8th of March or Ides of March…?
February 16, 2021
8th of March or the Ides of March? When will schools return and what are the consequences...?
The 15th of March 2020, almost a year ago, was the day we at Château Beaumont heard that schools might be closed for up to 4 months. That Sunday was the last relatively normal day. Hand-sanitizer wasn’t flooding supermarket shelves yet. The London Marathon had been cancelled, but it was only on Monday 16th that Boris Johnson announced a travel ban, told people not to go to the pub and to try and work from home if possible. On the 18th he announced schools would close as of the 23rd. It seems like an age ago.
Now, 12 months later, another announcement is expected. Over the weekend the chair of the British Medical Council in Northern Ireland stated that it would be a “big ask” for pupils to return en masse to schools there on the 8th of March. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has announced that pupils in P1 to P3 could start going back as of next Monday. Boris, meanwhile, is still aiming at the 22nd of February to present his “roadmap” for easing restrictions – which will include an update exactly 365 days after schools first closed last year.
Yet opinion is as divided as ever. Will sending children back signal further easing in other sectors or is it a calculated return based on increasing evidence that it would carry negligible risk to the background infection rate. Parents (and most children) might rejoice, but teachers may not join in their home-based and locked-down revelry if the science doesn’t underpin it and vaccinations don’t include those leading from the front of the nation’s classes.
Schools aren’t the same – whether the children move classes or the subjects and teachers move rooms is a wholly different equation depending upon whether you’re a primary or secondary establishment and on your school culture. While teenagers might wear a mask with a certain amount of diligence, the mind boggles at how efficient such a prescription might be in a primary setting. That’s before we even consider lateral flow testing in schools: questions around how often to do them are muddled further with issues of parental consent. Can you refuse a child entry to school if lateral flow testing is in place and they refuse? What does it mean if you’re carrying it out for only two thirds of a class?
What about the impact upon children’s mental health and the economy? Do these factors outweigh the uncertainties above? More on them next week…
Whatever happens, there’s a sense that Boris Johnson is choosing between two evils, whichever route he picks – and pick he must - but it’s unclear which is the lesser of the two. Whatever your political colours, there’s no perfect answers here. What’s certain, however, is that the consequences will be far-reaching. A successful return to school that plays out into a steady or continually reducing background transmission rate will be a much-needed success story, but a third spike that coincides with everything other than schools remaining locked down would be truly disruptive for the way we think about education and work for a long period of time.
In 44 BC Julius Caesar was assassinated at a Senate meeting on the Ides of March. His death was one of the main events that marked the end of the troubled Roman Republic and led to Octavius, later known as Augustus, becoming emperor of Imperial Rome following a civil war. Brutus famously led more than 50 conspirators, helped by the notorious Cassius, in the attack on Caesar. Nothing of the sort awaits Boris Johnson on 22nd February or March 8th, but either has the potential to be a defining moment in his legacy and in how we move forward in this new era.
We hope that schools can safely open and remain open; we look forward to schools simply being able to function normally – and we’re ready to welcome them on school trips to France when they can travel again. We hope the 22nd of February announcement is a first step towards that, but mainly we remind ourselves that we do not need to beware the Ides of March. In Roman times it was also the feast day of Anna Perenna, Goddess of the ring of the year (it’s in her name, isn’t it?) The Roman writer Macrobius recorded that she was worshipped “ut annare perannareque commode liceat” – so that the circle of the year may be completed happily. We hope he’s right.