Should primary school children wear masks too?

As one headteacher says pupils as young as five must use them . . .

It is up to parents, not politicians, to decide

THe admission may not make me popular, but i cheered when a primary school headteacher in Milton Keynes made face masks compulsory.

Finally, rather than waiting to be told what to do, someone in a position of responsibility had engaged his common sense.

Yes, it might be over-cautious for a primary (Boris Johnson has just said teachers in england can order secondary pupils to wear masks in communal areas of the school; scotland has already done so), but that’s so much better than reckless.

The PM points desperately to his scientific advisors as the basis for his policies. But they’re not allknowing sages; they’re just people- with- training who are grappling with the unknown. and people make mistakes.

i ceased paying any heed to the government’s incoherent and arbitrary diktats months ago. Back in March, i didn’t wait for permission to pull my six-year-old son from school. i did it a week early based on my own judgment about the available evidence.

Likewise, i lost my temper at my 75-year- old mother who seemed perfectly content to sit and wait for easyJet to tell her if it was safe to fly to Berlin in March, rather than making up her own mind.

it should be up to teachers and parents — not the government — to decide if children wear masks at school. My son’s school has already vetoed their use, so whether i let him go back in september will depend on local r-numbers (Covid-19 infection rates) and what additional measures they put in place. But the point of wearing masks is to protect others. if you’re coughing and spluttering, i can avoid you; but if you’re asymptomatic, you could be super-spreading without knowing it, fast-tracking the vulnerable to their coffins.

Yes, masks can be hot, scratchy and uncomfortable, and any normal child will initially be resistant to wearing one. But show me a child who voluntarily cleans his teeth or likes having his hair washed. as parents, we insist on such compliance, because having fresh breath and being clean is good for us, and less of an affront to society. Maskwearing should be exactly the same.

as for my six-year- old, it came down to a combination of him seeing me and others wearing them, and buying him a softer, child-friendly cotton mask rather than the medical ones i use. Throw in a ‘fun’ rainbow print and tell him he’s being a superhero because he might be saving lives and you’ve sealed the deal.

at the end of the day, wearing a mask is just not that big a deal, unless you make it one.