving it of an entire cohort of paying customers.

At least half the country’s 130 universities would be plunged into a financial death spiral.

Some will worry that if we send our children back to school too soon, they will risk catching coronavirus.

In fact, it poses almost no threat to children.

As of April 30, only seven people under 20 had died of Covid-19 in hospitals in England and three of them had underlying health conditions.

Only one child under the age of ten has succumbed to the virus.

Torture of the old

Nor is there a risk that they will infect others, such as their teachers, parents and grandparents.

Research published last week by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health found that children under the age of ten do not transmit the virus.
And that isn’t just true of the UK.

A joint commission by China and the World Health Organisation hasn’t found a single case of a child under ten infecting an adult anywhere in the world.

In Switzerland, children under ten are able to hug their grandparents.

A lot of elderly Brits would be delighted if our Government followed suit — including my 73-year-old mother-in-law.

Germany ended its lockdown two weeks ago and yesterday it announced its lowest number of new infections and deaths in five weeks.

France will be reopening primaries next Monday. Come on, Boris.

I know you don’t have any children of primary school age — at least, I don’t think you have — but for those who do, this extended break is turning into a nightmare.

These are the years when children pick up essential skills like being able to read, write and add up.

Without those building blocks it will be impossible for children to learn anything else.

If we keep them out of school for any longer, we are in danger of consigning an entire generation to the scrap heap.

This forced confinement has gone on long enough.

The time has come to send our children back to school.

• Toby Young is a free school founder and former head of the New Schools Network.

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