It’s all very well Government making big announcements with dashing headlines (Schools to reopen from 1st June) but when they don’t do the detail until later, and when that detail covers only half the possibilities, and when it misses a few of the fundamentals that apply to schools in some contexts,…

This morning I have spent an hour in a meeting listening to preparations for thinking about possible responses to announcements that may or may not be made in the next few days about reopening or partial reopening or staged reopening or not of schools and colleges. Or not.

Time, said Doctor Who in one of his / her more recent incarnations, is not so much a straight progression of cause to effect, ‘but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff’.

Thompson’s Law (of kitchen utensils) states, quite accurately, that kitchen utensils expand to fill the cupboard space available.

One subtle change eagle-eyed parents might pick up on next week is the subtle change in language to describe what schools provide for children (with adult support) to do while schools ar e closed and the child is cared for at home.

There are so many incredible things going on in response to the Covid-1 9 crisis. I am in awe of the planning and preparation that has taken place and the speed with which they are being put into full-speed action.

Like many of you will have done, I stepped outside my front door yesterday evening to join the tribute to the entire NHS and social care staff team across the country. I blew a vuvuzela loud enough so my eldest son could hear it at his house two streets away! I clapped along with my next-door neighbours.

As you will know the government has taken the decision to close schools from Friday 20th March. The government has published guidance about how schools will continue to support vulnerable children and the children of key workers. The guidance makes clear that our priority, as a country, is to do everything…

When Lydgate Middle School was opened, in 1974, it occupied only what is now our main building, and had a pupil capacity of 360. It was in the style of the time; open-plan, fluid, with support or withdrawal spaces, and a space allowance for cultural activities that might make noise.

It might be tempting, in a school as busy as ours, to be distracted by the very breadth and frequency of what we offer and then to judge us on that alone.