Why I choose not to homeschool this time around

School is out, but education is a burden that I will not be able to take on in Lockdown Three. What is your attitude to homeschooling? Share your views in our poll.

My children are in the sitting room in their pyjamas, eating the end of their selection boxes while their parents attempt to re-enter work after the Christmas break. They are beside themselves with delight that the coronavirus has leveraged them a few extra days off school, hoping that they might squeeze an extra week out of it. But not too much, says the eldest (very-nearly-but-not-quite-10) - “I would miss my friends”.

They don’t know what’s ahead of them, and neither do we. WhatsApp groups have lit up around the country with stories of night-time teacher meetings in schools, preparing a vast amount of online teaching for the foreseeable. Teachers who are parents will neither confirm nor deny whether these scramblings under the blanket of darkness are actually happening. Fair play to them - they won’t react either to comments like  ‘lazy teachers off on another holiday - sure what’s new?’ Spoiler alert, complainers: teachers are trying to get through this hellish nightmare too.