• I HAVE a grand-daughter who is due to start reception class in Camden shortly but I hope she will not go next Monday.

I wrote recently to Camden to urge them to open schools more widely only when it’s safe and got a very long answer back in which they said that they intend to open the schools on June 1.

I would like to know why? This week the composition of the government’s education-advisory board was revealed; it was shocking.

It is mainly representatives from private schools, academies and trusts. The single local authority represented is Camden. Is this fact somehow connected to Camden insisting on schools starting on Monday?

I hear from teacher friends about their sad preparation in order to open early. They have to get rid of soft toys and displays, close their libraries, prepare marked-off spaces in playgrounds, sit children apart and tell children not to bring in favourite toys or to share resources.

If a little one hurts themselves they will be asked to do their own first aid and if they can’t, a parent must come in!

This is cruel and unnecessary and will give children the wrong messages which little ones will keep inside themselves for years.

Many of us question the government’s will, ability and judgment in relation to all aspects of this crisis. We cannot trust them.

They have been wrong about lockdown and testing and the UK has seen more people die (per million population) in this crisis than any country in the world to date.

They are wrong to support Dominic Cummings. They are wrong to push early school opening and wrong to choose the littlest ones to go first.

Why the rush? Eton and Harrow will not go back till September. I wonder if Dominic Cummings’s son is going to be in school on Monday?

Many other local authorities including Hackney and Islington and also the whole of Scotland and Wales are refusing to be pushed by the government and they don’t love their kids less than we do.

Please people of Camden sign our petition at www.change.org/onlywhensafe. And please Camden Council join the group of careful authorities too.

Support the schools in teaching the key workers’ children as they have done all the time, let them support more vulnerable children who need to go, and let the others come back soon we hope, but only when it is safe.

NANDITA DOWSON
Ascham Street, NW5