Back to school

It will soon be time to return to school and while the swine flu scare has largely died down in the UK at the moment, it won't be long before a child goes home with 'flu-like symptoms'. What then? Well the government advice is quite clear: keep the school open. For a start, it's likely the child will just have flu (not swine flu). Secondly, there's as much chance of your children catching bugs while walking around town or playing with their mates as in school. The official advice is online but one wonders how parents will react if several children in the same school go ill - will they keep their child away. And what if there is a death in a school - does that school then close, do parents unilaterally decide to keep their children away or do all schools in the area shut down for a while? For what it's worth, here's my prediction: Despite all the good advice coming out from the government, individual head teachers will decide what to do and that will be based on their own 'feeling' about what is best and will reflect what parents want to do. Watch this space.