Children ‘robbed of rites of passage’ as nativity plays scaled back to online shows

CHRISTMAS has been cancelled in schools around the country, with head teachers accused of “robbing” pupils of “life defining moments”.

Nativity plays have been scrapped as children are put back into bubbles with each class putting on a small-scale show instead. Many schools have banned parents from attending and are instead telling them they can watch a video clip from home.

Christmas fairs and end-of-term trips have all been dropped amid concern that Covid rates will rise in the run-up to the holidays.

At Whitmore Primary School in Essex, parents have been told that each class will perform their own nativity play, which will be recorded for parents to watch as a video. “We are continuing to be diligent in school in trying to prevent the spread of Covid, we currently only have a couple of isolated cases,” the school told families.

Meanwhile, at Wyke Regis Primary Federation in Dorset, all Christmas activities will be “limited to in school only and shared online with parents”.

Cranborne Primary School in Hertfordshire has also told parents they can only watch the nativity play remotely.

“It’s quite a special moment for a parent to watch their four or five-year-old child in the play,” one mother said. “It’s also sad for the children, they like to see their parents there.

“It’s nonsense that children are still being penalised when everything else is back to normal, we could all go as a big group down the pub and have a drink.”

Molly Kingsley, co-founder of the parent campaign group Usforthem, said families are “heartbroken” that children’s “rites of passage are being denied”.

She said: “We are definitely seeing a pattern of Christmas activities, trips, fairs and parties being cancelled. We are doing this at a time when adults have got their lives back.

“Children are being robbed of their life-defining moments and it has moved beyond unfair – it is cruel. This has gone on for far too long. If this is learning to live with Covid, it does not bode well for children.”

‘Children are being robbed of their life-defining moments and it has moved beyond unfair – it’s cruel’