Majority of schoolchildren in England and Wales return to classes for first time in six months today

6.3k

View
comments

Parents tried to socially distance as they queued up outside schools across England and Wales today with their children as millions of pupils returned to classes from the coronavirus lockdown for the first time in six months.

Some blasted what they described as a ‘shambles’ at the gates this morning, while a newly-qualified teacher revealed his fear at being back in school with no personal protective equipment on his first day in the job.

One parent based in Bexley, South East London, tweeted a picture of crowds of parents and pupils at the school gates today, saying: ‘So much for social distancing when we arrived at school today.

‘My daughter has just started year three, never been to the school before and only met her teacher for a few seconds to arrive to this on her first day #whatashambles #absolutejoke #socialdistancing #sortitout.’

And Labour supporter Adam Woodward, 23, who is starting teaching at Horizon Community College in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, tweeted: ‘I’m about to begin my career as an NQT (newly qualified teacher) English teacher.

‘I will be teaching with no PPE, in an environment where social distancing is impossible. I am scared and so are the students. This Government has failed me and every child in every school. Shame on them.’ 

It comes as: 

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said today that employees were returning to the office in ‘huge numbers’;
• A YouGov poll revealed one in six parents are ‘seriously considering’ keeping their children out of school; 
• Schools Minister Nick Gibb said parents who don’t send their children back in would be fined as a ‘last resort’; 
• Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has backed calls for ‘rapid testing’ to be introduced in Britain’s schools; 
• Teachers said 38 per cent of pupils returned their last piece of set work in July, down from 42 per cent in May; 
• Union leader Geoff Barton said reopening schools would be ‘a vital step in the process of national recovery’; 
• The Government said its £1billion ‘Covid catch-up package’ will tackle the impact of lost teaching time;
• Ofqual is considering a ‘short delay’ to next year’s exams, according to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Sheffield Hallam University graduate Mr Woodward wrote about the lack of PPE despite posting a selfie while wearing a mask on a Northern Rail train this morning, as a study found pupils are three months behind since lockdown with boys and the poorer students hardest hit.

Government guidance states there is no general need for children to wear masks in schools, while the college’s rules state that any pupils who arrive wearing face coverings must take it off at the entrance. 

In a crucial moment for Boris Johnson’s drive to get the country back to ‘normal’, around 40 per cent of schools in England open today – with the rest later in the week. 

They were shut by the coronavirus pandemic on March 20, with only vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers allowed to continue classes. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s fate is also on the line, after he was seen as bungling efforts to get more primary students back before the summer holidays.

GCSEs and A-Levels also descended into a shambles after exams were cancelled and a wave of fury forced the government to ditch a computer assessment that downgraded many disadvantaged pupils.  

Mr Williamson is now considering delaying next year’s exams to give children a chance to catch up after the unprecedented disruption. Last week he said schools and had begun receiving home testing kits, each receiving a pack of ten with ‘more available to be ordered if needed’. 

He will later explain to Parliament how the Government is mitigating risks to children’s futures.

The Education Secretary will face MPs as they return to Westminster after the summer recess following a series of U-turns – including on exam results and face coverings in schools – over the last few weeks.

Mr Williamson is due to make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon on the reopening of schools and colleges to all pupils, as well as GCSE, A-level and Btec exams.

Downing Street said exams watchdog Ofqual was carrying out a consultation into whether next year’s A-levels and GCSEs should be delayed to help pupils catch-up on missed learning. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘We are totally committed to the exams going ahead next year.’

Addressing the ‘idea of a short delay’ for exams, he said: ‘The Education Secretary wrote to Ofqual about this on June 18. Ofqual then began a consultation on the idea of exams starting after the May half-term. Ofqual will set out their final view in due course and we will wait to see what that recommendation is.’

It comes as the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) has written to the Education Select Committee with concerns that poorer pupils are still being ‘overlooked’ due to limited criteria for appealing over grades.

Meanwhile a teacher from Thames Valley, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he is ‘nervous’ about sending his two children back to school because his wife is part of the shielding category.

He said: ‘We don’t feel that a lot has changed about the nature of the virus to suddenly make this safe’.

‘We are very nervous about what this will mean for my wife, but also convinced that, for purely mental health reasons, that the children will need to get back to seeing their peers,’ he said. ‘We haven’t been given any information from the Government since being told shielding was being suspended last month. 

