Our Year 6 students finally returned on Monday 15 June.

They are taller than I remember and strangely subdued, like alien abductees who have spent several months under sedation.

Watching them ease into their social bubbles reminded me of bathers braving the sea at Scarborough.

At first, everything is painfully uncomfortable, but once you’re in, you’re in. By Friday lunchtime the new normal had arrived.  

Coronavirus: The transition from primary school

Our socially distanced chat on the playground convinces me that Krystal will suffer no lasting educational damage.

Her attitude to learning is undiminished and her enthusiasm remains more infectious than a case of Covid-19.

While the idea of targeted catch-up classes is good for most, it might be wasted on Year 6. The lessons our pupils missed were mostly Sats revision sessions, Sats booster groups and Sats practice tests.

The extra funding is welcome but it won’t compensate for what Krystal and her friends really lost out on.

For them, this final term was never only about achieving at or above the expected level. The transition from primary to secondary is huge, scary and exciting, and it is marked by several rites of passage.

At our school, the key ones are the Year 6 prom, the big day out at the seaside and the end-of-year production.

I can live with missing the first two. I do, however, love organising and directing our summer production and feel its loss in a big way.

For Year 6, performing in a professional theatre in front of a paying audience is a highlight of their school career.

It’s a huge confidence boost for children before they set out on the journey to adolescence, and something they will remember all their lives.

Rare opportunities in life

When I speak to the pupils about what they’ve missed most about school, Krystal tells me that the summer production was what she was most looking forward to. She’s not saying that for my benefit. 

When you’re from a big family with a small income, you have to seize opportunities with both hands and hang on tightly.

When I offered Krystal a lead role in The Tragic Tale of Romeo, Juliet, Gladys and Bill, she was never going to turn it down.

By February half-term, she had a script and by early March she knew all of her lines. Then, just as rehearsals were getting underway, lockdown arrived.

Like most of our children in this deprived area of Sheffield, Krystal had never been to a professional theatre before, let alone performed in one.

However much money gets poured into helping children to catch up on the lessons they’ve missed during this pandemic, some of their lost experiences are irreplaceable.

Krystal’s not happy about losing the opportunity, but she does see the bright side.

“At least now I won’t have to pretend-kiss Rashid,” she joked to me. I think Rashid was similarly relieved.

I’m glad they haven’t lost their sense of humour.

But it’s hard not to see how unfair it is that they have been robbed of their opportunity to have a moment in the spotlight and the usual rites of passage that mark the end of a school era.

Steve Eddison is a teacher at Arbourthorne Community Primary School in Sheffield