I tested positive. 

The dreaded message came through, and immediately all thoughts of transition and sports day and leavers’ assembly and summer party disappeared.

We had just spent that same morning telling the children about all the lovely things we had planned over the next two weeks, and now I had to tell those same children that they had to pack their things, go home and isolate. 

In the words of Year 6: “This is such an L, Miss.”

”Children are resilient.” “Children will get over it. They will be fine.” I keep hearing this over and over. And, yes, children will be resilient, children will get over it and they will be fine - but why should they have to?

Covid and schools: Can’t they just enjoy their last weeks at primary school?

It’s been a chaotic two years for children of all ages, but especially school leavers. Having a sports day or attending a leavers’ party may not seem like a big deal to an average adult, but for a child who has just lived through a pandemic, it is a big deal and we do need to consider how important it is for them. 

My class are Year 6. They “finished” Year 5 last March, and went six months with little to no social interaction with their peers. They then came back to a school that wasn’t the one they had left. Their last teacher had left. Bubbles and rows and individual seats and constant handwashing had begun.

They rose to the challenge. We then closed again and moved to remote learning. They rose to the challenge. They came back, and now we had gaps to fill and it was intense. They rose to that challenge, too. 

But there has to be a limit. I don’t want them to have to rise to the challenge any more. I want them to enjoy their last few weeks at primary school, like children who are 10 and 11 should. 

I want them to write soppy goodbye messages to each other. I want them to stand in front of their peers in school and sing a leavers’ version of an over-the-top emotional song (on Teams and socially distanced, of course). I want to see them run under the arch of hands as they walk out of the doors for the last time. 

And, selfishly, I want to say goodbye to a class who have been phenomenal, and made my last year at the school unforgettable. Oh, and I also want to finish curriculum content that needs them in front of me, using specific practical resources that they won’t have at home.

Sad for the children, the teachers and the parents

I’m lucky (if you can call it that). My bubble closed on Monday, which means we will be back on Thursday. All being well, I will still have the last two days with the children.

But for those whose bubbles burst after today - if you finish term on 16 July, you won’t see your class again. For me, that would mean I wouldn’t see them again, at all, as I’d no longer be at the same school in September, and they’ll all be at high school. 

For the children, it would mean they wouldn’t get a proper goodbye for the second year in a row. And they may not see some of their peers again, before they head off to different schools. It would mean that primary school just ended - abruptly, on a random day in July.

The best way I can describe the feeling is: sadness. It’s sad for the children, sad for the teachers and sad for the parents, who wanted a lovely ending for their children’s primary school experience. 

We will make it work, because the children deserve that. The staff deserve it, too, with everything we’ve been through over the past two years.

Year 6 teachers, I have everything crossed that your bubbles stay intact, and you get to enjoy the last few days you have with your pupils, and a proper end of term.

Maaria Khan is a Year 6 teacher in South Yorkshire. She tweets as @MissKhan__