‘We don’t feel that a lot has changed about the nature of the virus to suddenly make this safe. Given that schools were shut in late March we are sceptical of the Government’s assertion that children don’t pass Covid-19 on.’

Today, schools minister Nick Gibb has said the Government will make a decision ‘very soon’ on whether to delay next year’s GCSE and A-Level exams. 

He told BBC Breakfast ministers have been considering the issue since mid-June, adding: ‘We’ll make a decision as soon as we can.

‘We have to also take into account the other nations in the UK that use the GCSE and A-Levels, to take into account their issues as well, but we will be making a decision, with the regulator and the exam boards, very soon.’

He also said any pupil with coronavirus symptoms will be sent home from school to be tested.

‘I would urge parents to send their children back to school to help them to catch up on the lost education that they will inevitably have suffered during the lockdown period, and schools are doing everything they can to make sure that their pupils and their staff are safe,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

Asked what will happen if a child gets a cough or a cold, Mr Gibb said: ‘If a child is showing the symptoms of coronavirus then they will be asked to return home, to go home, and then the family asked to have a test.

‘If that test proves positive, then the school will take advice from the local health protection teams and that will involve tracing all the children and adults that that child will have come across, and those people then will be asked to self-isolate.

‘And then, if it is the advice of the local health protection team, a mobile testing unit will go into the school as well to test more young people.’

Mr Gibb also said the time needed for exam marking and the university admissions process is being considered as part of any decision on pushing next year’s summer exam season back.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The issues are not simple.

‘We have to take into account the other nations in the UK which also use the GCSEs and A-levels in their term dates; you have to take into account the time for marking, making sure results are delivered on a certain date for university admissions and so on.

‘There are a whole range of factors that the exam boards, Ofqual and the Department (for Education) are looking at, but we will form a decision very soon.’

Pushed on whether an answer would come by October, Mr Gibb added: ‘It will be very soon because we know schools need to know the answer to this question and we have been working on it since mid-June.’

Asked about a teachers’ survey suggesting that some young people are three months behind where they should be with their learning, Mr Gibb said it showed the importance of children being back in school.

He told BBC Radio 4: ‘The important thing now is that young people are back in school, back being taught by their teachers.

‘Over the lockdown period, schools worked hugely, very hard to make sure there was work for students to do, online lessons and so on.

‘But … it is always harder, even for the most hard-working student at home, to learn as effectively in that environment as opposed to being at school with your teacher.’

He also defended the level of access to technology during the schools shutdown after the same survey suggested a quarter of pupils did not have access to a computer or tablet at home.

‘Schools didn’t just rely on online lessons, they also had other work sent home and so on, but we did procure one of the biggest procurement of computers in this country – over 200,000 computers were bought on a global market and given over to schools,’ said Mr Gibb.

‘And we’ve also acquired a further reserve of over 100,000 computers for areas of the country with local restrictions in place, should that happen.’

Asked about the possibility of regular testing in schools, Mr Gibb said schools have been given a ‘small number’ of home testing kits.

The education minister told BBC Radio 4: ‘Whenever a pupil or member of staff show symptoms, they will be asked to return home and then to take a test.

‘They will be given priority in the testing regime – we have capacity for 300,000 tests a day.

‘Yes (there is an onus on parents to arrange a tests) and if a school is concerned that the parents are unable to get to a testing centre, every school has been sent a small number of home testing kits that can be used for those families.’

Meanwhile former health secretary Jeremy Hunt backed a call from epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson for ‘rapid testing’ to be introduced in schools, using a similar model to that used in Germany.

The Commons Health Committee chairman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think he is right, and the reason he is right is because we know something now we didn’t know back in January, which is that about 70 per cent of the people who transmit coronavirus don’t have any symptoms at all and so that makes it much harder to get public consent for things like sending people back to school or going back to offices and so on because it is a silent transmitter and even a silent killer sometimes.

‘The way you get round that is by having very quick, very effective large-scale testing.

‘I think, in fairness to the Government, it is heading in this direction but we could be much more systematic about it if we really wanted to raise confidence. 

