Teachers have a very difficult tightrope to walk over post-Covid priorities

There are two contrasting aims: to urgently tackle the ‘lost learning’ faced by many – but also to provide a vital emotional and pastoral service to our young people, writes Ed Dorrell

Great Academy Ashton, in Ashton-Under-Lyne, before reopening (Jon Super)

The saddest aspect for me is the sense that my daughter is losing herself.”

This was how one working class parent eloquently and harrowingly described the impact that lockdown – and specifically the partial closure of her school – had had on the mental health of her teenage daughter.

The worrying truth is that right now this is a story that is being repeated up and down the country in many homes.