Charlotte Church has warned parents not to send their children back to school in a tweet calling out the government for easing lockdown too soon. Today, primary schools opened for children in reception, Years 1 and 6 for the first time in 10 weeks. The tweet sparked a mixture of fury, agreeance and confusion from parents across the country.
‘Highly recommend if you can help it, not sending your children back to school tomorrow,’ the singer tweeted last night. ‘This government doesn't give a flying fuck about you, your children, your elders or your vulnerable. #resist’
Receiving near 40,000 likes, Church joins hundreds of parents on social media wary about allowing their children to return to school, given the health experts warning that the government is easing lockdown too soon.
At least one million children in England are expected to stay at home today instead of returning to school as the government advises, according to a survey conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research.
This is according to primary school leaders and amounts to 47% of families, with the proportion rising to 50% among pupils eligible for free school meals. However, that of course means more than half of parents will send their children back to school, symbolising the growing tension around parenting in lockdown.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has encouraged parents to follow the government guidelines in an effort to dispel concern. ‘While there might be some nervousness, I want to reassure parents and teachers that the welfare of children and staff continues to be the heart of all of our considerations,’ he said, noting that the governments five tests for safe lifting of the lockdown guidelines have been met and claiming they had ‘reviewed all the evidence’ before reopening schools.
Just last week, government advisors voiced their concerns over the government easing of lockdown rules. ‘We cannot relax our guard by very much at all,’ John Edmunds, a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - who attends meetings of Sage, the scientific advisory group on emergencies – told The Guardian.
‘The issue is, clearly there’s a need to try and get the economy restarted and people back to their jobs and so on, and also there’s a social and a mental health need to allow people to meet with their friends and families,’ he continued. ‘I think many of us would prefer to see the incidence driven down to lower levels because that then means that we have fewer cases occurring before we relax the measures.
‘I think at the moment, with relatively high incidence and relaxing the measures and also with an untested track and trace system, I think we are taking some risk here,’ Edmunds concluded.
His concerns are widely shared by parents online, many of whom replied to Church’s tweet in support of her sentiment. But many were also upset by Church's statement, saying she was adding to guilt. It’s worth noting the number of parents that are now also returning to work and need schools open for childcare after months of financial insecurity. Ultimately, whether a parent chooses to return their children to school or not, now is not the time to shame or guilt anyone.
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