‘If, for example, we said that every secondary school teacher was going to be tested twice a week, then that would really give people confidence that if they were sending their kids back to school, they weren’t sending them into a zone where they might pick up the virus.’

Mr Hunt said he thought it was possible to ramp up testing in such a way but that there were concerns around ‘false positives’ – although he said a second test could help rule out such anomalies.

A poll of nearly 3,000 school leaders and teachers found that 98 per cent felt students were not as far along with their learning as would normally be expected at the end of the 2019/20 school year.

Some 21 per cent of teachers from across 2,200 primary and secondary schools told the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) survey that they believed boys had fallen further behind than girls. 

Its study found that as of July, teachers had on average covered 66 per cent of the curriculum in the 2019/20 academic year. Teachers estimated on average that their pupils were three months behind in their studies.

However, more than half (53 per cent) of those teaching in the poorest schools in England reported their students were ‘four months or more’ behind in their learning, compared to 15 per cent of teachers in wealthier settings. 

The survey also found that the learning gap between disadvantaged pupils and their better-off peers had increased by 46 per cent, adding that the figure was likely to be an ‘under-estimate’.

Dr Angela Donkin, chief social scientist at NFER, said: ‘Whilst it is crucial that children catch up, we should not assume that teachers will immediately be able to deliver the same quality of teaching, at the same speed, as before the pandemic.

‘There remains a range of barriers for teachers and schools, which means catch-up should be seen as part of the ongoing process of learning recovery, for most pupils, rather than as a quick-turnaround solution.’

She said it was ‘clear’ that additional support needed to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils and schools in the poorest areas.

The majority of pupils had been expected to learn at home throughout the 2019/20 summer term, but teachers reported that only 38 per cent returned their last piece of set work in July, compared to 42 per cent in May.

School leaders said that just over half (56 per cent) of students who were eligible to return did so, with those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds having lower attendance at 49 per cent.

Almost a third (32 per cent) of school leaders said safety concerns from parents were a common reason for their children not attending. 

Almost three quarters of teachers (74 per cent) did not feel able to teach to their usual standard while the coronavirus regulations were in force, the survey found.

In an open response question, 49 per cent of 1,034 teachers whose teaching was affected said distancing requirements had a negative impact on areas such as group work and their ability to interact with pupils properly.

More than half of school leaders (51 per cent) also reported that they were using teaching assistants to lead classes.

Teachers estimated that 44 per cent of their pupils will need ‘intensive catch-up support’, the survey said, with the percentage increasing to 57 per cent in the most deprived schools.

NFER’s list of recommendations included the need for schools to receive further support to manage pupil non-attendance and more money to help with managing coronavirus safety measures.

The Department for Education said its £1billion ‘Covid catch-up package’ will tackle the impact of lost teaching time and include ‘targeted funding’ for the most disadvantaged students.

Shadow education Secretary Kate Green said: ‘The learning that children have lost in recent months shows that keeping schools safely open to all must be a national priority in the months ahead.

‘When schools are closed, we see deep inequalities become more entrenched, and those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds lose out most.’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, which represents leaders in the majority of schools, said: ‘This is another alarm bell that the Government needs to pay attention to.

‘The Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted education for the majority of children, and schools were already struggling to provide everything children needed before this crisis, damaged as they and other social services have been by a decade of austerity.’

Mr Whiteman said schools will ‘absolutely require’ additional support to ‘play their part in healing the scars’ left by the pandemic.

It comes as Boris Johnson will tell his Cabinet today that the reopening of schools should act as a springboard for ‘more normality’ for the whole country.

Union leader Geoff Barton said reopening schools would be ‘a vital step in the process of national recovery’.

The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders praised staff for their ‘meticulous planning’, saying: ‘They have done a fantastic job in putting in place a complex set of safety measures to minimise the risks associated with coronavirus.

‘Schools will be focusing on the task of identifying where pupils have fallen behind with their learning during the lockdown period, and tailoring support to bring these young people back up to speed as quickly as possible.’ 

Ofqual is considering a ‘short delay’ to next year’s exams, Mr Williamson revealed last night.

The admission came after politicians and unions called for action on GCSEs and A-levels due to take place in 2021.

Labour education spokesman Kate Green warned that children who have missed out on months of teaching face ‘a mountain to climb’, adding: ‘This is too important to leave until the last minute. 

