Back to school worries

Parents are worried about the impact of changes in school on their children’s mental health

NEARLY half of parents are worried about their children returning to school or college.

As new Covid19 cases have been decreasing steadily since January, more pupils are returning to school across Great Britain.

However, 47% of parents are either very or somewhat worried about their children back in class.

Around four in 10 (38%) were somewhat unworried or not at all worried, according to a survey published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), while 15% were neither worried nor unworried.

Excluding adults who said they were “not at all worried”, the most frequently reported worry, by nearly two third of parents (63%), was pupils catching the virus, while the risk of spreading the virus concerned 38% of parents.

Students have spent months learning remotely - all children in England have returned to the classroom, while those in Scotland and Wales are returning in stages.

Those returning will find several safety measures. Students will be asked to maintain social distance, and those in secondary schools are being asked to wear face coverings where they can’t do this.

Pupils will be also tested periodically in order to identify asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19.

Just over a third (37%) of parents worried about the impact on their children’s mental health and wellbeing caused by changes in schools and colleges.

Nearly a third of parents (32%) were worried about sending their children back before the vaccine rollout has finished, while more than a quarter (27%) were worried about how prepared their school or college will be for keeping pupils safe.

However, research on rapid lateral flow tests run between March 4 and 10 shows there have been fewer infections than expected.

Rapid lateral flow tests help to find cases in people who may have no symptoms but are still infectious and can give the virus to others.

Results are available 30 minutes after taking the test.

During that period, out of 2.8m tests on secondary school children (excluding colleges and sixth forms), only 1,324 resulted in positives.

This is 0.05%, lower than the 7,745 potential infections that the Government have been using to plan the return to school.