School’s back! And it really feels different this year. Like many families in Watford my children’s first day back is even more poignant than normal as it has been six months since they passed through the gates of their primary school.

Six months without the school bell, the hustle and bustle at the school playground and corridors; all thetime missing the company of their peers and their teachers.

For my youngest, starting Reception this week, his first day of school will be completely different to his sister’s. Behind the nervous smiles of excitement, and the endless ‘first day at school’ photos which flood our Facebook feeds, there will be more apprehension and concern from parents and teachers than there normally would be.

This is to be expected, as the pandemic has turned so much of what we know upside down, and simply sending children to school carries risks that we previously never had to consider.

The greatest success will be that the four-year olds starting this week will not notice anything amiss. And for those children returning to school after six months, the changes will be absorbed and accommodated as part of what school is.

For this we must thank the schools in Watford that have made this possible. School is the place where no child should be left behind, a fair environment that draws the best out of our children.

This Conservative government, that so cruelly abandoned A-level students to an algorithm, which stripped them of the grades they deserved, would do well to learn from the organisation of teachers in Watford, who have been determined to make September 2020 as normal as possible.

  • Chris Ostrowski was Labour candidate at the 2017 and 2019 general elections