‘Pupils need certainty about the year ahead.’

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT union which represents head teachers, added that a delay was worth ‘serious consideration’.

Following their pleas, Mr Williamson said: ‘I know there’s some concern about next year’s exams, and that’s why we’ve been working with Ofqual on changes we can make to help pupils when they take GCSEs and A-levels next year.’  

He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ofqual will continue to work with the education sector and other stakeholders on whether there should be a short delay to the GCSE, A and AS-level exam timetable in 2021, with the aim of creating more teaching time.’

Schools minister Nick Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a decision would be made ‘as soon as we can’. 

‘We have to also take into account the other nations in the UK that use the GCSE and A-Levels, to take into account their issues as well, but we will be making a decision, with the regulator and the exam boards, very soon,’  he said. 

A Government source said the Prime Minister will set out his ‘priorities for the autumn’ during a meeting with ministers this morning as the first lessons of the new school year take place.  

‘He wants to gradually get back to more normality, and the return of schools plays a big part in that,’ the source said. ‘As children go back more parents will be freed up to return to work. 

‘At the same time, [Mr Johnson] wants to get further down the track to recovery on Covid – getting the test-and-trace regime improved and getting the local lockdown process beefed up, so that we never have to have a return to national lockdown.

‘And you will see a doubling down on the agenda from the election – levelling up opportunity across the country.’

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith called on bosses to ‘show some backbone’ and ‘start getting their people back to work’ now that children are returning to school.’

He added: ‘If we don’t get this right, the economy will suffer, people will lose their jobs and more people will die.’

Fellow Conservative MP Steve Baker added: ‘The return of schools holds out the hope that parents will start to return to the office. 

‘With that, our town centres can be rescued from ruin. The future is bleak indeed if parents stay at home.’

While ministers are confident that the new term will go ahead as planned, their biggest fear is families refusing to send their children back to school.

The Education Secretary made a final bid to win over sceptical parents yesterday.

Mr Williamson – who is due to be grilled in the Commons over the summer exams fiasco today – stressed that children returning to classrooms is crucial ‘not only for their education but for their development and wellbeing too’.

His plea came as a report warned that pupils may have fallen as much as three months behind, with boys faring worse than girls.

Teachers in the most deprived schools were more than three times more likely to report that their pupils are even further behind, the National Foundation for Educational Research said.

Parents can be fined as a last resort if they keep their children away from school without good reason.

Local authorities may issue penalties of £120 – cut to £60 if settled within 21 days – with parents facing the threat of prosecution if they fail to pay up.

However, the NAHT, which represents head teachers, has called for this threat to be lifted as ‘a fine is unlikely to make you feel any safer’.

General secretary Paul Whiteman said: ‘We can see few circumstances in which a fine would be appropriate in this ‘Covid term’.’

Schools also fear that anti-virus measures will have a serious impact on stretched budgets. 

An estimated £2.4billion in extra funding may be required to help them cope, The Guardian reported.

Pupils return to school with strict Covid rules in place as parents share their relief at being able to go back to work

Pupils at one school in Bristol returned today with strict Covid rules in place – with parents relieved at being able to go back to work.

Teachers at Bishop Road Primary School welcomed back more than 800 children as the new year began. 

Arrivals were split into two groups – before and after 9am – to allow staff to direct excited youngsters to the correct classroom.

Only a few parents chose to wear masks as they dropped their kids off inside the gates before exiting via a one-way system.

The primary school – one of the largest in the city – has implemented a number of measures to try and combat the threat of coronavirus.

But the majority of parents said they weren’t worried about sending their children back to class – and were looking forward to the freedom it would give them to work.

Amanda Lewis, 44, runs a martial arts school. She was dropping her seven-year-old son off and would be returning tomorrow to take her daughter to reception.

She said: ‘I think most parents are relieved – we’ve had a very long time with them. It’s been great, but it’s also been really hard to keep them interested in education and learning without their friends around them.

‘My son has really, really missed it – that environment. Their home is supposed to be a safe place, not somewhere where they are told to have stringent routines.

‘They come to school to learn their subjects with their friends – they watch their friends progress while they progress.

‘There’s no one to compare and discuss it with like they would their peers. They’ve really missed that and it’s really important for them.

