This educational "lost generation" narrative is becoming more and more irritating. It is untrue and unhelpful. If I were a parent of school age children (mine are grown up) this would be seriously adding to my stress levels right now. Children have missed a term it's true, 1/5

but there are very few year groups for which this is an insurmountable problem. Schools are incredibly adept at adjusting plans to take account of all sorts of situations and we will find our way through this.
Are people seriously suggesting that in 15 years time, today's 2/5

Year 1 and 2 children will be blaming their life choices on the fact they missed a bit of schooling?
I really feel for those in current and next Y11 and Y13. For them this is truly tough, but other year groups will recover.
So please Wilshaw, Adonis, Baker, Spielman, 3/5

media et al, enough of the scaremongering and "teachers should" rhetoric. We know what we need to do. We'll work out how to do it. Please instead of the constant negatives, start demonstrating a "can do" attitude and show some faith in schools. Parents, children and school 5/5

staff will thank you for it, and we can all get off to a flying start in September. 5/5