‘I had started to worry about his emotional health, being at home. I’m relieved they’ve gone back in. [My daughter] is really excited. It’s an important part of their childhood and growing up – it’s a crucial time at their age.

‘The school has been really good. They’ve got this one-way system – they’ve worked really hard on that. They’ve changed the tables so they are all forward facing, where they have the space – from, I think, Year Three through.

‘Then they have lunch in their rooms, and the tables are wiped. I think we just have to accept it’s got to be like that for a while. But we’re happy to hear that those sorts of measures [are in place] because we want our children to stay safe.

‘We’re self-employed, so we’ve had a terrible time. We’ve had no help from the Government because we only started our business two years ago.

‘It’s been really difficult to try and do my admin work while [the children] are around all the time. The guilt on parents is massive because they really want you – they need that interaction – but you can’t always give it to them.

‘I’ll have a bit more time now – thank god! But the staggered starts are going to be really difficult. I don’t envy any parents with a nine-to-five job. I don’t know how they’re going to work it out.’

Sara Kelly-Smith, 41, runs her own business. She was dropping daughter Mia Charles off to start Year Three.

She said: ‘I’m very happy the kids are going back – and this one’s even happier! She’s been missing all of her friends. She’s very excited. They kids need it – they need the interaction. They need it more than we need pubs to be open.

‘The school has got everything they need [for safety] – they’ve put all the parameters in. They’ve sent loads of emails and kept in touch with us the whole time. It helps me massively [with work]. I’m a single parent so it’s been really, really tough.’

Jo Wong, 39, is a chartered occupational psychologist. She was dropping one of her sons off to start Year Two. She said: ‘It’s been quite emotional. It was nice coming in and seeing everybody, and seeing how organised it was.

‘I think it’s a big deal for the year groups that haven’t been in at all. They’ve been out of the school environment for months. It’s a lovely sunny day – I think that means that will help everyone feel positive.

‘I think everyone feels safe here. They’ve been really organised and done amazing videos showing exactly where to walk, on the school website. It’s all been very reassuring for the children, the innovation around the video content. It’s been good for settling back.

‘It’s going to make a huge difference [to my work]. My husband is a full-time lawyer so my work had to drop off considerably to accommodate home schooling. I’m freelance, so it will make a massive difference to the flexibility I can offer my clients. I think the benefits will kick in.

‘But I think there’s some trepidation among parents – a lot of us are really concerned about the usual coughs and colds. What happens? Usually in the winter your children regularly get all sorts of ailments, which could mean a backwards step with work.

‘So I’m being hesitant about what I commit to over the autumn because at any point we could lock down – and I could have two children at home. Although it is helpful that the children are going back, in the back of my mind I am moderating the level of stuff I commit to.’

Kate Mcleod, 39, was dropping her son Jesse off to start Year Three. She said: ‘I think it’s brilliant they are going back – I’m fine with it. They’ve done a really good job here. It’s going to be easier [for work]. There’s less childcare costs.

‘As long as we can protect the children the rest of us need to carry on. I think the schools absolutely need to go back and it’s a priority.’

Deputy headteacher Joe Emissah was stood outside the gates greeting pupils as the day began. He said: ‘We started plans when we got the guidance in May then further guidance in June and July.

‘Lots has gone into it and we’re really happy to be bringing back 840 of our children. School is a happy place so being back is what’s needed, and we’re very fortunate we can bring back such a large number.

‘The principal measures are around hygiene, hand washing and keeping the classes separate. Schools have taken different approaches but we’ve gone for keeping different classes separate as opposed to year groups as we want to minimise any transmission.

‘The challenge in a big school is that there’s a lot of movement, so we’ve had to organise that the classes don’t overlap. The site is fantastic and very beautiful but not huge, so organisation has got to be quite tight.

‘I think the children’s experience – they’ll be with their teacher – is going to feel fantastic. But, for other members of staff, it’s going to feel more complex. Just the inability to meet and greet, which is not going to be possible in the same way.’ 

Professor CARL HENEGHAN: Give all our youngsters a chance to study again

The most powerful tool for better health is education. To get our country off its sickbed and functioning again, it is crucial that we fully reopen both our schools and our universities.

But that won’t happen as long as millions are terrified of returning to normal life. The Government urgently needs to send out a clear, concise message that the risk from Covid-19 is currently low.

This is evidenced by the death toll. It is vital that people understand that the mortality rate and the number of hospital admissions are the key figures – not the infection rate.

On Sunday, just a single death from Covid-19 was reported in Britain. That’s one person out of a population of roughly 66million. Yesterday, it was two people – every death a personal tragedy for the families involved, but statistically a very low number.

There are currently about 430 people in critical care beds being treated for the novel coronavirus. That is compared to 17,000 at the height of the crisis in April. The gulf is vast.

Don’t be misled, as so many people are, by the rise in infections nationally. On Sunday, 1,715 people across Britain tested positive for Covid-19, the most since early June. It’s easy to misinterpret that data and to assume that we’re in the grip of the feared ‘second wave’.

We ARE not. There is currently no second wave. What we are seeing is a sharp rise in the number of healthy people who are carrying the virus, but exhibiting no symptoms. Almost all of them are young. They are being spotted because – finally – a comprehensive system of national test and trace is in place.

And while young people might have an infection, they appear well and healthy, not showing any symptoms.

We also need to reassure parents that it’s safe for children to return to school this week. School-age pupils are the least likely to display any Covid-19 symptoms, and it will be a tragedy if they are denied the chance to restart their education by ill-founded fears.

We need our children to be smarter than ourselves to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of our current generation – we need them to be in class.

The alarmists will say that such asymptomatic people are just as likely to spread the coronavirus – and are perhaps even more dangerous, because they don’t know they have it. That fear simply is not borne out by the experience of the past six months.

On the contrary, when the whole country was locked down, it was the younger people who remained free of the infection. And while everyone stayed home, it spread like wildfire in our hospitals and, most deadly of all, in care homes for the elderly.

Care home cases have now fallen sharply, though we have yet to eradicate the danger. We know that infection rates have risen among the young, but we are not seeing any subsequent infections among the elderly.

The evidence is becoming clearer. Young people provide no protection to older members of society by staying away from school, university and work. But they wreak terrible long-term damage in other ways by maintaining their social isolation.

For anyone who has been sheltering since March, the situation seems frightening. If you haven’t set foot in your office for months, naturally you will be anxious.

And how much worse that is for children and students who haven’t seen the inside of a classroom or lecture theatre since the spring. They need reassurance, and it is the job of teachers and lecturers to provide that.

That’s why I am disappointed with any lecturer or university official claiming they are being forced into the firing line by uncaring ministers. We have to find a compromise that reflects the critical need to get students back into lectures and tutorials.

As a university lecturer myself, I know the answer is to be pragmatic. We can ensure proper social distancing is observed, by moving some (but far from all) of the work online. Large groups can then be split up and seen on a staggered schedule. We need to apply common sense to get Britain’s education back on track. If that doesn’t happen, the consequences will be catastrophic. Some activists want colleges to stay closed until January, which is ludicrous – everything we know about coronavirus pathogens tells us they are more virulent in winter. We might be in the grip of a genuine second wave by the New Year.

What happens then? If the spring term is cancelled, following an autumn no-show, university students will have been left to drift for a year. It’s hard to imagine the system could ever fully recover: our top tier of education, the envy of the world, will be irreparably damaged.

That is brutally unfair on young people whose lives will be permanently affected. It will also have a devastating effect on the country’s capacity to recover from the pandemic. We need young people with world-class education to reboot our economy. Without them, we are lost.

Denied the opportunity to complete the education that they have worked for all their lives, hundreds of thousands of young people’s health and wellbeing could suffer. A new epidemic, far more insidious and afflicting the youngest generation of adults, will take hold.

We can all do our bit to suppress the spread of the infection. We need to be vigilant and flexible. Anyone who has even mild symptoms should get themselves tested, and self-isolate until they get their results back. Hand-washing and social distancing are as essential as ever.

These precautions have been effective in pubs and restaurants. We need the courage to apply them in the workplace too. There’s no reason to fear infection in shops and offices – and everything to fear if we can’t get them running normally again.

Above all, we need to restart our universities. They are Britain’s brains trust, a resource of inestimable value for both students and the whole economy. We cannot allow them to disintegrate.

Professor Carl Heneghan is director of the University of Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-based Medicine